football’s coming home…
the world cup, the world’s largest and most important sporting event is underway. i was thinking today how little i knew about the world cup when i had the great opportunity to live in a football loving country during the world cup in ‘98. i was in england, and all eyes were on a young hopeful and hotty player named david beckham. i still don’t know much about the event and even less about the sport as it’s really played and loved by the pros but in case you are interested, here are a few interesting facts about the world cup.
what is it?
a tournament of 32 country teams that takes place over a month. leading up to the event, there are 3 years of qualifying matches to get the tournament to 32. the tourney has been held every fours years since 1930 except for 1942 and 1946 when world war ii was happening.
where is it?
this year it takes place in south africa.
why should i care?
it’s the largest sporting event in the entire world. more than 700M people watched the final match of the 2006 world cup where italy beat france. the rest of world is asking you, ‘why don’t you care’?
who are the big players?
the world cup has been awarded 18 times. of those 18, brazil has won 5, italy 4, germany and argentina 3 each, uruguay 2, france and england 1 each.
what are the games like?
it won’t be like watching saturday afternoon game with the the 3rd graders in your town. soccer players make me question the use of the term ‘athlete’ to describe baseball players. but anyway, be prepared to hear ’striker’, ’sent off’, ‘yellow card’, ‘red card’ and a few other terms. take a look at the ’soccer for americans’ tips i found here.
where should i watch it?
you can watch the games on ABC but why not go out and find a bar where you can watch it with football fans? find out where all the expats live, saddle up to the bar, and enjoy. it’s really really awesome.
[david beckham wiki fifa world cup wiki, soccer for americans, fifa world cup schedule, fifa world cup website]
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