I'm Caught Up
...until tomorrow.
I watched all my taped matches. Here's the quick lowdown:
Italy beat Austalia
Ukraine beat Switzerland (but we knew that)
Brazil beat Ghana
France beat Spain
Highlights:
Italy v Australia
Australia evidently has as much trouble as the US getting people interested in soccer. So having their team, affectionately dubbed the Socceroos, advance this far was very exciting for them. They and Ghana were the only two true underdogs left in the tournament. I was rooting for the Socceroos even though Italy was supposed to walk all over them.
Well, Italy did not dominate as was expected. Australia kept them to a 0 - 0 tie...until the last minute of stoppage time. In the last minutes of stoppage time, the ref called a foul on Australia from inside the Italy penalty box. Italy was granted a penalty kick. They scored. Australia didn't have enough time to recover.
The thing is, not many people think the ref made the right call. The play was not an obvious foul. But FIFA doesn't use video replay so there was no way to challege the call and the Socceroos lost. To top it off, the Italian who scored ran around sucking his thumb afterwards. I heard that was supposed to be a signal to his son, but it's an odd signal. I mean, when the kid is 14 I can hear the other Italian boys taunting him, "Wasn't your-a pappa the one who-a sucked his-a thumb at the World Cup?"
Switzerland v Ukraine
This was an interesting match ... or not. I was rooting for Ukraine. I usually like their ice skaters so it felt natural to root for them. 0 - 0 tie at the end of the match, yawn. Two 15 minute extra periods later, still a 0 - 0 tie. So after 2 hours of running around, it came down to a 5 penalty kick shoot-out.
The teams take turns kicking at the goal which is only defended by the opposing Keeper. Whoever scores the best out of five of those wins the match. Ukraine scored three goals, Switzerland scored none. How embarrassing for Switzerland.
Ghana v Brazil
Ghana's a gon-ah. Again, I decided to root for the underdog. All the experts said that Brazil is probably the best team in the world. They definitely have the best player in the world, Ronaldo
, "The Phenomenon." (Who is so phenomenal that he doesn't need two names and who is not so scary looking "in person" as in his FIFA photo.) But I had to go with the Cinderella team.
And really, Ghana put in a good showing. Evidently, they really look up to the Brazilian team. They looked a little nervous to be playing their heros at first, but then the settled down and played very well. Brazil honestly got some very fortunate breaks. Such as the Ghana Keeper playing in middle field. Seriously, two of the goals Brazil scored were virtually undefended. I don't know what the Keeper was thinking. Who knows how the match would have gone if he'd stayed in front of the goal?
France v Spain
Believe it or not, I was rooting for France. I knew nothing about either team until today. Before the game, the only thing I heard was that the Spanish coach made a racial slur against one of France's black players back in 2004. The coach was not apologetic about it. So I guess I was more anti-Spain's coach than anti-Spain.
But speaking of race, I was fairly shocked to see how many black players were on the French team. I didn't know France had a high black population. I mean, I know there are a lot of French speaking black people in the world. But I didn't think they actually came from France. Anyway...
Spain scored first on a PK (penalty kick). France went on to win 3 - 1. It was a really good game. This is an exciting time for the French team because one of their best players has announced that he's retiring after the Cup, Zidane. The big deal was that if he lost, this could be his last game ever.
Instead, France played really well and Zidane even scored the final goal in stoppage time.
The only other thing of note was that the black player who was slurred against back in 2004, Henry, was called offsides like a billion times. What was so funny was how surprised he always seemed. By the 47th time, I was like, "Stop looking surprised, you're the only one out in front of the ball."
