The mighty United States today beat Algeria 1-0 with a goal in the 91st minute. Since England beat Slovenia (at the same time) 1-0, it means (based on goals scored) that the mighty United States won their group and advance to the next round (whoo!).
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Why the hell are these games on at the same time?
So, it’s been a nice couple of weeks watching World Cup action: three games a day, one at a time. That all changed today. As the group stage enters the half-way point, the schedule abruptly changes. Now, there are two times and four games, requiring all games to be on at the same time as another. The reason? You guessed it: a German non-aggression pact. In 1982, an odd set of circumstances led into the final game of the group stage between West Germany and Austria. Turns out, a German win with a score of 1-0 or...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Group H, Where H stands for Holy Crap
Here’s how most of my FIFA 2010 games start: Me: I’m really not that good. I don’t play very much. Pick any team you want. (Opponent sitting next to me on the couch flips through teams) Me: No. You can’t pick Spain. Spain is banned. Spain is the most recent Euro Champions. They have several of the most dominant players at their position in the world. Their midfield is likely the greatest to ever show up at a World Cup (this is patently untrue, but for preview’s sake I’m going with it), so much so that they’re...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Group G, Where G Stands for God-Awful Predictions
Sorry this is so late. Work and not-work (read as soccer and drinking) got way in the way. Group G starts tomorrow at 10, with Cote d’Ivoire and Portugal. Today is two parts: recap of the weekend (and my crap predictions) followed by, obvs., Group G. Enjoy and, as always, mea copa. The easiest way out of this is to say “that’s why they play the games.” And, it’s true. If these things ever went exactly true to form, they’d stop playing them. March Madness doesn’t see four #1 seeds advance to the Final Four; the Super...
Continue reading..."The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."
It\’s like bringin a knife to a gunfight, pen to a test Your chest in the line of fire witcha thin-ass vest You bringin them Boyz II Men, HOW them boys gon\’ win? – Jay-Z, The Takeover When I moved to Boston, I lived in East Somerville. It\’s a working class neighborhood full of Brazilians and Portuguese, and in any other soccer story, any other match preview, I might write about the sounds and sights of East Somerville in June 2006. But this is a story about tomorrow\’s match, the first US match of this World Cup,...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Group F, Where F Stands For Exactly What You Think It Does
Just as yesterday I wrote about teams that find supporters due to reasons outside of nationality, success or other rational sources, so there are teams that foment anger and rage outside their in-game performance. There are folks who will not root for Argentina, Germany, North Korea, the US, and many other countries because of their political or military histories. There are some folks who won’t root for them because of individuals on the team: Cristiano Ronaldo on Portugal is probably the current poster boy for this effect, and personally, it’s Australia and Tim Cahill. There are folks...
Continue reading...Diplomats wager on U.S.-England World Cup Match
Via Laura Rozen at Politico (although she gets the order of the conversation backwards and calls it the UK team), an email exchange between the Philip Breeden at the U.S. Embassy in London and Martin Longden at the U.K. Embassy in D.C. unveils quite the wager (and nerdy trash-talk). Of course you know, England plays the U.S. in their first game in South Africa this weekend, and they’ve decided on a bet: steaks in D.C. if England wins, dinner in a London pub if the U.S. wins; loser pays. On England boasting their long history of football,...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Group E, Where E Stands for Every Team a Looker
There are certain teams in every sport that engage even the most casual observer. Whether through their energy, their story, their uniforms, their players (see: hotness thereof, often), they pull in the folks who just happen to be in the room. Think about the Cinderellas every year in March Madness. Think about the Rockies run to the World Series a couple years ago. Think about any team that met legitimate tragedy during their play and persevered, even triumphed, to reach an improbable height. Consider a team that has sat at the precipice of success for years, poised...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Group D, Where D Stands for Death
I came late to soccer. I never played it, aside from whacking a ball around in friends’ yards, until I got to college, where it was more an excuse to get out and enjoy the fall than it was anything like an athletic pursuit. But because I didn’t grow up with it, I tend to analogize things for myself using the prism of baseball, which is the sport I did grow up with, and which still holds a place deep in me. Players and teams in soccer become baseball teams: Real Madrid is the Yankees. Barcelona is...
Continue reading...Mea Copa – Group C: Days Late, Dollars Short
One of the simultaneously great and awful things about being a soccer fan in the US is that the games are on early Saturday morning. Matches from England and Germany have replaced Captain Nintendo and Saved by the Bell in my life. I wake up, make coffee and settle down in front of the TV to watch a game taking place in a different country, featuring players from all over the world (though rarely the US). I’ll sit there from 745 until — on some glorious Saturdays — 4 or 5, taking in not only matches from...
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