World Cup Week One from Taiwan

World Cup Week One from Taiwan

 

We have come to the end of the first seven days of the World Cup and what a seven days it was been.  Three teams have already fallen with Spain being the biggest so far, we’ve seen poor refereeing, spectacular goals and head nudges (I’m loath to call them head butts) on team mates.  Although I did not have high hopes for Spain winning the tournament and I thought Chile could do well, I did not envisage Spain joining the likes of France (2002), Italy (1950 and 2010) and Brazil (1966 nudge, nudge, wink, wink) as Champions to fall at the first hurdle.  To give Spain credit they are now Champions of this feat as no team has managed to do it so quickly before; after two games.  The amount of poor to frankly ridiculous refereeing decisions have come so often, I don’t know where to begin; let’s just be thankful the vast majority of them seem to have any great effect on the final results.  Diego Costa against the Netherlands and lines man against Mexico for example.  The key exception being in the first game when the Japanese referee had a poor game; first, I’m a little confused about the Neymar yellow card, surely it is a red card for an elbow or it should be nothing.  The fact the ref gave a yellow makes me think he bottled sending off Neymar because of who he is and situation.  To be honest I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I believe the ref thought it was.  This was later followed by the felling of Fred.  This may be the English in me talking, but 6ft plus male should be falling over under a pat on the shoulder.  Do you blame Fred, do you blame the ref or do you blame both?  I think a little bit of both.  I am not a fan of going down under marginal contact and although I think it is often very hard for refs to pick it in real time, this one did not seem hard to spot.  I’m starting to think we should give the benefit of the doubt to the defender, if you look at someone funny in the box they go down like an extra from platoon.  Then you have the likes of Pepe losing the plot.  As much as I would like football to be a man’s game, in the modern game Pepe’s head nudge and Song’s elbow claw are solid gold red cards.  You shouldn’t do these things on a football pitch, but if you’re going to get sent off in World Cup at least make it worthwhile, if you are angry enough to head butt someone, give them a real head butt not a head nudge.  This may not be in the spirit of the game, but these innocuous little heads real grind my gears.  In the first week of the World Cup we have had 60 goals in 20 games; three goals a game.  This hasn’t happened since the 50’s!  I’m not going to debate why this is happening, but I’m glad it is.  Like England, maybe teams just don’t want to die wondering.

 

I have been watching all (well most) of the action unfold from Taiwan.  This causes issues when watching a mainly European and South American sport; especially with all the big audiences coming from Europe and the tournament being played in South America. The three game times in Taiwan are: 12am, 3am and 6am.  This makes for tricky viewing.  So far I have used three main methods for viewing this World Cup: the pub, streaming (video and radio) and Taiwanese TV.

 

Brazil vs Croatia

I started the week streaming the Brazil game, largely because I didn’t know it was on TV, but also because it was the first game and I wanted British commentators and pundits for the first game.  This caused major issues because the ITV stream broke just before half time and I had no back-up plan.  So I ended up listening to the rest of the game on BBC radio 5 live. This was kind of nice because it gave an extra medium to say I have used, but mainly I was feeling frustrated as it was 4/5 in the morning! I haven’t streamed too much since then, as my streams have often been poor.   I have watched quite a lot on Taiwanese TV, but as I am at home I often end falling asleep during half time of the second game.  Then when Yellow Sugar goes to work in the morning I watch the end of the 6am game; which was particularly interesting when it came to the Ghana USA game.  The reason I have not been to the pub very often is a logistical issue.  It is very hard just see one game at that time of night.  Public transport is closed between 12am and 5am, so you have to watch a minimum of two games to make it worth your while.

 

On Saturday/Sunday I went for the trifecta of three games in a row (the only gamble being whether I could make it to 8am).  This was Colombia vs Greece followed by Uruguay vs Costa Rica with England vs Italy to finish off.  The first pub was crammed full of Colombians, who were all going crazy the entire game; why can’t Englishman support a team like the South Americans?  We are so dour in comparisons.  By the time the second game came around I was started to lag a little bit; the beer and lack of sleep was starting to kick in.  Although I was quite happy with the Costa Rica, I had mixed feelings when every time Costa Rica scored I was handed tequila.  It was free, so I wasn’t complaining till the next morning.  Finally 6am came and I came face-to-face with fresh faced Italians who had not been awake all night.  To banter was enjoyable, especially when Starling didn’t score in the first minute; egg and faces were in alignment.  The game, to the last 30 minutes in particular, was a bit of blur, but I was not overly disappointed.  We weren’t out played, our final delivery was a bit underwhelming, but it was a vast improvement on the Euro 2012 quarter final two years previously.

 

The first week has taught me several things.  Firstly, Taiwanese commentary is rubbish.  Secondly, although the pub is always fun and you get to meet new people from different parts of the world, it is a big undertaking and unless you are very committed it is not something I would recommend every night, unless you live relative close.  Thirdly, if it is an important game, make sure you have the commentary you like or have a great atmosphere.  For the England we had Taiwanese commentary, but because there were so many Brits and Italians, it was a good crack.  If there are few people the commentary is needed for the atmosphere.  If you have a good stream, I would pick it over the convenience of TV, but it is nice watching a game without the danger of buffering sign popping up.  Watch in a pub with friends, foreigners and the odd local when you can.  After all what is the World Cup for if not meeting new people, socialising and having a party (or should I say Carnival)?

 



I’ll end with me two moments of the week.  Number one: Tim Cahill’s volley against the Netherlands; it was in vain, but you have to love Aussie grit.  Number two: the American reaction to Brooks’ winner.  Changing Wikipedia to read ‘the greatest American since Abraham Lincoln’ just made me laugh.

 

My favourite Wikipedia edit

Tonight I’m off to the England game, as it is at 3am I think I’ll watch Colombia vs Ivory Coast.  Hopefully I won’t be sad or hung over for work tomorrow.

 

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