this World Cup thing

[bex77]

There's a big sporting event going on in Africa. Not my thing, but I try to keep up with what the entire rest of the world is obsessing over, so here are a few snippets I found in my travels on the intrawebs during a quiet day at work yesterday:

Catchy theme song
"Waka Waka" sung by Skakira (whose hips don't lie)
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0
lyrics http://www.directlyrics.com/shakira-waka-waka-lyrics.html
what the African words mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamina_mina_%28Zangalewa%29

Just what is a vuvuzela?
If you listen to any of the games, you will hear this buzzing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeotaq04JcE

The World Cup happens every four years. It's like the Olympics, except there's only one sport. It's what we call soccer, but everyone else calls football. This is the 18th World Cup final. They started in 1930, skipped '42 and '46. Seven national teams have won over the years - Brazil five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each. There a "geography thing" where European teams win when its in Europe, and South American teams win when it's anywhere else. It's being held in Africa for the first time, so no one is sure what will happen. Various pundits favor Brazil, Italy, Germany, Spain or Argentina to win in the end.

There are 32 teams in the final (out of 165 countries that play). They each play 3 times in the next two weeks. The top 16 teams advance. This goes on until the final final, Sunday, July 11.

The U.S. team plays its first finals match today, against England. There is a lot of history between these two countries, on and off the pitch (that what they call the field they play on).

The BBC has a fun interactive site with the entire schedule on one page. If you click a country along the bottom, it gives you a page with articles about that team and its matches.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/groups_and_teams/team/usa

And of course...Elephants!
South African Elephants join in World Cup
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10300702.stm

Enjoy!

Comments

[muffyjo]

Here is the video on the making of the Shakira video which I found interesting. Mostly because you get more soccer action and now I understand who the supporting singers are!