Because it is impossible to find a live internet radio stream of World Cup matches, I am forced to follow the games on the text-only FIFA MatchCast. Winding up to the Poland vs Ecuador match, which is just starting, the Official MatchBot Commentator guy just wrote, “Poland’s record on German soil is excellent …” I guess it depends when you’re talking about.
{ 31 comments }
david 06.09.06 at 2:15 pm
It’s really Germany’s record on Polish soil that’s worth mentioning.
JR 06.09.06 at 2:21 pm
Well, another way to look at it is that about a third of post-war Poland IS German soil.
Ron F 06.09.06 at 2:26 pm
Because it is impossible to find a live internet radio stream of World Cup matches
Er, I just watched Germany-Costa Rica on BBC Online, and if I’d wanted just audio I could have done that too. Not sure if this is avaialble outside the UK though.
Ha! Ecuador just scored.
jnr 06.09.06 at 2:27 pm
There’s good text comms at http://www.thesportsman.com/sports/world_cup/
Ray 06.09.06 at 2:29 pm
I’ve always liked the Guardian’s not-really-minute-by-minute coverage http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006
the BBC do something more detailed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/4852548.stm
brayden 06.09.06 at 2:30 pm
Any of the BBC streams don’t work outside of the UK – stinkin’ US IP laws.
As luck would have it, my university’s cable system carries Univision (which is broadcasting the games) and I have a tv hooked up in my office.
Kieran Healy 06.09.06 at 2:45 pm
As luck would have it, my university’s cable system carries Univision (which is broadcasting the games) and I have a tv hooked up in my office.
You bastard!
teppo 06.09.06 at 3:23 pm
I found a live radio stream of the match through a Finnish radio station (and watched the game in my office on univision – I don’t speak spanish) – I am guessing for English you could look through Canadian, Irish etc stations.
P O'Neill 06.09.06 at 3:33 pm
The BBC audio-video stream is UK only. But the dude doing text commentary on soccernet has his droll touches.
Matthew 06.09.06 at 4:47 pm
How about we don’t mention the war? Really, it might just be worth trying.
radek 06.09.06 at 5:15 pm
They mean ’74.
Sigh.
Oy, it hurts.
Gene O'Grady 06.09.06 at 5:54 pm
I’m a little lost on this, but isn’t Univision pretty much everywhere in the US on cable TV?
For anyone else who saw the Poland-Ecuador game and knows more Spanish (and more about what we quaintly call soccer), I have two questions:
(1) Was Poland actually trying to do something, or were they just sort of wandering about in a fog?
and
(2) Were the Univision announcers not only referring to Polonia and Ecuador but also routinely billing the game as between the Europeans and the Latin Americans? If so, is this just Spanish idiom or is there some small-scale conflict of civilizations mentality behind it? Or a comment on two different styles of playing soccer/football?
radek 06.09.06 at 6:29 pm
“Was Poland actually trying to do something, or were they just sort of wandering about in a fog?”
Well they seemed to wake up a bit after they gave up the second goal. Szmaty.
Zarquon 06.09.06 at 9:53 pm
This link to a wired article may help.
foolishmortal 06.10.06 at 12:15 am
Get thee to a pub! Four bucks for a drink and a seat and you’re all set.
Re: Poland’s performance: they looked positively indifferent until the 80th minute. On today’s evidence, England will coast into the quarter finals: if the ecuadorean keeper were to get up on his tippy toes he might be able to reach peter crouch’s nipple.
P.S. I’d like to second the recommendation of the Guardian’s not quite minute-by-minute. Almost a match report, almost comedy, it manages to make the worst games enjoyable and the best memorable.
joel turnipseed 06.10.06 at 3:50 am
Am, at the behest of several “football” crazy friends, going to pay attention to this sport for a few weeks. After all, my daughter–though only 2–isn’t likely to pick up the football I played all through high school and intramurally in college, so it’s time to get into a sport she can actually play (though we did take her to her first NBA game on Easter and she loved it).
