History isn’t really my forte, but I seem to recall that Saddam Hussein died having his head ripped off by a noose after he was found cowering in a hole.
Which I guess qualifies as “protecting one’s country” as much as, say, inventing an obnoxious plastic noisemaker would.
Also, the buzz seems to have a small frequency range. Can’t some sort of filter be applied to the audio to notch it out?
I agree with some of the other posters. If the damn things were blown in response to a good play they’d be tolerable. It’s the fact that they are incessantly sounded that is irritating.
Assholes used to blow off canned air-horns at hockey games. First they did it at goals. Then it was at the end-of-game (when victorious). Then they started blowing them for no reason at all (like those vuvuzelas). That’s when they got banned. Those things are no more cultural than air-horns are here.
Welcome all citizens of the world to Sunny South Africa, the land of rainbow colour and wonderous sound.
VUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!
Well, I meant they can still end up tied at the end of how every many minutes they play in a regulation game … and they get there by dribs and drabs. At least when there’s a goal in soccer you know it means something.
And I would disagree about the dearth of scoring chances. Think of it like chess. You don’t just think about taking the king, you think moves ahead of time. It’s the same in soccer. When you see the right defender make a great move on a midfielder and at the same time you notice the forward making a run up the wing … that’s a scoring chance in my book. And the defense of that move is equally as impressive. As are all of the little moves, plays and defenses that are in every second of a soccer match. It’s not just about bulging the old onion bag.
Also … I’ll see your “kids swarming the ball soccer game” and raise you one “which way do I run coach” t-ball game. Of course little kids suck at soccer. They suck at all sports until they old enough to figure them out … at least the good ones.
And speaking of being in the minority … I love the fucking things … those uvula-azaleas or whatever you call them. They’re trippy.
A right and proper response here to all the ignorant fuckwits in this thread who fail to appreciate football.
Who’s not appreciating football? At least for me, the objection is not to the football, but to the really annoying noise made by those things.
BTW, I really don’t understand the objections to the word “soccer” especially when used by Americans. First the word was invented by the English. Second soccer has the advantage of being unambiguous, unlike football. And I’m not talking just about confusing [association] football with American football. There are many sports called football in various countries.
Anyway - ner ner ner ner ner ner - they’re not going to ban it!
“England defender Jamie Carragher said the noise did not bother him when he came on as a half-time substitute during the 1-1 draw with the United States and he said he had already bought two to take home to his children in Liverpool.” Scouser!!!
We tend to get our backs up as on this board (and elsewhere, including real life) it is quite common for Americans to tell us that it isn’t Football, American Football is Football and our game is Soccer. For added points we are then told that all the players are pussies.
IIRC, as an example, it has already happened in this very thread.
I think the not appreciating football thing is in reference to the numerous fuckwits that jumped into this thread immediately to make sure everyone knew just how much they were NOT watching the world cup.
as far as the word “soccer”, I agree completely. I tend to stick with soccer in this country unless I’m talking with fellow fans and the subject is already on the sport.
I love it… been watching since S Korea kicked Greece’s ass… The VUVU’s really make it feel different… to me its like watching English fans sing their club songs… or watching cub fans throw the home run ball of the other team on the field… or red wing fans throwing the octopus out on the ice…
Geezus does everything need to be "adjusted" for kandy ass people today.. shit its what they do.. deal with it..Hold on… so you begin this kandy ass thread with a whine about the horns… then you pick the biggest kandy ass football player of them all to reference… no Jared Allen… no Brian Urlacher… no Ray Lewis…you reference the Miss Hamlet? I think you have a propensity for softness Dio…
I live in a country which has four major codes of football, but I lived in the UK for a few years. The UK habit of calling soccer “football” - as if it were the only code - initially came across as ambiguous, and then when I learned it meant “soccer” it came across as arrogant, but then after a while you get used to the fact that the one code is just so pervasive in the UK that it is not surprising that it has come to be simply “football”.
Taking offence at the term “soccer” on a US/international messageboard comes across as small minded though.
The thing is, although Rugby Union and League are officially forms of football they are very rarely referred to in that way. I gather that it is different in Australia, but in the UK Association Football is Football and Rugby Union Football and Rugby League Football are Rugby. For what it is worth, even the football club names seem to refer to this, with very few referring to themselves as <something> AFC, instead being <something> FC. Union clubs are RUFC and League are RLFC. The team I support, Coventry City FC, were originally called Singers FC when they were formed in 1883. Not an AFC in sight.
And for what it is worth, I say this coming from the part of the world that gave us the sport of Rugby. As a nipper I even had the joys of playing Rugby Union for The District of Rugby Schools.
Regarding offence - I don’t take offence, I just get irritated when Americans (and 99.9% of the time it is Americans) tell me what I should call a sport that got invented in my country in a language that also comes from my country.
It’s fucking HARD to get a goal in as you say - that’s the point!
For the record, I didn’t mean my own comments about “football/soccer” to be an indication of American superiority, just that I think an American calling soccer “football” is a phony affect akin to Madonna pretending to have a British accent, especially on an American message board.
I also appreciate the sport. I lived in England as a kid and got caught up in following it like every other male kid in England, I played it a lot, I can see the aesthetic qualities (and I actually know what a 4-4-2 is) and I especially like watchinng the WC, when I can see the sport played at its highest level with the very best players in the world.
The goddamn vuvus detract from my enjoyment of the games. They don’t enhance them at all, and they get in between the game and the crowd. Crowd noise is dynamic. It flows with the game and is responsive to it. The cheers, songs, the stomping – all of that enhances the game because it’s driven by what’s happening on the field. Those stupid, plastic horns are just a useless, constant, monotone din with no relationship to what’s happening on the field, no dynamic and no ingress into the emotions of the crowd.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that even if FIFA alows them for the rest of this WC, they will be banned fom all future international play. More than anything, they violate the cardinal sin of the sports industry – they are bad on television.
I had the dubious honour of playing rugby union* for* Rugby School. We weren’t very good.
By the way, I agree with the constant playing of the vuvuzelas being a detraction from the game.
We shall see how the Brazilian drums hold up against the vuvuzelas tomorrow.
Yes. Even if the vuvuzelas were all on a single frequency, synchronised and at constant volume (which isn’t going to happen), the anti-vuvuzela would still have to be synchronised with the vuvuzelas.
Only if by “clever marketing”, you mean “outright lies”.