In honor of the FIFA World Cup starting on Thursday, I present a Think Different about the beautiful game - soccer. Hopefully I've made the questions easy enough that there's at least one answer that comes to people's mind when it comes to each question.
Here are the rules:
1. Please send me your answers by private message. Please do not post any answers in this thread!
2. The deadline for submission is the full-time whistle of the Argentina-Bosnia and Herzegovina match on Sunday, June 15. I'm expecting that deadline to be in the neighborhood of 7:45 to 8:00 PM EDT, but only the referee knows for sure.
3. The object is to provide the least popular correct answer for each of the eleven "starting" questions.
a. Your score on a question equals the number of people (including you) who gave your answer.
b. Incorrect answers will be "sent off": they will receive the "SHEEP" score (highest score on that question) plus five.
c. Blank answers shall be considered as incorrect.
4. Most Think Different contests allow the contestants to drop answers and take a set score rather than answer the question. This is NOT most Think Different contests. All questions will be scored.
5. In addition to the eleven "starting" questions, there are three "substitute" questions (numbered 12-14) They have fewer answers available than the starting questions.
a. Should a substitute question be answered correctly, it will be scored and, provided a sufficiently low score, will replace the player's highest scoring answer. No starting answer that has been "sent off" will be eligible for substitution.
6. Answers must be provided out of the wealth of information that exists in your brain - no research! However, if you are lucky enough to stumble onto an answer between when you read the question and when you submit your answers, it is fully acceptable to use that.
7. The tiebreaker will be the number of singletons, then doubletons, then submission order.
8. If you have questions or comments, send them to me via private message unless you are sure that what you say will not reveal answers, offer hints, steer players away from negbait, or in any other way affect the outcome. If appropriate, I’ll post clarifications below the questions.
9. All of these questions are referencing men's soccer.
Good Luck!
THE STARTING XI
Spoiler
Q: Name either a winner of the Yashin Award/Golden Glove Award OR the goalkeeper named to any FIFA World Cup All-Star team from 1930-1990. (20 answers)
2. Real Madrid just won their 10th European Cup/UEFA Champions League title, defeating crosstown rivals Atlético Madrid in extra time. Their ten championships are the most of any European club.
Q: Other than Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, name a team that automatically qualified for the group stage of the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League based on their league position in 2013/14. (20 answers)
3. The World Cup is usually held amongst the best teams in the world. But with only 32 spots available for the over 200 countries in the world, there are great squads that just did not make the cut.
Q: Name any country whose team was ranked in the top 50 according to FIFA's Men's World Ranking in June 2014 but failed to advance to the World Cup. (23 answers)
4. Major League Soccer has started its 19th season. It's come a long way since the ten teams that contested the first MLS season in 1996; part of this is due to the existence of "Designated Players" - players whose salaries only partially count against the salary cap. The first of these players was David Beckham (and the DP rule was originally nicknamed the David Beckham rule). The most recent to sign was David Villa, who recently transferred to play for New York City FC in 2015 for an undisclosed salary.
Q: As of this writing, name any player signed to a current Designated Player contract for an active MLS team. (35 answers)
NB: New York City FC does not start play until 2015 so David Villa would be an incorrect answer.
5. For the 2014 World Cup, the Brazilian government elected to hold games in twelve different cities. Unlike the 1950 World Cup where the sites chosen were concentrated in the southeast and south, this time the cities are all over Brazil; in fact, each city chosen is the capital of its state.
Q: Name any of the cities hosting World Cup matches in the 2014 tournament. (12 answers)
6. It's been said that the most nervewracking spectacles in soccer is deciding a match with a penalty shootout. For the losers, it's forever the question of what might have been. For the winners, it's a sigh of relief and (usually) preparation for the next opponent.
Q: Name any country that's won at least one penalty shootout in the World Cup since they were officially introduced in the 1978 tournament. (15 answers)
7. The Olympic Games still hold a men's soccer tournament every year. Currently the teams that are fielded are made up of players under the age of 23, with three overage players allowed. Curiously, Brazil, who has qualified for every World Cup, has yet to win an Olympic gold medal in soccer.
Q: Name any country that's won the Olympic gold medal in men's soccer. (18 answers)
8. Every continent has their own continental championship. Here in North America, that's the Gold Cup. The Gold Cup has been contested 12 times between teams from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Only North American teams have won it - Mexico six times, the United States five times, and Canada once.
Q: Name a CONCACAF member (other than Canada, Mexico, and the United States) who has competed in the Gold Cup at least once since the inaugural tournament in 1991. (15 answers)
9. The United States are wearing red jerseys at this World Cup. This is the first time we've seen the Yanks in red at the World Cup since June 15, 1998, a 2-0 loss to Germany. (Incidentally, current USMNT coach Jürgen Klinsmann scored for Germany in that game.)
Q: Name any nation that has worn a predominantly red jersey for at least one game in any of the last three World Cups (2002, 2006, 2010). (21 answers)
NB: Striped jerseys and other similar design will be adjudged to be the color of the back panel (where the player's name and number are), provided it's one of the colors of the pattern.
10. The film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl features a wonderfully done sketch depicting a football match between two teams of philosophers - Germany versus Greece.
Q: Name any philosopher who was supposedly on the pitch at the start of this alleged game. (25 answers)
11. Tbe Golden Boot or Golden Shoe Award has been awarded since 1930 to the top goalscorer in the tournament. In older tournaments, all players who were tied with the most goals would share in the award; now, if there's a tie, there are tiebreakers to determine the winner.
Q: Name any player who's won the Golden Boot at the World Cup. (25 answers)
Spoiler
Q: Name any manager who has won the Premiership since its founding in the 1992/93 season. (7 answers)
13. North America has its own club championship as well, known as the CONCACAF Champions League. Under normal circumstances, five MLS teams qualify for each tournament: four from the United States, one from Canada. With the parity that MLS has seen in recent years, fifteen different squads from MLS have participated in at least one CONCACAF Champions League game.
Q: Name any MLS team who, as of the conclusion of the 2013/14 CONCACAF Champions League, has yet to play in a CCL match since the tournament's current format started in 2008/09. (4 answers)
14. The 2015 Asian Cup has been scheduled to take place in Australia this upcoming January. It's the 16th edition of this continental tournament, the first taking place in 1956. Within the last two weeks, Palestine qualified to play in this tournament, making their tournament debut.
Q: Name any nation that's won the men's Asian Cup. (7 answers)