I wrote the following to my (one and only) Singaporean friend, A.L., yesterday:
"The World Cup is seriously negatively affecting my life!"
How might I describe my mornings these past two weeks? A drowsy haze of soccer punctuated by frustrated sleep and confusion. You see, the games are shown from 1 AM to 8 AM. "Life is too short to sleep through the World Cup", is my feeling. I don't follow soccer whatsoever otherwise, so this may not be my most rational decision.
Dutch player Robben, who resembles Captain Picard, shoots past a Spain player. (Netherlands won 5-1).
This Sunday/Monday, I got to sleep at 12:30 AM and woke up at 3:00 AM, shaved/showered, packed up my things, and walked over to my friend J.H.'s home to watch the Korea game and then the USA vs. Portgual game. Korea had a terrible first half in which they conceded four goals and lost. They are probably out. As for the USA game, I had to leave before the second half began to go to our class' last day. The USA and Portugal tied due to a last-second Portugal goal, which I thus missed.
Political Influences on World Cup Results; Speculative
The appeal of the World Cup is definitely "political'" in the sense of it being all about national pride. Within Europe, I cannot help but think of the political situation since the 2008 Economic Crisis.
Political Influences on World Cup Results; Speculative
The appeal of the World Cup is definitely "political'" in the sense of it being all about national pride. Within Europe, I cannot help but think of the political situation since the 2008 Economic Crisis.
FIFA Ranking Table, June 5th 2014 Southern Europeans
The European "PIIGS", who fast approach a decade of unending economic unpleasantness and pessimism, did remarkably poorly in the Group Stage:
Spain: Out. Two losses.
Italy: Out. Two losses.
Greece: Out. Two losses.
Porutgal: Probably Out. Nearly two losses (tied USA at last second).
Now, consider that Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece respectively rank #1, #4, #9, #12 in the world!
"On paper", as they say, each of these teams should be in the final 16, i.e., the second round in the World Cup. Three are out for sure and one teeters on the brink. What, then, is the statistical chance, in a 32-team tournament, that the #1, #4, #9, and #12 ranked teams are all eliminated before going onto the second round of 16 teams? The odds have to be very low, in which case we can speculate about a general explanation. Here is mine: As the contest is heavily influenced by national pride, teams from politically-pessimistic societies do more poorly than they should.
Vis-a-vis the "PIIGS", who are more politically optimistic?
The European "PIIGS", who fast approach a decade of unending economic unpleasantness and pessimism, did remarkably poorly in the Group Stage:
Spain: Out. Two losses.
Italy: Out. Two losses.
Greece: Out. Two losses.
Porutgal: Probably Out. Nearly two losses (tied USA at last second).
Now, consider that Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece respectively rank #1, #4, #9, #12 in the world!
"On paper", as they say, each of these teams should be in the final 16, i.e., the second round in the World Cup. Three are out for sure and one teeters on the brink. What, then, is the statistical chance, in a 32-team tournament, that the #1, #4, #9, and #12 ranked teams are all eliminated before going onto the second round of 16 teams? The odds have to be very low, in which case we can speculate about a general explanation. Here is mine: As the contest is heavily influenced by national pride, teams from politically-pessimistic societies do more poorly than they should.
Vis-a-vis the "PIIGS", who are more politically optimistic?
Netherlands' Robin Van Persie scores a "header" goal Northern Europeans
With one glaring exception, Northwestern Europe has done very. Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and England are all there. England was knocked out (and somewhere a dog was biting a man; England usually does poorly at the World Cup; England couldn't even beat Costa Rica this time).
Germany: Probably advancing
Netherlands: Definitely advancing
Belgium: Definitely advancing
Switzerland: May advance with a final win
England: Out; scored only two goals in three games.
There is talk that certain of England's potential players refused to play for the national team as they'd prefer a vacation, which points to a kind of cynical political pessimism and anti-patriotism, too.
I saw a surreal vieo-game-esque goal by Dutch star Van Persie, in Netherlands' 5-1 win over Spain.
With one glaring exception, Northwestern Europe has done very. Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and England are all there. England was knocked out (and somewhere a dog was biting a man; England usually does poorly at the World Cup; England couldn't even beat Costa Rica this time).
Germany: Probably advancing
Netherlands: Definitely advancing
Belgium: Definitely advancing
Switzerland: May advance with a final win
England: Out; scored only two goals in three games.
There is talk that certain of England's potential players refused to play for the national team as they'd prefer a vacation, which points to a kind of cynical political pessimism and anti-patriotism, too.
I saw a surreal vieo-game-esque goal by Dutch star Van Persie, in Netherlands' 5-1 win over Spain.
The USA has done better than I expected. The German coach of the USA team, Klinsmann, was widely mocked for declaring that the USA "definitely will not win" the World Cup. The USA will play Germany one of these days. (Maybe the most curious thing about the USA team is that it seemed to have zero Hispanic starting players. The USA is approaching 20% Hispanic, but it's hard, in some ways, to even notice [in media, sports, TV, movies, music, politics], except at the street level in certain regions.)
The South Korea team of 2014 performed poorly and will probably be eliminated. They have one Round One game left. I compare this to their great performance in 2002. The South Korea of 2002 was, in my opinion, much more politically optimistic than the South Korea of 2014.
The South Korea team of 2014 performed poorly and will probably be eliminated. They have one Round One game left. I compare this to their great performance in 2002. The South Korea of 2002 was, in my opinion, much more politically optimistic than the South Korea of 2014.
The TV on which I watched one of the World Cup 2014 games
Today, I woke up at 4:50 AM to watch the Japan vs. Colombia game. I am writing as Japan has just lost. They are out. Why did I watch?
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