Fourth day of the World Cup. I've caught most of each match, but missed Sweden and Trinidad/Tobago. So far, the most exciting part of any of the matches for me has been the Australia-Japan match. Japan took an early lead on that controversial goal, but Australia kept up the attack. Tim Cahill came off the bench and scored two beautiful goal.
As Jim Duncan said to me in an e-mail, England and Paraguay were kind of boring. England has to play better, but their group seems a lot tougher now that it is clear Trinidad is not a pushover. If anything, this World Cup seems to be showing an awful lot of parity amongst the 32 teams. But, England has to play better.
Of course, we've not seen Togo yet, and Ivory Coast seemed more than a bit week. Portugal got what seemed to be a fairly easy victory over Angola on Sunday, but that was just because they scored in the first four minutes, and Angola could never recover.
Mexico and Iran were a good match to watch. Mexico overpowered Iran in the end, but Iran's play seemed sharp.
After all the hype over the weekend, it seems the U.S. may have a shot. I've not expected much, but that could be because I'm scared they'll have a disastrous World Cup, like they did in 1998. That year, I was in a bar in New Hampshire watching them play Iran in group play, and the bartender turned the match off when the U.S. began to lost.
In any case, 36 minutes away. I was hoping to go to a bar to watch the match, but I'm not sure if I'll make it as of this writing. Four years later, I have children, which changes quite a lot, doesn't it? Yet, it doesn't quell the fever...
As Jim Duncan said to me in an e-mail, England and Paraguay were kind of boring. England has to play better, but their group seems a lot tougher now that it is clear Trinidad is not a pushover. If anything, this World Cup seems to be showing an awful lot of parity amongst the 32 teams. But, England has to play better.
Of course, we've not seen Togo yet, and Ivory Coast seemed more than a bit week. Portugal got what seemed to be a fairly easy victory over Angola on Sunday, but that was just because they scored in the first four minutes, and Angola could never recover.
Mexico and Iran were a good match to watch. Mexico overpowered Iran in the end, but Iran's play seemed sharp.
After all the hype over the weekend, it seems the U.S. may have a shot. I've not expected much, but that could be because I'm scared they'll have a disastrous World Cup, like they did in 1998. That year, I was in a bar in New Hampshire watching them play Iran in group play, and the bartender turned the match off when the U.S. began to lost.
In any case, 36 minutes away. I was hoping to go to a bar to watch the match, but I'm not sure if I'll make it as of this writing. Four years later, I have children, which changes quite a lot, doesn't it? Yet, it doesn't quell the fever...
Comments
Wild Wings was wholly unprepared today. ONE waitress and the place was wonderfully packed. Packed! That was the only bright spot.
I couldn't find my blogger id.
Jim
http://www.realcentralva.com