Who is everyone picking?
Join the LRA World Cup Pick-Em!
9 Likes
Awesome. Bora O Brasil!
1 Like
I chose Argentina to win it all. LOL!
2 Likes
Ha. i gotta figure out the site now
1 Like
Leroy!!!
1 Like
Was in Berlin for the 2006 World Cup. No other sporting event I’ve been to comes close to that atmosphere. Just a party atmosphere for weeks and every single cafe bought a large screen TV to show the games. Soccer games set up in mini pitches all over town. Big groups of fans playing drums walking around downtown. Was awesome.
6 Likes
Ha that pic is from Munich during the 06 WC. First time I ever saw a pro soccer match. And you’re right the atmosphere was amazing.
5 Likes
I would be jelous cept I lived in Brasil during that World Cup so…
2 Likes
I was in Spain studying abroad through UVA’s program (very odd to attend classes in Spain with University of Virginia spelled out in English over the front entrance). Awesome experience going to bars to watch the Spain games and games in general.
7 Likes
I live close enough to the 1 FC Kaiserslautern (2.Bundesliga… they won 2 - 0 last night… woohoo!) stadium where I can hear when goals are scored. That will be set up for the World Cup… they also set up downtown w/ HUGE big screen TVs along the Walkplatz.
My weirdest World Cup experience was being deployed in Baghdad for the 2006 one… I was watching the final w/ the Iraqis in Adnan Palace right next to the famous crossed swords… it was the same timeframe that Saddam Hussein was being tried next door in the CCCI (Central Criminal Court of Iraq) which is significant because the opposition was shooting missiles and mortars at it to try and hit him during the trial. Therefore, while we were watching, we were being hit by rockets and mortars…
8 Likes
I know nothing about the World Cup besides picking a SA or Euro team is usually safe.
1 Like
Former US forward Terrence Boyd plays for Kaiserslautern. He scored the first goal yesterday for them and has done well for them since signing in January and helping get them promoted from 3rd division. Missing our top 2 CB’s ain’t gonna help but I’m just hoping the US makes it out of the group and then makes some noise in knockout stage.
2 Likes
Yep… I have run into him a few times downtown… he’s a cool dude.
I have also been here for Luis Robles before he pooped his shot w/ the US national team as well as Andrew Wooten…
I got here a little too late for Thomas Dooley however…
3 Likes
I was with my family in Paris in July 2016 when the Euro final was being played there. France played Portugal and the entire city was shut down. It also happened to be a pretty bad year for terror threats. The evening of the game I was on a bike tour with the family and all sorts of police sirens started going everywhere. We were across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower where there was a massive watch party with way too many people, and we saw smoke.
Everyone was scared there had been an attack, but it was a controlled explosion of a suspicious package amid throngs of unruly fans. From wikipedia:
But as some mentioned for World Cup, every cafe was full of people inside and out watching the game and living and dying with every run.
Sadly, a few days later on Bastille Day, when we were departing Aix en Provence to go to Cinque Terre, Italy via Nice, there was a truck attack on the Nice waterfront that killed a lot of people and injured hundreds more. We didn’t know about it because we were traveling by bus at dawn, but our phones blew up from worried friends back in the US who had heard the news in the evening (after midnight in France). It was also the summer that UVa basketball went to Spain, and folks have said it was difficult to get info on their itinerary. I think the threats in Europe were probably a reason why.
Anyway, the Euros were a fun time in that part of the world. I can only imagine what World Cup was like.
6 Likes
Euros are just as much fun… might even be more fun over here because everyone can relate to ALL the teams… sometimes the teams out of the region don’t generate as much buzz.
For instance in Germany… the largest ethnic group outside of Germans here are the 8 million Turks… when Turkey plays, the interest is just as high as when Germany plays… downtown buzzes with every goal Turkey scores just as much as Germany.
5 Likes
We were living in NYC in 2006 and like a block away from our apartment was an outdoor Mexican street food themed place (awesome food), right at the intersection of Kenmare and Lafayette (there was a tiny park across the street). When the World Cup started they mounted like a half-dozen flat screen TVs above the serving windows and people would watch while they waited in line. But after a while people realized it was a cool spot to watch the games since you could kinda sorta see the action from the park. Once the knockout round started, the crowd would block traffic for at least a block in every direction. After a couple nights, the cops just blocked off traffic for a block or so around it at night. Watching the matches, drinking beer and cheering was pretty fantastic.
Also, I got married in 1998 and our honeymoon coincide with the World Cup. Near the end, we took a night train from… somewhere in northern Italy to Barcelona coincidentally on the night of the championship match. Every half hour or so we’d pull into a French station and we could hear the cheering. At every stop. Was hilarious.
8 Likes
La Esquina! Awesome awesome area then
Yeah! I just realized it was still there while looking up the cross street (forgot it was Kenmare), or at least a very similar restaurant is in the same place. Also funny that they just overtly mention the basement bar now. At the time, it was like “How did this place afford all those TVs? And what’s up with the guy in the suit/woman in cocktail dress always casually hanging around that unmarked door in back?”
4 Likes