Greetings Pool Players –
Alas, the USA run is over as Ghana showed a game team the art of closing in a very exciting match. As usual, they had to come back from an early defensive lapse, and as usual did – but it was Ghana that still had gas in the tank in extended time. Throughout this successful run, the USA led a total of 2 ½ minutes out of around 400. As to its lasting impact on US soccer, we’ll have to see though my brother Tim is anticipating this headline from The Onion: “USA catches soccer fever for 3 days”.
In Saturday’s other exciting match, Korea scored the only goal Uruguay has given up, but Suarez got the two needed to advance. This Uruguay team, with its stellar overall defense and strikers that know how to capitalize on limited opportunities, reminds me a bit of Italy four years ago….
Sunday was two apparent blowouts -- Germany 4-1 over England and Argentina 3-1 over Mexico – but the losers at least get significant referee mistakes to complain about for the next four years. For Argentina’s first goal, it appeared the linesman saw the offsides on the stadium replay and wanted to change the call. There’s going to be a ton of instant replay suggestions for FIFA to ignore.
So, the first half of the quarterfinalists have been determined -- Uruguay and Ghana, Argentina and Germany – and these are the matchups next weekend to determine the semifinalists.
In the pool, most people got Argentina and Germany but only a few picked Uruguay or Ghana to advance this far and no one picked all four.
Enjoy!
Chris
P.S. Here’s my address again if you haven’t yet paid your $10: 242 Yale Ave, Kensington CA 94708.
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