What sports teams do you support?

[Heid the Ba]

AUDI use endurance racing to develop their new technology. They have run diesels for years as a proving ground for their diesel turbos, the hybrids are the next step and they use the recovered energy from braking and the turbos to partly power the car. I love the way AUDI run the diesel power through the rear wheels and the electric through the front to turn it into a four wheel drive when they want.

Edit to add: AUDI are talking about putting an energy recovery system on a road car in a couple of years.

[Lianachan]

The World Cup starts later today...

Our esteemed board colleagues from Germany, the Netherlands and the USA have obvious teams to support. Heid and I have Uruguay, Costa Rica and Italy to support initially - and hopefully nobody specific after that. I'm not sure how it works for Tubes - do you support Chile, Netherlands and Spain and hopefully nobody specific after that, or don't you give much of a shite because the ball's the wrong shape?

[Мастер]

Go Ghana!

[Мастер]

Heid and I have Uruguay, Costa Rica and Italy to support initially

I wonder what these three teams have in common? Hmm, I think I might know. And a quick look at the schedule confirms my suspicion.

[MM_Dandy]

USA - Everybody's asking about them, but the question (and answers) varies according to geography. The US asks "Can we win it all this year?" (USA answer: "Maybe" ROW answer: "Nope"). The ROW asks: "Can they make it out of group play?" (ROW answer: "Maybe - Portugal's probably the better team." USA answer "Hell, yeah!" - we're such homers :D).
Germany - Everybody's talking about them. Seems like a solid team.
Netherlands - Nobody's talking about them. Go Orange!

[Lianachan]

Go Ghana!

Sorry, I neglected to account for you. Mind you, your (various) nationality(/ies) is(/are) far too complicated for a casual by-stander like me anyway.

[Lianachan]

USA - Everybody's asking about them, but the question (and answers) varies according to geography. The US asks "Can we win it all this year?" (USA answer: "Maybe" ROW answer: "Nope"). The ROW asks: "Can they make it out of group play?" (ROW answer: "Maybe - Portugal's probably the better team." USA answer "Hell, yeah!" - we're such homers :D).
Germany - Everybody's talking about them. Seems like a solid team.
Netherlands - Nobody's talking about them. Go Orange!

A quick look at my predicted scores - and remember that some of those may end up not being correct - and it seems I have U!S!A! being eliminated in the first round. It's a tough group.

[Мастер]

Sorry, I neglected to account for you. Mind you, your (various) nationality(/ies) is(/are) far too complicated for a casual by-stander like me anyway.

I used to have two. I have one now. And I might be able to claim another, but I don't see a whole lot of value in it.

Edited to add - and I forgot - as of a few weeks ago, I can apply for yet another one. But as it would require me to give up my current nationality, I am just going to leave things as they are.

[Lianachan]

See? That's exactly what I'm talking about.

[Arneb]

My [insert apprpriate altitude moniker here]lander friends must please forgive for the fact that I am a violent supporter of England, Uruguay, and Costa Rica for now. They can stop the blue beast, and we can take care of England later (I remember we had this discussion two years ago).

I am mostly worried about Portugal. If our boys start with a victory against them, it seems like a breeze after that (Ghana, USA, possibly Belgium/Russia, possibly France) until the semis when a Big One (Spain or Brazil) lurk on our way.

Then again, nothing's a breeze in a World Cup.

[Lance]

What are you guys talking about? It's baseball season and none of those teams sound familiar.

[Arneb]

Yeah right, baseball. What a few million in the colonies watch and few of them understand. Come on, who doesn't want to see the Germans shred the US to pieces...in soccer.

[MM_Dandy]

Well, the White Sox and the Cubbies both lost with a combined score of...0 to 8. The Cubs are last in the NL central, already 12 games out of first and 7.5 games out of the last wildcard spot.
The AL Central is so bad, anybody could win it. Hell, the Cubs might even win it. The Minnesota Twins are only 4 games out of first, but are last in the division. To their credit, though, they didn't lose today. On the other hand, they didn't win, either.

So...back to soccer - has the US won it all, yet?

[MM_Dandy]

Lesse... I suppose I shall cast my lot for Mexico, Netherlands, and Chile, today.
¡Vamos El Tri!

[Мастер]

Lesse... I suppose I shall cast my lot for Mexico, Netherlands, and Chile, today.
¡Vamos El Tri!

At a minimum, you'll have one of them right - Mexico 1-0.

[MM_Dandy]

Closing in on 2: Netherlands up by 3 in the 77th minute!

NED up 5-1 in extra time as I write this.

fivethirtyeight.com has an interesting interactive graphicwith the odds for each club to advance, win a particular match, etc. Before the match, Spain had a 78.6% chance of advancing, and a 47.9% chance of winning the group. They'll update the graphic shortly, so we'll see how this changes things.

[Мастер]

A stunning reversal of the 2010 final.

[Lianachan]

Mixed support from me for that game. Generally, I would support Spain in that fixture - I used to live in Spain and Spanish was my first language. I also had (foolishly, it turns out) predicted a 2-1 win for them in our score predictor competition at work. But, I drew Netherlands out of the hat in the sweepstake - so it's not all bad.

[Arneb]

Football, bloody hell!

I was really pissed off when that idiot referee gave Spain the upper hand with this non-penalty. The rest, ooh, nice. I almost had to grin when he didn't punish Van Persie for barging right into Casillas for 3-1, and in the six yard box to boot.

So now we have three games played and 6 embarassing referee mistakes already. This FIFA really is hell bent to leave their thumb firmly on the self-destruct button.

At least, the goal line detection system didn't fuck up miscalling any of the 11 completely obvious goals so far. But hey, that's German engineering for you. Did I tell you they programmed a back door allowing the German team to correct Wembly goalcalls?

[Lianachan]

The English commentators here noted that the goal line kit was German, "ironically", adding that it was 4 years too late for England. Aye, I shouted at the TV, and 50 years too late for Germany you pricks! This was during the opening match, if I recall. I'm sorry, Arneb, as you have a different view on this - but I really hope Italy make them look like an under 14 girls team.

UPDATE - "four years ago" mentioned again by commentators during Chile v Australia.

[Мастер]

Lesse... I suppose I shall cast my lot for Mexico, Netherlands, and Chile, today.
¡Vamos El Tri!

Nice work!

[Мастер]

WTF, England ahead at the half

[Мастер]

OK, that's more like it.

[Мастер]

13-13. Don't much care for this.

[Мастер]

OK, liking it better now.