Did anyone else watch ALL the WC games?

bonerm

Ever since I was a kid I had a secret ambition to watch every single game of a world cup finals. This is my sixth tournament now (1990-2010) and I had to date not achieved this goal.

However with the current era of sky+ and "various other digital means" I decided to undertake a challenge of watching every minute of play of all 64 games and see if I could last the distance without getting weary of several hours of football every night.

My experience of it was a follows. For the first round of games it was a breeze. I was still on the giddy high of it being a new world cup and of seeing many of these teams, venues and players for the first time. This excitement continued into the second series of games. However by about the middle of the second round of games I was getting very jaded. The sheer number of games (3 per day) taking its toll and the act of coming home work, starting viewing at 6pm and watching continuously til about 11pm was really starting to take it's toll . Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying it, it was just a LOT of football to take in.

By the third round of games it was getting out of control. At this point there was 4 full days of 4 games. I found I could only manage 3 max per day so I made the decision to watch some games out of sequence and delay some of the meaningless games until after the Last 16 (eg I didn't watch Honduras v Swi or Ivory Coast v NorthKorea until after the last 16).

I got a new lease of life by the last 16 games and for the QF's and semi's it was a breeze as not just the players were getting rest days (I finall was too!)

By watching all the games I gained a good knowledge of all 32 teams starting XIs, formations, tactics. I could remember which players had been suspended and was able to spot new players who had been called up and where a manager was changing things around. It really added to my value of watching the games when I knew all the players fairly well and not just the ones I already knew from watching club football.

Incidentally I learnt so much about the various teams that I am convinced that the people who appear on panels (the RTE's ones at least) do not have a breeze as to what they are talking about and more significantly do not watch any of the games except for the ones we see them working on. No more glaring could this be demonstrated then when John Giles repeatedly gave his views on Germany based on nothing more than the Bayern Munich CL games he had seen this season.

So anyway that's my world cup overdose experience. 63 out of 63 so far. I will complete the set tonight Would I reccomend trying it? Probably not, but it was a fun challenge all the same.

Xavi6

I've done I think 54 out of 63, which isn't bad considering the majority of games are in the middle of the night for me.

2.30am kick off followed by a day's work does take its toll though.

mike65

I have seen something of every game as far as I can remember. I've probably watched 50 odd fully.

edit saw nothing of the North Korea v Portugal game.

Morzadec

bonerm wrote: »

Ever since I was a kid I had a secret ambition to watch every single game of a world cup finals. This is my sixth tournament now (1990-2010) and I had to date not achieved this goal.

However with the current era of sky+ and "various other digital means" I decided to undertake a challenge of watching every minute of play of all 64 games and see if I could last the distance without getting weary of several hours of football every night.

My experience of it was a follows. For the first round of games it was a breeze. I was still on the giddy high of it being a new world cup and of seeing many of these teams, venues and players for the first time. This excitement continued into the second series of games. However by about the middle of the second round of games I was getting very jaded. The sheer number of games (3 per day) taking its toll and the act of coming home work, starting viewing at 6pm and watching continuously til about 11pm was really starting to take it's toll . Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying it, it was just a LOT of football to take in.

By the third round of games it was getting out of control. At this point there was 4 full days of 4 games. I found I could only manage 3 max per day so I made the decision to watch some games out of sequence and delay some of the meaningless games until after the Last 16 (eg I didn't watch Honduras v Swi or Ivory Coast v NorthKorea until after the last 16).

I got a new lease of life by the last 16 games and for the QF's and semi's it was a breeze as not just the players were getting rest days (I finall was too!)

By watching all the games I gained a good knowledge of all 32 teams starting XIs, formations, tactics. I could remember which players had been suspended and was able to spot new players who had been called up and where a manager was changing things around. It really added to my value of watching the games when I knew all the players fairly well and not just the ones I already knew from watching club football.

Incidentally I learnt so much about the various teams that I am convinced that the people who appear on panels (the RTE's ones at least) do not have a breeze as to what they are talking about and more significantly do not watch any of the games except for the ones we see them working on. No more glaring could this be demonstrated then when John Giles repeatedly gave his views on Germany based on nothing more than the Bayern Munich CL games he had seen this season.

