Venezuela Football Pundits

Snapshot from Beirut

2007-01-29T15:36:00.000-04:00

Sadly Hugo has not yet presented me with the opportunity to add Nasrallah to my blog role, but that isn't stopping his Lebanese supporters from putting the two together.

One months, 64 games, 120 posts...time to put VFP to sleep...

2006-07-10T09:31:00.000-04:00

It's been fun...

Cannavaro's Night

2006-07-09T17:55:00.000-04:00

Yes, France outplayed Italy from the second-half on. But then, Italy had Fabio Cannavaro, the greatest Central Defender of his generation. It's an unglamorous role, but it's what won it for them tonight: Henry and Malouda had no idea how to get around the guy.

For sure, this was Cannavaro's night.

To hear Corriere della Sera readers tell it, it was his World Cup as well:

And the question is...

2006-07-09T17:47:00.000-04:00

...what the HELL did Materazzi say to Zidane to get that reaction?!?

This, incidentally, has to go down as the most wistful image of the tournament. Zidane, walking past the World Cup on his way to the dressing room. Just sad.

World Cup final: the France Italy live blogcast

2006-07-09T13:37:00.000-04:00

And thus the Cup ended. France played a better game but the Catenachio prevailed and the psycho final settled matters over to Italy. When you reach that level you cannot let pettiness (the Trezeguet story) or temper take over.

4:49. On a perdu :(

I bet Zidane is crying his heart out in the locker room....

4:29. And we go to penalty rounds to settle matter, with Henry and Zidane out. This sucks big time.

4:19. And Zidane ends his career on a red card.

This temper tantrum cost him eternal futbol glory. Pele and Beckenbauer will remain alone in the pantheon. Fuck.....

4:15. End of the first prolongation. Henry out. Wiltrod in. The Italians are doign a demolition derby. Ribery also left, but Ribery cannot hold a full game, he overspends his energy.

Besides of the Italians palying dirty, it is a heck of final game. Antology material

3:40. Italians are really playing dirty. Now they dislocated Zidane shoulder. But he soldiers on.

3:31. Teams are nervous. But this is a hell of a game with two amazingly great teams.

3:17. The Italians have managed to destroy Vieira.

3:12. The second half is on. Yours truly is slightly buzzed. So is the umpire that missed a penalty agaisnt Italy again.

I am buzzed because we just served the paella and someone brought a bottle of old Jerez: a few drops of it over the paella are a tremenduous improvement(and add dangerously to the Sauvignon Blanc (Anakena, Chile, 2005, a very pleasant dicovery)

2:22. Italy evened up with Materazzi. This is going to be a hell of a game!

Barthez gets one....

2:06. Gooooooolllllllll Zidane trumps Buffon on a penalty kick.

Buffon in a rare moment of impotence.

The Italians meant business and started early doing a Dutch move: knock out of the game you most dangerous opponent. Soon Henry was having ice all over his face and Zambrotta a yellow card. But the Italians overdid it, a fault near the goal and France got a revenge penalty. Difficult to imagine more tense start for a game.

1:47. Shakira is entertaining Berlin Olympic Stadion. She certainly is the artist for the occasion.

1:34. Well, I was not really planning to do a broadcast today, but since I did it for the last three games of France and France won each time, I figured out that it could not hurt. The reason is that this time I am in Caracas and we have gathered a few French supporters to cheer our team (and drink and eat). The living room of the house has been transformed in some sort of mini movie hall, beer and white wine abundantly in the refrigerator, assorted finger foods and paella. Well, it is easier that way, self service buffet, no one needs to sacrifice the game to serve food.

Thus coverage will be erratic, but occasional. Though after 4 glasses of wine spelling and style will be worse than usual :)

Paris est une fêteFirenze e bella

The most global day of them all...

2006-07-09T08:03:00.000-04:00

Today, you and 1,500,000,000 of your closest friends will get to spend some quality time together. One in four members of our species will be glued to TV sets to watch 22 grown men chase around a little ball. And that's a conservative estimate - it's what we'll get if today's final matches the 2002 Korea/Japan final.

But that game was played at an AWFUL time for most of the world's futbol-mad regions. Today's match, by contrast, will be played in Prime Time in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and at a comfortable afternoon timeslot in the Americas. Counting in a few hundred-million futbol-mad Asians willing to wake up at some ungodly hour to watch the game - and believe me, they're out there - today's match could easily break the 2002 record.

As the AP reports, “The TV rights have been sold to 200 countries,” said Wolfgang Niersbach, vice president of the local organizing committee. “I think 207 contracts have been signed. That’s more than the U.N. has countries.”

For all the talk about globalization, it's not that often that a really large chunk of humanity sits down to do the same thing at the same time. Today's match will be a Total Social Fact.

France date with futbol destiny

2006-07-09T00:13:00.000-04:00

This Sunday France has his biggest match ever. The 1998 was nice but it was at home and that always somehow slightly taints a victory, no matter how deserved it might be. Brazilians for example never believed the French victory was truly fair. France was a new comer to finals; they gave escargot to Ronaldo.

Tomorrow, with an aging team, France will have to prove that it is really a great football power, and will do so by entering this rarest of elite clubs, countries who won at least twice the World Cup (the same curse, by the way, suffered by England who only won once and at home).

But there is more to prove. Today's game showed that the younger German team has a lot of potential that if confirmed in the Eurocup of 2008 will make Germany an odds on favorite. Other younger team have shown their promise and will be at the perfect age in 4 years (Spain, England, even Portugal or Argentina). But France has few young values. It has some, like Ribery, but it has few of those. I know that France cannot offer us proof of renewal tomorrow but depending on how the youngest play or are allowed to play will say a lot as to the future of France who in the past got shut out of several World Cups in a row.

Another thing to prove is whether they can play without Zidane as Vieira is not that young either. Unfortunately that proof will have to wait for the Eurocup qualifications. Tomorrow is Zidane apotheosic end, even if France loses its game. All the team will do that last rally around its captain.

It is certain that a victory against Italy will go a long way to soothe the fears of France fans like yours truly. But I am not going to think about that now: I am in the enjoy mode. Today, while I visit for the week end, I got my large French flag, strangely available in Caracas streets (and even in San Felipe, but in the small version). If France wins, we shall get in the car with the flag and start honking around in the avenues. I have heard that Plaza Altamira, this den of opposition, officially known as Plaza Francia, will host a rally for the French supporters.

I am also amazed at how many Venezuelans support France over Italy, which makes France look like the underdog (or the vanquisher of Brazil so it cannot lose?) I have also got my special car flag to parade it around. Many cars sport the Italian flag but few the French. Then again French flag reached the buhonero stands only this week....

PS: the flags, after a hard bargain with a guy whose hair was bleach blonde, costed me 20 Bucks. Probably way too much still. But heck, the semi stoned guy to whom I bought them from, who offered me an 8 star Venezuelan flag to take along (which I declined holding to my 7 star one), in the middle of a Caracas highway, traffic running all around, with other buhoneros holding Italian flags for sale with a mean look, are impressions that are worth every penny.

In praise of consolation games

2006-07-08T23:53:00.000-04:00

Many do not like the traditional 3rd place game at the World Cups. One of the very few sports that does such a consolation prize. But futbol is somewhat different as its fans never seem to have enough. Today Portugal Germany game was no exception as from the bleachers adoring German fans forgave their team loss against Italy and came back for a last love feast.

In many ways today's game gave or renewed the reasons to hold such an activity.

1) It allowed the hosts to have a worthy consolation prize. Germany has given what is arguably the best World Cup held at least on logistics. Impressive "stadions", clockwork schedule, perfect and well behaved crowds; great hospitality (that I rely on reports); amazing grass; etc... They footed the bill, they deserve at least the third place.

2) As usual it was a good game where players and coaches relax some, take a few chances. As a result they tend to have higher scores and today 3 to 1 confirmed it.

3) But more importantly it allowed for two greats of futbol to retire gracefully and with a last hurrah. Oliver Khan returned to his goalposts to show why he has been one of the best goalies ever. Figo benched to allow the team to prepare for the future was called back in the last 15 minutes to set up brilliantly the honor saving goal of Portugal. Thus everyone went home happier, less sad than a few days ago. They were not in the final game but they left as two of the four best teams of the world, proving today that they deserved it. Let's say goodbye to Kahn and Figo with this image of end of game camaraderie which reminds all of us what sports should all be about first: a game to enjoy. We will miss them.

Pre-Final Roundup: Impudent Pirlo, Resurgent Zidane, Unloved Domenech and Updated Lippi

2006-07-08T03:55:00.000-04:00

After a lull, The Guardian has snapped-to and is HEAVILY posting pre-final analysis.

Richard Williams has a very good profile of Gennaro Gattuso:

Italy's football fans usually idolise players who ooze style and class. This time, however, their choice is not Francesco Totti or Alessandro Del Piero, the golden boys, or even Fabio Cannavaro. Their affections have been engaged by the bearded Gattuso, the hard man of the midfield, the terrier, the spoiler, the warrior who embodies the success of Marcello Lippi's squad in overcoming a series of recent events that could have destroyed their will to compete before they had even kicked a ball in the tournament.

Gattuso incarnates the quality known to Italians as grinta, or fighting spirit. As well as acting as a bodyguard to Andrea Pirlo, whose suave passes direct the flow of Italy's play, Gattuso is charged with disrupting the opposition's attacks at source. When Marco Materazzi was asked this week how Italy would cope with the threat of Zinédine Zidane tomorrow, he had no hesitation in announcing their strategy. "Zidane won't be a problem," he said. "We've got Gattuso. He'll stop him."

This Lippi profile describes the way Italy's new manager has caught up the National Team with the prevalent trends in Serie A:

The Spanish press have declared Tuesday's performance as "the game the world fell in love with". Coming from traditionally the Italian game's keenest critics this is praise indeed, but the truth is that Tuesday's showing is some way from being a revolution. Italians have quietly been playing exciting, attacking football for years. Consider the following statistic: the past three seasons have seen more goals scored per game in Italy's Serie A than in either the Premiership or the Spanish Liga. Or consider Milan: Liverpool fans may recall that it was precisely their lack of a defensive mentality that saw them come so spectacularly unstuck in Europe.The difference now is that the national team is finally reflecting this.

Kevin McCarra notes the way Andrea Pirlo has quietly stolen Totti's role as playmaker:

Take Andrea Pirlo, who is among the most acclaimed figures at this competition. He was the complete master of his art at Grosso's goal, resisting the temptation to have a speculative shot as Germans charged at him following a corner and being calm enough to make the pass to the left-back. Not everyone had faith that he would ever be capable of such influence.

The head swims at the task of rating Internazionale's prolific bungles but their dealings with Pirlo must come near the top. They had little concept of what to do with this son of a rich family and, following loan periods at his first club Brescia and Reggina, he was transferred to Milan. To give credit, it was there that the coach Carlo Ancelotti had an inspired notion about Pirlo's real purpose.

He put the apparent playmaker in the holding role, letting him start moves and also go on the attack now and again. His deficiencies in defence are covered, for club and country, by the siting of Gennaro Gattuso close to him. Pirlo has been named man-of-the-match in two of Italy's six games at the World Cup.

Roberto DiMatteo notes that Italy is - uncharacteristically - starless this year:

This is a team that has played well without there being any individual who's really stood out. In one game there's been one player and in another match another player who has been the best performer. If there's one player off his game, then another will raise his. So it's been the team spirit and teamwork that has most shown through.

Jon Brodkin writes in defense of France's underappreciated manager:

Two hundred years after Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Berlin, the French leader who takes his troops into the city tomorrow does so amid considerably less personal fanfare. Few coaches can have reached a World Cup final to so little adulation as Raymond Domenech. Amid the plaudits heaped on Zinédine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and other players, the 54-year-old has barely received a mention. It is as if his team's progress in Germany has been achieved in spite of rather than because of him.

This piece delights in Zidane's determination to shut up the impudent journalists who trashed him at the start of the tournament:

Spain's sporting press has always worn its power like a badge of honour, but even by its standards this was something else - this was playing God. Marca, the country's best-selling newspaper, had not so much awakened a sleeping giant as resurrected a deceased one. And, while the consequences for their own national team were disastrous, they had presented football with the greatest of gifts - the return, however fleeting, of Zinédine Zidane.

With Spain preparing to face France in the second round, and amid a collective sense of euphoria, Marca roared: "We're going to retire Zidane!" The very impudence guaranteed they would be wrong: balding and ageing he may be, but the Frenchman is a single game from a second World Cup medal and a queue of admirers and bandwagon-jumpers are pleading with him not to leave football behind forever in Berlin tomorrow night.

This bit sums up the pre-final gambling odds.

Finally, this piece lists the ten best reasons to support one side or another.

