Aloha Futbol Fans!
Monday and Tuesday brought more great soccer action, as tends to happen this time every four years. Holland continued their undefeated run through qualification with a victory over Denmark 2-0 which included a beautiful header by a Dane into his own net for the tournament’s first own goal. Japan secured its first World Cup victory not on home soil on a so-smooth catch and flick into Cameroon’s goal (1-0). Holland leads Japan in group E on goal differential.
In Group F, Paraguay and Italy played a very tight game with Paraguay creating more opportunities and scoring first. Italy found the equalizer on a set play’s defensive mistake to salvage the point. In Tuesday’s New Zealand-Slovakia matchup, Slovakia scored first on a play that could have been called off-sides. The Kiwis were game however, and scored in the final 30 seconds of injury time to earn New Zealand its first ever World Cup point. Group F is completely tied up with two 1-1 draws.
Group G’s first matchup featured the tournament’s highest ranked team versus the lowest, and things didn’t go exactly as assumed. Brazil took a while to get rolling but found the beautiful game in their two second half goals. The shocker was PRK’s 89’ goal beating world’s best defender and world’s best goalie in a pristine sequence. Then, in the match pegged to decide both Group G’s runner-up and the underwear guy (Ronaldo or Drogba) with the most game, neither Portugal nor Ivory Coast could muster a goal (0-0).
In the pool, three of us still have perfect brackets – including a seven year old that I can attest made every pick herself. After tomorrow’s Spain-Switzerland and Honduras-Chile matchups, every team will have played their opener.
Enjoy!
Chris
P.S. Goldman Sachs World Cup economic report is a great read if you really want to geek out on the World Cup: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/ideas/global-economic-outlook/the-world-cup-2010-doc.pdf Thanks to Stephanie for the link.
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