Musings on the World Cup (6/15 edition)

by Slate Quicksilver

The World Cup, as of now, has been rather dull. There hasn't been any blowouts (save for Germany's destruction of Australia 4-0) and defense has been the rule of the tournament. Here's where each team stands as of now:

Group A:
South Africa was the wrong side of the post off from beating Mexico. The tie with Mexico is a great start. For every bit of good South Africa has, Mexico looks bad. They pounded away to start but couldn't score until late and probably should have lost. Uruguay had to play with 10 men for the last few minutes and were probably grateful to take the tie. France looked miserably tired and boring and might fizzle out if they lose to Mexico on Thursday.

Group B:
Argentina scored 6 minutes in against Nigeria and then spent the next 84+ minutes almost scoring. Nigeria lost but should be thankful to their goalie that they are only down -1 in the GD department. Considering how bad Greece looked, being down -1 is probably a good thing for Nigeria. Speaking of Greece's terribleness, I don't know if South Korea is really as good as they looked because Greece looked awful.

Group C:
For the US, tying England is a win. I'm not mathematically challenged, I just feel that the US got incredibly lucky and taking 1 point rather than zero while holding the group favorites, England to 1 point, was huge. Speaking of England, will Rob Green be allowed back to his home country without wearing body armor? Slovakia really dominated Algeria and was unlucky to not win by more than one goal. Algeria looked miserable.

Group D:
Germany steamrolled Australia... it wasn't even a game. The Germans are the best looking team in the tournament as of now while Australia looked confused and slow. There was a party in Accra after Ghana beat Serbia 1-0 on a PK as Ghana probably just needs a tie over Australia to get out of the group stage. Serbia needs to beat Australia and Germany to survive, which likely won't happen.

Group E:
Denmark was ridiculously unlucky having an own goal and strange bounce after their defense stopped running against the Netherlands. The Oranje were really stymied by the Danes save for the two goals which were both products of luck. Cameroon looked overconfident going in against Japan who scored late in the first half and went deep and hid for the rest of the game.

Group F:
Italy looked old and creaky and very very fortunate to score a late goal against Paraguay, who should be happy but slightly disappointed to only take 1 point from them. The last touch of the game gave New Zealand (who looked surprisingly competent) it's first goal in a World Cup final and prevented Slovakia from it's first win in a World Cup final.

Group G:
Watching Cristiano Ronaldo flop and dive on the field for 90 minutes was an affront to the game. The fact that the officials still blow their whistles whenever he hits the ground is disappointing... he is the Manu Ginobili of the soccer world. Ivory Coast nearly struck late, but couldn't find the net. The biggest benefactor is North Korea, who will hold their destiny in their hands against those two teams. Brazil hasn't scored through 35 mins in the first half, but is dominating North Korea in all aspects.

Programming note: Posting will be light in the next few days as the Potluck Sports Annual Summit is taking place starting tomorrow.