“Heh heh heh. Nobody ever says Italy.” - Hank Scorpio
Although I do like the dive jokes. I wouldn’t have indulged in such histronics even when I was a widdle Mehitabel in kittengarten.
I just start watching the match and root for the side that is doing the least cheating…
How do you know when a planeload of Australian soccer supporters have landed back in Sydney?
The engines are off but the whining still continues.
Are the players on the Italian team personally to blame, at all, for the ongoing scandal in Italian-league soccer, or does that implicate mainly the owners, managers, or refs? Do serious soccer fans see the Azzurri at the World Cup as tainted as a result, or is it seen as entirely a problem confined to Italy’s domestic teams?
Sorry for the slight hijack, but… both teams have blue-themed nicknames, and generally wear blue, right? So will they toss a coin in advance to determine who has to wear white?
Full conversation:
Hank Scorpio: Good. By the way, which is your least favourite country? Italy or France?
Homer: France.
Hank Scorpio: Heh, heh, heh. Nobody ever says Italy.
Italy are the designated “home” team and will wear blue. France are le blancs.
I’m going to see this game with a group of coworkers - I don’t actually care who wins, it’s more about the company. Which would be more fun, rooting for whichever team the guys want to win, or convincing the other girls to root for the other team?
Wouldn’t you support France by default after that round-of-16 debacle?
I’m wondering this myself.
Er…you mean the last time France played Italy?
Frankly, I think they’ll just get even more indignant about soccer either way.
The owners and refs are 100% to blame AFAWK. The owners are paying off refs–so far the players have nothing to do with it.
Every single player on Italy’s WC roster also plays for an Italian domestic team (Saudi Arabia was the only other nation in this WC to field only guys who play at home). The teams in trouble are also the best teams in the league, meaning they’re highly represented on the national team. Most of these guys have teammates who are testifying in tribunals, and they play for managers and owners who are in the process of ruining their own reputations.
In soccer and other team sports in general, the home team (or higher-seeded team, in a tournament at a neutral site) picks the jerseys they want to wear, and the other team has to pick a set that’s easily distinguishable from that. I believe that in the World Cup it’s predetermined by committees. One of those two, anyway. Either way it’s decided long before kickoff. (Same in the NFL, BTW: when the schedule comes out, each team decides what jersey they’ll wear in each home games and the team to visit them has to decide what contrasting jersey they’ll wear. This can become a point of strategy when the Arizona Cardinals choose to wear white at home and force their dark-team-color opponents to wear black or blue jerseys on a Sunday in August.)