Abracadabra: Even Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo was unsure where the ball had gone before scoring the sixth goal today in a 7-0 rout of North Korea that sent the Asian nation crashing out of the competition (AGP Photo).
*It seems pretty clear what you think of the sound of the vuvuzelas judging by the results of our poll here, but there’s still time to vote.
By the way, on Saturday the things showed up at a Florida Marlins-Tampa Bay Rays game, prompting this comment from ear plug-wearing second baseman Dan Uggla, who told MLB.com:
“This isn’t soccer. I know the World Cup is going on, but this is baseball. We don’t want to hear horns or anything like that. We want to hear the crowd cheering. We want to hear the crowd getting behind us, not horns.”
Most soccer fans would agree with that sentiment; personally I’ve missed the chanting, drumming (this is an African World Cup, right?) and other sounds of soccer that are being drowned out by the low-grade vuvuzela buzz.
*Nevertheless, the (ahem) World Cup buzz in the U.S. is also louder than ever before. Friday morning’s United States-Slovenia game on ESPN – in which the Americans overcame a 2-0 halftime deficit to earn a 2-2 draw – was the most-watched soccer game among households in the history of ESPN. More than 3.9 million watched ranking game behind the 2006 Germany-Italy semifinal (5.8 million) and the 2002 U.S.-Germany quarterfinal (5.3 million).
In general, viewership is up 60 percent from the tournament four years ago, when games were played at essentially the same times as this one.
*That’s remarkable in part because there are more ways to watch then ever. Case in point: As of Friday DirecTV started airing replays on channel 400 of all the Spanish language World Cup matches the day after they air live on Univision. A schedule is at the channel.
*Incidentally, for those of you planning ahead the 100 Percent Soccer map of bars and restaurants opening early or hosting special events in conjunction with the World Cup has been updated. If you know of others let me know.
*With the second group games now completed the third round of our World Cup contest is upon us beginning Tuesday. If you haven’t yet signed up, click here.
*In local news, AYSO officials are losing their lease in Hawthorne and fret that they may be forced to leave the South Bay, where the nonprofit was founded in the mid-1960s.
*Finally, in other non-World Cup related news Chivas USA has announced the club will play its third round U.S. Open Cup match at Titan Stadium on the campus of Cal State Fullerton at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 29 against the winner of the second round match between the Austin Aztex and Arizona Sahuaros that’s set for Tuesday. Tickets start at $10.
I’ll have more on the World Cup in Tuesday’s column, which will set the stage for the third and final round of group games that begin at 7 a.m. tomorrow with contests between Mexico-Uruguay and France-South Africa; the latter two teams face elimination and both Latin American teams can advance with a draw.
All the latest World Cup news is here.
