World Cup 2018 Thread

Any other football (soccer) fans out there? I've been very unproductive at work since the 14th.

My wife and visiting Father in law have watched some of it I think. That's the one with the black and white, reasonably-shaped ball, right? Not the brown one with stitches that clearly isn't made to be kicked OR thrown easily?

I'm interested in it, though it's hard for me to watch without staying up all night here (and I'm no night owl).

I like soccer, but I haven't paid much attention to the last couple World Cups because I didn't want to support FIFA and their immoral business practices. I was considering avoiding this Cup, too, because I don't want to show any support to the Russian government and their human rights abuses. But I realized that I'm not really giving any money to them by watching games on Chinese Internet (the only way I can watch since we don't have cable anymore) and following the results. And boycotts never do anything if it's just me anyway.

Sport? Geeks............and sport?

Here's another one for the pot, Adam:

Following sports is one of the geekiest things you can do. Stats, technology, cosplay, gaming, and intense fandom all converge at sporting events.

And sports fans love to cosplay.

jorowi wrote:Following sports is one of the geekiest things you can do. Stats, technology, cosplay, gaming, and intense fandom all converge at sporting events.

All valid points, but where are the dragons and spaceships?


I'll say this for an event like the world cup. At least the passions involved are linked to national pride, rather than arbitrarily-chosen teams, as is the case with a lot of sport games. That makes it more meaningful to me.

Perhaps ironically, I have zero interest in the subject (outside of a game of Sensible Soccer, anyway)