I really am quite bad at this. I figured that the World Cup would start Friday night because I don’t understand how time works. FIFA went and opened the largest sporting event of the year on a Thursday, clearly undeterred by the possibility of low attendance.
Still arriving at work to see the game stream live on TVNZ (despite pretty crap quality) was a blessing. The fact that the game was fun to watch was also fantastic. The Croatian keeper was making some great saves, right up until the point where he decided to stop doing that.
The new spray paint from the referee was kind of cool, and I personally cannot wait until one of them accidentally draws a penis. Speaking of the ref, I missed the penalty, but some grumpy folks on twitter called bullshit, and that FIFA had “talked” to the ref.
And then the Croatian coach threw his toys about a game that they were going to lose in any case.
Croatia manager Niko Kovac on the match: 'We better give it up now and go home. We talk about respect, Croatia didn't get any."
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 12, 2014
Frankly I’m just glad the stadium was finished.
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I was planning to talk about all the wonderful adverts you get before the World Cup.
Like this my favourite one from Nike:
And Beats by Dre try to capture the essence of the pre-game ritual:
Adidas on the other hand seem to think that this is entertaining:
Or that adding a bit of Kanye West will make it edgy:
McDonalds at least seems to understand that when the World Cup is in Brazil that we want to see some flair:
I’m mainly surprised no one didn’t just flat out recreate these ads from the 90s
Oh those were the days, when football teams could run unfettered through minimal airport security.