Up Next
Friday
My Germany v Argentina (Argentina looks good, but Germany has the home team advantage)
Italy v Ukrain (Ukraine should be ready to say da svedanya)
Saturday
Beckham v Portugal (I'm worried that Portugal will win but really want England to triumph)
Brazil v France (You got me, but I'll be watching it live before Good Soup)
I watched all my taped matches. Here's the quick lowdown:
Italy beat Austalia
Ukraine beat Switzerland (but we knew that)
Brazil beat Ghana
France beat Spain
Highlights:
Italy v Australia
Australia evidently has as much trouble as the US getting people interested in soccer. So having their team, affectionately dubbed the Socceroos, advance this far was very exciting for them. They and Ghana were the only two true underdogs left in the tournament. I was rooting for the Socceroos even though Italy was supposed to walk all over them.
Well, Italy did not dominate as was expected. Australia kept them to a 0 - 0 tie...until the last minute of stoppage time. In the last minutes of stoppage time, the ref called a foul on Australia from inside the Italy penalty box. Italy was granted a penalty kick. They scored. Australia didn't have enough time to recover.
The thing is, not many people think the ref made the right call. The play was not an obvious foul. But FIFA doesn't use video replay so there was no way to challege the call and the Socceroos lost. To top it off, the Italian who scored ran around sucking his thumb afterwards. I heard that was supposed to be a signal to his son, but it's an odd signal. I mean, when the kid is 14 I can hear the other Italian boys taunting him, "Wasn't your-a pappa the one who-a sucked his-a thumb at the World Cup?"
Switzerland v Ukraine
This was an interesting match ... or not. I was rooting for Ukraine. I usually like their ice skaters so it felt natural to root for them. 0 - 0 tie at the end of the match, yawn. Two 15 minute extra periods later, still a 0 - 0 tie. So after 2 hours of running around, it came down to a 5 penalty kick shoot-out.
The teams take turns kicking at the goal which is only defended by the opposing Keeper. Whoever scores the best out of five of those wins the match. Ukraine scored three goals, Switzerland scored none. How embarrassing for Switzerland.
Ghana v Brazil
Ghana's a gon-ah. Again, I decided to root for the underdog. All the experts said that Brazil is probably the best team in the world. They definitely have the best player in the world, Ronaldo
, "The Phenomenon." (Who is so phenomenal that he doesn't need two names and who is not so scary looking "in person" as in his FIFA photo.) But I had to go with the Cinderella team.
And really, Ghana put in a good showing. Evidently, they really look up to the Brazilian team. They looked a little nervous to be playing their heros at first, but then the settled down and played very well. Brazil honestly got some very fortunate breaks. Such as the Ghana Keeper playing in middle field. Seriously, two of the goals Brazil scored were virtually undefended. I don't know what the Keeper was thinking. Who knows how the match would have gone if he'd stayed in front of the goal?
France v Spain
Believe it or not, I was rooting for France. I knew nothing about either team until today. Before the game, the only thing I heard was that the Spanish coach made a racial slur against one of France's black players back in 2004. The coach was not apologetic about it. So I guess I was more anti-Spain's coach than anti-Spain.
But speaking of race, I was fairly shocked to see how many black players were on the French team. I didn't know France had a high black population. I mean, I know there are a lot of French speaking black people in the world. But I didn't think they actually came from France. Anyway...
Spain scored first on a PK (penalty kick). France went on to win 3 - 1. It was a really good game. This is an exciting time for the French team because one of their best players has announced that he's retiring after the Cup, Zidane. The big deal was that if he lost, this could be his last game ever.
Instead, France played really well and Zidane even scored the final goal in stoppage time.
The only other thing of note was that the black player who was slurred against back in 2004, Henry, was called offsides like a billion times. What was so funny was how surprised he always seemed. By the 47th time, I was like, "Stop looking surprised, you're the only one out in front of the ball."
Up Next
Friday
My Germany v Argentina (Argentina looks good, but Germany has the home team advantage)
Italy v Ukrain (Ukraine should be ready to say da svedanya)
Saturday
Beckham v Portugal (I'm worried that Portugal will win but really want England to triumph)
Brazil v France (You got me, but I'll be watching it live before Good Soup)
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