So anyway that's my world cup overdose experience. 63 out of 63 so far. I will complete the set tonight Would I reccomend trying it? Probably not, but it was a fun challenge all the same.

Fair play interesting read. I don't think I'd be up for it, especially if working. If you were unemployed it wouldn't be such a big challenge!

I think after watching Slovenia vs Algeria I would've given up!
Did you watch all the coverage of the games (punditry etc..) or just the matches themselves?

Some questions for you then seeing as you've seen them all:

- Best game of the tournament?
- Worst game of the tournament?
- Most underrated/overlooked player of the tournament?
- Most overrated player of the tournament?
- Most impressive manager of the tournament?
- Best/Worst Pundit of the tournament?

bonerm

Morzadec wrote: »

Fair play interesting read. I don't think I'd be up for it, especially if working. If you were unemployed it wouldn't be such a big challenge!

I think after watching Slovenia vs Algeria I would've given up!
Did you watch all the coverage of the games (punditry etc..) or just the matches themselves?

Some questions for you then seeing as you've seen them all:

- Best game of the tournament?
- Worst game of the tournament?
- Most underrated/overlooked player of the tournament?
- Most overrated player of the tournament?
- Most impressive manager of the tournament?
- Best/Worst Pundit of the tournament?

Unheralded players. Practically all of the Uruguay midfield. Perez (Uruguay), Arévalo (Uruguay), Cavani (Uruguay). Also Valdez (Paraguay) , Honda (Japan) deserve mention.

Best game - Mexico 0-1 Uruguay (this was meant to be a "meaningless" game but it turned out to be the best of the tournmanet imho . Others of Note : spa v ger , USA v Slovenia , Fra v Mex , USA v Alg , Cameroon v Denmark , Slovakia v Italy , Arg v Mex , Hol v Brazil , Par v Spain

worst games - Paraguay v Japan. Noteable others Slovenia vs Algeria , Nko v Portugal ,

Overrated (Ozil - grand until the quarter finals but practically an observer for 3 games after that)

I generally just watched the matches. I skipped all the incidental stuff like national anthems post match celebrations and only watched bits of the analysis (practically none during the group stages)

Best manager : Obvious answer is Verbeek (Holland) who has set his team up brilliantly and I'm confident also that they are going to win tonight. Gerardo Martino (Paraguay) deserves mention esp for the game against Spain where his team came much much closer to beating Spain than Germany or Portugal did.

Pundits (didn't really see much RTE only) Best : Hamann, worst Dunphy and Whelan. Ardilles was incomprensible but I'm just talking in terms of talking complete BS.

redout

I have done 59 out of 63 and highlights or sometimes a stream for the other 4 when the kick-offs clashed.

I will admit it got awfully dull at times but sure I just pulled the excercise bike in front of the tv to pass the boredom.

By far the most games I have ever watched at a World cup.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

pretty sure I watched them all, except for the games where there were two on at the same time, then I picked one to watch and flicked over to the other channel periodically to see what was happening there.

i dont know why I bothered though, I can't remember a single thing about most of them.

Turtyturd

Had great ambitions to watch every minute of every match before the World Cup started and actually gave it a decent go. I missed New Zealand Vs Slovakia and USA Vs Algeria (because the stream wasn't working) but have seen everything else.

Nemanja91

I've missed 2 games, Spain V Chile and Argentina V Nigeria which were televised, the other games i missed were when there were 4 matches on during the day and that was RTE's fault.

angel01

I would have watched them all if I didn't have to work and miss the 3pm games and second halfs of the 12.30 games

Columbia

Tonight's game will be my 56th of the tournament. I had intended (and had the chance to) watch all 64, but my girlfriend didn't want to watch three games a day back in the group stages. She nearly ended up single because of it.

When we had two on at the same time, I put the main game on RTE and had the second streaming on my laptop from their website, worked pretty well.

HalloweenJack

bonerm wrote: »

Best manager : Obvious answer is Verbeek (Holland) who has set his team up brilliantly and I'm confident also that they are going to win tonight.

