FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 - Official Discussion Thread

[Keystone Phil]

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You can switch teams?  Something's wrong with that.

I say every country should have 1 team, and if you're a dependency like French Polynesia, you play on and root for France.

You can switch youth teams (like you can play for the France under-21s and then the Tahiti Senior team) but you can't switch between the actual teams.

Harry will still throw an ultra-nationalistic fit over that though I must admit, I don't like flirty with Nation A's youth team then jumping ship to Nation B's youth or senior team. Pick one.

[Lief 🗽]

Most of the time when that happens, they play for a better country's youth team and then when it's clear that they won't get in that country's senior team they pick their second country, which is understandable. You see it a lot with the German youth teams, where a lot of players then go on to play for Turkey or America or Iran or whatever. Lots of African immigrants in France too who grow up in France, play with their youth teams, but aren't good enough for the French team so they play for Senegal or something.

[Keystone Phil]

Neymar gets this started beautifully and Japan was a good chance three minutes later. This should be good.

[Keystone Phil]

Brazil up 2-0 with a little over ten minutes to go.

In other news, Italy beat The Netherlands in their U-21 Semi. Their opponent in the Final? The Spanish. 

[7,052,770]

Why are Italy's uniforms blue?  Wouldn't that be like the USA wearing green or purple or something?

I would think a national team would wear it's country's national colors.  Or is there some kind of awesome reason behind the blue?

[tpfkaw]

Why are Italy's uniforms blue?  Wouldn't that be like the USA wearing green or purple or something?

I would think a national team would wear it's country's national colors.  Or is there some kind of awesome reason behind the blue?

Blue is the color of the House of Savoy.

[Keystone Phil]

Why are Italy's uniforms blue?  Wouldn't that be like the USA wearing green or purple or something?

I would think a national team would wear it's country's national colors.  Or is there some kind of awesome reason behind the blue?

You're painfully ignorant.

I thank wormy for taking the time to answer. And, for the record, blue is the national color of Italy (in at least an unofficial way for the reason wormy gave).

[7,052,770]

You're painfully ignorant.

I'm painfully ignorant because I didn't know that the House of Savoy's (which I've only barely even heard of anyway) official color is blue?  Or because I didn't realize that Italy's soccer team would chose its uniform color based on that, rather than the color of its flag?

[minionofmidas]

Footballing colors, in real countries, are quite as long-established as national flags, and changing them arouses deep passions. This includes club colors.
Germany still play in the White and Black of the Prussian flag. And though they flirted with other colors (red, dark gray) their secondary color has traditionally been and is now once again green - based on the emblem of the German footballing association, which always has been green for reasons nobody now remembers. *shrugs*

The green-white-red tricolor of Italy was originally the flag of the Napoleonic era Cisalpine Republic and based on the uniform of the Milanese city guard (and the design of the French tricolor, no doubt). It was recycled, as a flag of a future revolutionary Habsburg-free Italy during the revolution of 1848, and adorned with the previous flag of Piemont-Sardinia and a blue border for its ruling house became the flag of PS in 1851 (a very clear declaration of intent that!)



This remained the flag after Piemont-Sardinia conquered virtually all of Italy and renamed itself in 1859-61. The shield in the middle was only removed in 1946, and by then, of course, footballing colors were long established - Italy have played in blue since 1911 (except in their 1938 world cup win, incidentally, when they played in Fascist all black.)

[minionofmidas]

Most of the time when that happens, they play for a better country's youth team and then when it's clear that they won't get in that country's senior team they pick their second country, which is understandable. You see it a lot with the German youth teams, where a lot of players then go on to play for Turkey or America or Iran or whatever. Lots of African immigrants in France too who grow up in France, play with their youth teams, but aren't good enough for the French team so they play for Senegal or something.

Initially, anybody could play for whatever country's citizenship he held. After a wave of players switching countries for money in the late 50s and early 60s (especially South Americans playing for Italy or Spain), switching teams was banned completely for forty years. This caused an ugly rush for young talent in the 90s, as you can imagine, with for instance Turkish and German national team representatives talking to 13 and 14 year old German-born ethnic-Turkish kids irrespective of current citizenship status to convince them to PLAY once FOR US and thus become ineligible to the other side for ever.
Hence why the rules were relaxed in 2004. Switching is now possible, but only once during your career and only on certain conditions (which have since been finetuned a couple of times).

