2010 World Cup Picks

A little late, but here are my picks for the 2010 Group Stage:

A: Mexico, Uruguay
B: Argentina, Nigeria
C: England, USA
D: Serbia, Germany
E: Netherlands, Cameroon
F: Italy, Paraguay
G: Brazil, Portugal
H: Spain, Chile

Final 4: England, Netherlands, Argentina, Spain. Spain over Netherlands in the Final.

Interestingly, I also looked it it based on ELO rating and ESPN (Nate Silver's) SPI rating (50% each). If looking at it that way, the groups would go as follows:

A: Mexico, France (tie)
B: Argentina, S. Korea
C: England, USA
D: Germany, Serbia
E: Netherlands, Denmark
F: Italy, Paraguay
G: Brazil, Portugal
H: Spain, Chile

Only real differences are that I chose Uruguay instead of France (there was hardly any difference among Mexico, France and Uruguay), and I picked 2 African teams (Nigeria and Cameroon) that were relatively close 3rd place teams in the group according to the numbers.

All in All: A Somewhat Disappointing Cup

Paul Mirengoff entitles his post: "Unsatisfactory World Cup ends unsatisfactorily. I agree. I've got to say, when it comes down to it, I was a bit disappointed by this Cup.

• I hate ending matches on PKs. It's just stupid. And you go through this entire tournament - more than a month of such high intensity games, with billions of people watching, and it ends like that - with something that isn't even the game, but rather something tangentially related to the game. It's like the NCAA tourney or NBA finals being decided by a three-point shooting contest. Asinine. I fail to understand why they haven't figured out a way to fix this.

• The Zidane build up by everyone (ABC/ESPN especially) and then the let down with his inexplicable head butt.

• The Final was NOT a great game. Average at best. You would have loved to see a good game in the Final - like Italy-Germany, or France-Spain, or Agentina-Mexico (the three best, IMO). Instead, we got a sloppy game with tired players.

• Not enough goal scoring. There just wasn't. This Cup was the soccer version of the '99 NBA Finals. I don't know how to fix it, but they need to go in with some rule changes like the NBA did. And it was made worse by so many coaches going with 4-5-1 formations. It's like coaches are allergic to playing attacking football. Instead, we've got a ton of Pat Riley clones as football coaches. I hated it. And it exacerbated the problems created by the next point.

• The referees sucked. Too many cards. (And for a lot of ticky-tack fouls - like the ones that put Essien out of the Round of 16, and the one in the group stage that could have cost Zidane.) Moreover, too much inconsistency.

• Too much diving and whining. Normally I don't care. I said several places that it's all part of the game. But I guess the Portugese just got to me in their last two games, I dunno. Or maybe it was reading about it so often. But yeah, compared to US sports where players would never fall over and whine and writhe in fake pain all the time, it made these guys look bad.

• The USA sucked. Took a lot of ooomph out of it for a while - basically from when the USA was eliminated until the France-Spain game, for me. (Secondarily - the other teams I liked, Holland and Spain, also disappointed.)

• I'm just going to repeat it: NOT ENOUGH SCORING. The number of really great goals in the tournament was in single digits. The leading scorer had 5 and no one else had more than three. Disappointing.

(That all said, the WC is still the WC. I'm still looking forward to 2010.)

ITALIA

My call of the game going down to penalties was right, but it was Italy breaking tradition and finally coming through in a PK situation. (And my prediction ability fails me at the very end of the WC... oh well. I did say that I'd be utterly shocked if more than 2 goals were scored - there wasn't.)

I hate PKs. It is a shame it ended that way. One would think that Buffon, as the best keeper in the Cup, would have the advantage, but I actually had some confidence in Barthez in the PKs. He's a bit goofy, but he is still a very good shot stopper, which is all that is required. Here was my impression of the PKs:

Pirlo: right down the middle! Mind games.
Wiltord: Outguessing Buffon.
Materazzi: A bit hisitant, but beautiful placement.
Trez: Just different than ZZ's - crossbar & OUT!
DeRossi: Nice. Upper corner - doesn't even look.
Abidal: Faked out Buffon.
Del Piero: Faked out Barthez.
Sagnol: Outguessing Buffon.
Grosso: Yup. Nice.

Unlike the other games that went down to PKs, the keepers really didn't have a chance on ANY of these PKs. So it just didn't have anything to do with whether Buffon was better than Barthez. The difference was the one that just bounced out. In the end, France had two PKs off the crossbar - one went in, and the other didn't. The one that didn't - it lost them the cup (and reversed Trezuguet's karma from when he beat the Italians in Euro '00). I was shocked that they took off Henry prior to the PKs - shouldn't he have been on to take the PKs? Don't you want you best striker taking them? And wasn't it predictable that it would go to PKs? I couldn't figure out that substitution.

The big question will be, of course, WHAT HAPPENED WITH ZIDANE??? It's going to be fascinating to find out what happened with the guy. Who ever would have thought he would head butt a guy in the middle of OT!? And it wasn't even something that Materazzi did - something he said, one assumes. Is it possible that he said something racist??? That was my initial reaction - the only thing I could think of that could provoke such a reaction. (I believe he got suspended in '98 for a similar reaction to a racist statement.) If so, there's going to be a huge, HUGE outcry - given all the emphasis against racism in this Cup. But what else could it be that caused Zidane to utterly ruin his reputation??? After everything he did this WC, it's so disappoitning that he ends like this.

Just a strange, strange game. The France PK in the first half wasn't deserved, but later they had a guy taken down in the box that SHOULD have been a PK but that wasn't called. France dominated for most of the game - other than for the time after the France goal and prior to the Italy goal. Italy looked tired for most of the 2nd half and the OTs - Toni did nothing and I was shocked he wasn't subbed out. I think this was the reverse of the Italy - Germany game; in that game, Germany tired out because they had played a longer (OT) match the prior round while the Italians had an easier match. Here, the reverse; the Italians played an incredibly difficult match in the semis, while the French didn't have to put out as much effort in the Semis.

Did anyone else think that the Italian goal that was called back in the 2nd half should have been allowed? I thought so. The player who scored was NOT offside - the offside player was next to him. But, you know what, that was no different than the goal that Henry scored against Brazil - where Henry wasn't offside, but a couple of other players whom the ball flew over WERE offside.

I don't know that the best team won. But in the end, Italy held on, and reversed their PK fortune (as well as their fortunes against France). Good for them.

3rd Place: Germany

No Ballack, no matter. Portugal thoroughly outplayed. They really finished up the tournament poorly.

Predictions for Final

For today's third place game, I note that Ballack, Lahm, and Mertesaker will not play. Um, so, OK, I'll take Portugal. 2-1.

For tomorrow, the big question is: will either side score? Both sides' defenses have been in absolutely fine form. And we're going to get another 4-5-1 matchup. I'm rooting for the Italians - yes, somewhat anti-France (whaddya want?), but also I've liked the way the Italians have played; Lippi playing so many forwards on Tuesday was great. Nevertheless, I don't think we'll see any kind of offense now; I'm thinking 0-0, and goes to PKs. I'd be utterly shocked if there are more than 2 goals scored. After all, these games have just gotten more and more defensive.

The tourney so far has been fairly predictable. Italians beat Germans. French beat Brazilians. English can't beat Swedes. English lose on PKs. Etc. So what's the Italy-France history? France wins. (See Euro 2000, WC '98, WC '86.) Totti takes the Roberto Baggio role tomorrow.

Announcers

At TNR, Alex Massie points to this Slate article entitled: "In Defense of the World Cup Announcers; They haven't been that bad. Seriously." Massie is incredulous.

You know what? I agree with Slate. Other than Balboa, I've thought that the announcers haven't been too bad. O'Brien has continued to improve (even if I get on him about it being CristianO Ronaldo). He still talks a little too much. But overall he's nice to listen to. If only he had a decent analyst, it could have worked out well.