There is hope

2006-07-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

As futbol fans must face the fact that Sunday night we will hit bottom even if France wins, there is an opportune presentation: the logo for South Africa 2010 World Cup. I like it, I like it a lot actually. It will help us as Sunday we start the long 47 months calvary again

This one's a bit late...

2006-07-06T09:03:00.000-04:00

But Weil is always brilliant...

Cristiano Ronaldo villification update...

2006-07-06T07:50:00.000-04:00

One guy who's made no friends in this World Cup is Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who is rapidly attaining cartoon villain status worldwide for his "pouting, diving, pretty boy antics - designed mainly to get himself a lucrative transfer to Real Madrid."

Now, the BBC reports that patriotic Englishmen are doing their bit to derail his chances to be voted Best Young Player of the World Cup:

A concerted email campaign by England fans looks set to rob Ronaldo of the World Cup's best young player award.

The Portuguese winger, pilloried for his part in the sending off of Wayne Rooney, was leading the Fifa website vote by a huge margin.

But an email urging supporters to vote for Ecuador's Luis Valencia instead has led to an incredible turnaround.

In 24 hours, Ronaldo's vote increased from 210,290 to 241,775, but Valencia's soared from 195,377 to 331,087.

You too can do the decent thing by voting against the monster...

Fun Sideshow: The Pizza War

2006-07-06T03:33:00.000-04:00

Responding to German newspapers' calls to boycott pizza in protest at Italian futbol superiority, one Neapolitan pizzaiolo in Munich came up with this one: the 2-0 Pizza.

Gutten apetit!

Ah, how the Italian press is enjoying this one...

Post game high

2006-07-05T20:45:00.000-04:00

Today's game importance does not reside in its actual performance. By any means it was not one of the great games of the tournament. Good enough, plenty of tension, but nothing as scintillating as the France Brazil, or the Argentina Mexico to name two of the half dozen games that we will carry in memories for a few weeks, perhaps even to the Eurocup in two years.

There were two pictures among the ones that offered the FIFA site. The first one is a picture of Lilian Thuram and Cristiano Ronaldo. Arguably the two great players of today and a fitting symbol of the old departing generation and the coming young one.

This next picture is the post game embrace of Zidane and Figo, the two greats of the Real Madrid, the two great ones of their countries (France in 1998, Eurocup 2000, Portugal Eurocup 2004), forced by fate to clash in the game of their lives, before their retirement. A departing look at a decade of Football. Thanks for the memories guys!

No, the real importance of today's game is its implication:

**A new final pairing. France Italy happens for the first time in a final of World Cup (it did happen in the Eurocup 2000). Even if France does not win next Sunday, it will mean the defintive break of the lock that Brazil, Argentina, Germany and, well, Italy had on that final pairing.

**The French victory at home in 1998 is finally vindicated. The "dark legend" circulating since 1998, including Ronaldo being drugged so as to allow France to win, is finally put to rest. If the French did it with an elderly team, surely they could have done it with a much fresher team 8 years ago.

**But more important than anything, Zidane is one step away from Football immortality. If next Sunday he is the one carrying the trophy he will enter into history of Futbol next to Pele and Beckenbauer, on an equal footing with them. It is just about time to bring a new hero to the game.

This being said.

CNN reports that the Champs Elysees are a huge party again.

Le Monde has its own photo gallery of their favorite moments of the game. In all modesty Le Monde allows itself to glorify Zidane with the following title "The Zidane's Bleus reward themselves with a dream finale". Well, yes, he shot the penalty score but this was not the game to leonize Zidane.

And now, to get ready for next Sunday where amazingly the two least favorites of the favorites will be the ones playing. Quico and myself did trash them enough in the past weeks, but I am pretty sure that I can write for both of su saying that we sure are glad to have been proven wrong.

The France Portugal live blogcast

2006-07-05T15:03:00.000-04:00

4:54. On a gagné.

Figo and Zidane exchange shirts in a truly emotional moment that even brought tears to my eyes. Well, my team ahd just won too, it helps.

In a last corner kick EVEN Ricardo came up to kick the ball. Awesome.

4:43. Saha was two minutes in the game and he already got a yellow!!!! AGAIN!!!

4:42. France pulls Henry and bings in Saha. Defense, defense, defense! Good, if Portugal does not even the score.

4:39. Dreadfull, still 10 minutes to go at least and Portugal is playing hard. It is not a great game but it is a good and tense game. And Caravahlo got a yellow, making him miss next game. Poor guy, when his fault was not even a lesser evil.

4:38. Still 15 long minutes left. And them Portuguese are not giving up.

4:26. Changes are starting in the teams. Simao in for Portugal. Ribery probably out for France. They need him more Sunday (if they make it there) than today. I guess I agree, Ribery has run so much that he probably reaching the end of his rope. Let's hope that Portugal does not manage to even the score.

4:17. Game is going again for about 10 minutes. Ronaldo is really a dangerous character, but he seems rather lonely within Portugal.

3:46. End of first half. A well deserved break for all.

3:39. The game has of course changed dramatically. Protugal is going up but the French have not stopped their attack.
.
3:33. Goooolllll.... Penalty cashed by France through Zidane.

Ricardo could not stop that one

3:27. Nothing much yet. The game is not bad but it has not found its rythm. One thing seems certain, the abundance of "yellow carded" in each team is exerting a real restraint. Heck, they all want to play in the final! Even if they do not seem to have realized yet that one has to win the semifinal first...

3:20. No clear dominace so far. No yellow card yet. Both sides are holding, and each one ahs had at least one good shot at the goalie.

3:08. Maniche has just scared Barthez.

3:07. General notes.

The stadium is not quite full: apparently the general fill up German public is despondent today.

The Argentinean sportscaster said that La Marseillaise is the most beautiful anthem. Well, the Argentina one is rather dreadful and pretty much any other one is nice in comparison.

I am watching from San Felipe instead of Caracas. At home I have access to Direct TV, so I am safe from any silly cadena on this Venezuelan independence day.

Figo and Zidane hugged after deciding the toss. They are afterall old friends and the two leaders of the Real Madrid, even if one of them must die today.

Two glories of the Real Madrid

3:00. The game has just started.

I did not want to cover it a few minutes ago but then I realized two things: it helps me not to be a nervous wreck, and the last two times I covered France won. I like to think that I am contributing to the French victory through some weird electronic Yaracuy-Maria-Lionza voodoo...

Nervy Preview, Jubilant Postmortems

2006-07-05T12:36:00.000-04:00

I don't have that much to say about tonight's game - except that the Portuguese are getting a bit of a reputation as a rogue squad with lots of pre-match coverage dwelling on French concerns about Portuguese dirty tactics, and Cristiano Ronaldo increasingly villified as a kind of Evil Genius. Les Vieux, however, must count as favorites.

Elsewhere, The Guardian's John Hooper writes this fun review of the Italian press after last night's stunner. "If you could distil jubilation into ink and put it on newsprint, you would have the front pages of Wednesday's Italian papers," he says.

PIIIIIRRRRRRLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-05T08:08:00.000-04:00

Consider anything nasty I've said about Italy so far null and void. What a game! What a performance! Wow! Turns out if they don't have an early lead to protect, they're great fun to watch.

If I had to single out one guy for praise from Italy's uniformly excellent team...PIRLO! Wow! Very good for 119 minutes, then BRILLIANT for the last 60 seconds. Hits the strike that wins the corner, then makes the startlingly lucid pass to Grosso for the goal...

Hell, even Del Piero scored.

Too bad for the krauts, who were excellent as well, in their fashion. Italy deserved this one.

A day in the country

2006-07-05T00:02:00.000-04:00

I could not watch today's game, which seems to have been quite something (from the last 25 minutes that I managed to get). Germany could not break its losing streak against Italy and Italy proved that witchcraft worked by renewing the 12 years curse.

But that is OK, I have the pictures of the game and I sort of tried to recreate what must have been this charming outing in the country side (bonus points for each character you recognize).

There was a lot of inviting grass and some people took a chance to lay on it.

There was plenty of drink, if not food.

Spirits flew high.Boys played wild games.
Some neighbors came to watch the acrobatic displays.

New dance steps were tried out.

This man was happy but we do not know whether it was because he avoided police arrest.

And of course there are always some that take any opportunity to roll in the hay.

One thing is certain, Pizza sales were slow in Germany tonight....

Frings bitch-slapped - Italian futbol haywire...

2006-07-04T14:09:00.000-04:00

Check out the dumbest disqualification EVER - this is the totally inane, post-match punch Frings threw at Cruz after the latter had - erm - bitch-slapped him. Man. I really think FIFA hates futbol if they're disqualifying people over this kinda thing...

Meanwhile, right on Big Match day, Italian sports prosecutors announced they are seeking the relegation of four top Italian teams over the Calciopoli scandal. Yup, four teams where 14 of the 22 azzurri play.

Juventus would get knocked all the way back to Serie C, with a 6 point penalty, while Lazio and Fiorentina would go back to Serie B with 15 points of penalty and Milan to Serie B with a 3-point penalty. Milan's owner/president, Silvio Berlusconi, calls it "political persecution" by - who could doubt it? - communist judges.

Juventus manager Fabio Capello was the first to jump, taking up a job managing Real Madrid. The great Italian star fire sale is now on...like the Feria del Arte, los de 300 a 75, los de 150 a 25. Want a knock-down price on Kaka? Nedved? Del Piero? Toni? Now's the time to move...

In the meantime, the German press has whipped the plebes to a fever pitch of anti-Italian frenzy, calling for a national boycott on pizza. Italian defender (and Pizza-chain owner) Fabio Cannavaro's response? "They don't know what they're missing!"

Oh, and on more match-related news, Lippi finally leaves his attack alone - he'll play Toni as lone striker again, with Totti behind him. Hmmmmmm. Well, it worked against Ukraine, why wouldn't it work against a team that's 10 times better?

Totally biased thoughts on the World Cup

2006-07-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

I figured out that before the European World Cup starts in a few minutes, I should write some random thoughts on the World Cup that ended when France kicked Brazil out (by the way, did anyone see those angry Brazilian supporters screaming insults at their team as they left Germany?)

To give some form I will randomize within the good, bad and ugly format

The Good

This Cup had definitely its share of good, exciting matches.

Myths were created. When France beat Brazil for the third time in a row, it started a new myth, a new angst once and for all for the Brazilian players of the future. Now France will be to Brazil what Germany is to France, or Argentina to England, One of those good rivalries that put some spice in the tournament.

A myth might be about to come. If Zidane carries France to the title, it will make him enter into that selected pantheon where only Pele, Beckenbauer and, arguably, a couple more of players reside. This reason, for many outside France, is enough for them to wish that France wins. That is, if Zidane comes out alive from the Portugal encounter.

There were many fabulous scores. Klose, Maxi, Henry in particular left us speechless. Not to diminish any of the other scorers, but those three guys hit it once the way we hit in our dreams.

The Bad

Some umpires. Some were truly great, but some really sucked.

The schedule. How come they could not insert an off day between the first round and the first round of finals? How could they not insert an off day before subjecting us to a 4 games a day schedule?

The mysteries. How come Ukraine went so far when other noteworthy teams were left behind (USA, to name a first round elimination, or the Swiss or Australians to name a second round elimination). I mean, even Shevchenko missed a penalty kick!

The tackiness. Well, this could also be included in the good. The pictures of the four finalist make up.

The Ugly

The brawls. Italy USA. Netherlands Portugal. England Portugal.

The sore losers. Argentina Germany, or how to spoil a great World Cup run on a stupid temper tantrum. Then again Argentineans have never been known for class…

The see if I care. Brazil sometimes perceived attitude of been there, done that, hated it.

The Homoerotic

This Cup for some reason had more incidents of dubious content than I remember from past World Cups, be it Rooney kick in the balls to Portugal, or Henry swapping shorts with a Togolese player to this strange picture of Khan and Lehman.

A touch of Brokeback Mountain

However before any US reader starts gloating about the sissyfication of futbol I would like to point out that no other major sport has as much unnecessary butt patting among men than US Baseball. No other is as disgusting spiting wise, by the way. Let's just say that when emotions reach such a high level, boys will be boys.

My World Cup Runneth Over: No me despiertes mamá...

2006-07-04T05:10:00.000-04:00

This one is really really funny: Click here, then take the slider to 35:02...

My World Cup Runneth Over: Thai Monks Join the Mania

2006-07-04T04:27:00.000-04:00

While temples may be places of sanctuary from the outside world, even they are not completely free of the all-pervasive love of football.

In Pariwas temple, where Phra Prawit lives, the monks have taken this one step further. A golden statue of David Beckham - forever immortalised with his late 90s-era floppy hairstyle - is nestled among the Buddha images.

