felt like the world cup really started this afternoon. after three fairly uninspiring games... what a game that was between spain and portugal. just brilliant. what's the takeaway from today? don't commit stupid fouls close to your box late in the game. all three results changed because of that.
And Pique's foul on CR looked intentional, a message sent, from the extended arms. Kind of idiotic. I had a great afternoon. I thought Egypt was more impressive than I expected in the first match. With Salah, they could be dangerous in this tournament. Of course, they have to beat Russia to stay in, but on evidence, they're more than capable. Uruguay can also look good. German TV did a great tactics and shape breakdown on Iran, showing the movement of their mid and back lines. It was crazy in unison and quite compact, and really quite beautiful. There isn't much left when they get towards goal, and Port and Spain are probably simply too much for them, but it was a really well played tactical game for a national team. Morrocco was a bit of a mess, even though more talented. They were playing with a crazy spread, like 60 yards or more between back and front line. But yeah, the last one was quite amazing, and FFS Cron still has it.
Uruguay/Egypt was a fun game to watch this morning. Morocco/Iran was a struggle, Spain/Portugal I expected to be the best game of the day and it didn't disappoint.
couple comments about the fox broadcast. 1. please no more of the commentary crew that did the denmark/peru game. that was painful. i liked his typical latin enthusiasm, but half of it was unintelligible due to his thick accent, and the other half was cringe-worthy, at best. either just let him do it all in spanish, or don't have him on there at all. 2. similar to the first point, please no more of hernan crespo on the studio show. i get that they want to have opinions from non-americans, but can you at least find some that are fluent enough in the language and in broadcasting to be on tv? he's dead air as far as i'm concerned. on the other hand, lalas is both of those and he's awful to watch/listen to as well. 'course, that's no surprise to any of us. 3. still regarding the studio shows, why are the cameras set so low and not zoomed in enough? it's irritating as all hell to feel like i'm looking upwards at the desk. 4. for a positive comment, kate abdo is fine as f***. can we ditch the bland rob stone and give her the lead for all of it?
I have been watching in Spanish, but the other complaint I've seen of the Fox broadcast is that they're almost immediately jumping back to the studio when the game is over instead of just staying on the field for the end of the game.
i just now saw what landon tweeted. wtf man? i don't think i can ever defend him again. from the former captain of the usmnt and best player in our history (in my opinion) ... that's just disgusting... on multiple fronts.
Just finished watching Sweden and South Korea. I have a soft spot for SK, have since I got tickets and saw them in person against Spain in Dallas back in '94. That said, they were horrible. Just god awful. Sadly, Sweden were better, but barely. I know it's apples to oranges, and it's not fair for national sides to be compared to clubs (who work together year round, instead of for a week here and there), but at the level of play they put out today, I left that match thinking SKC would stomp all over either of these sides. Which raised the question, who wouldn't they stomp all over at this WCup, given their current level of play and of nations in round one of the group. I would suggest SKC is a full step above quite a few sides, and a couple steps ahead of some. Having watched every game thus far (yeah, i know, but I like to think it is a life, of sorts), i offer: The sub-SKC line (IMO) Saudi, Russia, Egypt, Iran, Iceland, Korea, Sweden, Costa Rica, Serbia, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Uruguay, Australia, Denmark, Peru, Switzerland. That's more than half the field, with 8 teams yet to play. Am I wrong? Am I being too generous to Germany, Argentina, Croatia and France? Would SKC win this thing? I know, the big nations have crazy talent, but wow, they aren't in sync and their tactics are crazy simple (did Argentina have more than one idea for approaching the goal. Granted, give Messi the ball and let him run at people is not a bad idea).
I'm just blown away that Argentina, Spain, Germany, and Brazil all dropped points in their first games. It's been quite a roller coaster so far. Don't get me wrong, I loved watching Iceland squeeze a draw out of Argentina and everything, just... wow.
so argentina makes it through. round of 16 already has two fantastic matchups. arg-france and uruguay-portugal.
Argentina's opening goal, holy crap, The cushion of a long ball off his thigh, catching and cradling it before it bounces with his foot, perfect setup for the shot. etc. I know he's not a real 9, but a false one, still, I think that Messi fella could work in the SKC front line. Seriously, a work of art. What going to be intresting against France is that France is crazy talented, but German TV did a tactical breakdown of them and their mid to defensive lines are crazy close to overlapping, while there's a sizeable gap to their front line, which was odd in a 5-2-3. I know the players for this one weren't first choice (still pretty good) but the problems have existed in all three games, according to the analysis i was watching. What we can see is that they look unconnected. Of course, Argentina runs everything through Messi, which is a problem on one hand, but, you know, Messi...
f*** you, germany. you got what you deserve. sweden destroys mexico and all you had to do was win by one against an obviously inferior south korea, and mexico would've been sent packing. unreal.
Wow, I didn’t think Geiger was going to escape the game without getting his ass kicked by the Columbia squad. That got out of hand really quick. He had to yellow card half the people on the field to get control of the game.
yeah, and honestly, i thought he reffed a pretty good game. both teams were behaving very badly (and colombia, frankly, were a bit disgraceful in their complaining) and deserved every card that was handed out. i think he probably should've started dishing out yellows a little earlier, but i can understand trying to hold back.