So the previous video I posted made me all sappy and even a little - ew - uplifted. But this new World Cup ad from Nike is a very different experience:
AW YEAH! Seriously, I've watched this four times in the past half hour and it just KEEPS GETTING MORE AWESOME. I'm literally bouncing in my chair in my cubicle (having this chair makes that a bit easier). What I really love about it is not just that it shows the incredible waves of excitement and fervor surrounding the game and the Cup around the world, but also all the tongue-in-cheek bits and the sort of "inside baseball" ("inside soccer"?) scenes - the ridiculous rise and fall of opinion in the British press and public, the uber-glamorous-fantasy Ronaldo montage, the YouTube videos of people trying to imitate Ronaldinho when no one can really imitate Ronaldinho, etc. (Have to say it makes me a bit sad to see him in the video, since Dunga decided on his roster after four days of peyote-driven sleep deprivation or something. Obviously this was all put together long before the rosters were named, and I doubt Nike thought he'd get left behind.)
Every day I think I can't get more excited for the World Cup. Then something comes along to increase my anticipation by a mile, and it's now approaching slight insanity. By the time June 10th rolls around, I may be speaking in tongues.
(H/T to Dirty Tackle)
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This reminded me of some of my past viewings of the World Cup—For a long time, the only networks to broadcast the World Cup in the US were the Spanish speaking networks, so I watched the games on Univision/SIN. The first World Cup I watched was in 1978; I thought the reception was poor since it looked snowy (I later learned that may have been the confetti in Buenos Aires: http://www.theglobalgame.com/images/Derek_Eland.jpg ) but it was the only way to watch.
In 1994, I watched the Finals from a category I seat, about 30 years from Al Gore. Pasadena was absurdly hot, and we were required to be in our seats four hours before kickoff. While the game itself was perhaps the least memorable, dancing the samba with some Brazilians afterwards was not.
This reminded me of some of my past viewings of the World Cup—For a long time, the only networks to broadcast the World Cup in the US were the Spanish speaking networks, so I watched the games on Univision/SIN. The first World Cup I watched was in 1978; I thought the reception was poor since it looked snowy (I later learned that may have been the confetti in Buenos Aires: http://www.theglobalgame.com/images/Derek_Eland.jpg ) but it was the only way to watch.
In 1994, I watched the Finals from a category I seat, about 30 years from Al Gore. Pasadena was absurdly hot, and we were required to be in our seats four hours before kickoff. While the game itself was perhaps the least memorable, dancing the samba with some Brazilians afterwards was not.
For the last World Cup, I had to travel on business over the last two weeks. This meant that I was stuck watching the finals on a 13-inch black and white television… Oh, that television was at a beach-side kiosk at Ipanema. (I guess I could have gone back in the fancy hotel, with the huge, high definition television and the air conditioning, but what’s the fun in that?) The broadcast was in Portuguese, but this is the universal game, and all the Brazilians there were amused to find an American who was (almost) as enthusiastic as they were. All along the Ave. Viera Suoto there are these kiosks, and each one had about 50 people watching the televisions the vendors brought. This is the kiosk where I watched: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode;=&q=Ipanema,+Rio+de+Janeiro,+Brazil&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.089971,135.087891&ie=UTF8&hq;=&hnear=Ipanema,+Rio+de+Janeiro,+Brazil≪=-22.98659,-43.207203&spn=0.00183,0.004123&t=h&z=19
I suspect I’ll be at home for this one…