Since it was created in 1998, the statue has become a tourist attraction, but the temple's monks are non-plussed by all the interest.

"Beckham's all right," said Brazil supporter Phra Phitak, busy washing bright orange robes outside the temple, "but personally I think Ronaldhino is a better player."

An example of clueless futbol coverage

2006-07-02T19:25:00.000-04:00

Elsewhere, something that Quico has reproched me, I said that the Venezuelan actual political establishment was not very futbol oriented. Well, I was looking at the coverage through the Venezuelan news agency, ABN, and for those who can read Spanish, you will be able to see that it is harder to have a duller coverage. If you want Venezuelan coverage on the World Cup, go to the pages of El Universal or Meridiano and forget the rest.

The miracles of football

2006-07-02T18:06:00.000-04:00

A socially broken nation like France suddenly finds a brief moment of unity behind the son of Algerian immigrants. A picture of the press coverage in France this morning, from the FIFA site of all sites! Note: all are local papers.

English Press Review: The Joy of the Postmortem

2006-07-02T03:41:00.000-04:00

Ah, English sports journalism...possibly the only thing I find more entertaining than, y'know, the footie itself. Start off with this leader in The Observer:

Rarely have English nails been so fiercely bitten: an epic display of football; a drama to jangle the nerves of the hardest fan; a feat of collective bravery by 10 men. Hearts stopped. England lost. On penalties. Again.

The Independent's Joe Lovejoy savages England in a piece he entitles simply "the end of the embarrassment."

It will go down as the year they had two World Cups — one illuminated by disciples of the Beautiful Game, the other played by England. When Sven-Göran Eriksson and his long-ball sect were eliminated on penalties by Portugal last night, it ended the embarrassment it has been to be an Englishman in Germany this past month.

The uncouth behaviour of some of the camp followers has been a minor consideration. The real philistines have been on the pitch, although some dignity was salvaged in a battling display by England’s 10 men in Gelsenkirchen. The extent to which England have regressed since that 5-1 win in Munich at the start of Eriksson’s reign is a terrible indictment of players and management alike. The so-called golden generation came here with high hopes, yet leave as underachievers, beaten at the quarter-final stage for the third tournament in succession.

Eriksson deserves to be pilloried for reversing the laws of arithmetic and somehow having England’s whole add up to less than the sum of its parts.

How could John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, who are outstanding week in, week out in the most competitive league in the world, look so ordinary against the also-rans of Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago and Ecuador? Why can’t Lampard and Gerrard function together? What is the point of Paul Robinson kicking the ball from one penalty area to the other with only a midget centre-forward to aim at? Answers on a postcard to Timid of Torsby, whose tactics and team selection were as flawed as at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004.

Opinion seems to be split on whether Rooney deserved his red card. On the one hand, there is consensus on the proposition that crotch-stomping (ouch!!) is not nice. On the other hand, it didn't look intentional.

In the first camp, we have The Guardian's Sean Ingle on Rooney seeing red:

Tomorrow's headlines will, inevitability, be about Rooney's red. Initially it looked to be for a instinctive stamp on the tender area between Ricardo Carvalho's left and right thighs, but in the melee that followed the England striker also pushed Cristiano Ronaldo. The stamp deserved red. The push definitely didn't.

There were I'm-innocent-me protests. With Rooney there always are. But he has always been Testosterone Central: raw brilliance fused with brooding menace. According to sports scientists, the optimal range of testosterone for an athlete is between 600-900 ng/dl. Rooney's veins overflow with the stuff. He is the ultimate grunt - the sort of man that future generations will clone to go to war - a player you would always want on your team, even though you know he's always primed to explode. Today he did.

In the second camp, we have the doubters. In a bit entitled "Ronaldo's double betrayal," The Times's Martin Jol picks up on the way Cristiano Ronaldo ran up to the referee to ask him to card Rooney:

The pleading of Cristiano Ronaldo for the referee to take action against his clubmate Wayne Rooney was not surprising, but it was a disgrace for football.

When Rooney trampled on Ricardo Carvalho, he didn’t do it on purpose. Before that he was being impeded and should have had a foul anyway. The referee blew his whistle and paused and was thinking of what to do when Ronaldo ran over and asked him to show a card. It’s how Ronaldo always behaves, trying to influence referees, and it turns my stomach when players do that.

I thought to myself, how could he do that? You could argue that Ronaldo is playing for his country in a World Cup, so it’s okay to do anything to win. I don’t believe that. What about sporting values? Rooney is his club teammate, and judging by the way they walked out together at the start, joking, his friend? It was a double betrayal, a disaster for football.

And then there's this friendly bit of advice for Wayne Rooney from former England captain and now BBC commentator Alan Sherer: 'He should go back to the Manchester United training ground and stick one on Cristiano Ronaldo.'

The Observer has this to say about the Eriksson-Scolari grudge-match:

Football being the sort of drama that rarely resists a cliche or a corny plot, there was a certain inevitability about England meeting Portugal in the World Cup quarter-final, and even though Sven-Goran Eriksson had several reasons to hope for a happy ending this time, the eventual denouement was wearily familiar. Penalties again. Defeat again. And just for good measure, no Wayne Rooney - again.

Luiz Felipe Scolari still has not lost a game in two successive World Cup finals. He is unbeaten in 12 matches and two of the victories have accounted for England at the quarter-final stage. Since his Portugal team also proved England's nemesis at the European Championship two years ago, Scolari is left looking every inch the coach the Football Association should have secured as Eriksson's replacement, while Eriksson looks even more colourless and insipid than when put out of the World Cup by 10 men in Shizuoka four years ago.

And The Independent's headline on Eriksson pretty much says it all: "Farewell Sven. You seemed to prefer women to trophies."

This failed World Cup campaign has again revealed the caution of Eriksson's tactical style and his innate cupidity, with sterile football and an apparent eagerness to do a book deal as his departing images. His legacy may be even more damaging, as the best generation of English footballers for 40 years come to terms with his inability to turn them into a coherent team. Meanwhile, he will walk away to another lucrative coaching job, possibly at Real Madrid. The American film business has a cute phrase for this phenomenon - "failing upwards".

And then, Eriksson's lame attempt at self-justification: 'We have practised [penalties] so much I don't think we could possibly practise them any more.'

English Dithyrambs for Zidane

2006-07-02T03:04:00.000-04:00

Now, how often do English newspapers drool, tongues hanging out, in awed reverence at a Frenchman's performance? Not often, but this time they're not sparing the adjectives:

He walked off the pitch with a wink. While the younger ones cavorted in front of the blue corner, Zinedine Zidane took himself away from the limelight. He embraced a few desolate Brazilians, saluted some unused substitutes, stood back from the party and took his leave. It is always best to watch the quiet ones.

France began this tournament saddled with worries about the ageing legs at the heart of their team, but they have changed their tune. Allez les vieux. The capacity to inspire beats on inside Zidane.

One of the enduring curiosities of the France team - the sheer oddness of a statistic that told of 54 games when Zidane and Thierry Henry played together for France without the master creator setting up the master marksman a single time - was obliterated.

Zidane, just as he did in his finest hour, welcomed the opportunity to shatter Brazil. He stood over a set piece on the flank, measuring the moment. He stroked over a free-kick, the ball dipped perfectly to bypass the bewildered Brazil defence and land in front of Henry's right boot. Merci, mon ami. About time too.

While Henry ran off into goalscoring glory, followed by the majority of his team-mates, the old maestro smiled to himself. Patrick Vieira, his vice captain, ran over to engulf him. The legend lives on and on.

How could he have had an ordinary game here? How could he bow out just after reminding us of his wonders with that vintage goal against Spain? How could he not have illuminated this occasion with flashes of the sumptuous talent that has made him probably the greatest player of his generation. A genuine maestro.

'Zizou president' - on the night of 12 July 1998, those two words filled the night air like fireworks. And in a funny way, Zizou's disciples really believed what they were singing. Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, the child of the Marseille banlieue come good, the man whose humility made him the most introverted kind of hero imaginable, he didn't just unite football fans. He united France.

How the French report their futbol

2006-07-02T00:48:00.000-04:00

Tonight in Paris, Arc de Triomphe, bien sur!

To begin with, Le Monde offers you a nifty HTLM for you to put in your blog. Below the result. The title of the article is "Zidane finds Henry", Zidane finds Henry which apparently had not happened for quite a while. You click on the link, a page will open with a set up that details how the French score happened. All very Cartesian.

Brésil-France : Zidane trouve enfin Henry
LEMONDE.FR | 02.07.06

This article will contrast nicely with the Guardian, the favorite of Quico. Not that it is any better than the Guardian, just different gossip focus. There you will learn that the French call the Brazilian team, La Seleção. And use routinely auriverde like we do in Venezuela.

Liberation points out that since 1990 Brazil has been defeated only twice in a World Cup match, and by France. Apparently it matters.

France takes Brazil out

2006-07-01T16:57:00.000-04:00

The World Cup is over, the Eurocup starts Tuesday. The long mighty reign of Brazil is over against France, which people wondered if it could beat Togo.

Yours truly is in awe.

France Brazil: live blogging broadcast

2006-07-01T15:06:00.000-04:00

4:52. On a gagné!

4:48. Ronaldinho (yes, he is playing in this Cup, believe it or not) has just missed a free shot at the French gate.

4:46. Saha got a yellow card within a minute in the game. As the Argentinian sportscaster said: bienvenido al partido Saha.

4:45. Henry out, Saha in. 5 long, loooonnnnnggggg minutes to go.

4:37. Kaká is out also. I wonder how the French TV mentions Kaka... The Brazilian coach is obviously tryin glast minutes maneuvers. About 15 minutes left. Angst!

4:36. Ribery out Govou in. I think I agree, Ribery has run a lot, he is tired and he might as well be saved for the next game. France must win without Ribery today.

4:35. Cafú out, Cicinho in. Maybe the last world cup game for the long serving Brazilian captain.

4:32. Zidane is giving a master's class on how futbol is played. But a yellow card for Sagnol.

4:30. 20 minutes left of game. I am having heart palpitations....

4:15.GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLL

Zizou to Titi, Titi inside as if nothing. Superbe!

4:13. I think that "titi" Henry (as my Direct TV Argentinian sportscaster call him) should check his contact lenses formula. He is starting to make a few too many off sides again.

4:06. And here we go again. France misses a close one in the first couple minutes. Even Quico tells me that the Zidane of 1998 seems to be back. May be be right.

3:49. Dramatic end for the first half. A nervous Brazilian team gets two faults and two yellow cards (one for Ronaldo on a dubious hand if you ask me). They saved the score from the French but the psychological effect might be payed in the second half. Amazingly France is in control and Brazil is playing lousy. (PS: replays show that Ronaldo meant that hand touch: he deserves his yellow!)

3:43. Almost a the half time I am looking in awe at how France has a plan and Brazil seems clueless. I mean, it is far from over, but if a couple of weeks ago after the France Switzerland I had been told they woudl have played as today I woudl have laughed my head off.

3:26. After 26 minutes of game, no geat moves yet. The French would seem to be more in control, but "would seem" is the key word here. Since the game is not very exciting so far I even missed the yellow card for Brazil captain, Cafu! But thanks to the on time FIFA statistics on the game I can catch up.

3:20. Political thoughts.

1) La Marseillaise, a bloody war rousing anthem if any, might be one of the best one to launch players against others.

2) Chirac is watching, welcoming a nice break from his piling worries at home. De Villepin is not in attendance, maybe planning his retirement from Matignon, the Prime Minister residence.

3) Beckenbauer is polishing his image. He is seen with many foreign head of states and his great organization of the World Cup so far might suggest a political future in Germany.

4) Lula is not there. Then again Chirac could almost take the train to visit. I bet Lula will come if Brazil makes it to the finals. Merkel has not missed a German game in the second round.

3:06 PM. The match has already started. Not too fast so far. Teams are watching each other. They both are very respectful of the other one.

Yours truly confess that he sung La Marseillaise. He does not look like the picture below but he "gets it". Ah! Cheap patriotism sometime can feel so good! Will I ever watch a World Cup match between Venezuela and France? I'll die for sure...

Elizondo defeats England

2006-07-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

FUCK!!! Fucketie fuck fuck!

Deep down, I still believed in England. That's what I found out tonight. To see them go out like that, to a TOTALLY ABSURD RED CARD that just didn't make any sense any way you slice it...well...it's too much.

FUCK!

This is the thing: instead of penalty shoot-outs, I think they should have a panel of judges keeping track of the game. Like in boxing. Tied game? Go to the judges after 120 minutes.

If they did that, England would be through. Instead. They go out to a totally absurd red card. FUCK!