JP Dellacamara is great and Harkes has been consistently enlightening. I just wish Harkes would speak in full sentences sometimes.

I like Shep Messing too - he's the announcer for the Metrostars Red Bulls, so I know him pretty well - and he knows his stuff. Of course, I have a soft spot for the former Cosmos keeper (check out the photo of him and Pele). His Jersey accent is sometimes annoying (even for someone who hails from Jersey), but that's my only complaint.

And I've liked Wynalda (who has the same role as Charles Barkley on TNT - provacative and more often than not right) and Julie Foudy (someone let her talk, please! She knows soccer) on the studio shows.

Best XI

My picks:

GK:
Buffon, ITA
(runners up: Ricardo, Lehmann)

Backs:
Cannavaro, ITA
Thuram, FRA
Lahm, GER
Miguel, POR
(runners up: Grosso, Zambrotta, Sagnol, Gallas, A. Cole, Ayala)

MF:
Zidane, FRA
Maxi Rodriguez, ARG
Essien, GHA
Pirlo, ITA
(runners up: Riquelme, Frings, Viera, Makalele, Ribery, Totti, C. Ronaldo)
(Note: probably should be Viera ahead of Essien, given the number of games played, but I wanted to honor Essien for the impressive feat of leading Ghana through the Group Of Death)

Forwards:
Klose, GER
Henry, FRA
(runners up: Podolski, Crespo, Torres)

Coach:
Lippi, ITA
(runners up: Klinsmann, Hiddink)
(Note: think about what Lippi did - the Italy coach is one of the 2 or 3 most scrutinized in the world by the media, and yet he won the Group of Death, he had a major injury to Nesta and guys like Gattuso, Zambrotta and Totti just returning from injury, went down to 10 men twice, had two players suspended (De Rossi and Materazzi), AND had to deal with a gigantic scandal at home. Wow.)

Golden Boot:
Cannavaro
(it's likely to be Zidane, if FRA wins, but I think I'd still pick Cannavaro)

France 1 Portugal 0

Well, after the Italy - Germany match, this one was a let down. The intensity seemed to me to be less for some reason and there were simply fewer exciting chances. Portugal never looked as though they really had much of an attack, as the French midfield (again) controlled the game. While Christiano Ronaldo made some runs, I don't think they were the most dangerous runs in the world, and Deco and Figo were outplayed. The Portugese defense played well in taking Ribery out of the game (I though he had been excellent for the last few matches), and Miguel again played nicely until he got hurt.

But, again, I don't see why a team that is already losing by a goal would replace Miguel with another defender like Paulo Fereira (who, BTW, I like for Chelsea, but still you need more attack). Eventually they were forced to move one of their defenders up to the front like. But they should have just replaced Miguel with a real attacker, not another defender. And if you take off Pauleta because he's not doing anything, you need to bring on another striker. Nothing against Simao, who I like as a wing/attacking mid, but having NO striker in the game when you are down a goal against the French and only 20 minutes left? Nuts. Another failure to put the proper players in the game to create the necessary attack.

The PK I thought was deserved. Barely. Henry wasn't in a position to score there if Carvalho hadn't taken him down, since Henry faked himself out too, but taking a guy down in the box is a penalty, end of story. I just don't understand Carvalho sticking his leg out as he is falling on his ass - what the hell was he thinking??? Oh, and yeah Chrstiano Ronaldo dove a couple of minutes later when the Portugese were up in arms over a play in the opposite box - no penalty there. He was trying to get the ref to give a make-up call for the soft PK at the other end, which is understandable. That said, even though the ref made the right decisions on those two plays, I didn't think it was a well refereed game. Can't think of any real miscalls, but that was my impression. I don't understand why FIFA would put such an awful referee back in an important game after the USA-Italy debacle. In the end, though, C. Ronaldo is going to have to tone down the diving.

Italy 2 Germany 0

Excellent game. Italy certainly deserved the win, but Germany put a good fight. I think Germany has to be happy with how well they played this World Cup, considering the low expectations (based on their pre-WC results) coming in. Klose and Podolski were a revelation; who'd have predicted that they would play as well as they did throughout the tourney. Of course, that changed when Italy put the screws to Klose, whom Italy shut down.

Once again, the team with the dominant midfield won. Where was Ballack? He was practically nonexistent. (BTW, do you think Chelsea is worried? Their two huge signings - Ballack and Shevchenko - both had a bad World Cup.) Also, in retrospect, I think the loss of Frings was pretty important. He was having a very good Cup. And then, for some reason, Schweinsteiger didn't start either. So Germany was left with a slower midfield, and Italy took advantage. Italy doesn't have the big name in the midfield (well, depending on where you think Totti plays), but I was impressed with Pirlo. The deft touch to Grosso was fabulous, only outdone by the shot itself.

On the goal, it was hard to tell what happend to the German defense. Metzelder (I think) left Grosso to try to cut off Pirlo at the top of the box, and then Ballack came over to take away Grosso, but too late. Was it Metzelder's fault for leaving Grosso to mark Pirlo, or Ballack for being too slow to mark Grosso once Metzelder left?

The game had a very nice back and forth flow to it. Most of the game was a midfield battle, but even so there were enough chances in the first 80-or-so minutes to make it sufficiently interesting. Strangly, the Italian back line was a bit shaky for the first part of the first half, but then settled down very well and completely took Klose out of the game (Podolski at least had a few chances). By the end of regulation, I thought the Germans had the better of the play. But the Italians really stepped up in OT, didn't they? Beyond the goals, there were 2 posts and numerous other chances. (Even Germany had a good chance or two, including one in which Buffon made an excellent save.) The OT, I thought, was really pretty exciting. But I think Germany was simply worn down by then, after their OT match the prior round, while Italy was able to substitute the likes of Pirlo after 60 minutes against Ukraine. By the 2nd OT, that made a huge difference.

Also, what was great about the OTs was that Lippi played so many forwards! Can you believe that he brought Gilardino, Iaquinta AND Del Piero in the game? It made for great attacking soccer. Why the hell don't other coaches on the verge of losing do this??? And Italy wasn't even losing at the time (although Lippi was rightly concerned that going to PKs would have been a losing proposition for them). Look at Arena's bizarre substitutions in the Ghana match, or even Big Phil's substitution decisions in yesterday's Portugal-France match. Awful.

Also, the refereeing was great. He let them play, which was nice. And even though the Italians did a little bit of their diving act, it wasn't too much.

Over all, one of the best matches of the tournament. And the shots of the Circo Maximo after Italy scored were great.

Semifinal Predictions

Had 3 of 4 quarters, including spot on the England match. Also, BTW, on the ESPN Soccernet "Germany Cup Pick'em", I'm at the 99.8th percentile.

Germany - Italy.

Everything says I should take Germany. They've played the nice attacking style we all like, they've got the leading scorer in Klose, and they've got home field. So I'm picking Italy. Their defense seems to be in pretty good shape. Nesta is out, but they've got Metarazzi back. They shut down the Germans. Italy 1 Germany 0.

Portugal - France.

Another heart over head, but I'll go with Portugal. They've got Deco back, and Deco, Figo, Maniche, and Christiano Ronaldo will be an interesting matchup for France's midfield. As I said below, France won the Brazil game in their midfield. But maybe, just maybe, their midfield will meet its match in Portugal's midfield. I can also see Miguel making one of those nice runs. Portugal 2 France 1.

More Thoughts on the Quarters

Brazil's debacle has got to be laid at the feet of the coach too. More stupid defensiveness, another loss. Why take out the second striker and replace him with a midfielder? Ronaldinho isn't a striker, so you are left with 1 - Ronaldo. And we all saw that Ronaldo was up and down. So, you take away Ronaldinho and Kaka, and Brazil had no offense. Ronaldinho was never in any of these matches really, and Kaka was taken out brilliantly by the French, so much so that Parreira subbed him out.