[Keystone Phil]

You're painfully ignorant.

I'm painfully ignorant because I didn't know that the House of Savoy's (which I've only barely even heard of anyway) official color is blue?  Or because I didn't realize that Italy's soccer team would chose its uniform color based on that, rather than the color of its flag?

You're painfully ignorant because your questions prove you assumed the Italian team essentially just picked a color out of a hat. Assumed it had no meaning ("like the U.S. picking purple"). You said you figured the team would pick their national colors which means you assumed blue most certainly couldn't be the national color.

[minionofmidas]

You're painfully ignorant.

I'm painfully ignorant because I didn't know that the House of Savoy's (which I've only barely even heard of anyway) official color is blue?  Or because I didn't realize that Italy's soccer team would chose its uniform color based on that, rather than the color of its flag?

You're painfully ignorant because your questions prove you assumed the Italian team essentially just picked a color out of a hat. Assumed it had no meaning ("like the U.S. picking purple"). You said you figured the team would pick their national colors which means you assumed blue most certainly couldn't be the national color.

No. The notion that there might conceivably be some reason for it that he could not fathom - and thus that they didn't just pick it out of a hat even though that's how it must seem to anyone unaware of the history behind - was implicit in the question.

However, he most certainly is painfully ignorant for having "barely even heard" of the House of Savoy.

[Keystone Phil]

Harry asked if there was  "some kind of awesome reason" for the color choice. That means he thought the answer might be no, in which case he found it entirely possible that it was picked randomly. I find that to be incredibly ignorant. Whatever the case, Harry is amping up the trolling. He does this whenever an international tournament comes around.

[Keystone Phil]

My calls for today's games...

Italy -  1
Mexico -  0

Spain -  2
Uruguay - 0

[minionofmidas]

Harry asked if there was  "some kind of awesome reason" for the color choice. That means he thought the answer might be no, in which case he found it entirely possible that it was picked randomly.

You would, if you could not conceive what the reason might possibly be.

Eh. He's an American Football fan. We should not hold such sad individuals to a high standard.

[Keystone Phil]

I, too, am an American Football fan, Lewis. 

[minionofmidas]

I, too, am an American Football fan, Lewis. 

Hence why I'm expecting so little of you.

(but I hope you meant an American football fan.)

[Keystone Phil]

I, too, am an American Football fan, Lewis. 

Hence why I'm expecting so little of you.

(but I hope you meant an American football fan.)

I am both: an American that is a fan of Football and an American that is a fan of American Football (my second favorite sport. For a period of time, it was my favorite sport).

[7,052,770]

Harry asked if there was  "some kind of awesome reason" for the color choice. That means he thought the answer might be no, in which case he found it entirely possible that it was picked randomly. I find that to be incredibly ignorant. Whatever the case, Harry is amping up the trolling. He does this whenever an international tournament comes around.

It's trolling to ask about a team's uniform colors?  I was legitimately curious...

Why are you so sensitive about these things?

[Keystone Phil]

Harry asked if there was  "some kind of awesome reason" for the color choice. That means he thought the answer might be no, in which case he found it entirely possible that it was picked randomly. I find that to be incredibly ignorant. Whatever the case, Harry is amping up the trolling. He does this whenever an international tournament comes around.

It's trolling to ask about a team's uniform colors?  I was legitimately curious...

Why are you so sensitive about these things?

Oh, I'm not sensitive about it at all. If you think I consider this serious compared to what others say about my interest, you're sadly mistaken. I just call out trolling and ignorance when I see it.

But it is funny to see someone who flies off the handle about dual citizenship saying others are "sensitive about this stuff." Just do the five of us that actually follow this tournament a favor: don't come here with questions about a team's uniform or your "I LOVE ME SOME AMURICA" rhetoric if you aren't actually going to comment on the tournament. Thanks.

[Keystone Phil]

2-1 thanks to Super Mario in the 78th minute. Total domination. Mexico's lone goal (so far...) was a penalty kick after a stupid penalty.

[Keystone Phil]

And that's it. All three points.

[Lief 🗽]

Spain-Uruguay in half an hour or so should be good.

[Keystone Phil]

Spain ahead after a poor clearance by Cavani, Pedro shot and a huge deflection by Uruguay.

[Lief 🗽]

Uruguay is just painfully awful.