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Hi everyone, Tom Bobadilla here from 35,000 feet above Entebbe, Uganda, on my way to Johannesburg, South Africa.
South Africa is ready to share its culture with the world and provide adventure and excitement for all and what better way to do this than through the World Cup! With several World Cups under my belt, and a lot of passion for the game—I’m ready (and very lucky too) to enjoy South Africa.
Let’s watch great soccer, and send good vibes to Landon Donovan and the rest of our U.S. team. There is always an opportunity to learn a country’s culture by connecting with its people and allowing yourself to get lost in their ways, so I’m looking forward to making new friends, running into old World Cup friends, finding new places to explore, trying new foods and hopefully play a few “cascaritas” (short-sided games) with the locals.
In my heart, I want the U.S. in the final, but to have great things come to South Africa will be amazing. I will never forget the experience on Champs Elysee celebrating with the Fren
ch when they won the 1998 World Cup.
As far as results go, it is difficult to pick who will make it into the finals because teams are much closer in skill, and with the right mindset any team could end up in the top four. If the U.S. beat England, we’ll make it to the semi-final against Brazil. Look for Holland to provide beautiful soccer, and Brazil to give us simple effective soccer.
In the beginning, referees will concentrate on two things… cracking down on verbal/gestured dissent and teamwork to get the critical decisions right. The assistant referees and the fourth official will be more active in assisting the referee in managing the game. To pick up tips in player management observe Archundia’s (Mexico) body language and how he sets the tone early in the game.
There will be more to share as I drink from the fountain of World Cup knowledge, carefully gargling so that I only consume fun, interesting and passionate moments in this South Africa World Cup. Enjoy the games, add South African culinary delicacies to your game parties, wear your team’s shirt and throw your passion behind them. A special thanks to Sahar Milani, who will be loading content into the blog, and un beso for Mamucha, Vivis, Jambita and Chimbumbis. We’ll connect again soon and for now, eat more vegetables and fruits.
Thanks Tomas,
ReplyDeleteI just watched the first 2 games. SA was lucky to get a tie and almost won. Mexico was lucky to get a tie.
The Japanese referee did a masterful job in the France - Uruguay game. Wow! In reviewing all the calls and non-calls in multiple rewind and slo-mo, he got all (I might have missed some because I was babysitting my 10 month old daughter) of them right even some very close ones. Yes, he called some that other referees might not have called, but those fouls definitely affected the play of the player fouled and in the long run made for a more civilized game. That game could have easily gotten out of control but his calling let the players know that fouls were going to be called and so the dangerous play (of which there was some) stayed within tolerable limits. You could also tell that he had acceptance from the players as there was very little and only mild dissent or complaining except when the players felt that they had to press the referee in hopes (ha ha) of getting an unfavorable decision (e.g., DFK very close to the goal) reversed or to tactically delay the restart (for which one player got a gold reward). So it appeared that the strong dissent or complaining was calculated rather than genuine. Finally, the referee did it all with grace, character and calmness that did not ramp up the emotions. It was one of the best jobs of refereeing I have ever seen.