So I should apologize to Domenech. The last two matches have been absolutely brilliant. The Franch midfield has been dominant, even more so than their defense. You take Makalele, who is the best holding midfielder around, and put him in with Viera, a good two-way guy, and Zidane and Ribery, who are wonderful attackers, and that makes for a dominant midfield. And I think that's what shut Brazil down - they could never get into their possession game, because their midfield was outplayed by France's.

One interesting note. If you look at Henry's goal, I noticed that it wasborderline offsides. Henry himself was ONsides. However, Viera and (I think) Thuram were offsides when the ball was played. Now, of course, it was not played to them, so it was a passive offsides. But did they affect the play at all? Because it looked like Dida had to worry about them before the ball got to Henry, thus making their offsides not passive.

Also, some has been made of Roberto Carlos sitting on the 16 while Henry came in to score the goal. What was he doing - playing the offisides trap? But note thatat least one other time Henry was left wide open - a cross came in and he had an open header, but Viera came in and took it early before it got to Henry. Else Henry would have scored another goal.

France - Brasil

Wow, can you believe that Brasil left Thierry Henry completely unmarked??? What an unbelievable breakdown! Yes, it was a nice free kick by Zidane, but if you leave Henry unmarked, what do you expect will happen???

Portugal on Penalties

I called it yesterday: nil - nil, Portugal on penalties. History repeats itself from Euro '04.

Here were the PKs:
Simao: nice
Lampard: Balboa is right - no confidence
Viana: ripped - post!
Hargreaves: powered it past off keepers hand
Petit: Another clear miss!
Gerrard: Weak. Not placed well and tipped off.
Postiga: Faked out the keeper nicely.
Carragher: Brought on for the PKs. And screws up!!!
C. Ronaldo: For the win... yes. What will be the reaction back in Manchester when he comes back for the season?

The post-game is absolutely right - Ricardo was absolutely great. The PKs weren't the best, but he even got a hand on Hargreaves' blast. Awesome.

Howard said last night "england has to win a shootout one of these tournaments, don't you think?" Aaaaah, no. I think England is forever doomed in PKs. Did anyone really have ANY confidence in Lampard or Gerrard? They were horrible the entire tournament, and were just weak in the PKs. I have no idea how to fix PKs, but whatever England has been doing since, well, forever, it hasn't been working. England's PK history:

'90 WC semis: loss
'96 Euro semis: loss
'98 WC second round: loss
'04 Euro quarters: loss
'06 WC quarters: loss

So, Christiano Ronaldo played. He looked pretty good, fairly good pace, and had a few good chances. (Note to Dave O'Brien - it's ChristianO Ronaldo, not Christian Ronaldo.)

4-5-1 vs. 4-5-1 makes for a boring midfield match. Nobody was really interested in winning. Nobody really pushed forward - everyone was more interested in preventing a counter.

Until the Rooney red card, England had better posession, and in that you could see the loss of Deco. But the Rooney red card was deserved, I thought (I was incredulous until I saw the replays that clearly showed what Rooney did). Who knows how strongly Rooney stepped on him - it might, MIGHT, have been some acting on RC's part. But, I'm sorry, you just CAN'T step on someone's groin. You can't put the referee in the position of deciding how hard the step really was. You just can't put the referee in that position. Rooney's temper, AGAIN, was his undoing. You can see why he did it - he was frustrated at being the lone striker with virtually no touches at all. So you know it. But understanding where it came from isn't the same as excusing it: he should be crucified in England.

Obviously, the Rooney red completely changed the game. England actually had a few chances afterwards, but there was no sustained attack. And Portugal was able to keep control of the midfield for the most part afterwards.

Also, how good was Miguel again? He so dominated Joe Cole that Sven gave in and subbed Cole out. That side of the field was just completely ceded to Portugal.

In the end, the loss was Sven's fault. The 4-5-1 just was never going to get it done. It put Rooney in an untenable situation. And there was never enough to get it done otherwise. You don't have enough forwards, and thus no chance to score. I ripped Arena for not putting his team in a position to win. Sven has to take the same hit.

Quarters

In the Round of 16, I was 7 for 8, only missing the Spain - France game (went with my heart, not my head, there).

Predictions for the quarters:

Argentina - Germany

I think Argentina has been slightly overrated. Steve Goff of the WaPo said in his chat that Riquelme has been the MVP of the tournament so far. Really? He's been pretty good, but the MVP? He's got no goals and three assists. So, No. Hell, he's not even the MVP of his own team - that's Maxi Rodriguez. Argentina has a lot of attacking options, and I like the fact that they've put in Tevez for Saviola. But they can't play all of their strikers at the same time. Messi has yet to really show what he can do, and I don't think he will this game either. And while I like their defense, I think it can be beaten - Holland showed that. Germany, OTOH, has picked up their defense a lot - Metzelder is playing nicely, although can he hang with the quicker Argies? - and their offense is really going great guns. And of course Germany has the home field advantage. Should be a great game. Germany 2 Argentina 1.

Italy - Ukraine

Hey, will Sheva score? He's scored all of one real goal so far (that joke in the Tunisia game shouldn't count). So he's been disappointing. I haven't seen as much of the Italians as I'd have liked so far. They played fine against Ghana (and we see that Ghana was a pretty good side, especially with Essien in). And they were fine against the US too - the US played well against them, but it was such a screwed up game that it is hard to take any lessons from it. I didn't see the Czech game or the Round of 16 game against Australia. But for all the wailing of disappointment so far, they've given up how many goals? Zero. I don't see Ukraine scoring either, unless Sheva somehow breaks out of his slump. Italy 1 Ukraine 0.

England - Portugal

Man, this is a tough match to decide. Portugal is playing without Deco and (it looks like) Christiano Ronaldo. Yikes. With them playing, I think it would be a definite win for Portugal, given how they are playing right now. But without them? It's going to be tough. England is of course playing poorly, but their defense has been fine. England 0 Portugal 0. Portugal wins on penalties.

Brazil - France

Another match that is pretty tough to call. As I mentioned below, France is playing very well in the back. Brazil is playing OK, but you know what, I think France has a shot it it. But a shot is not enough. France 1 Brazil 1. Brazil wins on penalties.

BTW - who to root for now??? USA out. Holland out. Spain out. There goes the three teams I like.

Final Round of 16 Games

Let's see, TiVo recorded 6 hours of blank screen on Monday, so I missed the Italy and Ukraine games, although I did see the Ukraine shootout, which was absolutely pathetic. Has there even been a WORSE shootout by a team that the Swiss? It wasn't even like they got unlucky or the Ukranian keeper made great saves - the Swiss shots were just BAD. They should be embarrassed.

I also saw only half of the Brazil game. Brazil looked like they were sleepwalking a bit. Ghana played well and had a few chances, but their players looked tight - taking quick shots instead of playing better options. It really is such a shame that Essien didn't play, because I think he would have calmed the side down and they would have played much better. Still I was awfully impressed by them. Ronaldo has rounded into shape (no pun intended). The step over on the record goal was brilliant, and he made a very nice run to get it.

France 3 Spain 1

I saw the Spain France game, which was some nice play, although it lacked the intensity that the Portugal Holland match had. I was actually quite impressed by France. Their defense was incredibly organized. And who said Ribery shuold be playing more? Right - I did. He was against great - MoM, IMO, despite Zizou's play. He brings a pace that France otherwise doesn't have, and, not having seen him play before, I've been quite impressed with him this WC. Again, though, I've been most impressed by their defense (the goal Spain scored was weak - off a PK where the Spanish player was going AWAY from goal when he was taken down in the box; not saying it wasn't a PK, just that it wasn't off of a goal scoring opportunity).

