Day 2 thoughts
Day 3 thoughts
Group C preview
Group D preview
Argentina - Serbia & Montenegro
6.06 a.m. - GOLASO ARGENTINA! Maxi Rodriguez scores of a great run & pass. 1-0 .
6.13 - Maradona, although still a bit overweight, looks like a million dollars compared to a few years ago when he was a drug addict and then went to Cuba to dry out with Fidel.
- "Hello, my name is Diego,
and I am a recovering druggie."
-"HI, DIEGO."
6.17 - Argentina are playing the beautiful game. S&M are not.
6.30 - 2-0 Argentina. Another GOLASO. Cambiasso knocks down a cross to Crespo, who backheels it back onto the run of Cambiasso, who slots it home. This is men against boys stuff thusfar. A7 will be happy that an Inter player has found the back of the net.
6.37 - Crespo scores after being played through, but is ruled offsides so it does not count. Very close.
6.41 - 3-0. Maxi Rodriguez cleans up a Saviola cross at the far post that Crespo just missed on the way by. Saviola makes the goal with a great tackle near the corner flag to get the ball, then he beats another defender before putting in a good cross. This is even more dominating than Spain-Ukraine.
6.47. HT. Complete domination. I don't know if S&M had a shot on goal, and they certainly have yet to create a good scoring chance. Will wunderkind Messi get a run out in the 2nd half, or will Pekerman just keep sitting him and Tevez until a match where it is tied or they fall behind in the 2nd half?
Smokey Robinson seconds that emotion.
And I third it.
7.10 - S&M make their first good chance, but dude misses the header right in front of goal. He was so open it looked like he could have just let it fall and easily scored with his feet, but he tried for the header instead.
7.17 - Tevez on for Saviola. Bienvenudos Carlos. Meanwhile, Messi must feel like the really pretty girl at the dance that for some inexplicable reason is not being asked to dance by any of the boys (because unbeknownced to her there is rumor flying around school that she has herpes).
7.23 - Insult to injury, as Kezman is sent off for S&M. Tough call, as it was a two footed challenge and one foot was "studs up", but on the other hand he got the ball as well as the man. He misses the next match, which will be important for Cote D'Ivoire, but only if they can get a result later against Holland.
7.33 - Messi on for Rodruguez. After hearing the rumors, Messi goes onstage, interrupts the band, and promptly produces a STD test that shows that he is in perfect health. He is immediately asked to dance by one and all. Bienvenudos Lionel. Let's Dance!
7.36 - The fist time Messi touches the ball, he is fouled rather hard. The 2nd time he touches the ball, he creates a goal for Crespo at the far post with a beautiful cross.
7.42 - 5-0. Tevez beats two dudes and then slots it perfectly into the side netting. Somewhere in Buenos Aires, couches are burning West Virginia style.
If you're Argentine, this match was better than sex.
7.46 6-0. Messi makes a great run, take a great pass in stride, beats his defender, then clinically slots it past the goalkeeper with his right (off) foot. 13 minutes: 1 goal, 1 assist. Let's Dance indeed! Drunk men are jumping into the River Plate for a celebratory drunken swim as we speak.
Unless it's with her.
7.48 - Mercy is granted to S&M in the form of the final whistle. How the hell do you pick a man of the match for Argentina? Good luck with that one FIFA.
Argentina 6-0 Serbia & Montenegro.
Argentina are through, while S&M are out and can now get on with the dissolution of their marriage and learning to be comfortable with just being S.... and M... respectively. But first they have to play for pride against Cote D'Ivoire in a few days.
Holland-Ivory Coast
This is the match that I really want to see today, but jury duty starts at 9 a.m. as well. I have a funny feeling that we may be all done by halftime though, so perhaps I can catch the 2nd half. All that orange; it's going to look like a Tennessee-Florida game at Neyland. Will we see any jorts?
Holland looking to
Also, this is a good battle of nicknames, as Les Elephants will battle the Orange Crush.
Oh, and watch out for Kolo Toure's mad karate skillz. Unfortuantely, myself nor my coolness will be albe to watch, as we are both off to court. Enjoy.
If there was a World Cup of Wackiness,
Holland would win every single time.
Holland 2-1 Ivory Coast.
Didn't get to see the match, except for a 10 minute span in the 2nd half. I have seen the 3 minute highlight video on the official site. I heard from a friend, whose opinion I respect, that the officiating was "criminal". Apparently this means that Ivory Coast were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty or two in the first half, and also that horseface himself VanNistleroy was offise on Holland's goal, which turned out to be the game winner. I can't personally comment on much of that since I didn't see much of the match and have not seen any replays of RVN's goal. Please tell me if my friend was baked or on point.
"Ro-bin Van Per-sie!" (click pic to play)
I only know that yet another Arsenal player was the man of the match: Robin Van Persie, who scored Holland's first with an absolutely brilliant free kick from outside the box, then played RVN through with an excellent pass, and finally cleared a shot off the goalline that beat the keeper and would otherwise have been an equalizing goal for Les Elephants. RVP joins Sweden-Paraguay man of the match Freddie Ljungberg and Czech Republic-USA man of the match Thomas Rosicky as Arsenal players kicking ass and taking names (your turn, Thierry Henry). How did KoloToure and Eboue play btw?