Pim Verbeek is the Australia manager. He is Dutch.

Bert van Marwijk is the manager of the Netherlands team. He's also Dutch.

bonerm

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Pim Verbeek is the Australia manager. He is Dutch.

Bert van Marwijk is the manager of the Netherlands team. He's also Dutch.

Woops. Sorry. I guess I wasn't paying that good of an attention. Either that or too early on a Sunday. I of course meant Bert van Marwijk of Holland.

Het-Field

I watched a lot of games. I cant remember exactly how many.

I certainly watched a good hour of at least 50 games. I missed some games I really wanted to see, the first Semi, the 3rd/4th Place Play Off, and Portugal's game against Spain.

When one has other things to do, and NTL Digital, it is difficult to see everything.

It is easy enough to pick up quite a bit on each team, without watching every second. It is also not possible to not get the look of a World of Wafcraft type gamer in terms of physical appearence and lifestyle if you manage to watch 64 games over 4 weeks !

Best Games I saw in no particular order
South Africa 1 Mexico 1 (Opening Game) Always worth a look
Argentina 1 Nigeria 0
England 1 USA 1 (The First game for the Brits is always worth a look)
Spain 0 Switzerland 1 (The Spainsh were shown to be beatable)
Slovakia 3 Italy 2
Australia 2 Serbia 1
Japan 3 Denmark 1 (Two amazing free kicks, and one touch football))
USA 2 Slovenia 2 (Altidore was denied a deserved 3rd goal)
South Africa 2 France 1 (Karma is a bitch !)
Brazil 3 Ivory Coast 1 (The best performance by the boys from Brazil)
Uruguay 1 Ghana 1 (Best Game of the tournament for me)
Germany 4 Argentina 0 (Dispatching Messi with ease)
Uruguay 2 South Korea 1


Worst Games
Japan 0 Paraguay 0 (Snore Fest)
England 0 Algeria 0 (Snore Fest)
Spain 1 Germany 0 (For the Quality of team it was poor)
Switzerland 0 Honduras 0 (Switched over after Spain scored, very poor fare)
England 1 Slovenia 0 (BBC Fawning over a substandard performace)
Argentina 3 Mexico 1 (No Contest)
Germany 4 England 1 (No Contest)
Ivory Coast 0 Portugal 0
Algeria 0 Slovenia 1

I dont really get what the big deal is? i would have presumed LOADS of people have watched all the games, myself included...

If you really want a challenge try watch every premier league game in a season. Did it last year. I have one conclusion. The premier league is ****.

Yakult

I missed the portugal v N.Korea and the few games that werent shown on RTE as they were showing the bigger teams play (end of group matches)

Other than them, everyother game I watched in it entirety. Kinda miss the matches every day

MagicMarker

No.

Probably won't even watch the final tbh.

Mr.Nice Guy

mike65 wrote:

saw nothing of the North Korea v Portugal game.

R_H_C_P wrote: »

I missed the portugal v N.Korea and the few games that werent shown on RTE as they were showing the bigger teams play (end of group matches)

I also missed Portugal vs N. Korea. Why was that one so missable? Early Monday match or something? :pac:

Saw everything else as far as I can recall.

Jimmy Iovine

I've watched a bit every match and I'd say I've watched the full match in over 40. Decided to watch How I Met Your Mother from start to finish (over 100 episodes) as well which meant that the following day I was falling asleep for the majority of a match.

Will someday manage, hopefully, to watch all the games. It's on my to do list

lordgoat

[quote=[Deleted User];66858994]

If you really want a challenge try watch every premier league game in a season. Did it last year. I have one conclusion. The premier league is ****.[/QUOTE]


Is that even possible? It's about 14 hours of football each weekend right? Wow that is impressive.

101001

[quote=[Deleted User];66858994]If you really want a challenge try watch every premier league game in a season. Did it last year. I have one conclusion. The premier league is ****.[/QUOTE]

How. In. Gods. Name. Did you manage that... watched every game apart from the semi's... Once the prospect of Maradona running naked down the streets of buenos aires had gone I lost interest

redout

redout wrote: »

I have done 59 out of 63 and highlights or sometimes a stream for the other 4 when the kick-offs clashed.

