Catching up with previously discussed fan bases before heading to the Argentina-Brazil football match....

* The Swedish women's handball fans? They include these weirdos, who have made all manner of goggles out of tea strainers. I asked if this was a classic handball trick; "classic Swede," they replied.

They found some tea strainers on the ground once at a music festival. They realized they could be made into goggles. This is why I like sports fans. Some people would see a nasty discarded kitchen implement. Swedish women's handball fans saw opportunity.

"We are having these in all events," Magnus Legnerfalt said. "We went to Athens in 2004, all the crowd had them."

"It's been written about in the newspapers in Sweden," Rickard Alfredsson continued.

"They're famous," Legnerfalt said.

"These are the insect models," Alfredsson said, showing me a camera in which they were wearing a five-tea-strainer model colored and shaped into the Olympic rings. Monumental.

* The inflatable kangaroo-toting Aussie women's basketball fans who dress like lifeguards and Steve Irwin and Australian Rules Football players? They were featured on Aussie television program Today Tonight. Many people in the piece surmised that the Chinese had never seen anything like these 6-foot-10 white men in short shorts carrying blow-up animals. I think you could say the same thing about Americans. Or humans.

And their offer is still on the table: one inflatable kangaroo for 300 Yuan.

By Dan Steinberg  |  August 19, 2008; 5:53 AM ET
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Posted by: sitruc | August 19, 2008 8:28 AM | Report abuse

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