Spain - what to say? Disappointment again. Why Aragones started Raul I have no idea. Clearly a wrong option, since Raul was nowhere, and there were several better options. Also, I don't know who this Pernia is, but he sucked. Xavi and Xabi Alonso were not as good as they should have been either. I really don't understand why Spain isn't better. They have the players. I can't believe it's this idea that Castillians don't get along with the Catalans or the Basques. (Note though, to the extent that this IS a problem, it will be getting worse with Zapatero's decision to give the regions a lot more autonomy -- Spain is become less and less a single country and increasingly a federation of independent entities.)

Remainder of the Round of 16

Italy - Australia

I don't understand why people are discounting the Italians. They've played well, and despite not having Nesta and de Rossi (who wasn't that great even before the brutal elbow to McBride), they've played well, coming out of the Group of Death with 7 points. Australia is a fun side, but I don't think they have the talent to beat the Italians. Things are looking good for Italy to get through to the semis, I I don't think we've seen their best yet, given that they have the talent to put together a better attack than they've shown so far with Totti still getting into form and Inzaghi playing well but still off the bench. However, as usual, Italy's defense is right on - giving up all of one goal - an own goal at that. Autralia, meanwhile, as switched keepers to give Schwartzer a shot. Yikes. Italy 2 Australia 1.

Switzerland - Ukraine

Swiss side have surprised as the best defensive side of the tourney so far, giving up nothing at all. That will be challenged, though, as they've lost Senderos and are playing a good attacking side in Ukraine. Ukraine 1 Switzerland 0.

Brazil - Ghana

I'm happy the Ghanians got through as the African representative. But without Essien (even though they get Gyan and Muntari back), they've got no chance. Brazil 3 Ghana 0.

Spain - France

Spain has played great so far and France not. France clearly has talent to play with Spain, but will they put it together? I don't think so. They, like England, seem to have something missing. And like England, their coach is an idiot. Unlike England, they don't have the luxury of playing a relatively weak side. Spain 2 France 1.

Portugal 1 Netherlands 0

Most entertaining game so far. It wasn't the best soccer, and the referee was crazy, but for sheer entertainment value, wow. I have yet to see an explanation for the failure to use RvN - there seriously must have something bad that went down between MvB and RvN, since I think it was obvious to the entire world that RvN should have been in there. Kuyt simply wasn't getting it done, and for all of RvN's faults, he can score with the best of them. Hell, he started the first three matchs. What happened since then that caused him to be benched in favor of Kuyt AND Vennegor of Hasselink? It will be interesting to see the fallout.

Holland a think were to the worse in dealing with such a rough game - they don't have the players for it. And the initial early tackle on Christiano Ronaldo to the upper thigh set the nasty tone. Both teams were going all out and playing as nastily as possible. The ref was going to have a rough time of it no matter what he did, although his inconsistency was also to blame for how the match fell apart. How exactly was it not a penalty kick when Robben was spiked in the shoulder in the box, for crying out loud! Utterly ridiculous.

The best defender we've seen so far in the Cup has got to be Miguel.. He owned Robben himself and pushed up extremely well. Indeed, the entire Portugese plan against Robben was excellent - even if Robben could get by Miguel, he had two or three other guys to beat, which clearly wasn't happening. With Kuyt clearly not a threat, and van Persie frozen out after taking a few questionable shots, where was a goal coming from? I am extremely impressed with the Portugese.

As for the Dutch team - they are strange. So much attacking talent, so few results. I guess you see what happens when a team doesn't play together.

Lost in all the melee was a very nice goal by Portugal. Also, it was nice to see van Brockhorst and Deco sitting together on the sideline at the end - two guys from opposite sides who were both kicked out of a brutal game and yet could sit down next to each other to watch the end.

Here's a cool picture of the Ironbound section post-match:

England 1 Ecuador 0

In the NCAA tournament, the mantra is "survive and advance". That's what England did today - survived and advanced. England still hasn't played a good game. You see a ton of negative comments about how England is playing, but they're still playing, and that's all that matters.

Rooney played great - the only England player to really play well, and his fitness was so impressive, given that he was still going strong late in the match. But a single striker isn't working. Didn't for the US and isn't for England either. Now we see the error of bringing as your alternate strikers Crouch (who isn't very good) and Wolcott (who it looks like SGE just brought along for the ride). You need someone who can work with Rooney - run off of him to give him somewhere to go with the ball. The midfielders just don't seem like they can do it.

Got to love the Beckham goal. Shuts up all the know-it-alls who want him benched: "Beckham sticks! Sit him down! ... Oh, nice goal, thanks for winning the game for us." He's really just an average field player because he doesn't have pace, but you keep him on the field for just those situations. Plus, he's got some heart - seeing as how he was throwing up all over the field today and yet still scored the only goal (which was a thing of beauty, to be sure - you can't place a ball better than that).

Also nice to see Ashley Cole play so well. I've thought for a while he's England's best defender because of his pace. He can run off of Joe Cole well and, as we saw with the play on Terry's error, he can still get back. Very impressive.

Lampard and Gerrard - what's with them??? They have absolutely sucked so far this tournament. It's not even that they aren't playing well together - they haven't done the simple things either. Lampard just skyed a point blank shot set up by a beautiful Rooney play (where he meg'd the defender). England's midfield should be their stregth, but two of the four haven't shown up.

Argentina 2 Mexico 1

MAXI RODRIGUEZ! What a strike. Unbelievable. Mexico ran out of gas at the end of the OT (save for one dangerous run by Zinha that Sorin had to hack down), but they may have been able to hang on for a shootout if not for an absolute thunderstike from outside the the area on the volley. Seriously one of the best goals of the tourney.

Plus, another early goal! Unlike Sweden and the US, though, Argentina is too experienced and good to be shocked by an early goal. The Mexican goal was very nice off the set piece. A perfect flick and Heinze lost his man for just half a second -- which was all Marquez needed to put it in the net. I like Heinze a lot as a defender, but even a good defender like that can lose concentration by for half a second and bam! A goal.

For the first Argentina goal, why was Borghetti marking Crespo? I realize Borghetti is good with his head, but still, Crespo is the top Argie striker - shouldn't you have an actual defender marking him??? Odd.

Mexico was very impressive in the first half. Not only did they shut down the Argentine attack, but they created quite a few chances of their own. Mexico was often able to go right down the Argie's throats, and surprisingly the Argie central defense wasn't able to defend them well. Heinze not having the best day. After losing his man leading to the Mex goal, he should have been red carded when Abondonzerri made an error and played the ball right to Mexico on a short goal kick. Scaloni was awful throughout the day - why was he started, when he didn't even play in group stage?

Second half though everything turns around. Argentina is playing great and Mexico not. At least until Zinha comes on - then it gets more even. Mexico, however, is able to hold the line for OT. Argentina brought in Messi and Tevez and they have much more energy than the Mexicans.

The refereeing in this game was good - more like it. Now ticky-tack yellows. There have been some harsh fouls, but the ref just calls them fouls - much better. Moreover, the ref has said uh-uh to a bunch of dives. The only problem: the linesman was awful! Mexico pulled what looked like a NICE offside trap, but the replay showed that it actually wasn't. Then in second half injury time, a really bad offside called against Riquelme, who crossed it to Tevez who put it into the net.

Germany 2 Sweden 0

This was Germany scored early and Sweden never recovered. I wrote in predictions that Klose was playing well as was Podolski. Well, guess what, Klose played great and set up Podolski's goals. Germany completely dominated the game and could have scored at least a few more (1 more would have been nice to make my prediction right on). Ballack still hasn't played great - they are going to need him at some point. Sweden - meh - they didn't play well in group stage and didn't play well here. You never got the feeling they had a chance after the red card (which shouldn't have been a second yellow on Lucic) and the missed PK (which, of course, shouldn't have been a PK - jeez, how many of them have been questionable calls?).

