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Props to the TV and Germany romps
June 20, 2006ESPN soccer announcer Tommy Smyth said it best Tuesday afternoon.
“Man, the only way to go is with picture-on-picture on your TV.� Or something like that.
Yes it is. I can attest to that.
Starting today, the next four days will have two group games playing out simultaneously. Three years ago when I purchased my 32-inch Sony television, I had no idea how handy picture-in-picture would be.
I can switch games, switch volumes and even move the small picture in each of the four corners to my liking.
Without it, I would have missed this 5-minute stretch: England’s Steven Gerrard scores in the 85th minute, giving England a 2-1 lead over Sweden.
THEN, Trinidad and Tobago is peppering the net, but a minute later, Paraguay takes a 2-0 lead. And WHILE the Paraguay players are celebrating…..
GOALLLLLLL - Sweden ties it up in the 90th minute. And I saw it all with some deft remote control skills on the picture-in-picture.
The Sweden-England game was the best of the day. England’s up 1-0 at the half, but Sweden comes out and dominates, scoring a goal off a corner and hitting the post twice in a five-minute span.
Then two late goals in a fast-paced game. What more could you ask for?
The Brits have to be worrying about Michael Owen, their star forward who went down with a painful knee injury. I had to stretch my leg just to make sure MY knee was OK.
Germany punks Ecuador, 3-0
The host country finally decided to lay a beating down after two ho-hum wins. They were all over Ecuador, scoring in the 4th minute and not looking back.
Miroslav Klose is a total stud — no one has scored more goals (four) than him — and the defense played well too.
I liked the German team I watched today to make a deep run. Their victory, however, means to England-Germany meeting in the second round.
In the other two matches, Paraguay ended Trinidad’s run with a 2-0 win and Poland’s Bartosz Bosacki (say that name three times fast) scored twice for a 2-1 win over Costa Rica in a game that meant as much as the ramblings in this blog.
In other words, not a darn thing.
Stat of the day: England hasn’t beaten Sweden in soccer in 12 games, a span of 38 years. The Swedes are 4-0-8 in that span.
Looking ahead: The Argentina-Netherlands match at 2 p.m. might be the most anticipated of the first round. The Mexico-Portugal morning game is the one to keep your eyes on, as Mexico should advance, but Angola still has an outside shot if it can beat Iran.
My soccer-viewing quest: Two things I like about the next three days’ worth of schedules. First, the 9 o’clock start allows me to sleep in an extra hour. And second, I’m digging the 3-hour gap in between games. I can take a little nap, do some chores or basically be productive.
Like, today, I can take our super-frantic dog to the vet, where the 75-pound monster jumps into my lap out of pure fright, takes three vets to haul him off for his annual shots and pretty much makes life miserable for all involved in that hour.
Posted by at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
