Picture a table of Australia supporters, self-described "Socceroos," alternating between tight-fitting rugby jerseys and wide-brimmed hats reminiscent of Indiana Jones as they watch the World Cup at Taipei's Brass Monkey.
Nearby, office workers helped themselves to theater-style seating or the tops of tables, with late-arriving groups of women having to fend for themselves, either standing at the bar or outside where they clutched their cellphones, giving the bar a distinctly Ladies' Night feel.
One girl named "Kelly" (a pseudonym she chose this year because most expats have trouble pronouncing her real name) says she's only "30 percent interested in the game," and mostly interested in the men -- she will cheer for any team from Europe.
She might even be persuaded to cheer for Australia in future after hearing boisterous Socceroo cheers of "Oi, Oi, Oi" as the Australian side raced out to an improbable 3-1 lead in the dying minutes.
The sudden support for Australia was a surprise, as many in the crowd had cheered Japan's lone goal in the first half.
This, of course, could have been the alcohol.
At an earlier World Cup match, an out-of-town businessman bought Kelly five drinks, a plate of calamari and admission to Carnegie's later in the evening.
Her drinking got a little "out of control" because she rarely watches sports events and wasn't sure about what to order.
"Wine is too pretentious for the World Cup, and a beer is too rude -- like a man's drink -- so I had a couple of Cosmopolitans," she said.
Others were consuming buckets of VB, Corona and Heineken, delivered by an efficient service staff, which dispensed dollar notes from waist packs.
One server named Julie said that business has been "big" on weekend nights, potentially disrupting tomorrow's Ladies' Night when a midnight match between England and Trinidad and Tobago will pack the bar.
Kelly doesn't have a favorite team, though she knows enough to predict that games involving England, Australia and Germany attract a large crowd.
Anthony Bery isn't surprised that a lot of women are watching World Cup games.
A native of Gisborne, New Zealand, he says that soccer is mainly a women's sport in his country, or else played by 13 to 17-year-old boys who cannot compete in rugby with Samoans or Maoris.
Regarding this World Cup, Bery says: "I'll be Aussie, I gotta look after them," referring to the All Blacks' bitter rivals in next month's Tri-Nations Rugby Tournament.
His work as a textbook editor taught him that Brass Monkey is an old sailing term for a dimpled brass plate or "monkey" upon which cannonballs are stacked.
When the weather turns cold, the brass contracts, sending cannonballs loose below deck, leading to the lewd nautical phrase, "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."
The World Cup has unleashed a similar form of chaos at this particular Brass Monkey.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but