Must say, more American sports need to adopt the “running clock.” Nothing worse than my wife coming in to ask “How much left in the game?” “15 minutes.” “You mean ‘an hour?'” and having to reply, “More or less.”
Germany looked, how to say it… so German. Ecuador, OTOH, was a joy to watch.
Now, to get up in four hours to watch England. Gonna have to cue up New Order’s “World in Motion” on the alarm clock to get me out of bed at 7:00 AM on a Saturday.
Nick 06.10.06 at 6:56 am
“it is impossible to find a live internet radio stream of World Cup matches…”
If this is the Great Sporting Event which everyone claims it is, why is this so?
I know, I know, because some television company owns the rights. But, I mean, wtf? Is that right? Why can’t anyone film it?
Cryptic Ned 06.10.06 at 9:51 am
I’m a little lost on this, but isn’t Univision pretty much everywhere in the US on cable TV?
It’s not on anywhere I’ve ever lived. Except on digital systems with hundreds of channels.
RickD 06.10.06 at 10:52 am
England squeaked by after dominating the first half. The BBC commentators were baffled by Sven’s decision to yank striker Michael Owen in the second half. I think the heat started to wear the English down a bit.
Gene O'Grady 06.10.06 at 1:26 pm
Thanks for the comments on Poland. What I was really wondering about was not so much that they looked indifferent but that they seemed to be using tactics that seemed indifferent to the prospect of scoring.
Apparently their coach said something Rumsfeldian to the effect that once the other team scored their tactics were upset and they couldn’t cope any more.
Wowbagger 06.10.06 at 2:55 pm
Chinese TV channels showing the matches live can be watched via Sopcast.
Doug 06.10.06 at 3:04 pm
On today’s evidence, England will coast into the quarter finals
What a difference a day makes! I don’t think they have all three of their first-round matches scheduled against Owngoalia.
Jacob Christensen 06.10.06 at 3:10 pm
I’m not quite sure which is the worse alternative: No coverage or a true carpet-bombing (war metaphor!) of introductions, commercial breaks, Monday Morning managers, interviews (“What did you feel when your shot missed the goal?”), matches and instant replays of matches.
In this part of the world (Sweden), coverage thus starts at 2 pm and goes on on several channels until 4 am (!).
Oh, and btw Sweden bombed against Trinidad-Tobago with a goalless draw.
Ted 06.10.06 at 3:56 pm
I thought goalless draws were the preferred outcome, any other outcome being attributable to inept goalkeeping.
Randy Paul 06.10.06 at 8:55 pm
I’m a little lost on this, but isn’t Univision pretty much everywhere in the US on cable TV?
It’s not on anywhere I’ve ever lived. Except on digital systems with hundreds of channels.
Univision is an over-the-air network of Spanish language stations that also own another network of called Telefutura. If you live in a major metro areas with large hispanic poplualtions like Phoenix, NYC, LA, etc. you could watch the games on Univision.
Don’t you wish you’d taught at Arizona State instead, Kieran?
Masale.Wallah 06.10.06 at 10:09 pm
Try this:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71112-0.html?tw=wn_index_4
Kieran Healy 06.10.06 at 10:49 pm
Don’t you wish you’d taught at Arizona State instead, Kieran?
Nope, because I can pick up Univision with my crappy TV aerial at home.
Gene O'Grady 06.11.06 at 12:49 am
I don’t live in a large metropolitan area and we don’t have a large Hispanic population (although it’s growing), but Univision is still part of the basic ComCast package. I’m curious about where it is unavailable.
Martin James 06.11.06 at 3:51 pm
Doug,
Owngoalia, did you make that up?
Randy Paul 06.11.06 at 6:33 pm
Kieran,
Fair enough.
Randy Paul 06.11.06 at 6:35 pm
Gene O’Grady,
It’s possible that ComCast is paying Univision to carry their programming. Watch it sometime and see if they ever ID a specific station.
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