Greatest Sporting Event in the World?

[Phantom Lord]

FIFA world cup of course.

The Olympics certainly are an important event, but the world cup is of deepest personal importance for billions of people. It influences the self-esteem of whole nations (the Netherlands for example ).

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by Phantom Lord
FIFA world cup of course.

The Olympics certainly are an important event, but the world cup is of deepest personal importance for billions of people. It influences the self-esteem of whole nations (the Netherlands for example ).

Oh yeah, it does...
Still too bad there wasn't a Worldcup in 2002.....

 

[Phantom Lord]

Originally posted by Dell19
The Rugby world cup

Ahh, the first english national team sport success since 1966, wasn't it?

 

[Dell19]

Originally posted by Phantom Lord
Ahh, the first english national team sport success since 1966, wasn't it?

Its going to have to last us a while then isn't it?


As a side note though, there isn't really that many team world cups, and like the rugby world cup they haven't all been going for that long. There has only been 5 Rugby World Cups. Also Football is very competitive because practically the whole world plays it

 

[MCdread]

Originally posted by Dell19

As a side note though, there isn't really that many team world cups, and like the rugby world cup they haven't all been going for that long.

What do you mean? There are team world cups for almost all team sports, and many have had more editions than the Football World Cup.

 

[Håkon]

Ice hockey and handball for example. Both have been going on yearly since the 50s at least.

 

[Phantom Lord]

Basketball, field hockey, waterball, american football, baseball , ...

 

[prettyvacant]

snooker, darts, water polo, polo, lacrosse, netball, synchronised swimming, and many more

however, this just goes to show that it was not the first english national team sport success since 1966 - we just celebrate some sports more than others.

Dells point that "there isn't really that many team world cups, " is true in so far as there are only a few that really count to the majority of sports fans, in England.

 

[Dell19]

Originally posted by prettyvacant
Dells point that "there isn't really that many team world cups, " is true in so far as there are only a few that really count to the majority of sports fans, in England.

Yep... And when did Snooker become a team sport?

The ones Phantom Lord and Håkon posted, whilst valid aren't exactly followed heavily and taken seriously by enough people for us to have a chance of winning it. Whilst with things like Football, Cricket and Rugby, England are expected to have won more often because we like to take the credit for inventing them.

 

[prettyvacant]

Originally posted by Dell19
Yep... And when did Snooker become a team sport?

no idea of the date. this is just one example of what are basically individual sports also being played as a team sport; further eg the ryder cup

 

[Håkon]

Originally posted by Dell19


Yep... And when did Snooker become a team sport?

The ones Phantom Lord and Håkon posted, whilst valid aren't exactly followed heavily and taken seriously by enough people for us to have a chance of winning it. Whilst with things like Football, Cricket and Rugby, England are expected to have won more often because we like to take the credit for inventing them.

Can see your point. Maybe your sentence should be rephrased to "There aren't that many team world cups that England have an outside chance of winning"?

I believe Great Britain's ice hockey team was in the world cup twice in the '90s - they're roughly on a par with the Norwegian. Handball is non-existent in England AFAIK. But worldwide, based on the number of countries that are competitive in the sports, I'd say that handball and ice hockey are bigger than both rugby and cricket, and so is basketball and possibly water polo.

 

[Dell19]

Originally posted by Håkon
But worldwide, based on the number of countries that are competitive in the sports, I'd say that handball and ice hockey are bigger than both rugby and cricket, and so is basketball and possibly water polo.

Thats another arguement although Rugby is actually played by alot more countries than I expected but then they aren't exactly good at it... A bit like England at Ice Hockey

 

[Håkon]

Originally posted by Dell19


Thats another arguement although Rugby is actually played by alot more countries than I expected but then they aren't exactly good at it... A bit like England at Ice Hockey

Hence the word competitive

 

[Panda]

The FIFA World Cup

 

[Andrewz]

Originally posted by Panda
The FIFA World Cup

Jari Litmanen rules !!!

 

[Rhye]

Originally posted by Brewster
If the FIFA World Cup shuts down many of the participating countries, you should see what the Olympic mens hockey finals did to Canada. As I was driving to a friends house to watch the game when Canada scored the tying goal. Every car must have had their radios tuned into the game because the entire intersection started honking their horns and celebrating at the same time. After the game was over and we were awarded the gold, the streets of Victoria filled with people and traffic ground to a halt. It was beautiful.

We're talking about the world, not only Canada....
I noticed Canadians voted NHL, and no doubt it is an important event there, but it would be the same if I said "the greatest event is Serie C1 and C2 playoffs because in every italian city everybody goes crazy every year".
If we're speaking about the world, we're speaking about 1) the olympics; 2)the greatest sport's world final.

BTW, my vote goes for WC. A gold or a silver medal for an italian don't matter anything. Winning a WC would mean 4 years of celebrations. Our loss to France in Euro 2000 final caused me an anger lasted two years.

 

[Dell19]

Then losing to South Korea added another 2 years?

 

[Rhye]

Yes that was even worse because i knew it was FIFA's cospiracy

 

[EmpireofVirtue]

When you Europeons will understand the World Cup was not an accident ? It proved the End of European domination in that sport. Now you must count on South Korea, Japan, the United States of America or Turkey. It's funny because Europeons always want soccer to be played everywhere and once it's the case, they whine because they worth nothing in it anymore.

At next World Cup, the United States will win. I know people will laugh at me just as they already laughed at me when I was saying the same in 2002. Actually, The United States did better than the UK, France or Argentina last time... so why would I be wrong for next time ?

 

[Mega Tsunami]

Originally posted by EmpireofVirtue
When you Europeons will understand the World Cup was not an accident ? It proved the End of European domination in that sport. Now you must count on South Korea, Japan, the United States of America or Turkey. It's funny because Europeons always want soccer to be played everywhere and once it's the case, they whine because they worth nothing in it anymore.

At next World Cup, the United States will win. I know people will laugh at me just as they already laughed at me when I was saying the same in 2002. Actually, The United States did better than the UK, France or Argentina last time... so why would I be wrong for next time ?

By the UK, I presume you mean England – we were knocked out (by the eventual winners Brazil) at the same stage as the USA – the quarter finals. Oh and a European team did at least make it to the final.
Interestingly, Turkey have not even made it to the 2004 European Championship finals, knocked out by a combination of England and Latvia (who they?).

Don’t get me wrong, the USA did very well and long may that advancement continue. I suspect you will need to wait a few more World Cups before you actually win it. Remember, the next WC is in Germany.