Sunday, June 20, 2010

things i will miss about nyc: part 2

for some reason, many things i will miss about new york involve the world cup. why? i dunno, i like the unabashed national pride (caveat: unless it involves germany. because few things are scarier than a stadium full of germans chanting "deutschland"). i like that you can find a representation of virtually every nation involved. and it gives you an opportunity to engage strangers in conversation with impunity.

anyway, here is a video of the half-time dance party that broke out at this brazilian restaurant where i watched the "match." what? we have 15 minutes? let's get the DJ out! i always secretly suspected that brazilians were having way more fun than the rest of us, and it turns out that's absolutely true.

3 comments:

cold4thestreets said...

They are literally dancing on the walls. Crazy.

Today's games were really frustating. One of the reasons football can never make it in America is because Americas have no emotional attachment to the beauty and grace of the sport, and therefore, will never, ever get over the fact that the sport is governed by arbitrary tyrants. (The rest of the world bitches about this, but succumbs to their lots in life because they are football-mad foreigners.)

Italy got a penalty shot on a very questionable foul today, which equalized their match and prevented New Zealand from pulling off one of the biggest upsets in my lifetime.

Brazil's Fabiano got away with two hand balls en route to scoring. And then at the end of the Brazil match Kaka got red carded because Keita pantomimed being hit in the face. All of this occurred in one day, and I didn't even watch the Slovakia-Paraguay match. These games are being called totally inconsistently, and often totally unjustly. And because of the high-stakes nature of the matches even one unearned goal can have devastating consequences. Don't get me wrong: I hate American sports chauvenism as much as anybody, but to the outside observer these matches look like they're run like banana republics.

E said...

yeah, that brazilian handball was something else. i don't know too much about soccer, its players or its rules, but i definitely know that you can't play the game with your arms.

but yeah, that kaka red card was pretty surprising. i think the brazilians at this restaurant were too drunk to be outraged, though. or maybe they just express outrage through dance.

still, if i hear alexei lalas whining about that mali ref one more time, i will...i dunno, watch univision?

E said...

sure enough, status update of someone i know

if america hosted the world cup For starters: no ties. Instant replay. Anyone caught with a vuvuzela would be Texecuted.