The game between Portugal and North Korea was something more than a football game. Portugal dominated the pitch and scored 7 goals. Cristiano Ronaldo was the man of the match by scoring a goal and making several assists. Meireles was the other key player for Portugal. Portugal has high chance to qualify for the next round as they have 9 goals advantage over Ivory Coast.
ROUNDUP
Initial Thoughts on the World Cup
First, if you are one of those anthropologists who do not watch television then this is not the blog for you. Second, if you are one of those anthropologists who doesn?t appreciate sport, particularly the beautiful game, then this is definitely not the blog for you. Lastly, if the 2010 FIFA World Cup has you a little giddy and waking up at odd hours or arranging your work schedule to watch 32 teams battle for global glory then read on and hopefully enjoy some of the thoughts I have had as a soccer fan and anthropologist about this event, particularly over the past 6 years since South Africa won the bid for this year?s tournament. Over the next couple of weeks the Savage Minds consortium has been kind enough to let me blog on the event. I will have a few scattershot comments below but in the next few posts I will address some threads of possible interest to anthropologists. So far, the games have been entertaining one week in and will become more intense deeper into the tournament.
Football films: Bend it like Ken Loach
Mali: World Cup Fans React to Referee’s Controversial Call
It would not be a world cup of football if there was not a controversy about referees’ decisions. The one that has marked the 2010 edition so far is the decision by Malian referee Koman Coulibaly to disallow a goal by US player Edu that would have capped a furious comeback from two goals down by the US national team against Slovenia. As the final whistle was blown, bloggers were expressing their outrage either on forums, or by creating 127 facebook pages calling for banning the referee from further participating in the world cup or defacing Coulibaly’s wikipedia page. The outrage was not only limited to bloggers but also journalists who were quick to point out that this was not the first controversy in which Coulibaly was involved. Even famed Sports Illustrated writer Peter King weighed in instantly by posting the following update on his twitter feed:
Israel: World Cup Bonanza – Back to the Game
By Maya Norton
Dear Readers of Global Voices, however much I wanted to bring you a post on the World Cup from the Israeli blogosphere, I am foiled by a minor dilemma. You see, it seems that most Israeli World Cup fans are too busy watching the games to blog about it. So I bring you a sampling of three.
Searching for football connections
In a previous post, we talked about popular World Cup search queries. It turns out that people who search for one player frequently follow that immediately with a query for another player. In this post, we explore these timely connections between queries. Below, a thick line connects Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi because a lot of people followed a search for one of them with a search for the other. A thin line connects Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona because fewer people searched for them together.
Fans need to temper great expectations
Getting the Blues
Porn, drugs and Domenech: a Eurovision of World Cup songs
As the World Cup moves into the next phase ? sixteen of the best battle it out for the second round from 26 June ? we follow the 2010-featuring European teams in song. Spain, Holland and Germany are EU favourites as runners-up on 11 July, with Brazil or Argentina to win, according to betting agencies
Cameroon: On Cameroon’s World Cup exit
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon became the first team to be knocked-out of the World Cup after a 1-2 defeat to Denmark. Here is a tactical perspective from Cameroonian blogger George Fominyen.
Haiti: World Cup 2010
Haitian blogger Potoprincipe publishes this post [Fr] dealing with the need for Haitians to use the FIFA World Cup as an outlet for anguish and frustration and dreaming about the fact that while men get caught up in their passion for football, women take charge of the reconstruction of the island.
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