E: World Cup tranquility

32 teams from six continents are currently undertaking the world most famous sports tournament. In a month, 64 matches will finish before announcing the next world champion in soccer. My support goes to the Aussies and secondly the Swedes, although chances are microscopic that they will make it among the final four.

Even though soccer is the sport I have played the longest, I am amazingly calm about the cup. Explanations can be that I prefer to attend rather than watch sports, that Norway did not make it, or that there is a lot do and think about as I will be leaving soon. Qualified Australia has soccer fever, and many a person misses out on sleep as the games run in the middle of the night due to the time zone differences. My soccer team’s head coach for instance, watches all the games. So far I only watched the last 15 minutes of England – Paraguay, but will see Australia’s opening match against Japan tomorrow night.

In spite this feeble interest, I have found a few interesting feature with this year’s tournament. The first is the new ball. The Teamgeist (Team Spirit) design is said to be the roundest ball eve, with high accuracy in any weather and condition. Perfected shape and a reduction in patches can actually might make a significant difference. If nothing else, it looks pretty cool.

Another attribution to the World Cup is the Virtual Replay function available through Macromedia Shockwave. News sites like BBC and Dagbladet (Norwegian) provides highlights and goals from the matches in animated graphics. The reconstruction of the reality is highly accurate and can be viewed with different speeds from different angels, including from the ball itself. At first it seemed like a dull way of compensating for commercialized rights to broadcast match footage. Especially as the technology and footage availability have never been better. It also gives associations to the court room/crime drawings instead of pictures. But after using it for a bit, it can enhance the reviewing/analyzing experience – if you have the interest and have already watched the game.