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Bet on the Octopus

Rob Wood — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:25:41 +0000

Paul the ‘Psychic’ Octopus, also known as the ‘Oracle of Oberhausen’ and ‘Pulpo Paul’, is a resident of the Oberhausen Sea Life aquarium. He became a celebrity after a 100% success rate at predicting the winners of eight World Cup matches – all of Germany’s games and the final between Spain and The Netherlands. I want to go out on a (octopus) limb, and say that it was all due to chance. I know it may sound far-fetched and very unlikely, but maybe he was just lucky and was able to select the winning teams through chance. No psychic abilities, no hand of God, and no conspiracies – just luck. A lot of luck.

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The World Cup Sends Me To Sleep

Rob Wood — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:51:24 +0000

With the World’s greatest sporting event currently well on the way in South Africa, it may be surprising that this is my first post about it. It would not be surprising if you knew that I support Australia, and up until today they have not done anything to write home about. After getting up at 2am this morning to watch them play Serbia, I am much happier and very impressed with their performance. Although they won today, they just missed out on progressing to the knockout round. They did us proud, playing great football and giving everything for their country. Missing out of the final 16 is no great disappointment, the Aussies have played above expectations. I cannot say the same about the French team, and cannot imagine the public out cry at their team’s performance. There is always drama at the World Cup, and that is why we are captivated. A few more sleepless nights to come!

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Zidane, a 21st-Century Portrait

Rob Wood — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:48:46 +0000

Last night I went with a couple of friends who are big soccer fans, to watch a very interesting movie about a match between Real Madrid and Villareal in the Spanish league. It wasn’t the usual match footage, the whole movie was following the French international football player Zinedine Zidane, often up very close and pixilated. It is a mix between a documentary and a sporting match. The game was played on April 23, 2005, with 17 cameras tracking just Zidane in real time. There is no commentary, just the noise of him spitting, shouting to his teammates and muttering the occasional complaint to the referee. In the end it is not a football game you are watching, but a voyeuristic view of a public figure. It is not his best game, but maybe his best view. You see a hardworking player, searching for opportunity. The final score was Real Madrid 2, Villareal 1. But who cares?

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A-League Grand Final

Rob Wood — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:22:58 +0000

Last night I was privileged to be at the Docklands Telstra Dome to witness the A-League Grand Final, held in front of 55,000 people – the biggest crowd to ever watch a domestic football match. And even better, my team the Melbourne Victory humiliated Adelaide, largely thanks to a remarkable goal scoring effort by Archie Thompson. Such a crowd at a soccer match is rarely seen in Australia. If they can continue to have games and spectacles like that, then the crowds will continue to come. The crowd seemed pretty tame to me, though I later read that ten flares were let off in the stadium and 41 people evicted. Maybe that is pretty tame relative to what goes on in English football stadiums.

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Miss plane, Miss game

Rob Wood — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:02:09 +0000

Leading up to the Australian Soccer Team’s game against Paraguay this weekend, the captain of the squad Craig Moore was controversially dropped from the team. He did not turn up for a training session as he slept in and missed his plane. In a time of ‘bad boys’ football players, my first thought was that he was out all night partying and drinking. It was not the case; he was probably affected by jetlag more than anything. However, he still needs to be more responsible and get himself to the national squad training session no matter what. It may seem harsh to be dropped for a game for missing one training session, but a standard has to be set, and the rules upheld. It is a hard decision to leave out one of our best players, but right nevertheless. No matter how good the player is, or how good their record has been in the past, I think it was the right thing to do and send the message to the other players and the supporters that this team means business, and everyone has to pull their weight.

Related Pages: Soccer, Craig Moore profile

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