Germany 7 - Brazil 1

    Oh my.  Brazil really missed Neymar today.  Really, really, record-setting embarrassingly missed him.

Twilight

    I feel a little guilty bashing Twilight (both the book and the movie) because frankly, I've never read/watched it.  But jeez, I've never come across anyone who tries to defend it,  Especially those who have read/watched it.

Hey, kids! What time is it?

    It's World Cup Time!!

    For the record, I am predicting Brazil to win it all, beating Argentina in the finals.  Although I have yet to pick correctly.

There's always Hope

Congratulations, Japan!!

    It was a great game with a great storyline.  Every bit as drama-laden as the Brazil-USA game a few days ago.  Japan, you gave your country a great lift, just when they needed it most.

    And USA, I know it hurts, but there were no losers this day.  You hustled every step of the way; you left it all on the field; the shots just didn't go in.  Soccer is like that sometimes.

Spain 1 - Netherlands 0

Okay, this is my last World Cup post for four years. It was a fitting championship game between the two best teams in the tournament. But frankly, Spain was the best there was, and the final score - Spain 1 - Netherlands 0 - was no fluke. . The Dutch team was being outhustled and eventually resorted to a thuggery style of play. Their yellow cards kept piling up, and eventually one of their players got a second yellow, which equals a red card, and an ejection. Spain took advantage of the Netherlands playing a man short, and won it in the second overtime. It was a just result. .

The 3rd-4th place game took place on Saturday, and was perhaps the most entertaining game of the tournament. Wide open attacks and counter attacks, with the final score being Germany 3 - Uruguay 2.

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Now it's time to put away the soccer balls, and turn off the ESPN gamecast. The 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil, which is bad news for the European teams, but good news for us American spectators, as the early-in-the-day games won't be starting at 4:30 AM (Arizona time) like they did in South Africa.

World Cup - Final Weekend

The month-long World Cup finally draws to a close this weekend. Uruguay plays Germany tomorrow to determine 3rd and 4th places; and Netherlands and Spain play in the championship game on Sunday. . It's been a fantastic tournament. South Africa is to be commended for putting on the tournament without a hitch. Some favorites stumbled (France and Italy); some dark horses excelled (Ghana and Uruguay); only the officiating stank. So on to our as-reliable-as-always predictions... .

3rd-4th Place Game : Uruguay 1 - Germany 0

This is a mild upset. On paper, Germany is the better team. But Klose is hurting, and the Deutschlanders are bummed that they're not playing for the championship.

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OTOH, Uruguay has gone a lot farther than anyone expected, and Suarez is back from his 1-game suspension for his brilliant "Hand of God" penalty against Ghana. They're on a mission to reclaim their former glory (they've twice won the World Cup, albeit a long time ago). So they roll against Germany, who just goes through the motions.

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Championship Game : Spain 2 - Netherlands 0

One of these teams will win their first-ever World Cup. Netherlands beat Brazil, which is always an amazing feat. But the way Spain just shut down the German attack in the semi-final impressed the daylights out of me. To boot, Paul the Octopus claims Spain will win, and he's been perfect so far. You can read about this 8-limbed prognosticator here.

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Who am I to argue with a cephalopod? Spain, I apologize for questioning your pedigree. All hail the Spanish Conquistadors!

World Cup - into the second round

The first round of the World Cup is over. 16 teams have gone home; 16 teams remain. The USA is still playing. the next round starts tomorrow, so it's time to check our pre-tournament predictions, which you can see here. .. Championship Game : Brazil vs. Germany Germany lost a game, but they were playing a man short. They still finished first in their section. They have to play England next, and to get to the finals, they'd have to beat Argentina. That's a tough road, but hey, it could happen. I'm sticking with this one. . . 3rd-4th Place Game : Spain vs. Portugal This game will happen, but not for 3rd/4th. They play each other next, so I have to replace one of them in my prediction. Spain still hasn't impressed me, but they won their group. Portugal tied Brazil today, but neither team was making an effort. They also smashed North Korea 7-0. In browsing the brackets, I'm going to revise this to be Portugal vs. Uruguay. . USA's Performance & USA vs. England. I predicted the USA would still be in it and they are. I predicted they'd lose to England, and they tied, thanks mainly to a horrible gaffe by the English goalkeeper. My updated prediction for our next game is : USA 2 - Ghana 1. After that, we'll face Uruguay and lose, maybe 2-0. We'll be bummed, but actually, it will be quite a successful showing if we get that far. . Best Never-to-Happen Match-Up & Upset African Victory South Korea surprisingly made it to the second round, but North Korea is gone. It was not meant to be. I predicted Cameroon 2 - Netherlands 1; it turned out just the opposite. The game was tied for while, but Cameroon was never really in the game, and ended up losing all three of their matches. African teams did horribly here; the closest thing you could call an upset was South Africa tying Mexico. .Two Over-Performing Teams : Uruguay and Mexico. Right as rain on this one. They both are still in the tournament. The only thing I'm changing here is for Uruguay to go further than Mexico. BTW, most over-performing Continent is South America. Five teams; fifteen games so far. Overall record : 10 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss. All five teams advanced. Fab-u-loso!