Today's game

2006-07-01T11:08:00.000-04:00

Reading a revived Quico it seems that there is another game today besides the France Brazil. Well, I will take his word for it.

The only game to day for me is France Brazil. The fact that I liked England and Portugal equally is perturbing my eventual interest in that game, even more when my beloved "Bleus" are to take the field now that my "futbol" favorite Argentina is out. The mind of a futbol fan is a hard thing to fathom....

Still, since Quico is ignoring the French I must at least write a short preview.

The first thing that one must realize is that France is not afraid of Brazil. In fact, France is the team that is probably the least afraid of Brazil, and Brazil knows it. Digging deep into the Guardian pages one can find articles about France. There is a good appreciation of France "regaining" its freedom. The Spain France game has reminded people that besides physicality there is also experience and mysticism involved in futbol. The French have suddenly got their shit back together, amazingly well enough to make the Brazilians slightly wary. You know that when Parreira admits that his team needs "to step up a level" if they want to beat France, it is not idle talk. Brazil remembers very well the 3-0 at the Stade de France in 1998 or a certain distant game in Guadalajara in 1986 where even according to the French, Brazil dominated but lost on penalty kicks, a la Che!

It remains that the French are a miraculously revived team and that Brazil will need to do more than bring the ball to Ronaldo feet. It might turn out to be like Argentina-Germany, the real final game of the World Cup, for its quality, drama and fun. Let's hope for a real treat, even if I think that Brazil will carry the day.

Did I mention Zambrotta is my favorite Azurro?

2006-07-01T08:39:00.000-04:00

Extra! Extra! Footballer makes BS-free comment at press conference!

2006-07-01T04:36:00.000-04:00

Given how institutionalized the practice of dissembling in front of journalists has become in futbol, I was thrilled to read this bit:

When [England midfielder] Steven Gerard was asked, on the eve of today's quarter-final against Portugal, whether England could win the tournament if they carried on playing the way they have played in their first four matches, he avoided the verbal formulations used by most of the squad, including the head coach, to deflect the unwelcome thought.

"I don't think so," he said, missing a beat. "Do you? I don't."

Argentina: Style in defeat...

2006-07-01T04:27:00.001-04:00

Running late for a dinner appointment, I switched off yesterday's Argentina-Germany match right after the last penalty kick. Apparently, I missed the best part:

The World Cup erupted at the Olympiastadion here last night in scenes that mixed violence and delirium. As Germany began celebrating the 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory over Argentina which takes them into the semi-finals, a mass brawl broke out among the players in the centre circle. The drama continued afterwards when the Argentina coach Jose Pekerman said that he would be standing down from his position.

But it is the fighting that is set to be investigated by Fifa. There were counter-accusations about what initiated the trading of punches but Michael Ballack, the Germany captain, gave the most detailed explanation. He said that as each of Germany's four penalty-takers walked to the box they were abused by Argentina's players waiting on the half-way line.

"The first provocation came from Argentina," said Ballack. "They were shouting at our players as they were going to the penalty spot. They shouted something in Spanish and we didn't understand what they were saying. But they were definitely trying to influence our strikers.

"After Tim Borowski scored [to make it 4-2] he put his finger to his lips to tell them to shut up. They were a bit mad at that. After that I didn't see much but I saw one or two lying on the ground. I didn't see what happened."

Germany's coach Jürgen Klinsmann also tried to say he did not see anything despite being in the middle of it all. Klinsmann had been seen trying to separate Torsten Frings and Argentina's Fabricio Coloccini as they squared up. Maxi Rodriguez was seen to catch Bastian Schweinsteiger with a punch to the back of the head. There were further confrontations involving Gabriel Heinze and Germany's general manager Oliver Bierhoff, and Frings and the Argentina captain Juan Pablo Sorin.

Punches were thrown, though it is believed that Germany's centre-half Per Mertesacker was felled by a kick from the Argentinian squad member Leandro Cufré, who was shown a red card after the melee. Bierhoff said he intervened when he saw Mertesacker go down. "It's regrettable what happened after that. It seems that supporters have learned how to behave at these big games but maybe the sportsmen haven't"

Germany: Vorsprung Durch Technik!

2006-06-30T14:18:00.000-04:00

In the end, it was fair: the two teams were so evenly matched, a penalty shoot-out was the only way to settle a winner. After a soporific first half, we saw Germany play with so much heart it made you ache. A heroic Argentine defense finally got beat in the air.

If anyone can be faulted, it's Pekerman, who thought Argentina had the game sewed up too early and started substituting midfielders for attackers. Messi saw his team go down from the bench...oh cruel fate.

Both teams were still running flat-out deep into extra time. A truly awsome display. You couldn't really say one was better than the other. But the hosts are still in.

Germany vs. Argentina - Oh My...

2006-06-30T04:08:00.000-04:00

Arguably the two best teams of the tournament so far will play two-teams-enter-one-team-leaves today. Oh my! I'm so excited about this one I've just about gotten over the Five Stages of Grief brought on by that Spain debacle (could you tell I was on Anger yesterday?)

Today's game should, by any reasonable calculation, be flat out fantabulous. Just to warm you up I'll link to this intriguing analysis in The Guardian making the case that Argentina are just too good for the hosts. The guy thinks Philipp Lahm is a terrible defender and Argentina will exploit his woes. We'll see...

The Guardian also runs this endearing profile on Maxi "La Fiera" Rodríguez - the silent-but-deadly Argentina midfielder who suddenly burst into worldwide acclaim with his spectacular left-foot volley goal against Mexico. La Fiera quips that he usually only uses his left foot to get on the bus. Fun read...

Meanwhile, Italy face Ukraine in a state of even more melodramatic than usual disarray. Four top Italian teams (Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and Milan) - clubs where 14 out of the 22 Azurri play - are facing relegation over the Calciopoli corruption scandal. Former Azurri have taken to jumping off of tall buildings in dispair. And that's before they lose. Lippi has played a different attacking set-up in each game yet - suggesting Erikssonesque levels of indecision. Amid all this disarray, could Ukraine pull off the upset this tournament has been crying out for?

Oh, and just so it doesn't fall too far down on the page, here's that poll again:

Who do you think will win the World Cup

Current results

Frikkin' Spain...

2006-06-29T14:41:00.000-04:00

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but have another look at the play where Spain threw away its chance to advance to the quarters:

Notice, they're defending a 1-0 lead, and their defense is 1-made up just 3 players and 2-playing 40 frikkin' meters from goal! This is what gets me - every four years Spain seems to incinerate its chances just for fun. Is this any way to defend a lead in a game you can't afford to lose?

Damn them!

(Anyway, I'll be back rooting for them in four years...)

The Year of the Overdog

2006-06-29T07:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm reconciling myself to the fact that - barring a highly unlikely Ukrainian victory over Italy - 2006 will be the World Cup without a Giant Killing.

Seven of the final eight teams can fairly be described as Big Guns. Six of them have already won a World Cup - in fact, only Uruguay is missing out of the previous winners.

Also, my innitial idea that this would be the year of Youth over Experience has been flat wrong. The teenage-heavy teams - Spain, Holland, Switzerland - have gotten a proper whooping by the Geriatric Set - France, Portugal and Ukraine.

At this point, I should probably have the decency to stop making predictions. But decency was never my strong-suit, so I'll say this: all seven of the remaining Big Guns are quite evenly matched. The one thing that might give one of them an edge over the others is home-court advantage. So I say Germany.

A new poll

2006-06-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

OK, it cannot be helped, a poll is in order. May I also suggest, if you reply to the poll, that you put your answer in the comment section. That way you will be able to brag that you were the only one that guessed Ukraine beating all the pundits of the world.

Who do you think will win the World Cup

Current results

Quico?

2006-06-28T23:50:00.000-04:00

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Or is it that you are in such a funk because your predictions were even wronger than mine. For the readers: I did miss Swiss Ukraine, and France Spain, but Quico also missed Portugal Netherlands and Brazil Ghana...

Unbeleivable!

2006-06-27T16:55:00.000-04:00

Almost like a bad flashback.

Spain starts brilliantly, a young energetic and upcoming team, and flounders badly.

France raises all sorts of doubts, an aging team, but suddenly experience, steadiness and creativity come back when most needed. Not that a silly umpire help is not welcome.....

I am speechless. And ecstatic! France has finally erased the awful, AWFUL, performance of Japan Korea. But French supporters are left emotional wrecks.

At any rate, now comes Brazil and after today's game with Ghana, I am hardly less confident than 3 hours ago....

The head goal of Vieira as a departing note for the day.

France España: an angst a minute

2006-06-27T15:57:00.000-04:00

4:47 GOOOOOOOOLAAAAAAAZOOOOOOOO!

Zizou! Superbe!!!!

Bye bye Spain!

4:41. Gooooooooooollll!!!!! But I must say that the fault taken by the umpire was a bad called that favored France. In fact, the umpire is too nice to the French and I am not afraid to say it.

A head by Vieira in a very crowded goal area.

4:32. The game has lost its excitement. Both teasm are good but not as dashing as they were earlier.

Meanwhile: To reach for the impossible star (from the Man of La Mancha, in honor of Spain). Casillas and Thuram.
4:10. Raul is out of the game, the team captian! Now Casillas gets the sash! Spain waking up to reality?

4:02. Second half starts.

Earlier: Unfortunately with Quico gone who knows where and work, the simultaneous broadcast will not take place. I only made it to the TV set a couple of minutes before the penalty in favor of Spain. But what was a French supporter sadness was a fan benefit: the 20 or so minutes that followed that penalty were perhaps the best football that we have seen so far, a brilliant contrast between Spanish energy and French experience, experience that allowed the team not to flounder, hold together and score after a great escape by Ribery. Fabulous game. It was so good, I suppose, that the FIFA site publsihes this rarest of montages minutes after Ribery scored, with a Casillas floored in probably more ways than one.

And we start the second half on a tie, with the French showing quite a different team from the past three games.

In a state of schock?

2006-06-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

It looks like Quico and myself are barely recovering from yesterday's event. Heck, I did not even attempt to write a preview of today's events. Then again procrastination pays off as today's game were dismal affairs. Heck, Australia, a first comer, holding Italy for 90 minutes to end up in a lousily called penalty quick. The replays are clear, it was not a penalty but Oz is out. OZ can leave with its head very high and hopefully a secure seat for Oceania in a next FIFA tournament. Why not them instead of Saudio Arabia or Iran again, and again (I agree with Quico there)?

But that was just a taste of things to come: the second game ended up in a hopeless, and hopelessly boring, tie, implying a penalty shoot out. The drama suddenly promised to be high when almighty Shevchenko missed the first one! I thought that that was that, Ukraine would be out. But the Ukrainian goalie, in a dramatically impossible feat, stopped three canon balls from the Swiss Guards!!!!!!!! That was that, Ukraine was in. On the right, by any yardstick, the man of the day, goalkeeper of the incredibly lucky Ukraine, Oleksandr Shovkovskiy. I wonder which will be his next European Club.

Then again the only question I have is how come Ukraine and Switzerland came that far in the tourney when last year European champion, Greece, did not even qualify.

It does not matter: Italy won twice today as they are all but certain to beat Ukraine in a few days and reach the semifinals without much trouble.

To end this lackluster day, the shot of Shevchenko putting the ball into the Swiss goalie hands (who is not dishonored by tonight's bad luck: he leaves the tournament as the only goalie WITHOUT receiving a score except for today's penalty series. Yes, that is right, in all previous games no one could place a ball in Zuberbuehler gate.)

Another look at last night's brawl in Nurenberg...

2006-06-26T05:02:00.001-04:00

This is the foul that set up all the craziness: just 10 minutes into the game, it was an assault, really, an intentona on Cristiano Ronaldo rather than a foul. Should've been a red-card right away. Cristiano Ronaldo managed to limp around for another 8 minutes before a second brutal foul sent him off crying (literally) into the bench. From this point on, the Portuguese had revenge in mind:

Futbol-cum-Hockey

2006-06-25T17:01:00.000-04:00

Fulltime: Portugal 1 - Holland 0
That was easily the most violent 45 minutes of futbol I've ever seen in the World Cup or, indeed, anywhere outside a penal setting. 16 yellow cards, 4 reds: both World Cup records. Micro-brawl after micro-brawl. Obscene tackling. Impossible time-wasting schemes from the Portuguese.

The effective time-of-play in the second half can't have been more than 20 minutes. The Dutch lost their cool. The Portuguese were skillful, but also INCREDIBLY cynical - openly provoking the Dutch in order to waste time. Just amazing.

Addendum
The official match report is now available and the Portuguese stole EIGHT minutes from the Dutch! The effective time of play for the whole match was just 52 minutes - 8 less than the usual!

