First of all, my blog reached the 400,000 hits point today. At the current rate of over 2,000 daily hits, my blog should reach the half-million hits mark by late July.
Thank you to everyone who visits my blog.
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Do you like サッカー (soccer)?
Personally, I don’t care for it much…but I know the “World Cup” is like the “Olympics of Soccer”.
The World Cup is an international championship soccer competition and it’s very popular around the whole world (except America 😉 ).
The 2010 World Cup is scheduled to begin on 2010 June 11. But currently there are some kind of “pre-World Cup” international soccer matches going on.
Tonight the Japan soccer team (nicknamed: “Samurai Blue“) is scheduled to play a game against the Korean soccer team in Saitama, Japan.
Ad for Japan's "Samurai Blue" team's soccer match against Korea this evening.
Here’s an Adidas Japan TV commercial for the Samurai Blue / World Cup:
ガンバレ日本！ (Good luck Japan!)
Tokyo Five 
Japan lost this soccer match against Korea today, 0-2.
This match was called the 「キリンチャレンジカップ」 (“Kirin Challenge Cup“), sponsored by Japan’s Kirin Beer, by the way.
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Can’t bloody stand football (“soccer”). Sadly I live in a country where it’s a national obsession, so the shops are filled with t-shirts, flags, DVDs, and all sorts of other rubbish which’ll go in the bin the moment England lose.
What a waste of time and money >.<
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I think it’s fine for sports fans to collect memorabilia and support their favorite team…I just don’t see why anyone would enjoy watching soccer (or tennis, golf, baseball…), personally.
I like to watch American football, the Olympics and professional boxing, though.
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This is England. They support their team by getting drunk, vomiting all over each other, then punching innocent bystanders in the face.
Occasionally they really go to town with their support and demonstrate it by breaking a bottle over an enemy supporter’s head.
Sometimes I’m not so proud of my Englishness 😉
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>They support their team by getting drunk, vomiting all over each other, then punching innocent bystanders in the face….breaking a bottle over an enemy supporter’s head.
I’ve heard about “Soccer Hooligans” and “Soccer riots” in Europe and South America.
I can’t understand what the appeal of soccer is…especially enough to inspire that type of behavior!
Soccer is popular in Japan…but thankfully there is virtually no violence in Japan at all (one of the many reasons I love living here!)
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And one of the many reasons I love visiting there 😀
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Well, it’s a very big thing in Germany, comparable with super bowl in the USA. When the World cup was held in Germany 4 years ago everyone got crazy, after Germany finished as second even more because nobody expected them to be this good at that time.
People had high hopes again for this year, but sadly the German captain (and maybe the best German player) Michael Ballack was injured when he played in the FA-cup final with his club Chelsea against Portsmouth and won’t be able to play in the World Cup. When this was announced it was all over the tv for 2 or 3 days here, just like the world was going to end 😉 But Germany still has a very good team and they won’t be easy to beat… That’s just my opinion 😉
I used to be a lot more into soccer when I was an active player myself, but now I am not that interested anymore. But every two years when either the European Championship or the World Cup comes around almost everybody watches soccer, even those who usually don’t care about it.
I only know like 1 or 2 player from both Japan and South Korea so I can’t say much about the match 😉
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I know soccer is popular in most (if not all) of Europe, Brazil, Japan and many other countries…but, personally, I can’t understand the appeal.
Many games end in a tie score (often with no points scored at all). Who was the winner?
And there’s no tackling like in American football and rugby.
And what’s up with “soccer hooligans” and fan rioting?
That part of soccer culture doesn’t exist in Japan, I’m happy to say.
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I hope Japan does well. But I am really looking forward to the U.S.-England game on June 12. Go U.S.
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June 12 is after the World Cup begins so that must be part of the World Cup competition.
Today’s Japan v. Korea game is a pre-World Cup game.
Anyways, do you like soccer? Will you watch the World Cup?
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