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Classic underachievers and a pretty good 3-0 loss
June 27, 2006Let’s play a quick word-association game. Brazil is to greatness as Spain is to _______.
a) underachieving losers
b) a floundering group of fools once group play ends
c) non-greatness
d) all of the above
I’ll go with D.
If you didn’t watch France-Spain this afternoon, than by now you’ve already figured out what happened. Spain, my World Cup pick, lost 3-1.
Even though they took a 1-0 lead because of an iffy penalty kick call.
Even though they have the younger, and probably better, team.
Even though they effortlessly rolled through group play while France struggled.
Spain has made the most appearances without playing in a WC final (or at least I’m pretty sure of that) and this could have been a special year.
But Viera headed home the game-winning goal in the 83rd minute, and Zinadane Zidane put the icing on the cake on extra time.
You know whom I blame most for this - France. And not because they played a better game.
No, if the French hadn’t slogged around during group play and finished second behind the Swiss, these soccer titans wouldn’t have run into each other this early.
Now France meets up with Brazil in a rematch of the ‘98 final. I’ll go with Brazil, but who knows.
Brazil so-so in 3-0 victory
If it’s possible to be outplayed in a 3-0 win, then Brazil accomplished that today against Ghana. This game was closer than the score indicates.
Ronaldo put in his WC-record 15th goal on a breakaway in the fifth minute, but after that, the Ghanaians controlled this one, stringing handfuls of passes together, just like Brazil should do.
Brazil goalie Dida, who never gets enough credit, made a couple of great saves, and Brazil’s second goal before half should have been waved off for offsides.
Ghana dominates the second half, but couldn’t finish. Down a man, Ghana gave up a third goal late. If not for the offsides goal, then Ghana would have had a real chance to make this one interesting in the second half.
And this just in - Ronaldo still has some moves, shaking-and-baking the Ghana keeper out of his boots.
Stat of the day: Brazil hasn’t lost a World Cup match when leading at halftime since 1950. Not too shabby.
Looking ahead: Hold on here, let me check my schedule. Wait. What’s this? No games for two days. What to do, what to do.
On Friday, in what could be the best match so far, Germany and Argentina face off. Italy-Ukraine also takes place.
My quest: Good news and bad news. The good news is that I’ve watched almost all of the 56 games played thus far in the World Cup. The bad is there’s only eight games left. Ahhhhh.
Posted by Zach Duncan at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Comments
Ok. I am going through soccer withdrawal. We need something to talk about since we can't discuss terrible officiating and flukes like France.
What are you thoughts on Instant Reply being integrated into the game. Or maybe you fancy the electronic chip imbedded into the ball to decided when it REALLY crosses the goal line. Will a 2nd center official just create twice as many bad calls?
ALSO - I feel obligated to give a shout out to whoever the genius is who created the TVU Player. Not having a TV at work was causing premature grey hairs back in
May. Thanks to you, east asian hacker, I am able to watch the games on my computer.
Kudos to ESPN for making espn360 free for the world cup. If you can't beat em, join em.
