Guus Bosman

We had a soccer-dedicated weekend. I'll admit, I don't often watch soccer but I really enjoy large tournaments like the World Cup now or the Euro Cup two years ago.

Saturday afternoon we saw a very exciting game between Ghana and the Czech Republic. I really like Czech' soccer, but felt this was a deserved win for the Ghanese. A friend in Amsterdam (who lives in a very international neighborhood) told me that everytime Ghana scored there were loud cheer from the high-rise buildings opposite their apartment. Kingston did a great job as goalkeeper for Ghana.

This game was just the warming up for the main game of the day: the United States vs. Italy. We went to Summers around 2.30 pm, but the pub was completely full and didn't allow more customers to enter. Instead we went to Ragtime, another bar up the street, where we found a good place to watch the game. It was a very exiting, surprising game, with 3 red cards. The U.S. coach, Bruce Arena, was getting very angry during the game. The U.S. played much better than against Czech Republic a week ago and deserved this draw. Let's see how they will play against Ghana this Thursday.

Sunday evening I went for a bike ride after dinner (Arlington Triangle, 17 miles) and just got home when it was getting dark.

So, as I noticed a week ago, one of the most frequently used search terms that brings new visitors to my site is "How do you pronounce Guus?"

The problem with my first name is that it has 2 sounds that are difficult to pronounce for most American speakers. First of all, the first letter G is the [x] in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This is a velar continuant similar to the ch in Swiss German that doesn't exist in most languages, and American English doesn't have an equivalent for it.

My experience is that after some practice most Americans are able to pronounce this sound in a fairly authentic manner. A short-cut I usually recommend is to use the IPA [g], which is the first sound of the word goal.

It's surprising to most Dutch speakers, including myself, that the second sound (the uu) is usually harder than the g. The Dutch uu is the [y] in the IPA, and is similar to the French u as in vu or the German ü sound. There is nothing close in American English, nor in Spanish which many people speak here. Often, the sound [ʏ] or [u] is used instead, neither of which really comes close to the long [y] sound.

Want to hear an example? Here is a native Dutch speaker pronouncing the name Guus.

This morning we watched the first game for the Netherlands at the 2006 soccer World Cup. I woke up exactly at 9.00 am, and immediately switched the TV on to watch the match.

I was a bit disappointed that there was no second goal after Robben's goal in the 18th minute, but it was a nice game to watch. The Netherlands is one of the few teams at the World Cup to play in a 4-3-3 formation, which typically makes for attractive soccer. Apparently it was very warm in Leizpig, where the game was played, and according to coach Van Basten that was the reason there were no other goals after the first. The final score was 1-0 for the Netherlands.

It's been a long time since the Netherlands participated at a World Cup -- four years ago the Oranje team didn't qualify. Sasha and I watched some of the games of that tournament in Frankfurt, Germany, right after David & Milena's wedding. Turkey did surprisingly well, and so did South Korea, beating Italy and Spain.

Four years earlier, in 1998, Sasha and I were in the United States in Tannersville and I would take long lunch breaks to see the Dutch team playing. The Netherlands lost from Brasil on penalties in the semi-finals.

I am very excited that the World Cup 2006 has started. The Netherlands and the United States are both participating, and so is Togo, a small African country with a population of 6 million.

We saw the first half of tournament's first game during lunch. I went with my colleagues to a sports bar nearby and we saw Germany vs. Costa Rica.

I'm playing in a pool with some of my friends also. I was the only person in our 23-person pool to correctly predict the 2-1 score at half time, and because no one predicted the final score correctly I was (at 2 pm today) the number one in our pool.

Sunday morning is the first game for the Dutch team, against Serbia. It's at 9.00 am EST.