Two Under-Performing Teams : France & Argentina

Dead right about France; dead wrong about Argentina. Maradona is awesome. I'll be cheering for the USA tomorrow, of course. But overall I cheer for every team. It's been a great tournament so far, and it's only gonna get better.

USA 1 - Algeria 0

Hey, the United States finally won a World Cup soccer game today! And in the 91st minute of a 90-minute game no less. . By doing so, they won their section, and so play Ghana next. England, by placing second, gets to play Germany next, a much more formidable opponent than we have. Slovenia, who was within a whisker of advancing (in place of the USA), gets to go home. .

I've been saving the MSNBC headline (below) for about six months now. It seemed like bulletin board material at the time it came out, but I guess the USA knew what they were talking about.

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We shall see how they do against Ghana and beyond. They certainly haven't scared anybody yet. Barely beating Algeria is not a signature victory, and Brazil (probably) waits in the wings. Tomorrow is another day, but for now we can bask in glow of two miraculous finishes (against Slovenia and Ghana), as well as the knowledge that other teams may be better than us, but none are more resilient.

I agree with Batman...

... the World Cup, so far, has been fantastic. I watch it on the weekends, and whenever I get a chance to sneak into the company lunch room. And at my desk, I "watch" the games via ESPN's gamecast, which our filtering system graciously allows through.

USA 2 - Slovenia 2

The good news? The USA is still undefeated after two rounds in the World Cup. (Two draws) The bad news? We waltzed into this morning's game against Slovenia (who?) thinking they would just roll over and concede to wonderful little old us. And promptly got our butts spanked.

By halftime, we were down 0-2, and our defense was being taken to school again. But we came back. And what a comeback it was, too! The adrenaline (or was it panic?) kicked in, and with ten minutes to go, we had fought back to a 2-2 tie. We even appeared to score a third time, only to have it waved off by a referee who seemed on the take from Slovenia.

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We will now whine about being robbed (which we were), conveniently forgetting that the only reason we still have a chance of advancing to the next round is because England muffed that weenie shot on goal in our opening game.

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Which cost that English goaltender his starting job, BTW. His back-up performed admirably today, but the English offense looked pathetic, and they could only tie lowly Algeria 0-0. So Group C, which is comprised of the four aforementioned teams, is up for grabs. The top two teams advance, and all four are still in the running. Wouldn't it be a jaw-dropper if the two advancers turned out to be Algeria and Slovenia?

England 1 - USA 1 (World Cup)

What a great game to watch! After 5 minutes, the USA was already down a goal, and things looked grim. But just before half, the English goalkeeper pulled a "Bill Buckner", and things were even again. The second half was tension-packed, but there was no scoring, and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. To grade the teams... . USA Offense : B- The footwork was good, the conditioning program showed, and we have some speedy strikers that caused all sorts of match-up problems for England. But the passing game sucked, and our shots were really wimpy. . England Offense : B+ Gerrard and Rooney both impressed me. The footwork was even better than the USA's, the passing was crisp, and their set plays were opening up shots the whole game. Still, only one shot went in, and that really had more to do with... . USA Defense : C- They were questionable before the World Cup even started, and they looked pathetic on the first goal. At that point, they could've folded, but instead they tightened up. They did a nice job on Rooney the whole game. Yet the questions remain. . England Defense : A- They never broke down and made the USA offense look sickly throughout. I was especially impressed with their tackling and getting to the loose balls first. . USA Goal-Keeping : A What a gritty performance by Tim Howard. No question about it - he was the MVP of the match. Good saves, great leadership, and he played hurt for the majority of the game. He was a little shaky on a couple of the saves, but I have the feeling that the ball and grass were slick. . England Goal-Keeping : D It's not just a matter of blowing that goal. There was fear in Robert Green's eyes. Yeah, he only allowed one score. But the Americans were hitting lobs at him. What will happen when he faces a top-notch offense like Brazil or Spain? .

