"It's like the Olympics plus the World Series plus the birth of your first child all multiplied by X, where X equals awesome"

June 19, 2006 6:35 PM

The London Review of Books has a World Cup blog. So has The New Republic and Tony Blair's spinmeister Alastair Campbell. WFMU tracks World Cup related fatalities on its World Cup Death Watch while Slate's William Saletan sends us Dispatches from the World Cup. And then there's the expected gaggle of World Cup blogs from the mainstream media (NYT, Sydney Morning Herald, Der Spiegel [in english], The Guardian, etc.)

And finally, the mother of all World Cup blogs, worldcupblog.org, with individual bloggers for each country, a main blog, and, my favorite section, a referee's blog.
posted by Kattullus (17 comments total)

I love the World Cup Death Watch...death toll of 18 already.

And from the front page of worldcupblog.org:
Today's games didn't look good on paper. Luckily for us they were played on grass

Am I missing something?
posted by meech at 7:57 PM on June 19, 2006

I'm writing a blog for the mainstream media. But that's all I'll say for fear of Pepsi Blue.
posted by dw at 8:14 PM on June 19, 2006

meech: 25, actually. Though occasionally they lower their count, so you may yet turn out to be right :)

dw: that reminds me, I forgot to link to the excellent World Cup blog of one of my favoritely* named newspapers, Seattle Post-Intelligencer ;)
posted by Kattullus at 8:29 PM on June 19, 2006

http://www.spiritoffootball.com/ is lovely - every 4 years they carry a football from battersea park in London (where apparently the first "official" football game ever took place) to wherever the World Cup is being held (they carried it to Seoul in 2002, and they're in germany now) - and play football with the people they meet along the way, and they blog about it. With videos. very lovely. (disclosure: Christian Wach is a friend).
posted by silence at 1:55 AM on June 20, 2006

Here's that amazing Aussie goal they are all mentioning, in case you missed it.
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:00 AM on June 20, 2006

CunningLinguist - Aussie goal? Are you sure you don't mean 'Argie'?
posted by MrMustard at 6:50 AM on June 20, 2006

No self-respecting Aussie (yes, Harry Kewell, I mean you) would have hair like that.

Nice to see the move in its entire brilliance. I'd previously only been able to see the Fox Soccer Channel highlights, which start at Crespo's back-heel. Cretins.
posted by Sk4n at 6:56 AM on June 20, 2006

Thanks, CL! That brought a tear of joy to my Argie-loving (and Univision-missing) eye.
posted by languagehat at 10:00 AM on June 20, 2006

I so adore Univision and its moments like that that makes me wish more people could understand the Spanish. Not just the enthusiasm but the commentary itself is intimate in a way the English broadcasters cannot seem to be - like being in someone's living room. They refer to players as "that short guy - whats his name??" and "Man, look at that scowl on that guy - I'd hate to see him coming at me..." Goals are accompanied with commentary such as "Oh such a beautiful beautiful thing. I want to cry with happiness" etc...

That is, they do an amazing job of conveying the deep emotion most people around the world feel for this.
posted by vacapinta at 1:58 PM on June 20, 2006

Great post, thanks.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:38 PM on June 20, 2006

(Argie, of course, sorry.)
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:11 AM on June 21, 2006

Vacapinta, I watch the games on Univision even though I don't understand Spanish just for that emotion and excitement. From your description I wish even more now that I could understand what they're saying.


Anyone else think Figo is completely dreamy? Go Portugal!
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:15 AM on June 21, 2006

All the goals! Click on the result of the match you're interested in, then click the football symbol next to the name of the scorer of the goal you want to see. Et voila.

May I recommend Joe Cole's goal for England against Sweden for starters?
posted by MrMustard at 3:15 PM on June 21, 2006

Whoa! That's magnificent, MrMustard -- thanks!
posted by languagehat at 3:53 PM on June 21, 2006

It's so good it might deserve it's own post, but maybe at the end of the tournament, eh?
posted by MrMustard at 10:24 AM on June 22, 2006

Erm, second 'it's' should be 'its'. Bollocks.
posted by MrMustard at 10:27 AM on June 22, 2006

It's so good it might deserve it's own post, but maybe at the end of the tournament, eh?

Too late—it's Fermé/Closed. Merde!
posted by languagehat at 3:08 PM on July 4, 2006