The minute-by-minute report in The Guardian was great fun:

59 min Van Bronckhorst is booked for cropping his Barca mate Deco. Then, in the ensuing afters, Figo sticks the heed on Van Bommel! He nutted him! And the ref only booked him! WTF? You would think Fifa can ban Figo after the game, but apparently that's only for stuff the ref didn't see. So it depends if the ref booked him for the heed job, which I don't think he saw, or just the general aggro, which he might have done. But, Hackett-lovers, there's a chance England could face Portugal next week without Figo, Costinha and Ronaldo.

61 min From the resulting free-kick, Simao coaxes a beauty over the wall that lands on the top of the net.

62 mins: BOULAHROUZ SENT OFF! The ref evens it up to ten a side and it's all going off here! Handbags galore! Rochester High Street comes to the World Cup! Figo, who should have walked for nutting Van Bommel, is just muscled off the ball by Boulahrouz and goes down clutching his face. There was contact but I really don't think it was deliberate from Boulahrouz. Then Ooijer had a frank and animated discussion of the Long Blondes' back catalogue with the Portuguese bench, which enabled to crowbar in the obligatory shameless Long Blondes reference! Blimey!

64 mins Holland are now playing 2-4-3, so Cocu will have to drop in to make it 3-3-3. "This is laughable," says GU's Carrie Dunn, laughing.

65 mins “Ruud Gullit isn't wearing any socks under his loafers. Fancy,” says James Houston, who presumably is keeping the full story on the Gullit underwear for extra-time.

66 mins This, of course, changes the game completely, and pricks the momentum Holland were building up. Kuyt, who looks like Tommy from Trainspotting (before he got the cat), miscontrols a good through ball from erm, from erm...

67 mins: Holland substitution - Heitinga for Van Bommel 1-0 down, defender for midfielder. Odd. Anyway, it's definitely 3-3-3 now.

69 mins Great play from Van Persie, who Cruyff-turns past the inept Valente and skims a brilliant ball right across the face of goal six yards out. Van Nistelrooy would have buried that.

70 mins I should stress that Figo didn't properly stick the heed on Van Bommel - it was more a Kingston-upon Thames kiss than a Glasgow kiss - but the fact is he made the motion, and made contact. And while Van Bommel's 12-pints-of-Magners-have-just-hit-me act was pitiful, Figo should have gone off.

71 mins Ricardo Carvalho makes a truly wonderful, over-the-top (in the Blackadder Goes Forth rather than the Souness sense) block on the edge of the box to stop Sneijder's stinging volley.

73 mins: It's all going off again! Wonderful stuff. Holland ignored the unwritten gentlemanly conduct rule after a bouncing ball, playing on when Portugal expected to get the ball back, and Deco responded by scything down Heitinga with a comically disgusting hack. He was booked and, in the melee, Sneijder shoved Petit over - he was leaning over Heitinga, Keane-on-Haaland style - and got booked for that. This is brilliant! Van Der Vaart, I think, got booked also.

76 mins Ricardo booked for timewasting. Someone lend me Graham Poll's abacus.

77 mins This is pure theatre. Nuno Valente is booked for doing Van Persie from behind: that's the 14th yellow card!

77 mins: RED CARD - DECO! This is absolutely out of control now. Deco gets a second yellow card for stopping Holland taking a quick free-kick, and Graham Poll is a visionary compared to this bloke. England are going to be playing Portugal Reserves next week: no Figo, no Deco, no Ronaldo, no Costinha. They might blag their way into the semis!

78 mins “Are you suggesting the good burghers of Kingston-upon-Thames can’t fight?” offers Steve Morgan. “I have my keys ready every time I go past the Rotunda late doors of a weekend, such is the smell of fear. These Portuguese pussies wouldn’t stand an England’s chance in a World Cup in a scrimmage outside Europa Chicken son, unless you slipped on their hair grease and lost your footing.” I'd offer a witty response but a) that requires wit and b) it's all I can do to watch this barnstorming and bizarre game at the moment.

79 mins “This is brilliant, Smyth,” says GU alumnus Nick Harper. “Best game of the World Cup by miles.” Damn right – it’s genius.

80 mins Dirk Kuyt misses a one-on-one. He was played through the middle by a wonderful, Effenberg-like sliderule pass, and Ricardo came roaring out to meet him; Kuyt, stretching, whapped it straight into Ricardo's chest. He should have scored. Ruud would have scored.

82 mins: two substitutions. Or not. Tiago on for Figo and - how's this for a snub? - Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (not Van Nistelrooy) for someone. And now Tiago's NOT coming on. What the eff? Actually, Hesselink isn't on either. Yet.

83 mins I can't be bothered reading emails as, every time I look away from the screen, someone gets nuked. But I'll have a look if we go to extra time.

84 mins Tiago comes on for Figo. Vennegoor of Hesselink comes on for Cocu. What the hell has happened to poor Ruud Van Nistelrooy?

85 mins “I’ve seen cleaner hockey games than this,” says Arthur Delano.

86 mins Vennegoor heads down a long ball to Van Der Vaart, who chests it up and tries a ridiculous karate-kick that flies well over. No aggro for 10 minutes, it is my sad duty to relate.

87 mins No real momentum for Holland at the moment, although there should be at least four decades of injury time in which they can try to grab an equaliser.

88 mins Portugal break four-on-three and mess it up completely. The indefatigable Miguel gets free on the right, but he tries a lame pass to Simao, who was offside anyway.

89 mins Dirk Kuyt's hooked shot from the edge of the box is smothered by Ricardo. “Graham Poll must think it's his birthday,” says Nick Sweeney. “No-one's going to remember his three-yellows after this match.”

90 mins An unbelievably good cross from Sneijder on the right swooshes along the six-yard line with about four players missing it by THIS much. Van Nistelrooy territory once again.

90 mins + 5 secs There are to be six minutes of added time, and then the flies on the tunnel wall should see some serious action.

90+1 mins Holland seem resigned to their fate here.

90+3 mins Now we know why Phil Scolari didn't want to take the England job in April, eh?

90+4 mins: RED CARD - VAN BRONCKHORST I have nothing to say really except that this is very, very weird. Four red cards is a World Cup record and, though the ref has been a total clown, that was probably a legitimate second yellow card for Van Bronckhorst: he just had a right good hack at Tiago (I think).

90+5 mins Tiago, full of energy and not on a yellow card, toebungs wide from 12 yards. Meanwhile, there's an amusing little gathering of the red-carded players, sat together watching and discussing the game like toffs in a park with Pimm's and cheques from Daddy. There have been 16 yellow cards tonight, and yet apparently the official statistics show just 25 fouls! That, ladies and gentlemen, is the product of the blather of Blatter, and this kind of farce has been coming ever since he insisted you get booked for pretty much everything.

Full time: Portugal 1 Holland 0 The end of a truly bizarre match: four red cards, 474 yellow cards, deliverance for Graham Poll and, at the end of it, Portugal will again meet England in the quarter-final. But they won't have Deco, they won't have Costinha, and they might not have either Figo or Ronaldo. Thanks for all your emails: it's been old-school. Rob.

Now this gets good...

2006-06-25T15:49:00.000-04:00

Halftime: Portugal 1 - Netherlands 0 --- Portugal 10 Players, Netherlands 11

The Dutch have solved the Costinha problem (red card) and the Cristiano Ronaldo problem (mauled out of the game by successive, near-criminal tackles.)

Now it's 10 on 11. Van Nistelrooy is on the bench. Anything at all could happen.

Addendum
The official match report is now available and the Portuguese stole EIGHT minutes from the Dutch! The effective time of play for the whole match was just 52 minutes - 8 less than the usual!

I blame Eriksson

2006-06-25T14:46:00.000-04:00

So say a team happens to have 4 of the 9 or 10 best midfielders in the world. Say they're all fit, injury free, and playing together. Say they get 90 minutes to play a second-round World Cup match against a second-tier South American team. And say they do nothing, create next to no chances, fail to pierce the defense, fail to exploit the wings, fail to serve the super-star center forward, fail to find each other long enough to say hello for the whole 90 minutes forcing you to rely on a foul kick for a freak lead.

Say all that happens...how can you explain that? who do you blame?

I know who...

To think they wrote songs feting him a few years ago!

Words fail me...

2006-06-25T13:07:00.000-04:00

...people tell me I'm a good writer, but somehow I can't quite string together a set of adjectives to adequately describe how fucking awful England were today. Granted, it was 35 degrees in Stutgart, probably the heat made problems for them. Nonetheless, they screwed up this game so bad it's hard to know where to start.

Passing: awful.
Off-ball running: practically none.
Shooting: oy vey!
Running down the bands: a disaster of tolstoyian proportions...

Everything about England sucked today...except Beckham's skill with a free kick. Ecuador gets good marks for holding the English, but often I had the sense that it wasn't Ecuador's defending that was good - it was the English attack that was bad.

A sorry spectacle...there is just no way these 11 people will win the World Cup.

Ecuador England: yawn!.....

2006-06-25T11:47:00.000-04:00

England is playing real bad. Cole seems to be missing. England is just an average team, like one of those old dowagers who lives off its name. Ecuador is about to make a big kill. The Argentinian commentators on TV are now openly rooting for Ecuador and the Falkland/Malvinas thing is not the reason anymore.

Bye Britannia?

Second half: OK, things are changing. Beckham is Beckham after all....

End result: England won but did not deserve it. Embarrasingly petty match from their part.

Doesn't it look easy when Maxi Rodríguez does it?

2006-06-25T06:27:00.000-04:00

Here's that Maxi Rodríguez goal again...wow...

If you played for Brazil, what would your name be?

2006-06-25T02:56:00.000-04:00

...hours of good, clean fun...

England have Lampard and Rooney, Ecuador have this guy...

2006-06-25T02:23:00.000-04:00

That's DOCTOR Tzamarenda Naychapi to you. Shaman. Witch doctor. Santero. Call him what you will. The guy is Ecuadorean and he's been going around to all the different stadia to hold little ceremonies meant "to purify this important place for the World Cup and to bring positive energy." Well that's what he says, anyway. Somehow, I'm certain there's a little rag doll of Joe Cole full of pins in his closet.

An awesome match

2006-06-24T17:49:00.000-04:00

The man of the day, Maxi Rodriguez, with one of the most awesome scores that one is given to see in football! Of course mere pictures cannot render such an extraordinary kick, but Rodriguez finally placed Argentina in quarters after a stunning game. (added later: you can find the video of the Maxi Score, click here, look for "video highlights" (yellow and black rectangle somewhere in the middle, click again and look for the Argentina versus Mexico, match 50, in the menu of the window that opens. Then wait until 98 appears in the screen, about 1.8 minutes into the clip)

This is the kind of game that separates great teams from average: both Argentina and Mexico showed depth, strength, creativity, resistence until the last 120ieth minute. Mexico in probably its best performance ever! Anyone deserved to win. But Argentina most, and Argentina needed a difficult match to help focus against Germany. The shame of 2002 is washed and bleached :)

Ps: as Quico mentioned in a comment, this is the kind of match that we will remember twenty years from today.

Mexico goes in for the Giant Kill - but comes up just short

2006-06-24T15:09:00.002-04:00

Overtime - Argentina 2-1 Mexico

Well, the Mexicans leave Germany with their heads held high. They played fantastically organized futbol against Argentina. They were vanquished in injury time thanks to one of the best goals in the World Cup so far. The All-Conquering Argentina of the first round was MIA tonight. Can they begin to deal with their quarterfinal opponents...GERMANY? Hmmmm...

Fulltime - 1-1
First overtime of the World Cup - Mexico is playing excellent futbol. The fabled Argentine attack has no way through them. But now the fitness premium really kicks into overtime - you have to be in supernatural shape to play 90 minutes of futbol at a more or less decent pace. But 120 minutes? Just brutal...

Halftime - 1-1

An excellent Mexico that's rendered Riquelme useless and shut down Argentina's legendary midfield flow.

9 minutes in - GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL...

Mexico 1 - Argentina 1

An own-goal that would've been a golazo if Borgetti had been aiming at the other goal. Guess it couldn't.

5 minutes in - GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL...

Mexico 1 - Argentina 0

Can this really hold?

German Blitzkrieg

2006-06-24T13:10:00.000-04:00

I have had always a problem with the Germans, the team I fail to love but cannot bring myself to dislike. And today I was reminded of why.

I dislike Italy for their locked game that takes the fun out of watching futbol. It is efficient to a point, but 90% boring. Not been Italian there is no way I can empathize, like their style, even less when I grew up among the Italian theatrics that repulsed me even more.