In the end, it was a just outcome. Both goals were due more to luck than skill. Both teams are still positioned nicely to make it into the second round, even though ATM Slovenia is in first place after beating Algeria. Big hoop-de-doo.

Let's not kid ourselves - England is still the better of the two teams. Don't believe me? Look at who was rejoicing and who was bummed after the game was over. But the gap between the two countries' soccer programs has narrowed. Long-term, this bodes well for us Yanks.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Germany looked super-good today against Australia. And we haven't even seen Spain, Brazil, Portugal, and the Netherlands yet. The best is yet to come.

World Cup Openers

The World Cup began today, with both of my predicted "over-performers" seeing action. Neither lost, but neither was overly impressive. Still, we can rationalize. .

Mexico 1 - South Africa 1 South Africa is here only because they are the host country, but host countries historically play over their head. National pride and all that. Mexico did everything well in the first half, except score any goals. Thus it was disconcerting when, early in the second half, South Africa scored the first goal. But Mexico tied it late in the game. All in all, a missed opportunity for Mexico, and a confidence-booster for South Africa.

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Uruguay 0 - France 0

Just the opposite here - France did everything better, except score a goal. To boot, Uruguay had to play the last dozen minutes or so a man down, thanks to one of their players getting red-carded and sent off. Still, France is the higher-rated team, so a draw is entirely acceptable for Uruguay. It looks like they play defense first, and only look to score via counter-attacks.

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Tomorrow is USA-England. The two teams haven't met in the World Cup for sixty years, and everyone is still calling this a Grudge Match. Should be fun to watch.

World Cup Predictions

The premiere soccer event - The World Cup - begins in two days. South Africa is the host country, which means neither the European nor the South american teams have an inherent "home-soil" edge over each other. And yes, the champion will be from one of those two continents. . Even if you have little interest in soccer (or "football" to anyone who isn't from the USA), you owe it to yourself to watch some of these games. The level-of-play is truly unparalleled. Without further ado, here are my predictions... . Championship Game : Brazil vs. Germany The two favorites (both at 9:2 odds) are Brazil and Spain, and the latter certainly is on a roll. But Spain doesn't have the pedigree for World Cup finals. My head says it really should be Italy instead of Germany in the final, but my heart says that's a boring match-up. FWIW, Brazil is scary good. . Third-Fourth Place Game : Spain vs. Portugal I haven't looked beyond the first-round pairings, so this may not even be possible. Both of these teams are good, and this would be a treat to watch. . USA's Performance They'll make it into the second round, but lose there. Word is they're in great shape. But there's more to soccer than stamina. Someday the US will win a World Cup. Alas, not this time. . USA - England Score : 1:3 (first game for both squads) We've been giving England bulletin board material since the pairings were announced. England has the third-best odds to win it all (6:1), but somehow I see injuries hurting them. They are good, and those injuries won't be there in the opening game. We have the stamina, but they have the skill. . Best Match-Up that will never happen North Korea vs. South Korea. Simply cuz neither one will make it out of the first round. But wouldn't that be kewl? . Upset African Victory : Cameroons 2 - Netherlands 1 Why not? Other possibilities are Ghana tying Germany, and Ivory Coast beating Portugal. . Two teams that will under-perform France and Argentina. The former shouldn't even be here (sorry, Ireland) and the latter has psycho-druggy Maradona as their coach. I'd also pick Netherlands (ranked 4th in the world, and at 14:1 odds), but they always under-perform. . Two teams that will over-perform Mexico and Uruguay. Both make it into the second round (sorry, France and South Africa), and Mexico goes even further. . Teams I will be cheering for (other than the USA) I habitually root for the underdog, but some teams are simply more fun to watch. So my "pets" are Netherlands, Portugal, Paraguay, Switzerland, and all the African nations. .

That's about it. Missing in action are Turkey and Russia, both of which I expected to be here. For the record, my sports predictions are always potential money-makers for you. Just carefully read what I say, then place your bets in the exact opposite way.