This is legend.
This is what we’ve expected all IJBC long.
This is what we came for.
THIS IS WORLD CUP !!!
Background : At every IJBC, the most important and intense session is not a presentation, nor a sim game, nor even Marcos striptease. It is a soccer game. Usually played by Europe vs Rest Of The World (that’s what happened also this year), it’s the craziest 1h sport time you’ve ever seen. Just imagine 100 people runnning after a goddamn ball trying to score even if they don’t know where to score at (right Monika ? ;-D ).
After a 20 mins walk we arrived to a very beautiful football field. We formed both teams, Europe and ROTW, and let the match begin !
What happened then ? Well, it’s actually blur to all of us…People were running…Girls were cheering…Julien scored…and scored again..and Marcin scored the third goal…And suddenly it was over.
We had actually a live reporter on the field, here is his report :
Liveblogging the World Cup
Greetings world from a soccer pitch somewhere in Florence. Don’t ask me where it is…the Italian staff made sure that we were nice and lost on the trip here. It’s near a church…that’s about all I can tell you.
Blogging today are Martin, NJR from the USA, who is currently on injured reserve after a nasty incident involving slippery wet stone and a bad knee as well as a few special guests. At the beginning of the game, Martin is joined by Clementine from France.
The game is about to begin and both sides are exchanging taunts at midfield.
Europe won the coin toss and starts with the ball.
Three European girls immediately get to work distracting the World’s goalie Silas. He brushes them off and pays attention to the game in front of him.
Clemzi from France falls down dramatically.
Europe shoots on goal and it goes wide resulting in a free kick for the World.
Julien from France kicks the ball out of bounds.
Juanma from Colombia clears a European attack
Julien from France scores the first goal. He then proceeds to prance around the field.
The score is now Europe 1 Rest of the World 0.
The ball stays in midfield…It’s a battle of wits as 70 JBers clump together in a battle to see who can touch the ball so they can claim they helped their team during the game.
The clump clears the ball into the Rest of the World’s side…Silas the goalie clears the ball out of bounds. The ball is cleared into the Euro zone after the throw.
Clement from France makes a great pass to the girls watching the game from the sideline out of bounds.
The European girls continue to try and distract Silas in the goal. Chris from Australia joins the group to provide moral support to Silas.
The Rest of the World shoots on goal. Olivier the Frenchman saves it at the last minute.
Julien from France tries another shot. It goes way wide and almost leaves the pitch.
First water break—Marcos the IJR proclaims “I NEED A BEER!”
The IJBC World Cup liveblog is joined by Frank from Belgium. He’ll be providing his pearls of wisdom alongside Martin and Clem.
Some EJB females use soccer cones to dance and cheer in a cheerleading-esque manner.
Jose from Guatemala walks around on the sidelines.
IJR Kelly walks along the sidelines proclaiming that we should solve this whole World Cup business using consensus instead of soccer.
With the help of some fancy footwork and what’s sure to be looked at as cheating, Europe scores again. Never mind the fact that they tripped the goalie and three defenders in the process…
Score now Europe 2, ROW 0
ROW changes goalies. George from Kenya is now in goal.
Blogger Clem goes wild to the sound of Seven Nation Army.
George saves a shot. Wooo!
Adrienne from the USA takes out Clement from France, in what is sure to be a blow to his manhood.
End of the first half…score: Europe 2, ROW 0. Marcos asks “WHERE IS THE BEER?”
With me during the half is Hani from Lebanon. He complains about the fact that his country is always a part of the Rest of the World. He also expresses a need for beer, as it is what powers many of the players on the ROW team.
Half time is over…the Europeans have finished their cigarettes and are now huddling in the middle of the field. Martin opens up his second Coke Light. The ROW starts chanting “GAME TIME” in their huddle. Alex from Canada walks by the press booth.
As the game begins, the blog is joined by Dani from Costa Rica.
America kicks off and the ball is sent into a group of people.
_____ from Denmark decides to slap the ball. Even the Americans know that this is against the rules.
Hana from Egypt dances on the field.
Camilla from Denmark limps off the field. Apparently she fell down, but no one saw her do it.Kathy from Canada is forced down in a Euro-Canadian collision and decides to take a page from the Europeans and make it as dramatic as possible.
Tore from Denmark kicks the ball at Kelly the IJR
Silas makes a wonderful catch in the goal and passes the ball toward the Euro zone.
The Colombians and Brazilians are pretty good at soccer.
BT from Brazil makes a shot on goal that goes over the goal, over the protective net, and into a car in the parking lot. If this was baseball, it would have been a home run.
At this point in time, the only person seriously dedicated to doing this whole blogging the football game thing, Martin, is asked by one of the home staff to serve as referee for the rest of the game. At this point there is a break in the blog…
Europe scores again, making the score 3-0. Unfortunately, during this time the ROW is unable to get many attacks together and are shut out during the game. Choosing an ignorant-to-the-rules-of-Soccer American with a bad knee as a referee was a poor choice—many people on both teams lamented that Martin was the worst referee in IJBC World Cup history…a fact of which he is very proud.
And so it is…as both teams began the long trek back to the AIM site, many were left wondering: has the stage has been set for an Americas/ROW comeback in Guatemala next year? Only time will tell.
So yeah, you’re not dreaming, EUROPE WON 3-0 !!! Finally ! After three years of bad luck, Europe finally reclaimed its legendary soccer supremacy
We took time to make some italian boys beleive BT was Ronaldinho’s brother, and then we left, with a lot of pride in our hearts (we even sang the European anthem as our hymn, how cool ?).
Thanks to everyone for this amazing game, we really had a lot of fun playing it.
Martin (USA) and Clemzi
IJBC Live Blog 
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