Round of 16

Why, oh why, don't they have double OT? They should allow extra subs and just let them continue to play. I hate shootouts with a passion. But there will surely be a bunch, and some good sides will lose and go home. It's too bad.

Germany vs. Sweden

Ballack hasn't even really gotten into it yet, and yet Germany is still playing really, really well. Klose is playing up to potential, finally. Podolski is also playing well. The defense hasn't let them down since the end of the CR game - shutting down the Poles and an Ecuadorian side that didn't play its full squad. Sweden was unimpressive in group play. Germany 3 - Sweden 0.

Argentina vs. Mexico

Mexico, goodbye. They don't have enough scoring to keep up with Argentina. Argentina 3 - Mexico 1.

England vs. Ecuador

If England were playing anyone else, I'd think they'd probably lose. But they'll get by Ecuador, which played better than anyone thought they will. England 1 - Ecuador 0.

Portugal vs. Netherlands

Highlight of the Round. The talent on the pitch will be amazing. I'm rooting for the Oranje, but I think Portugal is playing better. Netherlands hasn't played together as a team so far, and we'll likely see Robben try to win the game by himself. Midfield will be key, and Deco is better than Sneijder. Portugal 2 - Netherlands 1.

Predictions II

Review of my prior predictions:

Group A:
My prediction: Germany, Poland
Results: Germany, Ecuador

Poland didn't show up until they were already eliminated, did they? Second WC in a row. Disappointing. I was surprised that Ecuador could do something at sea level, given their record in qualifying.

Group B:
My prediction: England, Paraguay
Results: England, Sweden

After the Sweden-T&T match, I thought this might be precient, but ultimately Sweden had more class than Paraguay or CR. England obviously was the best of this group, but were unsatisfying.

Group C:
My prediction: Argentina, Holland
Results: Argentina, Holland

The ostensible Group of death was not. These two were simply better than Ivory Coast, although I would think that Ivory Coast would have advanced from virtually any other group. Serbia disappointed, after a strong qualifying. Not only did they give up 6 to Argentina (in which they really gave up) but they also let IC come back to beat them.

Group D:
My predicition: Portugal, Mexico
Results: Portugal, Mexico

Mexico didn't look that good, and Angola had a chance to knock them out, as ridiculous as that sounds. Mexico has no punch, especially without Borghetti. We'll have to see how his injury is. Concacaf as a whole was disappointing, and Mexico showed that they didn't deserve a seed. Portugal looked good, winning all three. Will Portugal's expected run in the last World Cup happen 4 years late?

Group E:
My Prediction: Italy, Czech Republic
Results: Italy, Ghana

What happened to the Czechs??? They looked SOOO good against us and then just fell apart! Was the Koller injury that damaging? Did they get tired because they are old? The Ghana game is still the surprise of the tounament so far, to me, even after Ghana went through. I don't think Ghana were that much better than us, but they absolutely dominated a Czech team that seemed so dominant against us. Maybe they just played out of their mind against us. Ghana is a very good side and deserve to go through; they are this year's version of the one African sde that seems to come up big every WC. Italy looked fine, I thought. Perhaps not a contender for the championship, as people thought beforehand, but a very good side. I guess I saw more out of them than others did.

Group F:
My Predictions: Brazil, Australia
Results: Brazil, Australia

I really thought that Australia would go through. They have a lot of talent on their side - just look at the players who are big in the Premiership like Kewell. The US doesn't have anyone who plays for such a club as Liverpool. And of course Hiddink is a great coach (as we saw last WC with SK). Brazil started slowly but got better. Croatia disappointed. Japan, I never thought would be good after we destroyed them in a friendly in January. Japan I think is somewhat like the US in that they need more of their players go abroad. However, Zico has made them into an entertaining side.

Group G:
My Prediction: France, Switzerland
Results: Switzerland, France

I suppose Korea had a chance, but away from home they just aren't as good. So it was these two by default. France didn't look good at all except against Togo, which isn't really a test.

Group H:
My Prediction: Spain, Tunisia
Results: Spain, Ukraine

As I said, there's always one African side that goes through. I thought Tunisia would be that side. But they just weren't that good, and Ukraine were better than I thought. Spain seemed quite good - better than I thought they'd be. As much as I love Raul - I can break out my Real #7 jersey if you'd like - Aragones should keep him as a sub. Seems to me more and more that you need the youthful exuberance of guys like Villa.

Notes from the End of Group Stage

Brazil 4 Japan 1

Brazil played like... Brazil! Hooray! Japan played a very attractive game, but you can see what happens when you try to play attractively agains Brazil - you get blitzed. To me, the result of this game vindicates the style played by Croatia and Australia. You've got to pack it in, and play very defensively against Brazil. You can't play a nice offensive style, because Brazil will take that ball from you and then take you apart. It's like playing the Phoenix Suns - you can't run with them, so you've got to play the opposite style.

How many shots did Brazil have, anyway? 20-something, to be sure. They must have had three or four good chances for each of their goals. I'm surprised it wasn't 6 or 8 to 1. Ronaldo of course looked good. Still wasn't running much, but the touch was there, the ability to turn on a dime and get the shot off was there. Ronaldinho also looked pretty good - not great again, but good, in that he created some nice plays. I like Robinho in that he really runs nicely and so quick. It was interesting that they rested so many players - the outside backs and holding midfielders, too. Makes sense to me.

England 2 Sweden 2

England looked better, I thought. However, Owen's injury kills them. I can't see them going too far with a lack of strikers. I love Joe Cole - he has really improved this year at Chelsea and for the English national team - but can he carry a team's scoring burden? No.

France 2 Togo 0

France looked a lot better, but you've got to wonder whether it was the competition. I thought Viera was washed up, but he played really well.

Portugal 2 Mexico 1

Portugal didn't start Christiano Ronaldo, Pauleta, or 3 others, and yet they STILL dominted the Mexicans. Mexico only played better in the second half when the Portugese were done.

Argentina 0 Holland 0

It really SUCKED that this match meant virtually nothing. It should have been the best match of Group Stage. It wasn't. Argentina conttrolled the play, and had a few chances. The Dutch defense was better than I thought they'd be, but Arg was better.

Go Socceroos!

Great, great ending to that game! Australia is really a fun side to watch. Croatia threw everything they had into it at the end, and couldn't get it done. That is what the World Cup is all about.

Harry Kewell really is a nice player. The thing about the Aussies is that they have a lot of players who play in Europe, so they have experience. The US needs to develop their players through Europe more - take the Australia example. Oh, and the Australia coach knew what he was doing in a way that Arena didn't.

Also, the Aussie fans were great. Put them up with the Croats and Koreans.

Three Games, One Goal

I knew it before the WC started. We can't score. And bottom line is: if you don't score, you don't go through. It's not complicated.

I don't want to hear about the penalty on Gooch - it was already 1-1. A draw would do them no good. As I posted directly below, I don't understand Arena's lineup. OK, it was a 4-5-1, but that's not good enough. He moves Lewis up to midfield - why??? Has he played midfield AT ALL for the Nats? How do you move him up? Even if you go with 4-5-1, why Lewis instead of Convey?

I hate to say it (and agree with Wynalda), but this is on Arena. You need to go AT LEAST with a 4-4-2. If not a 3-5-2.

Arena must go. Give him a gold watch for '02. But this team hasn't been good for a while. Bring on Klinsmann, PLEASE! He is willing to go for an offensive style.


MORE: The crowd was awesome. A totally pro-US crowd, and you could really hear them for the anthem. I am very proud of our fans - it was too bad that the team let them down.