The Germans in some ways remind me of Italy: a ruthless teutonic wall. But they do have something that I like (besides efficiency and lack of usless drama queenism): contrary to the Italians they try to deal with the issue fast before they get into a more defensive mode. Thus with the Germans you will always see a great team game (they are one of the least star conscious teams) and a significant chunk of great game until they build their ascendancy. Then it might be over, Italian style. The Germans do project that image that one has to take matters in one's hands to win by scoring first and fast, the Italians seem to rely more on luck to get out of a painful draw.

Today was no exception. The Germans scored brilliantly, with the very best of their brand of Football, early, fast, efficient, ruthless, fabulous!. Then we had to wait for nearly 80 minutes for the game to end. Oh, I am sure that the game was good or something, I did not watch it. At minute 20 I went out to do my week end shopping and came back for the last 10 minutes where all my fears were confirmed.

But I am grateful still, loving and disliking them at the same time, Klose and Podolski showed how great futbol is played, even if it was for barely 15 minutes. I wish Italy were to give me someday 15 minutes of pure joy :)

My predictions

2006-06-24T13:01:00.000-04:00

One for the ladies...

2006-06-24T10:36:00.000-04:00

...this is what the Germans are up against this afternoon...when he's not charging straight ahead into defensive lines, Sweden's number 9, Freddie Ljungberg, is hawking underwear...

Second round hopes and frustrations

2006-06-24T10:19:00.000-04:00

The problem with the second round matches is that quite often they start with what would have been a dream finale. This time is no exception.

Germany will beat Sweden in a lackluster match, by 2 points. So will do Argentina against Mexico, maybe less lackluster. The end result? On June 30 what will be probably the advanced "real" finale of the Cup, Argentina against Germany (while the Swiss might hold on to survive and meet the winner of that game........)

Very frustrating for me. Fortunately tomorrows's games will be more interesting (the one to watch today is Argentina Mexico, tomorrow you can watch all of them).

On another note, I have taken the bullet from Quico and did my predictions for this first stage of the second round. Note, all the score indicated do not include and eventual penalty round, that is if team X I mark down as winning 2 to 1, it means that they tied the game 1-1 and at penalty round they scored one more than the other team. Your predictions Quico?

Now it's just scary for everyone...

2006-06-24T08:05:00.000-04:00

Well, the tournament kicks up a gear today. The first round is fun, you get to see the two-bit teams that have no hope of winning, you get to lose a game and still come back, all that stuff. But the elimination rounds? Grueling, not fun.

Today: the likely champions Argentina against Mexico. And the hosts against Sweden. I've been pining for a Giant Killing from day one, but doubt I'll get one today. Maybe Sweden can give us a batacazo?...hmmm...

Here are those brackets again...

The complete brackets are here...

2006-06-23T17:18:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

(click on the thumbnail to get a full-sized image.)

Fun notes:

Africa had 5 teams - just 1 is still in (Ghana)
Eastern Europe had 5 teams - just 1 is still in (Ukraine)
South America had 4 teams - 3 are still in (Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador)
North and Central America, and the Caribbean had 4 teams - 1 is still in (Mexico)
Oceania had 1 team - It's still in (Australia)
Asia had 4 teams - All 4 are out.
Western Europe had 9 teams - ALL of them are still in.
Only France and Mexico failed to win the groups they were seeded in.
Out of the favorites, Italy has the easiest draw.
An Argentina v. Brazil final is still possible.

And the silliest-dressed fans of the first round are these three Swiss dudes, who somehow fooled security and managed to get into the stadium in full military uniform:

France Togo, live coverage

2006-06-23T15:05:00.000-04:00

OK, so I swallowed really hard and took a leave from work today to watch the FrancoTogolese game. The things a supporter must do....

I also set up the WiFi at home so I can seat on my couch, lap top on lap (!) and cover the game as it goes.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

5:10. So France won but not by enough to avoid Spain. Still, I am happy and I rather have my team eliminated by Spain than Togo or Switzerland. It is no dishonor to lose against Spain in 8th round. Not to mention that there is a chance with this revived French team to even win. A distant one but an existing one as opposed to 4 days ago when I was wondering whether France would beat Togo. To leave this live coverage, a picture of the power of Thierry Henry (who was filmed swapping shorts with a Togolese player. They swap shorts now?).

4:50. It almost over. France will go to the second round. But against Spain.

4:40. Vieira goes to blow his candles. Govou tries to revive attack. The Swiss win by two.

4:32. Expreimented Wiltord replaces Maoula whose name has not come up once on Meridiano coverage. Still 15 minutes of game. Darn!

4:22. Vieira and Henry are the ones marking these two ones. Very appropriate. Now one more by Trezeguet and not only we will avoid Spain but I will be happy.

4:20. GOOOOOOOOooooooooollllllllllllll! Carajo!

4:14. Gooooooooooooooooool!!!!!

4:00. Here we go again. The situation is clear: as the Swiss are still winning, France needs a 1-0 victory to qualify. Togo is out anyway so why should they not be daring as France will have to attack with all its soul? Very tough situation for France. In fact, assuming that the Swiss keep that 1-0, France needs 2-0 to avoid Spain. Tough, real tough.

Intermission. Just a comment about the Togolese goalie: Kossi Agassa. The busiest man in this game so far. With one of his two nemesis, Thierry Henry

3:45. First time over. No prolongation as there was no time lost in injuries. Shows you that both teams are concerned enough and more interested in playing than theatrics.

Trezeguet has been great but missed narrowly everything, or was off side. He needs to cool off. As for how dangerous Togolese think Trezeguet is? Watch below.

3:30. Trivia you could do without. It is also Vieira birthday. The two captains of the French squad are born the same day, 4 years apart.

Also some French tackiness that you could live without.

3:20. Trezeguet is making a difference. Two near misses. Hope he does not exhaust himself too fast.

Togo is playing decently. No pushover there.

3:15. France is moving faster. Faster than Ronaldo anyway. Ball in control. A couple of good shots to the Togo gate keeper. There is hope.

3:00 PM, Venezuela time. The Marseillaise went fine. Barthez did not sing but the new captain, Vieira, was loud an clear. Veira is the captain as Zidane is benched, today, his birthday. If France loses, his most recent outing will turn out to have been his last one.

The team will be quite different from the original intentions of Domenech. Cisse out with a broken leg, Zidane red carded. A despirited team. Trezeguet in again. A new captain. IS all possible?

The picture is of Domenech, the man about to become the most reviled man in France if we do not make it to the second round...

Spains fielded the C team, I think

2006-06-23T11:32:00.000-04:00

Well, we are into the 25 minute of the second half of Spain vs. Saudi Arabia and Spain is winning by ONLY 1 to 0. It gets worse when the stats show that Spain has already shot about 20 times to the Saudi goalie while the Arabs only shot 3 times.

Now I understand better why La Reconquista took 800 years....

Worst of 2006

2006-06-23T10:00:00.001-04:00

We're almost to the end of the first round, so this may be a good time to mull that eternal question: which team stunk up the pitch the most?

To Totti or not to Totti, that is the question

2006-06-23T09:32:00.000-04:00

Repubblica readers can't agree on Totti's performance.

(Question: Totti's performance has divided commentators and readers. In your opinion, should he start against Australia?)

Crazy FIFA Overreaction Files: De Rossi banned for four matches

2006-06-23T09:22:00.000-04:00

Does FIFA hate futbol?

OK, OK, this De Rossi foul on McBride during the Italy v. USA game was pretty rough. Guy's nose broke. Lots of blood. Still, it didn't really look intentional. And a FOUR MATCH BAN?

Se volvieron locos...

Pollgate Update: "This is a little bit too much..."

2006-06-23T07:12:00.000-04:00

Graham Poll, the English referee for the Croatia-Australia match, is quickly becoming a punchline, a by-word for officiating so hideously awful you wouldn't stand for it in a backstreet pick-up game, much less at the World Cup.

For artful understatement, it's hard to top the FIFA spokesman who noted that "We had a first in the history of the World Cup, unfortunately, when a player received three yellow cards - this is a little bit too much."

A little bit?!!

Ronaldo: Still fat, still slow, now scoring...

2006-06-23T07:04:00.000-04:00

OK, ok, so I panned Ronaldo really harshly for his performance in the first two games and then he went and scored two lovely goals yesterday. Credit where credit is due - Ronaldo is so extravagantly talented that he doesn't even have to run to score goals. The guy is obviously not as mobile as he once was, but his touch is so fearsomely precise, his futboling vision so acute, his sense for goal so terrifyingly inspired, he can turn a game around while standing still. So a round of applause to Ronaldo - the man is an inspiration to fat people everywhere.

A Friday to forget: a prelude to a new Rocroi or St. Quentin

2006-06-22T23:47:00.000-04:00

Let's see if there is anything salvageable from tomorrow's games. After today's excitement (Bravo Oz! Viva Ghana!) it is difficult to get excited about tomorrow, in particular if you are a dispirited French supporter. So let's start with France. It needs to win by three just in case Korea and Switzerland tie. It should be able to do it against the smallest African country in the tournament, Togo. And perhaps face Ukraine. But the best hopes are for France to qualify is to win by 1 and either Korea or the Swiss to win. In this case France will meet its maker in the guise of Spain that will take a wicked pleasure in trashing the hell out of France. I might root for Spain then...

Spain should sail free, and Ukraine undeservedly should qualify. The only question is whether Spain will score at least twice to become the top scoring team in the first round of the World Cup. A little bit of trivia that will go a long way with the ardent Spanish fan base in Venezuela (I shiver about the next four years if Spain wins the Cup!). Unfortunately it should be a piece of cake for Spain to score at least 4 times against the Saudis... I am doomed to avoid any futbol discussion with a Spaniard for the next 4 years (and run away from them if they win the Cup).

PS: the title refers to my childays history books when these things were still important. Rocroi was a the great French victory against Habsburg Spain. But a couple of decades before Phillip II had won at Saint Quentin a battle that justified the construction of the Escorial convent. In those days futbol had not bee invented to settle national differences. Then we got convents now we get fabulous stadiums. Progress!

The defender who played so dirty they had to book him three times...

2006-06-22T17:41:00.000-04:00

Tonight, Croatian defender Josip Simunic broke the world record for yellow cards: three in a game.

The English referee Graham Poll booked him for a rough foul in the 61st minute. In the 90th minute, he booked him again, but didn't realize he'd already booked him half an hour earlier, so he didn't show him a red card. Looking baffled, Simunic continued to play. Three minutes later, another Simunic had the bravado to actually protest a call and out comes the yellow card...for the third time! Only at this point did Poll realize he'd already booked the guy twice, and expelled him. Amid the vaudeville, Poll totally lost control of the game towards the end.

Worse still, FIFA is being accused of a bizarre cover-up, because the official match report omits any mention of the second yellow-card, though millions and millions of people saw it!

I don't think there is any precedent for this, not that I can think of. Poll's mistake, technically, could be grounds for annuling the whole game and playing again...which won't happen simply because it would send the schedule all haywire. Totally crazy.

The Plebes say: Buffon, man of the match

2006-06-22T12:23:00.000-04:00

This is how Repubblica readers ranked the Italian players today:

Ghana wins, to meet doom as a reward

2006-06-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

Ghana won. The US is out. FIFA rankings are meaningless. And for its prize Ghana gets to play Brazil next round. Though perhaps for Brazil it might make sense to lose against Japan and meet Italy instead.... Seems that nobody can make much sense of Ghana and Brazil perhaps even less... This getting really fun!

PS: I will let Quico write the obit of the Czech

Bounced Czech

2006-06-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

Italy scored early, deciding to go for a win and play it safe in next round (good call from Quico). The Czechs lost one player. 45 minutes more of game with one less man and an Italian team that will lock itself up. Have you noticed that there seems to be always like 15 Italian players around Baros or Nedved whenever these go on Italian grounds?

And Ghana just scored a penalty against the US, to take a 2-1 lead. Tough, tough for the Czech. Unluckily Venezuelan broadcast in San Felipe only give the Italy game. I need cable to watch Ghana US.... And no cable at work. Not to mention that I do have to work :(

Big break for the Czechs...

2006-06-22T08:34:00.000-04:00

Milan Baros will start in attack against Italy. Köller is still out. But how fit will Baros be?

Lippi took out Toni and will play with Totti behind Gilardino in attack. It looks like a 4-4-1-1. Camoranesi starts for the first time. Inzaghi is still on the bench, to the wrenching disappointment of his legions of fans.

In midfield, we'll have a classic duel: Milan's Gennaro Gattuso, known as Italy's best marker, trying to stop former European player of the year Pavel Nedved. One of the world's best offensive midfielders up against one of the world's best defensive players. Will Nedved get engatusated? Great fun.

One note: Topping this group is very, very important - the difference between facing Brazil in the Round of 16 and facing Croatia or Australia. More than that, topping the group puts you on track to meet Switzerland or Ukraine in the quarters. Winning Group E is virtually a by into the semifinals!

