First off, I expected a little bit more from South Korea. It was a funny game. Uruguay started off the for more impressive, South Korea their usual selves, defensively confused, but still full of energy. Suarez's goal was classic. Totally comical Korean defending, cheeky ball across from Veron, and easy enough tap in with the entire Korean defence just looking on.
From then on, far large parts of the game, Uruguay simply could not build on their lead, much as Korea continued with their uninspired defending. But, as the game wore on, with Uruguay still only one goal to the good, and the Koreans still running their hearts out, you figured something could happen.
And it did. A Bolton player scored too. Lee Chung-yong. Always liked him; too bad he's at Bolton. Pretty sure he'll move in due course though. Anyways, at 1-1, you had to fancy Korea. Still full of energy, and somehow, managing to cut out the defensive shennigans.
But alas. The only thing that would separate the teams at this point was Suarez, and his deciding goal was admittedly deserving.
Looks like Japan will have to restore some Asian pride against Latin American opponents in Paraguay next week.
Oh yeah - one final thing on the game. Was it me, or did anyone else out there also notice two things: (a) the crap crowd - looked like the stadium was half-full, and (b) the crap pitch. The stadium's going to be hosting two more games it seems. Good luck to them.
Before I get to the US-Ghana game itself, let me just have a quick word on the ITV commentary. Peter Drury just irritates me. This time, it was the repeated references to "America". America this, America that. Not sure if the most successful continent thus far in the World Cup would be pleased, but it irritates me, simple enough. Twit.
As for the score, yes. Ghana won. And what a sad night for the US. A strange game it was, in the end. Ghana started off much brighter, and the US - much like Korea - seemed lost in the excitement, and gave away a crappy goal early early early in the game. Much like Korea, again, as the game progressed, the US seemed to get back into it, and they eventually equalised through - who else, Landon Donovan. At that point, you really would've put money on the US to seal the deed. Ghana were on the back foot, and seemed already willing to play for extra time.
You sorta figured out why then. Again, scording early in extra time through more defensive uncertainty. That, unfortunately, was that. The US just did not have enough quality through the team to see them through.
The US team stands on three people: Donovan, Dempsey and Bradley. And there's only so far them three can bring you if the rest of the team don't deliver. I mean, Donovan takes the corners, the free kicks, the penalties, and scores the goals. Case in point: Jozy Altidore.
Has anyone seen as useless a striker as Jozy Altidore? He is such an immense waste of space. I mean, it's bad enough the US are light on that front, but to have Altidore? Holy smokes, he's absolutely abysmal. It's not like he's Mr Invisible. He's pretty involved, but everything he touches seems to end up in nothing. Surreal that it took Bob Bradley 90 minutes to take him off. What a joke.
Oh well. One team I'm watching for is out. All eyes on Holland then.
In the near term, of course, them eyes, are already looking ahead to tomorrow and the crunch match of crunch matches: England v Germany. As can be expected, everyone's pumped up in the England camp, and the media of course, has been more than happy to chip in.
Captain Stevie G's upbeat, and in particular on Waybe Rooney:
"It is only a matter of time before Wayne scores in this tournament and hopefully that is tomorrow."
Hopefully. If not, there's always tomorrow. Or the day after. Take your time, dude. It's just a matter of time. What a crack up.
You know speaking of the media, for some reason, I happened to look at Die Zeit, just to get an idea of how the respectable German media might be hyping this up at this time. Here's a sentence from one such story:
Thomas Müller bezeichnete die Engländer als "geilen Gegner" und der Bundestrainer Joachim Löw urteilte: "Das ist ein besonderes Spiel."
Okay. What the shit does that mean, I hear you say. This is what Google tells me:
Thomas Müller described the Englishman as "horny opponents" and the national coach Joachim Loew pronounced: "This is a special game . The Duel lives on in history. " How right he was.
Looks like Müller's got it spot on. Horny opponents alright, but horny bastards more accurately! Special attention on the likes of Terry, Cole, Rooney then...
Alright. G'night. My thoughts are with Bill Clinton - it was nice to see him cheering the USA on.
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