I said this after game 1, but let me say it again: We need more players go to Europe. Dempsey played well and he is an MLS player. But I just don't think our team has enough experience at the top levels. If Landon Donovan wants to be something, he needs to go to Europe. He played badly, and I think that he simply isn't progressing in MLS. Maybe Germany is the wrong place, I don't know. Go to Spain maybe. But get the hell out of MLS.

Let me just say this about the refs: awful. I said above right after the match that it didn't cause out loss. That's right, but, look, this ref was just awful. He was very bad in the Australia-Brazil match (just ask Harry Kewell) where he called WAAAAY too many fouls on the Aussies. And he was horrid here. And it wasn't one-sided - the call against Essien was horrid also (you could see Essien walking away from the ref in disgust), and it SUCKS that Essien is going to have to miss the Brazil game. The reffing as a whole in the WC has been SOOO bad.

That said, Arena trying to blame the loss (in his post-game remarks) on the bad call against Gooch was just so weak. At least half of it is your fault, Bruce. Accept it.

Anothe of Bruce's mistakes: bring on Ben Olson??? No, you need to score - you can't waste of your three subs bringing on a defensive mid who is really not good enough for World Cup play. He didn't play terribly, but he isn't a threat, and you needed more threats. If OBrien wasn't going to come in there, he shouldn't have been on the team.

Lineup

WTF???

Keller
Bocanegra
Cherundolo
Lewis
Dempsey
Reyna
Conrad
Beasly
McBride
Donovan
Onyewu

Is this a 5-4-1? Are they moving Lewis up to midfield? What the hell!

Why doesn't the Bruce play 2 forwards? We're the only team without a shot on goal (unless you count Reyna off the post). We need to score goals to possibly make up goal differential, and Bruce is going with 5 defenders. Something is seriously wrong here.

Update: Czechs have Baros in the starting lineup. Italy has BENCHED Luca Toni - going with only one striker. Can things get any worse?

Update 2: Predictions: USA 1 - Ghana 1. Italy 0 - Czech 0

Ronaldinho's Diary?

Is this right?

Seriously, check out some of the other diaries that are linked there, like Buffon's Diary:

We feel very much at home at our hotel, partly thanks to the great food. The manager of the hotel is Italian, so the chefs prepare pasta, cakes, meat dishes and salads…everything we like. Who’s the greediest player? Maybe Francesco, Totti I reckon, who’s a total chocolate freak, although he has to make do without it here because it goes against our diet.

You can't tell me that the players are writing this stuff themselves.

Ghana 2 Czech Republic 0

Finally an upset! Until this game, you really got the feeling that this World Cup had gone almost entirely to form. What the hell happened to the Czech midfield??? They absolutely dominated us, and they were basically a no-show against Ghana? Essien and Appiah were great, but WTF? (Likewise, The US midfield was terrible against the Czechs and were great against Italy.) Ghana in fact should have had far more than 2 - but Cech robbed them numerous times, and that last offside was utterly ridiculous (not a bad call, but a terrible play - how can you go offside on a three-on-zero break?). I'll bet that Cech was pissed that he was the only Czech player to show up.

Czechs obviously missed having a world class striker on the pitch (Lokvenc - er, yuck). They need Koller and/or Baros - they obviously couldn't do it with midfield alone. And if Baros plays against Italy, which it seems he might, it could be a HUGE boost.

Love the kerfuffle about the Ghanian player pulling out an Israeli flag after the 2nd goal (he plays in Israel). Apparently a bunch of Arabs are pissed.

Ghana played a nice game against Italy too, and just couldn't finish. Obviously, they are going to be a hell of a team for us to face. Luckily, MoM Suly Muntari is out with yellow cards, as is Gyan after Ghana lost their appeal. Phew.

As a said below, this is clearly the Group of Death. And the only group in which nobody in in and nobody is out going into the third group game.

Brazil 2 Australia 0

Good game. I thought the refereeing was a bit rough - Australia got called for a few too many fouls - but Brazil was the better side and deserved the win. But I'm really rooting for the Aussies to go through. They play a nice brand of football. And they had chances to at least get a point, but were unlucky. (Viduka gets a bunch of chances, but can't seem to finish - I might consider starting Aloisi.)

Ronaldo was at least a bit more into this game. Didn't play well, mind you, but at least was somewhat involved (although he had a couple of embarrassing moments - the whiff on the volley, and the awful pass that missed a wide open Roberto Carlos streaking free down the left side). Obviously everyone in the entire world other than Parreira thinks he should not start. Will Parreira give in? Or will he stick by his man?

Ronaldinho was again not up to his high standards. Do you think he has worn down? He wasn't great at the end of the regular season either. And Kaka was not as good as last time. But the forwards were better - Robinho and Adriano played. And of course Fred (best name of the tourney)! Robinho really creates the pace that Brazil seems to like.

Re: Ze Roberto. He was good. Emerson, OTOH, not so much, I didn't think (I love Emerson's looks though - the balding head and paunch make him look like he is a 50-year old who should be sitting on the couch watching). Of course, they haven't actually given up a goal, so how bad could their defense and holding MF? For everything said about the age of their outside backs and the mediocrity of their central defense and Ze Roebrto and Emerson, you just can't complain too much if no goals are conceded. (Although I can't help thinking that half of the defense really consists of the pressure put on the other team by the offense.)

France 1 Korea 1

Should be France 2 Korea 1. Hello microchip! Seriously, though, I thought that we are supposed to be getting a microchip in the ball sometime soon to prevent exactly what happened. At the very least they could put a camera on the end line so you can get a good shot - like "Mac Cam" at the US Open. But from the angles they showed, it looked like a goal.

As it turns out, France will probably go through. Immediately after the game, I was wondering the chances of them not going through, since they only got ties against the two other challngers. But the reality is that they will beat Togo - the only issue is whether Togo can hold them to winning by only one. I doubt it. I would be upset if Zidane gets sent into retirement as a result of that cheap yellow from his taking the free kick too quickly (WTF?), but I seriously doubt it will occur.

France still didn't look good on Sunday. Their offense is so static - it's Henry or nothing (and the relevant stat is: Henry has never scored off a Zidane assist). And that was before they packed it in for the second half. Why is Wiltord starting? He sucks. Put in Trez or Saha (he's on the team, right?). And I STILL don't understand why Giuly was not picked for the team. He is CLEARLY better than Wiltord. PLUS, Ribery doesn't start? Domenech is a f'ing idiot, IMO.

Oh, and the image of Barthez flailing and trying to slap the ball away... hahaha.

I don't really like Korea (why isn't it SOUTH Korea? Are their any North Korean players on the team?). And how many lucky BS calls can they get - you'd think that karma would be gone after 2002, but now they get another luck call. However, you've got to respect that they are Energizer bunnies, never backing down.

BTW - damn those Korean fans are crazy. They've got have one of the best groups of supporters around - up there with the Croat supporters in the Brazil game, I'd say.

Other Notes of the Morning

Watched the Croatia-Japan match. Zzzzzzzz. Really expected better out of Croatia after their good performance against Brazil a few days ago.

De Rossi is expected to be suspended for more than the automatic one match for his elbow against McBride. And apparently the Italian papers aren't happy with him. Recall that he ALSO took down a Ghanian player in the box in the first game - which (luckily for him) wasn't called.

It was interesting to see that the British are also unhappy with their annoucers:

THE BBC has been forced to ask its viewers to stop using “offensive abuse” after criticism of its World Cup commentators and pundits.

I haven't said too much about out announcers because, while they are annoying, I just can't get too worked up about it. I don't understand what anybody at ESPN/ABC see in Marcelo, but whatever. I actually like some of the people who are routinely criticized - I like Julie Foudy, who I think is a better studio analyst than Wynalda and Lalas. Getting Chinaglia in there - with his pro-Italy bias - was fun. I thought at one point after Wynalda said someting snarky Chinagia might have got up and hit him. Awesome.