50 minutes to go and I can barely sit still!

Layers and layers of drama tonight for Italy...

2006-06-22T03:47:00.000-04:00

Well, as though the futbol itself wasn't exciting enough, Italy will be playing tonight knowing that, just minutes after the end of the game, the first report into the Calciopoli scandal now racking Serie A will be released by the - get this - one-time anti-mafia prosecutor running the probe. Calciopoli, as the scandal is known, has grown into one of the most serious in Italy's futbol history, with up to six teams accused of fixing matches and paying off referees, and mega-team Juventus accused of out-and-out stealing the scudetto in 2004-2005.

Lippi, of course, says the players are thinking of nothing except the Czechs, but can that really be true? Pundits back home expect some very tough penalties to be handed down this afternoon. The "nuclear option" of suspending the Serie A championship altogether for a year seems to have been avoided. Instead, there is now credible speculation that the once all conquering Juventus will be stripped of one or both of their most recent titles and will be demoted all the way to Serie C next year. That's right, Buffon, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Camoranesi and Del Piero will play tonight knowing that they may spend all of next year playing in 2,000 seat stadiums and facing opponents of the caliber of Lumezzane, Pizzighettone and Novara in the Italian third division!

(Of course, Nedved is also in that position!)

It would take Juventus at least two years to fight their way back to the top tournament. And though Juventus is in the most trouble, they're far from the only ones in trouble. Milan, Udinese, Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Lazio are also, to varying degrees, in hot water. That's Nesta, Oddo, Gattuso, Pirlo, Gilardino, Tony, Iaquinta and Inzaghi to you. 13 out of Lippi's 23 players are in teams implicated in Calciopoli.

Can all those players really put it out of their minds that their whole multi-million dollar, Serie A-funded racket of a lifestyle is about to collapse like a house of cards? Or will it all just set off a mad scramble by English, Spanish and German teams to buy up Italian talent at bargain basement prices?

Czech out your pacemakers!

2006-06-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

If the two previous days were on the boring side, in spite of occasional bright spot such as the tribal dancing from the Ivorian players, tomorrow might be high noon. We will have everything: supsense, the last chance for some teams to show they deserved to play in this Cup, drama as much as you can have, and probably some ridicule too.

Of course, the real group of death is settling accounts. In group E everything can happen. Italy can crown itself as a favorite or find the back door quickly before the fans storm the field. Ghana can redeem Africa's hope or prepare an expiation dance as its neighbours did. The United States can demonstrate it is willing to play with the world according to world rules, or go back to its parrochial World Series. And the Czech, well, they can show that they are more than a Smetana ditty, that they are the Slav March (did anyone realize that there are 5 Slav countries in the tournament and that they are not doing any better than the 5 African ones?).

At any rate, Italy versus Czechland will be a tough clash. Nedved knows the Italians better than anyone else outside of Italy. We might even hope he does not think he is playing with his Italians buddies ;) But what will be horrendous is that Italy qualifies with a tie and they will block the game, they will not be able to resist the temptation of doing what they do best: give football a bad name. Period. Expect high drama and unacountable delays. And imagine if the Czech score first? Three quick replacement to rebuild an attack?

The US and Ghana will put it all on the table as they both need to win to go to the next round. If all tie, Italy and the Czechs move up. If either one wins, then it has a very fair chance to move up. Adn either one can win! They are both reckless teams. A match to watch!

The other games in group F will be less nerve racking. Brazil is in, and Japan must go all out to take 3 points and hope for a draw in Australia-Croacia. Who knows what can happen as Brazil might not care enough since it is all but certain to be the first in the group (Australia would have to pull a victory over Croacia by 4 points!). As for Croacia versus Australia? who knows! I will root for the soceroos of course but I must confess that I have no idea how that one will go, or even if it is worth watching! No matter what, the interest in this group is that three of them need a victory to have a chance to pass, while Brazil might lose a game, as it always does in the first round :) Attack game anyone?

The Plebes Demand Inzaghi

2006-06-21T21:34:00.000-04:00

According to Repubblica, Italians are not happy with the Gilardino-Toni partnership Lippi has been using in attack. Their readers are pining for SuperPippo.

Wearing that shirt in this country may be hazardous to your health...

2006-06-21T20:14:00.000-04:00

Just to reassure us that the Scots are just as violent and barrenly nationalistic as the stereotype suggests, The Guardian reports that England fans have been attacked in Scotland for displaying the Cross of Saint George north of the border. Ugh.

Argentina - Netherlands: What a game...

2006-06-21T15:20:00.000-04:00

15 minutes in, both teams are playing with such clockmaker's precision it's amazing. The level of play is definitely the highest we've seen this World Cup. The Netherlands is keeping possession, but the Argentine attack - Messi and Tevez (Imagine! Those are their B-Team strikers!) is so good anything could happen.

Portugal sails, Mexico wavers

2006-06-21T12:16:00.000-04:00

By winning its three games in group D Portugal has shown how it is done and how a top seeded team should behave. Although I think their game is still not as good as two years ago in the European cup, Portugal has been improving as the tournament advances. It has also demonstrated that their B team is as good as their A team, now that boy wonder Cristiano Ronaldo took a break (and other top players). Portugal is now a definiteve candidate for the top 4 if it overcomes Holland next round. Well, assuming that Holland makes it second in its group.

On the other hand Mexico good start has not been confirmed. It is erratic enough that there is little hope for it to be able to face convincingly Argentina or Holland. The good news there is that now the Argentina-Holland game will be more interesting as each one of them will definitley want to face Mexico! More reason to play hookie this afternoon and go home watch the game!

PS: Angola Iran? Did anyone watched it outside of Teheran and Luanda? A disapointing tie at that. All African hopes are on Ghana.

Argentina-Holland Press Review

2006-06-21T06:32:00.000-04:00

Argentina's line-up is a well-kept secret, Pekerman hasn't even told the players. The only thing that's sure is that he won't play Heinze, Crespo or Saviola, who have yellow cards, to make sure they're available for the Round of 16. That means Tevez and teenage wunderkind Messi in attack.

Clarin hypes up the game as a modern futbol classic, recalling memorable encounters between the two squads in 1974, 1998, and of course the final in 1978. Buenos Aires' Diario La Prensa, on the other hand, calls it "little more than a bureaucratic procedure" and notes Van Basten is leaving four Holland starters on the bench. (Arjen Robben, Mark van Bommel, Joris Mathijsen and Johnny Heitinga).

La Nacion chips in that the Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo is known for letting play flow and showing few yellow cards.

La Nacion also note that Pekerman baffled foreign reporters with his extremely somber, funeral director's demeanor and barely audible voice in yesterday's press conference. "Is he feeling ok?" they kept muttering to themselves...but, apparently, that's just his way. Obviously, he refused to be drawn on whether he'd rather face Mexico or Portugal in the next round, but Saviola broke with protocol, telling Pagina 12 that he'd much rather play Mexico.

So we'll be seeing a lot of the B-Teams, but I think that will make the match more exciting, not less. For one thing, both teams have so much talent on the bench that their B-Teams are virtually as good as their A-Teams. For another, B-Team players are desperate to start in the next round, and this is their one last chance to impress their coaches.

This match will determine once and for all which nation is the greatest on earth: Mexico or Portugal!

2006-06-21T02:50:00.000-04:00

Simpson's Mexico vs. Portugal Preview:

The end of a boring day, waiting for another one

2006-06-20T21:33:00.000-04:00

Except for the rather unexpected 3-0 win of Germany over Ecuador, it was a boring day (unless you morbidly focus on England's injuries like one that shall not be named). But it might be good for Ecuador: after their great start it is good that they are reminded that the real tests are still laying ahead. Time to focus again guys, you are not playing at 6000 feet in Quito! England, even with half their team killed is still not a cup of tea.

Tomorrow's promise is hardly better, though we have the hope of two good games as opposed to only one that seemed promised today. The day will start sorting out group D. Portugal and Mexico should be a good game. Even though Portugal is already in, Mexico must ensure a draw to be in. Actually a win by Mexico will place it at the head and avoid Argentina more fearsome than the Dutch. Portugal gets to face the Dutch with a tie, thus ensuring a strong Portuguese attack if Mexico were to score the first point.

Angola Iran? ZZZzzz..... Well, yes, if Angola wins, by 3 points!, and Mexico loses without scoring, Angola goes on to the next round. Possible but unlikely, Angola's fate is pretty much settled, unless they want Iran to help them with nuclear weapons...

The other group is less interesting. Côte d'Ivoire and the ex S&M are out so they play for honor. The Côte should be the winner as S&M has not even a country's honor to fight for.

Argentina versus Holland (the delicious replay of a memorable Buenos Aires game I watched as a child with a 39º fever, or was it elsewhere? the fever did kill a few memory neurones) should normally be good. Unfortunately neither is particularly motivated as not only they are both already qualified but they are both arguably at least as good as Mexico or Portugal, making no real difference in who they face next. So taking risks injuring players is not an option. Besides, unless Portugal grows some more, it is quite possible that they will face again in the semifinals: then it might be the game of the whole tournament. At any rate, for tomorrow it will be a safe and sound and perhaps boring game. Too bad....

Me? I will take off from work to watch Argentina who has become my team to root for now that I have burnt my French passport (and that I am not ready to embrace Spain, Quico will not have to put up with thousand of Spaniards in Venezuela for the next 4 years!).

To end this post I will like to pay homage to Trinidad and Tobago who leave the Cup with a very, very honorable performance, not only from the tiniest country in the Cup (not 2 million people) but for first timers with no experience at all. This picture below where the T&T player seems to have metamorphosed into a futbol ball is quite symbolic. Good bye T&T and may you come back next time.

England 2 - 2 Sweden: Tanto nadar para ahogarse en la orilla...

2006-06-20T16:56:00.000-04:00

Everything went wrong for England tonight. After weeks of hype about the night when Owen and Rooney would start together, the partnership lasted exactly 3 minutes, when Owen took what seemed like a bad injury and was stretchered off. This took them right back to where they were before Rooney recovered: with a gangly 2 meter clutz bearing the burden of the attack alongside a very talented striker who is still recovering from injury, with the other talented striker definitely hurt. It's just that Owen and Rooney switched roles.

Joe Cole was the only good news for England. He put in one of the best goals of the tournament, added a superb pass to set up England's other goal, and he created chances out of thin air time and again. The Swedish defenders had no clue how to deal with him at all.

Still, it's damn hard to win the world cup with great midfielders but only so-so strikers. If Owen is out of the tournament my prediction that England can win the Cup looks pretty unlikely.
On the other hand, the Swedes were definitely much better than against Paraguay, especially in the second half, and especially in the air. I know a lot of Latin Americans think the air game is just an aberration, but it's the weapon they have and they can't be blamed for using it, and using it well. Sweden deserved their tie.

Still, I can't imagine that this kind of shenanigan is going to work against Germany. Or that Ecuador can do to England on the ground what Sweden did to them in the air.

Germany wins, England out to avoid them...

2006-06-20T12:32:00.000-04:00

The Sun, I think, sums up the mood in England. Expectations surrounding Wayne Rooney are stratospheric.

A boring day?

2006-06-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

OK, I admit it, since Sunday afternoon I have trouble to regain my full interest in the cup. But it will come back, no matter what France does (or rather, does not do) there is something about futbol that is always redeeming and brings you back to it. Ulysses had it easy with the Sirens...

But today does not help, ladden with matches of little interest or little importance.

Germany and Ecuador are already in the second round and will battle for top tier. But since they do not know who will be on top between Sweden and England, any guess or trickery they do might backfire... they will probably settle for a comfortable tie, no injuries, no yellow cards.

Costa Rica Poland? Who cares! Except that I root for Costa Rica not to finish last. Too bad for the Poles, but heck, they had a Pope, that should be enough for their self esteeem for a least a couple more of decades.

England and Sweden? Well, Sweden will do well to at least tie the match as a victory of Trinidad over Paraguay could be enough for them to go on to the next round. England will see that game as a practice and warm up for better things to come... expect another tie.

Trinidad versus Paraguay is the only interesting match. Paraguay is already out but will fight like hell to bring home at least one victory. Trinidad will do the same in addition of having a very faint chance of overtaking the Swedes. Obviously I am rooting for Trinidad, the most pleasant surprise, with Ecuador and Ghana, of the tournament. If you have time for only one game, that is the one to watch.

Italy Training Camp Exposed!

2006-06-20T02:37:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: this is a joke...