I will admit it got awfully dull at times but sure I just pulled the excercise bike in front of the tv to pass the boredom.

By far the most games I have ever watched at a World cup.

You have an excercise bike?

Helix

didnt watch a single full 90 minutes of world cup football, and havent in about 20 years

steelcityblues

How are you going to pull this off for Brazil 2014?

kakee

Due to working i could only watch the evening games. The bloody humming of the vuvuzelas actually put me to sleep but tonight I am going to watch all the final.

Reganio 2

Het-Field wrote: »

Best Games I saw in no particular order
South Africa 1 Mexico 1 (Opening Game) Always worth a look
Argentina 1 Nigeria 0
England 1 USA 1 (The First game for the Brits is always worth a look)
Spain 0 Switzerland 1 (The Spainsh were shown to be beatable)
Slovakia 3 Italy 2
Australia 2 Serbia 1
Japan 3 Denmark 1 (Two amazing free kicks, and one touch football))
USA 2 Slovenia 2 (Altidore was denied a deserved 3rd goal)
South Africa 2 France 1 (Karma is a bitch !)
Brazil 3 Ivory Coast 1 (The best performance by the boys from Brazil)
Uruguay 1 Ghana 1 (Best Game of the tournament for me)
Germany 4 Argentina 0 (Dispatching Messi with ease)
Uruguay 2 South Korea 1

I don't think you did see most of the matches if you didn't include Cameroon vs Denmark, that was the best match of the tournament.

EDIT: Also why do people consider it a badge of honour they haven't watched a World Cup game. Even saying I haven't watched it in 20 years or whatever. Why are you in the soccer forum then if you don't want to watch football.

Hoki

I watched an awful lot of games but id require a lot of money to sit through the likes of Switzerland & Honduras / Greece & Nigeria ( which in fairness turned out to be decent )

SarahBM

I watched all the games in full except the cameroon netherlands game (saw the highlights) and I missed most of the 1st game of the tournament. the algeria one, which my dad told me was rubbish, and not to bother.

I think I have seen all of the rest.

KrazeeEyezKilla

I only saw about 35 matches because of the timing. I ended up missing the likes of USA-Slovenia and Slovakia-Italy. Hopfully the time zone in Brazil will mean the matches will be easier to watch.

FlawedGenius

[quote=[Deleted User];66858994]I dont really get what the big deal is? i would have presumed LOADS of people have watched all the games, myself included...

If you really want a challenge try watch every premier league game in a season. Did it last year. I have one conclusion. The premier league is ****.[/QUOTE]
You watched the full 90 mins of every game??????:eek:or does that include highlights?:rolleyes:

Cypher_sounds

Watched every game EXCEPT the final because of that oxygen festival thingy which im just back from:o

eagle eye

I watched 56 of 64. I missed one game in each group in the very last round of the playoffs when they were playing both at the same time.

Degag

lordgoat wrote: »

Is that even possible? It's about 14 hours of football each weekend right? Wow that is impressive.

Iwould doubt it. 15 hours a weekend..... and the weeks they play twice???

jesus_thats_gre

I watched all but 3 full games that I could live. Watched about half of two of the three I missed - all first round matches.

PiE

All but the France - Mexico game, as was playing footie myself.

Working from home has it's benefits.

That_Guy

I'd say I watched about 45-49 games. Some games I couldn't watch due to simultaneous kick offs.

That_Guy

Cypher_sounds wrote: »

Watched every game EXCEPT the final because of that oxygen festival thingy which im just back from:o

Probably better off to be honest. Was pretty dreadful stuff. 3rd place playoff was brilliant viewing.

gary the great

One of you lads may be be able to help settle a few bets for me!

Can anyone tell me the follwoing answers:
Top goalscorer after the group stages
Fastest conceded goal
Fastest goal scored
Team with most red cards after the group stages
Team with most yellow cards after the group stages


Cheers!