So the true elimination rounds have begun of the world's largest stage. In the first of the sweet 16 matches, Germany badly outclassed Sweden. This German team appears to be getting better as the tournament goes on. The next game was a WC classic between Argentina and Mexico. One of the things I love about Mexico is that they have a long history of losing heart breaking games in the WC. This one was no different. They threw everything they had at a team that seemed untouchable until this point, and still fell victim to one of the great all-time goals in WC history. Wow, what a strike. Still, any time Mexico can suffer, its a good thing. Today's games offered little to draw new fans to the sport unless you're seeking the WWE crowd. England did what England does to get by people in the WC. They let the air out of the ball and rely on set pieces to put a point on the board. On a more non-sports related note, one of the interesting things I've noticed about the WC that I've seen few people mention. In the world of sports, people tend to make a big deal out of race at times. Its gotten some people in trouble, while others who believe in the same stereotypes and much, much worse remain in business by getting by on a wink and nod. Anywho, I've noticed (and have seen it referenced just about everywhere) that black=bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic whereas white=smaller, slower, deliberate and gangly. You don't see that mentioned a lot in the WC. In today's match, a nearly all-white England was MUCH bigger, stronger and faster than a quick, but horribly undersized Ecuador which was nearly all-black. Ecuador was playing a more much technical and smart, match whereas England got by on sheer God given ability and athleticism. And has anyone seen Australia? Jeez, that looks like an Aussie rules football team, or even the Germans for that matter. Now please, before some moron runs off and makes this about racial superiority, that's not the case. I've just noticed how many of the stereotypes that we see in American sports media just don't hold true on the international scene. What does that say about our culture? Our media? Oh well, who gives a sh*t. Sorry for the rant. Portugal and Holland duked it out amidst some of the worst officiating I've seen in this tournament to date. I believe the record for Yellow and Red cards were passed in this match. Tomorrow will be an interesting matchup. A big, physical Italian team that lives to play defense and use tactical counter strikes will be matched up against a bigger and more physical team that will be just as happy to take this thing 0-0 into PKs. After that, the two luckiest damned teams in the tourney. The Ukraine is playing the Swiss. As if there groups weren't soft enough, they get to play each other in the round of 16. That means one of these two turds is going to be in the rd of 8. Ugggh, life isn't fair sometimes. Ghana is good, and will have their best strikers back for their game in the Rd of 16. It won't matter because they are playing Brazil. Spain and France should be fun. Hundreds of years of futility on each side with flashes of brilliance from time to time. Why not pair them together? Someone has to win, right? These are two incredibly talented teams, but I think Spain has more talent and is a better overall team.
The two hour fist-fight between Holland and Portugal was so entertaining that I watched the replay on KMEX, the Spanish language channel. What a duesy! The Spanish language broadcasters went completely off the chart, as I knew they would. At one point, when a Portuguese player was thrown physically to the ground, the analyst yelled (IN ENGLISH!) "Welcome to the jungle!" ...................JO'Co
Being a hockey fan, I enjoyed the Portugal/Holland match up. It was interesting to see that Russian refs are as horrible in soccer as they are in hockey. But, to be fair, the English ref in the Croatia/Australia match-up was no prize either with his giving a Croatian player 3 yellow cards. One thing I liked about the Portgual/Holland match up was that with both teams playing shorthanded, the field was opened up allowing the players to move more freely. You see the same thing in hockey when they play 4 on 4: The greater amount of ice surface allows the players to showcase their skills. I think some of the Portugesse must be born with hands on their feet given how well they moved the ball. I was reading in today's Guardian that the red-carded Portugeese players may be allowed to play against England. If so, I have a hard time seeing England beating them. My novice guess is that we will be a Brazil vs. Germany final.
On other boards I've read there is a lot of complaining that World Cup Soccer players flop more than Karl Malone. True? Terry
re: referees Both the English referee (Graham Poll) from the Croatia-Australia game and the Russian ref from the Holland-Portugal match are gone. They will not be back in this World Cup, and the Russian may be gone for good, as the head of FIFA personally criticized him today, saying that he "deserved a yellow card too." re: diving and flopping The Mexican cliff divers are usually the worst, but not in this WC, where the Mexicans actually played straight futbol and had their best results in memory. They might want to try playing instead of diving again in the future. The worst divers/beggars/whiners, Uruguay, are also the most vicious players in the world, but we were spared having to watch their show this time around. They failed to qualify when Australia's goalie stopped TWO penalty kicks in the same game... re: Brazil vs. Germany That's a pretty darn good guess! Those two teams have combined for more world titles than all the others and thats not an accident. There are four teams that look better than the others: Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Spain. The darkhorses are England and Italy, because you never count out the teams that play brutal defense...
Once again Italy gets a ref pass. Penalty kick in the 94th min. What complete ********. Heaven forbid the Aussies put a Euro power out.
re: Italy 1 _ Australia 0 Gip is right. The ref gave a penalty kick to Italy with 5 seconds showing in stoppage time when a striker took a dive over a fallen player in the box. Un-friggen-believable. Why bother to play the games if you're just going to award free shots to the Eurotrash? re: Ukraine 3 _ Switzerland 0 The Swiss got what they deserved, but the Uks didn't. In the worst played game of World Cup '06, neither team made any attempt to win the match. They both continued the strategy that got them this far: They just defended their own goal and hoped for lucky shots. The Uks never even sent more than four men forward! They always held back 6 players to help the goalie, even in overtime. After 120 minutes of this nonsense, the scoreless tie went to penalty kicks and Swiss suffered their horrible embarrassment and the Ukrainians celebrated the emergence of the greatest futbol hero in the history of their country: Oleksandr Shovkovskyi. All he did was BLOCK ALL THREE SWISS PENALTY KICKS! I've never seen anything like it. His performance will be long remembered in that country. He saved them and sent the Swiss home crying. - Tomorrow is a match between two nations that genuinely love futbol: Brazil and Ghana, followed by a match between two nations that genuinely despise each other: Spain and France. Should be a fun day...
:? Brazil 3 _ Ghana 0 The Brasilieros have reached that point, like the '27 Yankees, where there is nothing left to compare them with. No team has ever won more than six straight World Cup matches, but they won their 11th straight today. They're being compared with a standard of perfection which doesn't exist on this planet and analysts are puzzled at their "poor play" as they massacre one opponent after another. People called Ruth "fat" and "out-of-shape" and blah, blah, blah he hit 60 HRs. Another athlete, Ronaldo, has been called all of the same names here and all he did today was break the all-time goal scoring record set by Gerd "Der Bomber" Muller in 1974. The Brazillian coach was asked about the problem of having 23 of the greatest players in the world on the same team and he replied, "I don't have 23 problems, I have 23 solutions." Some where, out there, Miller Huggins had to be smiling at that remark... France 3 _ Spain 1 The miserable, stinky, French slithered into the quarterfinals as Espana choked again... The only good news here, is that now the French have to play Brazil... No games tomorrow. Play resumes on the 30th with Germany-Argentina at 11AM ET...