World Cup
Man, it has been tough to get any work done since the World Cup started, with there being 3 matches per day. Soon there will be 4 matches per day, and it's all I can do to avoid knowing what the results are before I get home at night to watch them on the DVR.
So far things have gone mostly as I predicted. As proof, I am #3 out of about 50 in a football pool. The ones I got famously wrong so far have been the USA v. Italy match (had to give our boys the psychic nod), and I expected a couple of wins that turned into draws, including today's England v. Sweden match.
England 2 Sweden 2
With this result, England finishes top of the table and Sweden finishes 2nd, so both advance to the round of 16.
What have we learned so far about England's play? First, they have taken 3 matches to hit anything approaching top gear. Joe Cole has emerged as the only bonafide star so far in the squad.
We've also seen England cheat twice. Once when giraffe on ice skates Peter Crouch pulled the braids of the guy marking him, which allowed Crouch to get a head on the ball and score a goal. That's cheating. Twice when Jamie Carragher used his hand in the box to deflect a goalward bound shot, which would have given the Swedes a 3-2 win. Both teams would have qualified, so cheating in this match seems just lame.
USA v. GHANA
We have our 3rd match on Thursday, kick off at 7am. In our group, Italy is on top with 4 points, then the Czechs with 3 points, and we've got 1. If we beat Ghana, that will give us 4 points, and if Italy beats Czech Republic, that will result in:
Italy 7
USA 4
Czech Rep 3
Ghana 3.
We will advance to the 2nd round with Italy under this scenario, but Ghana will surely be fighting for pride and won't give us an easy match.
Other amazing matches so far:
AUSTRALIA
has really emerged as the best of the new boys, totally surprising some of the more skeptical soccer fans, although I had them pegged as making it out of their group. This could still happen. They lost only 2-0 to Brazil, a team comprised entirely of superstars. No easily done, so hats off to the Aussies.