First Battle of the Titans: England v. Sweden

2006-06-20T00:20:00.000-04:00

Sure, the later stages of the World Cup are packed with matches between top teams. But the reality is that few first-round matches bring together genuine heavy-weights. That all changes tonight, when England face Sweden amid a storm of amusing tactical speculation in the English press, and some intriguing chatter that, if Ecuador manage to tie with Germany and win Group A, England could try to lose against Sweden deliberately to come second in Group B and avoid meeting the Germans in the second round. Sweden would like that just fine, as they need a win at all costs to ensure qualification, but FIFA has warned England to not even think about it.

The personal drama will come from England's Swedish coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, having to face his own countrymen in a high stakes game. The English are all excited that he will finally leave NBAer-manque and Concentration Camp Victim Lookalike Peter Crouch on the bench, letting Rooney do his thang instead. "When Crouch is on the pitch we play too many long balls. I can agree to that," Eriksson said. "Statistically we played 50% long balls and 50% through midfield. Tomorrow [Today,] I suppose the team will play more short balls."

I just have only one thing to note about Eriksson...the guy looks exactly like Mr. Burns with glasses:

Trivia: England haven't beaten Sweden since 1968...

Spain 3 - Tunisia 1: That's how champions do it...

2006-06-19T16:55:00.000-04:00

Spain got its act together in the second half and started playing Poet Futbol again. Fluid, fast, furious, feisty, all the good Fs. Raul seems a bit slow to me, but you can't argue with his goal. But the team is just so laden with talent, they're great to watch...Torres, Fabregas, Joaquin, Xavi, the other Xabi...all fantastic fun to watch.

And now we know they can fight back from a goal down.

Watch out for these guys. They will play seven games in this World Cup.

Halftime - Spain chases Tunisia's lead...

2006-06-19T16:01:00.000-04:00

Well, it's a nervy half-time, with Spain looking a little frazzled, a bit disorganized as they chase Tunisia's freak 1-0 lead.

Me? I think this is great. We get to see Spain chasing a lead. Any championship contender has to do that sooner or later, and tonight we get to see if Spain is up to it.

Aragonés is putting in that old stand-by Raul and my favorite Fabregas for the second half. Should be great fun.

France sucks

2006-06-18T17:13:00.000-04:00

There is nothing much to say. The team sucked. They argued. The coach sent the favorites of the people. They sucked. The coach finally sent in Trezeguet 2 F*****G MINUTES before the end to replace a totally worn out Zidane in his last career appearance (I doubt that France will qualify and Zidane is benched for the next game so the odds tha this game was his last are about 95% as I type).

Korea was not great but doggedly determined. Not only they deserved this tie (if anything from their adoring fans, relentless until the end) but had they won I would not have been anymore upset than I am now. In fact, I hope France does not do better than tie Togo and get kicked out of the tournament in ignominy.

By the way, I cannot think of any other team that represents its country as well as France. A worn out country, conservative, afraid of the future, afraid of bold changes, with an old cast of politicians/players that refuse to yield to new blood. Football is also a little bit of that, an occasional glimpse on the soul of the country through the soul of their players.

Brazil better, but still not good...

2006-06-18T14:08:00.000-04:00

Ronaldo - Still fat, still slow, still mostly in the way...
Ronaldinho - Strangely absent
Kaka - Magnificent
Fred - A monster, should start
Robinho - 10 times better than Ronaldo
Cafu - Still effective after all these years
Australia - Much better than anyone could've expected...likely to go through...

The New Group of Death

2006-06-18T07:50:00.000-04:00

This is what I love about the World Cup...it's so short, it's just unpredictable. Before the tournament Group E looked so straightforward...a walk in the park for Italy and the Czechs. Who could've known the Ghaneans would humiliate the Czechs? Who could've imagined the US fighting Italy to a draw with one fewer player? Total zaniness...

(One thing I noticed from last night's game, however, is that the stereotype of the clueless gringo supporter still stands: five minutes from the end, with the US on the verge of taking a point and scoring a stunning success against a top team, the German cameras were picking out SAD LOOKING US FANS ON THE STANDS!!!! Do these people understand NOTHING? Van p'al cielo y van llorando...)

Yeah, Daniel, predictions are very hazardous at this point. I sort of think the Ghaneans and the Italians will go through at this point, because the Czechs are useless with both their top strikers injured. But anything could happen. I certainly wouldn't count the gringos out at that point...they were fantastic on the right side of the field, and pretty good everywhere.

A difficult group E

2006-06-18T00:02:00.000-04:00

A few days ago it seemed like group E was going to belong to Italy and the Czech. This is now dramatically all over. First Ghana trashed the Czechs (see previous post). But the next game, Italy vs. US saw a tie in spite of Italy having a one man advantage for half of the game (an ugly game it seems). This by itself speaks volume about the real vulnerability of Italy. At this points all bets are off as passing to the next round is not a given for any of these teams.

Italy has it easiest. With 4 points it needs a tie against the Czechs next game to secure a position. Expect to see the feared cattenacio in all of its horror. But if Italy loses, the only thing that can save it is a tie between Ghana and the US at 0-0 (I think but I am not sure, as well as for any other calculation, too late at night to really check it out).

The Czechs of course must win against Italy. A tie will place their fate on the Ghana-US result. Nedved has played the Italians enough (tricks and players) to make the Italy resistance difficult. Thus wisely Italy should try to win anyway by attacking but I do not expect them to do so and instead slide back in the outrageous defensive game that is their irksome trademark.

Ghana is in a similar position as the Czech, it must win. The way the US is playing it seems quite possible, except that the US is probably as tough as Ghana and Ghana might have outspent itself today. A tie will imply that it needs Italy to win its game, or tie 0-0 while Ghana ties 1-1. Thus Ghana is a tad less favored than the Czech and had better play it safe by going all out to win.

The US is in more trouble, though still doable. A win is enough as long as Italy does not tie the Czech. Then it depends of the scores in the tied games, the US needing a 3 point victory to be on the safe side. That comes of course from the 3:0 drumming against the Czech last week.

Thus all is excitingly possible and this pundit refuses to make a prediction. Thanks to the new counting system three teams will have to go the Braveheart way, and even Italy might be dragged into some real action.

Ghana gana con ganas

2006-06-17T23:34:00.000-04:00

No question about it, the game of the day was Ghana versus the Czech Republic. Actually I predict that no matter watch else happens until the end, this game will be one of the top three as for the tension it carried, and the consequences it implied.

First, an apology. I underestimated Ghana and I paid a dear price for it. I had many errands to do today and I decided to skip it watching instead about half of boring Portugal instead. Gross miscalculation! And the more painful as I was able to watch about 20 minutes of it by stopping every few minutes in front of all the TV that are disposed almost everywhere in Caracas for people to watch. This by the way is rather nice as suddenly you find yourself commenting the game with perfect strangers which oohh and ahhh whenever you do, no matter what team is winning. The low cost of normal TV and the ever declining cost of the flat screen ones will probably make this World Cup the most watched ever in Venezuela.

In all fairness it must be said that the poor Czech were missing Baros and Koller and thus had little fire power once Ghana rolled over Nedved (or under him if we are to believe this picture). Then to add insult to injury, they lost one player But did it really matter? That lost was at 65 minutes, tragic for the Czech as it killed almost any chance to tie the game, but Ghana had been leading since minute 2! In fact, when we look at the statistics for the game we can see that the Czech and Ghana teams controlled the ball for 50% each!!! What happened to the Czech who until yesterday looked like a great favorite? A world class team would have tied the game before the 65 minute and the tension would have subsided some and the red card expulsion perhaps avoided. At any rate, Ghana played rough and got 6 yellow cards, which could jeopardize its chances in the future as now yellow cards are cumulative...

At any rate, the day belongs to Ghana which finally managed to win a game for African teams and perhaps will get at least one team in the second round. No matter what some might think, this game is good for football reminding us what a great game it is and why one should never take anything for granted.

Famous last words

2006-06-17T23:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I have not been able to watch the games today. A little bit of this morning one. 5 minutes here and there on the second game as I was running errands (thank the deity for all these TV in almost any eatery worth its name!) and nothing for the last game except during the 5 minutes where the US tied Italy! Lucky moment!

But on what I saw from Ghana and its victory over Quico's favorite Czech Republic, I bet you he will eat crow and start watching football again (unles the funk over Chequia loss might send him in a tail spin, which one can suppose since he did not post today).

That's it! I'm never watching another futbol match again!

2006-06-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, futbol just crushes your soul. Tonight we saw what was probably the best game of the World Cup so far. The Ivorians were stupendous against an alarmingly leaky Dutch defense. I can't explain why they couldn't tie. I'm tempted to blame it on the TERRIBLE refereeing. I don't know what happened. It drained the will to watch futbol out of me...

The bitter, bitter taste of this thoroughly unfair result almost washed away the memories of Argentina's spectacular drubbing of the Serbs. Who could care? The Ivory Coast is out. Oh, the unfairness of it all.

And we have a trashing

2006-06-16T10:47:00.000-04:00

The second death of Serbia and Montenegro has just taken place. The goal of Crespo (half of success in life is to show up) the run of Tevez (one is never served as well as by oneself) and the final 6th nail by Messi (from nowhere is always a good place to start a run to the gate) have signified the official end of the country which could never overcome such a trashing (6-0).

As for Argentina, I do not know if it is enough to secure one of the 4 finishing spots in the tournament, but at least the ignominy of 4 years ago has been erased. Argentina is back, watch out!

This pic is not that great but it summarizes the game perfectly: Argentina high above Serbia Montenegro.

Not crying over Argentina

2006-06-16T10:25:00.000-04:00

Last night I was musing about the hope of seeing some teams bloom. Argentina is just doing that. I am typing as I am watching the second half and the Argies did sink three goals on the first half. Of course, it is against Serbia and Montenegro, a ghost team now in more ways than political. But no matter what, Argentina is more convincing than in its first game and will go to the second round as one of the favorite.

PS: seeing Ukraine and Serbia play one has to wonder as to whether there is one team to many from Europe......

The dust settles, some

2006-06-16T00:38:00.000-04:00

Well, I do not have the leisure that my colleague does to hang around in all sorts of European dives to watch the games. Heck, he even got time to go from atrocious fucsia to conservative white in the blog design. Still, I will give my opinion on some of the teams and the tourney so far.

I have not really liked any team. I mean some are good, etc... but none of them has inspired me though I have been impressed by the tenacity of Trinidad and Tobago (the only game I watched today for about 40 minutes). As small country of not even 2 million people has been able to keep in check fearful England for most of one game. Chapeau! I did like this pic of Sancho flying over Rooney, which manages to bring together football, Port of Spain Carnival and a hint of voodoo. For me the only surprise has been Ecuador which qualifies at the second match with results much better than expected considering that their South American qualifications was more difficult than the one of 5 years ago. Will Brazil ensure its pass at the second match? Maybe if Ronaldo remains vaporous...

After today Ecuador, England and Germany do deserve to go to the next round. The Spaniards and Czech are a sure bet to follow which leaves us with nine more spots. Who deserves them? Not an idle question, and one that I really cannot dare guess at this point. The good thing is that it makes this world cup more interesting to follow as we will have the opportunity to observe some teams improving as the cup rolls, something always nice to watch. Last time the inconvenient schedule only allowed us to see teams collapse...

One disappointment came from Africa which looks like it will not place a single team in the second round. Hope is not over yet, and I sure wish one to qualify in the prevision to the next World Cup, but I do not see it. On the other hand, if Paraguay is out (and probably Costa Rica) it seems that LatAm will do good when it places Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador. So it will end up once again Lat Am versus Europe with the possible lonely intrusion of South Korea and/or Australia. Ah! I wish the US would get serious about soccer and try once again a major league. For the time being it is the only hope I see on triangulating football. In two Cups maybe?

Crimes against futbol: Sweden vs. Paraguay

2006-06-15T16:57:00.000-04:00

You could hand out the indictments in both directions from tonight's vaudeville in Berlin: an erratic Sweden could be prosecuted on about 30 counts of missing easy passes and a good 5 or 6 counts of choking in front of the keeper. Serious charges for sure, but far from mortal.

The rap on Paraguay is rather heavier, I'm afraid: attempted futbolicide seems likes the right word. The Paraguayans decided to play for a draw shockingly early and barely tried to get closer than 30 yards in the second half. Their soul-sapping defensive style almost paid off, except for a lovely, 89th minute goal by an exhausted but brilliant Ljunberg. Paraguay really played horrible futbol and frankly deserves to be out. Sweden was far from good, but at least they were offense-minded and of course deserved their win.

So groups A and B are more or less settled before the third game is played. Most likely, the Round of 16 will bring us Germany vs. Sweden and England vs. Ecuador - though if the Ecuadoreans manage to fight Germany to a draw they'd end up facing Sweden instead, and Germany would go against England.

Which is the worst team in Germany 2006?
Costa Rica
Japan
Saudi Arabia
Serbia & Montenegro
Togo

Current results