Brazil starting Ronaldo even after his "performance" against Croatia and the fact that he he went to the hospital complaining of "dizziness" earlier in the week. Interesting.

Regarding the tiebreaking rules for getting out of group stage: why isn't head-to-head one of the tiebreakers??? According to FIFA rules, after number of points, the next tie breaker is goal differential. Huh? So, if USA wins and CzechR ties Italy, it is then 4 points each. So the tiebreaker isn't Czech's head-to-head domination of the US? Wierd.

Argentina 6 S/M 0

Now THAT was soccer. That was as much domination as I've seen in a while against a team that was supposed to be pretty good (i.e., discounting blowouts against the likes of Saudi Arabia). After all, S/M had gotten through qualifying without losing and giving up only one goal in, what, 10 games?

It was too bad that S/M gave up after the fourth goal and the red on Kezman. Pathetic to see a team get whupped so much that they really just wanted to go home. And it could have been even worse, given that an Arg goal was called back in the first half on a horrible offsides call.

I was interest to see Messi, and am glad he got in the game. He didn't have a lot of time, and the game was over by that time. Too bad.

Update: I forgot to mention - interesting that there were 6 Arg goals, and Riquelme was directly involved in NONE of them. I was hugely impressed with him in the first game. And yet while he played a decent enough game, it was more the forwards than the midfield that did the damage against S/M. Crespo had a great game - he set up Cambiasso. Maxi Rodriguez (who is more a forward than a midfielder) had a game too, obviously.

USA 1 Italy 1

What did I say earlier?

They may attack, but can they score a goal? I'm doubting it.

What did I say before the World Cup started?

We will have trouble scoring.

USA has not scored a goal so far this World Cup. In fact, the USA has not even had a shot on goal yet. You can't advance if you can't score. Simple as that.

That being said, though, we showed a hell of a lot more heart this game than last. Our midfield played like the excellent midfield I thought prior to the WC would show up. We dominated the first half in the midfield. And we played great after Pope was sent off. Playing with 9 men for 45 minutes? Amazing. Moreover, they even had some goal scoring chances, although at the end it was clear they were to exhausted to send more than 2 guys forward. (BTW - yeah the ref was horrid, but what's the point of complaining?)

Some notes:
McBrides's offside - legit. However, there were quite a few other offsides that were incorrectly called (esp against the Italians).

Beasley still looked bad - regardless of the disallowed goal. He was afraid to go at people. I wouldn't play him any more.

Keller finally had a great save on del Piero's nice volley. Good for him to finally make one of the plays we expected him to make.

Why was Johnson not used? He was the best player in game 1, and McBride was done by about the 80th minute. The only thing I can speculate is that McBride is very good at tracking back and playing defense - and I suppose Arena wanted him in for that purpose. But you would think that Johnson could have taken advantage of some tired Italian defenders.

Atmosphere was great. You've got to love American fans shouting "BULL-SHIT!" so loud that you can hear it on TV. And the American fans shown on TV at the end making the international hand sign for a dive? Great!

In all, a great, great game. We played with so much heart, and there was a lot of flow back and forth. The end of the game was absolutely gripping - the clock hardly seemed to move.

In the end, with Ghana's win, we are still alive. A win and an Italy win, and we're through, which is pretty unfathomable. But the question has to be - can we score a goal? On paper, we should be able to past them, but who knows. This group is obviously the group of death, more than Group C. I doubt there will be another group where, after 2 games, no team is eliminated and no team is through.

Some Notes From A Few Other Games

A few random things:

Italy - Ghana. Ghana played really well, I thought. Italy is going to be tough - not just for the US, but throughout. I thought Ghana got a a bit unlucky - there should have been two penalties for Ghana I thought, which certainly would have changed things. Essien played well; however, his shot was NOT accurate. (It will be interesting to think about what will happen in Chelsea next year - their central midfield will have Ballack, Lampard, Essien, and Makalele - who plays? Makalele is VASTLY underrated, IMO - probably the best holding midfielder out there; he was MoM in France-SWI. So, move one of them to a L or R midfield? There you've got Joe Cole, Robben, Damien Duff, and SWP. At least they moved Gudjohnson to Barca.)

Australia - Japan. Saw the second half only. Another game where there should have been a penalty. Why is it that guys continue to be taken down in the box with no calls? Has there been some kind of directive from FIFA? Australia finished up the game well and I really think they have a nice team. But Croatia looked good.

Brazil 1 Croatia 0

Watched the second half of the match last night after the first half the prior night. Oh, and TiVo decided to tape it on Univision rather than ESPN - I have no idea why.

Everything that has been said about Ronaldo is true - he's got a spare tire. I mean, did he do anything more than jog more than twice the entire time he was in there? That said, I didn't see much out of Adriano either - although he at least tried to do a little running. And Robinho wasn't too into it either after he came on for Ronaldo. Basically, the Brazil attack consisted of Ronaldinho and Kaka - and Ronaldinho wasn't all THAT great, although better than in the CL final. (Isn't Kaka a left midielder for AC Milan? He moved to the right to accomodate Ronaldinho - so Beasley quitcherbitchin.) BTW - not having seen enough of Brazil, are Emerson and Ze Roberto supposed to be only holding midfielders? I recall seeing them in the Mexico match in the Confederations cup last year and wasn't impressed. Perhaps they need to stay back to cover for Cafu's and Roberto Carlos's runs.

In fact, I found this match to be quite similar to to the Mexico match from last year - Brazil kind of sleepwalked. For all of their supposedly great attackers, when I've seen them, they haven't played all that great as a whole. Maybe I just haven't seen them enough, who knows. I wonder, though, if they might be like this year's Pistons - just thinking that they can turn it on any time they want. Of course, in the Confederations Cup they DID turn it on at the end, and absolutely killed Argentina in the final. So maybe Brazil won't suffer the Pistons' fate.

Croatia played well - at least evenly with Brazil save that the one error that led to the goal (which was bad - there were two defenders on Kaka when he received the ball, and it looked like they both thought the other would mark him). There were a number of chances that the Croatian attackers had that they could have done better with - open shots that either missed the target or were right at the keeper. Also, it was unfortunate that Croatia's captain, Niko Kovac, had to go off after he was pulled down by Adriano. I couldn't tell from the spanish announcers what happened - hurt his ribs? Anyway, Croatia - Australia should be a fun match to watch.

Still Here

Strange how much that USA debacle has ruined my interest in the World Cup. Anyway - post mortem on the USA: the Italy game is now: "win or go home". Tie won't do it - they need to win. I realize the chances of a US win are about 5%, but that's the deal.

Some random notes:

Beasley - should he get another start? The words between Arena and Beasley were pretty harsh... if Beasley were "any kind of a man" he'd understand that he played poorly? Wow. Beasley says that he was continually asked to go back and defend. But that ain't the issue. The problem was that we he HAD the ball, he didn't attack. He played the ball back so many times it was ridiculous. Didn't even attempt to beat his man, much less succeed (I realive that Italy's left back is pretty damned good, but still). I would start Dempsey, but that's just me.

That brings us to Donovan. He has regressed. He had a couple of nice runs, but just didn't get the ball enough - demand it, go get it. Maybe it's a problem not playing in Europe, although Beasley plays in Europe and doesn't seem to be helping him.

Arena thinks the defense played well. I don't - you just can't give up goals like that. Sorry.

So now the plan is to attack? Shouldn't that have been the plan all along? Now they go against Italy's back line - and Italy always has a good defense and has a great keeper in Buffon. They may attack, but can they score a goal? I'm doubting it.

The Worst Game I've Ever Seen The US Play

Can you believe how bad that game was? That was worse than the Poland game in 2002. Worse than any of the games in 1998. Seriously, we were just outclassed in every facet of the game.

Keeper: Keller didn't make any great stops. All of the three goals were nice shots, but a world class keeper probably stops at least one of them.