"Good
"Good
So Argentina and Holland are through, while Ivory Coast and S&M are out, but not before playing each other for pride. Holland must beat Argentina outright to top the group; any other result and Argentina will finish 1st and Holland 2nd (because Argentina's goal differential is a whopping +8 to Holland's +2, so a draw and ARG win on that tiebreaker).
Ivory Coast were very unfortunate to get knocked out of the cup - it is most likely that they will be the best team in the tournament not to advance to the knockout stage. Sucks for them that they got drawn into such a difficult group. I hope that they beat S&M to record their first World Cup win, and I am confident that they will do so - they seem quite superior to them. Makes you wish that 3 teams could make it out of this group and only one from one of the weak groups.
Oh, and Kone's goal was absolutely beautiful.
Mexico - Angola
Borgetti is out with the injury that he picked up early in their match with Iran.
Mexico 0-0 Angola.
I saw this match, and if you have been reading over the past week then you probably have a good idea that I was pulling hard for Angola. It seemed like a pretty fair result for them to "share the points" as they say. Angola are still alive in the group which is fairly impressive after 2 matches. If they beat Iran and get some help elsewhere (Portugal beating Iran and then beating Mexico badly) it is still possible for them to go through.
Mexican actress/singer Ninel Conde
sporting her own version of the Tricolor kit.
Oh, and I have a question about strong contender for The Golden Non-Mullet Award, Angola's #20: Does he have that hair because his name is Loco, so he feels that he must live up to that name in everything he does, or is it just a coincidence that his hair and name are one in the same?
Loco indeed.
12 comments:
The second Argentina goal is even better -- I'd say it's the best team goal of the tournament so far. It seemed like a 20 pass sequence and with a beautiful backheel to finish it off. That's jogo bonito at its best.
S&M are just hacks and I'll be glad to see them go.
As for the Holland-Ivory Coast game, the main difference is that there will be many more teeth on display than one typically finds at Neyland Stadium. That, and Big Fat Phil won't be patrolling the sidelines looking for something to eat.
david - I agree with both bias and pure appreciation that the creation of Cambiasso's goal was beautifully constructed. And for those of you paying attention.. Crespo has been extremely unselfish in this World Cup and I think that is the key for Argentina. They have a lot of youth and they play without the "Star" factor.
Kanu - indeed Cambiasso rewarded me for winning the remote this morning.
Holland played well, but the refs screwed Cote d'Ivoire on every foul and ignored blatant Dutch mugging around the goal.
What what? The Dutch fouls!? Surely not! They play "joga bonito"! Only the despicable Italian, German, and Argentines foul!
The way the Serbs were bitching about their coach's tactics against The Netherlands, you just knew they were going to implode.
That always happens with dissent in the ranks. I didn't think they'd implode THAT bad though.
RBR-
If youre right then that doesn't bode well for the US tomorrow, who have been bitching and pointing the finger at each other like a bunch of spoiled rich bratty sorority girls. (I'm talking to you Landon Donovan and you House Mother Arena).
I am by no means a Dutch partisan, and I did not think the officiating was a factor in the match.
RVN was 100% ONside on his goal--there was another player, on the other side of the pitch, uninvolved with the play, who was offside, and his marker is the one who played RVN on. Surely this is one of the problems with the passive offside rule, but as the rule stands there's little doubt the goal was legit. And, to be honest, RVN was standing there unmarked FOREVER--I guess the CD'Iv D just lost track of him.
Kolo was all right, although he fouled RVP for the free kick that directly led to his goal. Tommy Smyth loves the guy, and kept hyping him.
Eboue was better, and continually provided a threat going forward while playing solid D. There was a pretty blatant dive from him (early in the match) in the penalty area--he's going to get himself a reputation if he doesn't have one already.
Thanks man.
re: Eboue. Too late. A dive in the Cl final and another in the WC = reputation. Sucks because he is such a dynamic player. Hopefully with age & maturity he will realize that he doesn't need to do all that stuff. Maybe Wenger will sort him out.
I agree with Solon about the refereeing in the Holland match and about the RVN goal being onsides. His analysis is spot on.
Robin Van Persie simply beautiful. I told you Kanu that for Arsenal he's the one I love to watch the most. His strikes are beautiful and his creation is just as beautiful. Such a young lad. Arsenal has so many players on the list of Wenger's wonder signings and he's still a baybeh!
Yup. I love RVP too - so much talent for a 21 year old. The fear is that Wenger might sell him after teh WC and before the tournament beacuse he will be able to get a shitload of cash for him and some think that Adebayor will be Henry's main partner. I think this would be a really big mistake, and although I understand the significant financial pressure the club are under right now due to the new stadium, I hope that they keep RVP.
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