I am not a huge soccer fan, but I am a huge sports fan. Soccer being a sport and the fact that I hate the Lakers means I'm watching a lot of soccer right now. Also, I will watch Argentina or Brasil (their spelling) play anytime. It's truly artistic.
Side rant: I can't believe Argentina picked Maradona to be their coach. Maradona is arguably the best soccer player ever, tying with Pele for the FIFA Player of the Centry Award. When I lived in Argentina, there were all kinds of candy named after him (think Baby Ruth candy bar in the U.S.). However, his record on staying clean leaves much to be desired (plus he's a supporter of Castro and Chavez). In the 1994 World Cup, he was sent home for using ephedrine and the Argentine national team wasn't able to recompose themselves, playing erratically and losing after his departure. Supposedly he has overcome his addiction. I hope that is true for his sake and for that of the national team. I'll always cheer for the U.S., but Argentina is my best hope for a win (they've one it twice and been the runner up twice).
As a 'gringo' I used to get very confused about how the brackets work in international soccer and how it was determined which teams would advance. It wasn't until I was living in Mexico during a World Cup that I learned how to keep track. So, for those of you who are also new to the sport, here are some guidelines.
Side rant: I can't believe Argentina picked Maradona to be their coach. Maradona is arguably the best soccer player ever, tying with Pele for the FIFA Player of the Centry Award. When I lived in Argentina, there were all kinds of candy named after him (think Baby Ruth candy bar in the U.S.). However, his record on staying clean leaves much to be desired (plus he's a supporter of Castro and Chavez). In the 1994 World Cup, he was sent home for using ephedrine and the Argentine national team wasn't able to recompose themselves, playing erratically and losing after his departure. Supposedly he has overcome his addiction. I hope that is true for his sake and for that of the national team. I'll always cheer for the U.S., but Argentina is my best hope for a win (they've one it twice and been the runner up twice).
As a 'gringo' I used to get very confused about how the brackets work in international soccer and how it was determined which teams would advance. It wasn't until I was living in Mexico during a World Cup that I learned how to keep track. So, for those of you who are also new to the sport, here are some guidelines.
- For the first round, the countries are grouped into eight groups of four teams each.
- Each team in the group plays every other team in the group (round robin).
- Teams earn points based on whether they win, lose or draw. This is more important than the actual score of the game, although the score can come into play if there is a tie in the points earned.
- A win = 3 points, a draw = 1 point, a loss earns no points.
- If two teams have the same number of points, the goal differential (points scored minus points scored against) is used to determine which team advances.
- The top two teams from each group advance to the second round.
If you would like to keep track of the points in the first round, here's an unofficial score sheet I made for my own use (three separate pages). To post them here, I had to convert them to images, but if you want it in excel or .pdf format, just post your e-mail and I'll send them to you.
Disclaimer: Like I said, I am not a huge soccer fan and am not an expert at all. So if anything in this post is wrong, feel free to kindly correct me.
Shout out to my brother Erik who is actually in South Africa watching the World Cup. He's a soccer coach and, unlike me, does know what he's talking about.
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