gazza ladra

Appiah the difference

Coffee break over, back on your heads! Altidore, Cherundolo, and DeMeritt were having good World Cups. Better competition I suppose. Why the hell did Bradley start Ricardo Clark again? Well, if the US don't score an equalizer I think Ghana could do Uruguay.

Christ Ronaldo you've been pissy lately. The primary reason I'm rooting for England is to support some of the posters on NO. To be frank, I can't stand the character of a lot of the English players Terry, Rooney, Gerrard, A Cole and seeing them fail would bring me a great deal of joy. Reading posts by you and Parky is almost enough to turn me to the dark side.

I used to work for them about the time they were taken over by Eidos Interactive. Remember watching the 96 Euro Cup and 98 World Cup at the offices in San Francisco.

Sad thing. I was almost hoping we'd finished second in the group so we'd play on Sunday and I could see both. Almost.

So, I have to decide whether to watch USA-Ghana, or hit the road so I can catch this afternoon's demos at the California Indian Basketweaving Association's annual meeting in Ione. Decisions, decisions.

Thought most NO Americans were pulling for England. Know I am.

Don't know what you're on about. I know Mike has written something similiar, but I haven't seen it. ESPN is promoting US/Ghana heavily, but the only fool I've seen discounting Ghana is Alexi Lalas. And we've come to expect such homer idiocy from him. That's his schtick.

Need to finish that.

Wow.

Yessss! Bibimbap time!

Uruguay will be found out.

Legend. Ashley, Wise, and Kinnear fucked it up. Air about the club was poisonous. I don't blame the players who had enough and got out.

Uruguay over South Korea USA over Ghana Holland over Slovakia Brazil over Chile England over Germany Argentina over Mexico Paraguay over Japan Spain over Portugal USA over Uruguay Holland over Brazil Argentina over England Spain over Paraguay Holland over USA Spain over Argentina Spain over Holland

Who would they give it to? There's only 10 teams in CONMEBOL, 5 already in the Cup. I'd say that's pretty impressive representation already. Doing an incredible job this WC. It was a bit tongue in cheek, but COMNEBOL and Asia will be demanding more spots from FIFA. Asia are obviously not that good, but with South Korea and Japan advancing countries like China will be pushing the population argument, whereas South America will be pushing the quality argument. Both will be saying that Europe and Africa don't deserve the representation they already have. South Americans have an argument. Asia, not much. CONMEBOL 5/5 advance CONCACAF 3/2 AFC 4/2 UEFA 13/6 CAF 6/1 OFC 0/1 As happy as I am to see the South Koreans and Japanese progress, the idea of Asia getting another slot is nonsense. New Zealand got to South Africa by beating Bahrain. Costa Rica missed out by losing to Uruguay. I reckon that Costa Rica would take Bahrain as well. Still I'm not about to argue for another place for North America, there's dropoff between our top four (Mex, USA, Costa Rica, and Honduras) and the rest. I miss the Ticos. Also anyone notice that all six of the European teams that advanced play European competion in the round of 16? That means 3 of the last 8 will be from UEFA. I figure CONMEBOL will have 4.

Decent documentary aired on ESPN a couple nights back here in the US called The Two Escobars about football in Colombia in the 90s, the drug cartels, and the killing of Andrés Escobar. Really recommend catching it if you can if only to see the interviews with Asprilla, Valderrama, Higuita. What a terrific group of players they had. I hadn't realized that the players had received death threats right from the beginning of the tournament. Something about the players being killed if the wrong player started the opening match versus Romania. A lot of drug money was being laundered through the Colombian league clubs and cartels were competing to ensure that their players-- the one's contracted to one club or another--- and not those of their competitors started and were put in the shop window---it wasall about increasing their sale value. Pretty sure that Brian Glanville still maintains that the Colombians threw the match against the USA.

The price tag has surely gone up based on his performances thus far. He's stil relatively young isn't he? 24ish?

The Good: Mexico. Spain. Japan. Chile. The Bad: Germany. Portugal. Ugly: Kind of glad Denmark are out. Was getting really tired of watching them; my wife is Danish and they're just poor. I'm still in shock that they won their qualifying group. Was rooting for Ghana, but enough of that already. Even if we (the US) weren't playing them next, they've been dreadful enough for me to want to see them out.

ESPN has been excellent, and the commentators, sidekicks and Studio guys have been great. Love Roberto Martinez as a studio pundit. ESPN top top marks this world cup. Yes! A World Cup without Tommy Smyth and Marcelo Balboa! Huzzah. Now, somebody please kill Alexi Lalas. I loved it in 2002 when they dug up Chinaglia to do color commentary though. He was dreadful and didn't give a shit. But still.

Did you watch US-Algeria?

I've been really impressed with Altidore in the past couple of games-- especially today. Of course, he's missed a couple of sitters but he's done everything else that could be asked of him. And then he's only 20. I think I forced myself to watch a couple of Hull games this past season and he was pretty poor. So, I wasn't really expecting anything from him. Pleasantly surprised. As an American I'd rather he didn't come to Newcastle. I'd rather see him go somewhere where he's going to play every day-- maybe the Championship-- and gain some experience and confidence. Is he going to get any minutes at Villareal? Hope they loan him out to someone who can afford to be patient and give him the minutes.

on domenech he has a point You've got the team defending Anelka, rallying around him. Not the Le Sulk of old.

Didn't know it was possible to dislike Aussies. They're so simpatico they're practically Canadian.

Those are quality I wonder if this tournament will be a turning point for football over there. America doing well will do more than Beckham ever did. Isn't the World Cup great? Turning point? That came back in 1990. We've got a long, loooong way to go still.