It's started! Olympic Men's & Ladies Soccer. | Golden Skate

It's started! Olympic Men's & Ladies Soccer.

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
I watched a couple of ladies' soccer games today.

There was a bizarre moment when the South Korean flag was put up for N. Korea. The team went back inside the tunnel and didn't come out for quite some time, until they were assured the mistake was rectified.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Yipes! Korea, of all countries. They couldn't have mixed up the flags of, say, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, or even Switzerland and Swaziland...or Slovakia and Slovenia?

Well, think of this as a chance to work the kinks out of the system before the opening ceremonies.
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
:laugh: ...or Sweden and Switzerland which are often mixed up.

Japan and US lived up to being favorites. Followed by Sweden, Brazil and France.

Japan did the goal of the day. I understand why the Japanese women are extremely popular in Japan.

Strange with no Germany, China or Norway. The women's football world gas grown :)
 

bigsisjiejie

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
:laugh: ...or Sweden and Switzerland which are often mixed up.

Japan and US lived up to being favorites. Followed by Sweden, Brazil and France.

Japan did the goal of the day. I understand why the Japanese women are extremely popular in Japan.

Strange with no Germany, China or Norway. The women's football world gas grown :)

I had the privilege at Beijing 2008 of watching the women's football semifinal between USA and Japan. The USA won on the scoreboard...barely. But the Japanese women won in just about every other metric of that match--they are really good.

I envy those of you who are going able to watch something live--if you get past the prices, ticketing snafus, rainy weather, security queues, etc., you will see some marvelous sport. Some surprisingly fun stuff to watch that you'd never expect: archery, whitewater canoe slalom, and my personal favorite--any men's water polo. :love:
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
I had the privilege at Beijing 2008 of watching the women's football semifinal between USA and Japan. The USA won on the scoreboard...barely. But the Japanese women won in just about every other metric of that match--they are really good.

I love the way the Japanese team plays!

Article from the Guardian:

Japan's female athletes fly economy while men's team sit in business
Japan's female national football team Nadeshiko Japan placed in economy seats on flight to France sparking gender debate.

"I guess it should have been the other way around," Homare Sawa , the team's star player, told Japanese media. "Even just in terms of age, we are senior," she joked.

The JFA said the men's football team had been given business class seats since the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 in view of their professional status.

Sawa, who won the golden boot as top scorer in Germany and was named Fifa women's world player of the year in 2011, suggested that the team's best chance of securing a more comfortable flight back to Tokyo would be to win gold in London.

I envy those of you who are going able to watch something live--if you get past the prices, ticketing snafus, rainy weather, security queues, etc., you will see some marvelous sport. Some surprisingly fun stuff to watch that you'd never expect: archery, whitewater canoe slalom, and my personal favorite--any men's water polo. :love:

I have heard that lots of tickets are unsold to many events. Didn't look like big audiences at the women's matches so far. Don't know what the prices are. Probably depends how popular the sport is.

I would love watching anything live except for boxing. I really hate that's it is called a sport punching at each others heads. Ironically the only olympic gold medal I've ever seen was for boxing. Won by Otto von Porat(once my neighbor) for Norway in Paris 1924. Big man with the proper nose, very kind to us children :)
 
Last edited:

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
The men were playing today.

Japan won a very exciting match 1 to 0 over Spain. So many of the Japanese players were sporting red bleached hair.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Snowflake, what a wonderful story about Otto von Porat. The 1924 Games is one of my favorite Olympics, because it's the "Chariots of Fire" games, with a lot of other interesting athletes in as well. And it's far enough away from both World Wars that it isn't contaminated by excessive politics, in contrast to 1936, for example.

I'll pay special attention to the Japanese soccer team. I think I watched part of one match on TV in the Beijing Olympics, but it was not something I really fixed my focus on.

How are their gymnasts doing these days, does anyone know? For years the men's team was just about the best, though I don't remember any particular details about the women's team. I still remember the wonderful duel between Gushiken of Japan, Li Ning of China, and Peter Vidmar of the U.S. for the men's all-around gold in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which Gushiken won. That was a genuine nail-biter, and all three men did a sparkling job. For some reason I can't remember their standing in recent Games. In 2008 I was kind of preoccupied with stuff in everyday life. I hope that this year I'll be able to fixate completely on the Olympics!
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
The men were playing today.

Japan won a very exciting match 1 to 0 over Spain. So many of the Japanese players were sporting red bleached hair.

I guess that was a bit of a surprise. Hard to predict the men's(at least for me) while it is a youth tournament. Only 3 players out of 18 can be more than 23 years old.

Women: Well done Sweden 0-0 against Japan. Other results as expected though Brazil had a hard time beating New Zeeland 1-0.

Anyway, it will be more interesting when the quarter finals start.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
If you like soccer, check out the Hispanic channels on your cable. They are carrying a lot of games that NBC isn't carrying.
 
Top