Defense: Shredded. Pope is old - good-bye. How can you let Koller shove you out of the way on that first goal? Not to mention that Gooch was nowhere to be seen. On the second goal, Gooch had a HORRIBLE clearance. And Rosicky ran right by Gooch on the third goal. They guy has talent, but looked like a complete rookie out there. The Lewis/Convey left side was a disaster - somehow, they both pushed up on that first goal and noone remembered to cover. Awful. The only one who looked up to it was Dolo.

Midfield. Did I say below that the midfield is the strength of our team? I take it back. Beasley could attack for sh*t. Donovan had one or two nice touches, but completely disappeared for most of the game. Convey push up a couple of times, but could not do anything with the ball. Reyna - meh. But the worst, worst, WORST part of it was that we could not even string a couple of passes together! I'm not asking for South American style passing, but FOR CRYING OUT LOUD STOP PASSING IT DIRECTLY TO THE OTHER TEAM! We had zero possession in the offensive half for most of the game - and the possession we DID have was spent going backwards!

Offense: McBride sucked. As I said, he is mediocre at best. The only guy who came to play was Johnson (much to my surprise).

Prediction

CZE 2 USA 1

As I said below, I don't think the USA can score much. That being said, if it is true that Baros won't play, that's a BIG plus for our side. I hate these fast players, because as much as I love Gooch and Pope (who I think will be the 2 center backs), I don't think they are fast enough to deal with Baros. Anyway, I'll see if I can sneak away from work during the day to see it...

Holland 1 Serbia 0

Robben - wow. Best player so far of this World Cup. The goal was nice - clinical finish - but he really created so many other good chances. And this against a team that gave up ONE goal in qualifying. The only thing I don't like about Robben is that he doesn't always play that well with others. A few times he probably should have passed it off to Ruud or van Persie, but held on to the ball for a shot. Perhaps just a little too selfish. (Update: I see that Franklin Foer agrees. But others disagree.)

Nonetheless, as I'm rooting for the Dutch as my secondary team after the US, I'll take Robben's performance any day of the week.

So far, in three days we've got goals by Robben (Chelsea), Drogba (Chelsea), and Crespo (Chelsea). Anybody see a pattern? I'll bet England is looking at Lampard and Joe Cole and saying: "well?" (Seriously, with Ballack and Sheva coming in, this is getting ridiculous. Hell, those two guys haven't even played in the WC yet.)

Like Ivory Coast, Serbia is a good team, and would likely get out of the first round inmost groups. Probably not here though. Argentina looked pretty good (not great - their defense is a little questionable), and I don't think Serbia can beat them. But Serbia had a few chances, and did well to make the game to be a bit chippy, thus slowing the Dutch down a little. The Dutch were really flying through much of the first half, but like a lot of these games, it settled down and became a lot more defensive until the very end. Also, strange tactics to take Kezman off. Hell he (was) a Chelsea player - therefore he had a good chance to score!

Mexico 3 Iran 1

This was a pretty even game until the horrible error by the Iranian keeper. How can you just boot it right to the Mexican attacker 20 yards away??? That blew the game for the Iranians. They looked shocked, and hadn't recovered when the other Mexican goal came. Really, I wasn't very impressed with Mexico. They took advantage of the Iranian error, but, other than that, they were inconsistent. The Mexican coach I think agreed, seeing as how he made 2 substitutions at the beginning of the second half.

It was a great atmosphere at the game today. The Mexican fans were great - and their straw hats? Hilarious!

I know I'm supposed to be rooting against Mexico (as all good US MNT fans are), but it's tough to root against them when their keeper's dad just died.

Also, interesting point regarding the Argentine- and Brazilian-born players on Mexico's team. If there is an uproar in Mexico about them being on the team, isn't that inconsistent with the Mexicans' support for open borders/amnesty here in the US? I mean, are they pro-immigration or not? (OK, OK, we know they are only pro-immigration from Mexico into the US, but not from other countries into Mexico).

That Commercial with the Little Kids

You've got to love that Adidas commercial with the two little kids choosing up sides. The one kid's choice of Beckenbauer, and the other kid's laugh and double take - cute. Only one problem - the first shoice in picking sides... Cisse??? Are you joking?

Argentina 2 Cote d'Ivoire 1

That was a pretty good game. Argentina played a very good first half - Riquelme really is a midfielder who can control the game. However, they shut it down in the second half, so it was difficult to tell whether they can play a whole game that well.

Also, IC is a very good team, and played a lot better in the second half (although they seemed resigned to the loss, even after Drogba's goal). Any other group and I'm sure they'd get through to the 2nd round. But in the Group of Death, alas, probably not.

Sweden 0 Trinidad & Tobago 0

Great game! T&T was outplayed, it's true. But they also played a man down for half the match, so that's understandable. (The red card on Avery John was bogus - he got all ball, and the studs were not up. But bringing on ANOTHER STRIKER after the red card - brilliant.) However, they played well, and were some woodwork away from actually winning the match. And it's even more impressive given that T&T has, what, a little over 1 million in population?

You've got to love Shaka Hislop - great name, and played great, especially for a guy who didn't even know he was starting until minutes before the match. It was really strange that the announcers didn't know he was in the match until about 10 MINUTES into the game. They were almost speechless when they found out T&T had a different keeper than the guy they listed in the opening lineups.

I didn't think Sweden was very good prior to the tourney - as you can see, I didn't think they'd get out of the group stage. And I saw nothing to change my mind.

England 1 Paraguay 0

England was bad. No other way to put it. Yeah, Beckham had a good free kick, but the goal was lucky. I didn't see much offense there - Owen wasn't very good, and Crouch was mediocre (although better than I thought he would be). Joe Cole and Ashley Cole didn't work well together, and I didn't see much out of Beckham other than on free kicks. England looks to me very much like the US - Good defense and GK, a midfield that is the strength of the team, but not too much offense.

One thing I continue to wonder about - Can Lampard and Gerrard work together? I know there's been a lot of discussion of that questions, and today's game didn't do anything to answer it.

As it turns out, it looks like the group is no good - so maybe England is lucky. In a good group, they might have trouble. But they should still have no problem in this group.

One other thing - the game had no atmosphere! I couldn't believe the crowd was so quiet - who'd have expected that from the Brits? They sang a few songs (God Save the Queen once), but otherwise were flat. I think their team bored them to death. It sucks that the game was so boring - it was probably the one game normal Americans would watch.

Thoughts on the US

We will have trouble scoring. Our strikers are not very good - McBride is an average EPL striker, probably not even as good as Peter Crouch. And Johnson, Wolff and Ching are just not up to it (EJ has the talent to be a good international striker, but he's just not playing well right now, and hasn't been since his injury). Our midfield is excellent. In fact, we have too many midfielders, I think. You'd love to have ANY of Donovan, Beasley, Reyna, OBrien, Mastro, Convey and Dempsey on the pitch. But you can't play 7 midfielders. So what to do? I'd sit OBrien and Dempsey, and play Beasley as a striker (I'd rather have Beasley as striker than Donovan - he's faster, and I like Donovan as a playmaker). So You'd have McBride and Beasley up top, with Convey, Reyna, Mastro, and Donovan left to right in the midfield. If you need scoring, you bring in Dempsey; if you need additional playmaking, bring in OBrien.

Our defense is good, not great. Can still be beaten. Keller is also good, but he's only the 3rd best keeper in the group...

Can they take a match from Italy or the Czechs? Yeah. But I wouldn't bet on it.

World Cup Group Picks

Group A: Germany, Poland
Group B: England, Paraguay
Group C: Argentina, Holland
Group D: Portugal, Mexico
Group E: Italy, Czech Republic
Group F: Brazil, Australia
Group G: France, Switzerland
Group H: Spain, Tunisia