It's a wonder I still have fingernails left!

Wow. Except for the Germany vs. Sweden game, that was a blow-out in favour of the hosts, all the other games so far in the Round of 16 have been INTENSE! The classic Latin American duel between Argentina and Mexico went into overtime before Argentina pulled off the win, England vs. Ecuador was only 1-0 in favour of the Brits after a lot of sweat, and in a very physical game that ended with only 18 players on the field, Portugal beat the Netherlands in 100 minutes of regular time play.

(Yes, a normal game is 90 minutes long. That means that there were a total of 10 minutes added onto the game, because of the number of injuries, fights, and cards issued - a total of 16 yellow cards, with 2 players from each team ending up with reds.) CRAZY!!!!! I was shocked by how high their tempers were running! And yet, maybe I shouldn't be surprised, because, after all, it's a knock-out game, and winning literally means the world to every single team at this point. (Or at least until their next chance, 4 years from now.) But, unlike most of the commentators and analysts who have been tearing apart the ref's job, I think that the vast majority of those cards were deserved. Some of those players were out to kill, or at least it seemed so, and, especially on the Dutch team, they just lost all sense of sportsmanship. It was clear that they weren't going to give Portugal any room to play unless the ref absolutely made them, not even respecting the traditional unwritten rules of Fair Play football chivalry. For example, when a player on Portugal's team was laying on the ground injured, and the ref stopped play for him to receive medical attention, the custom would be for the ref to give the ball back to the Dutch team, who out of courtesy would play it back to the Portuguese defense so they could start the play over to make up for the injury. But the Netherlands were behind, and they wanted to tie it up, and courtesy apparently would get in the way of a potential victory, so instead of returning the ball to Portugal, the Dutch captain just kept the ball and launched it straight into an attack on goal. GRRRRR!!!! That made me madder than almost anything else that whole game. After that, I don't think I could have been content with Holland moving on. Even though either one will probably lose to England in the quarter-finals, anyways... :)

But, for me, the biggest nail-biter is yet to come, when Brazil plays Ghana on Tuesday. That will be a sad day for me, because regardless of who wins and loses, I will be sad no matter what. Those are the two teams that I most want to see succeed, and so to see them pitted against each other this early on is just too bad...Granted, I want Brazil to win the World Cup, and in order to do that they would have to beat Ghana. But of all the teams that are left, Ghana is the only other team who I could whole-heartedly cheer for if Brazil were eliminated. (Sorry for all of you who are cheering for Africa...you know I'd join you if it weren't for Brazil!)

And, Hiram, to answer your question (see comment on previous post), yes, we made it to our 32 minutes, but just barely...Japan scored after 33 minutes. Hooray! A new record by a whole minute! :) I was a bit scared at first during that game, because Japan scored first and we weren't looking too good, but then the boys shaped up and played some darn good football in the second half. Not to mention that they put in my favourite goalkeeper, Rogerio Ceni!!!!!!! For some reason which I don't understand, he is only the back-up goalie for Brazil this World Cup, even though I think he's way better than the starter, Dida. (Come on, how can you NOT love a goalie who not only blocks goals, but also makes them for his team? And he's really good at it, too, being the free-kick-scoring-est goalie in the world, and also scoring on PK's.) But, of course, I'm not biased at all. :)

May the best team win! And I promise to post on something not related to the World Cup soon. :)

The zebras are running loose!

That's right - a zebra is what we Brazilians call an upset. Something that nobody expected, a result that according to all reason wasn't supposed to happen but did anyways. And in a cup that until now had been fairly lacking in zebras, we now have a BIG one...

GHANA BEAT THE CZECH REPUBLIC!!!! Yes, that's right, the World Cup rookies came up big against the team that was ranked 2nd in the world coming into this Cup, in a b-e-a-utiful 2-0 win. Once again, the goalie played a HUGE part in the result, as Ghana's Richard Kingston moved into the lead with the most total saves so far this Cup. Chris Casali, who has "GHANA" painted in big letters on the rear windshield of his car, can now throw the party he's been waiting for, and Hiram is probably dancing a gleeful jig in Afghanistan at this good news! I hope that Ghana is the Zebra in this World Cup, just like Senegal was in the last one...or maybe even better. How awesome would it be if they, a rookie team from a small country in Africa, made it all the way to the finals?!?!?!?! :)

To make things even more interesting, in that same group, the U.S. pulled a very zebra-like tie with 3-time champs Italy, leaving their Group E still completely wide open, with none of the 4 teams yet guaranteed a spot in the next round, but also none of them eliminated yet.

And the other huge zebra is that France, the champions in 1998, have only managed 2 ties in a group where all the other teams have very little World Cup experience, and they face the possibility of being knocked out unless they shape up and put together a win against Togo on Friday!

Some things, however, have turned out as expected. The 4 teams favoured to win are already through to the round of 16. Argentina's offense is in the lead, with 7 goals scored and a guaranteed spot in the next round. The host Germany has also secured their spot, as well as being the team with the most shots on goal so far. England is also moving on, with 2 VERY hard-earned victories in close games against Paraguay and Trinidad-Tobago. And Brazil is also undefeated, moving on to the round of 16 regardless of the result of Thursday's match against Japan, and only 32 minutes away from breaking their own record of defensive consistency. If they reach 32 minutes of play without Japan scoring on them, they will have 459 sequential shut-out minutes played in World Cup matches. The most ever! After a disappointing first-round elimination last time around, Portugal has made it to the next round this time with some breathing room. And Ecuador, the only team to defeat Brazil in the World Cup qualifying games, is also undefeated and moving on, regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's duel with Germany.

But, in spite of all the results in favour of the traditional teams, the playing field is still wide open. You never know what might happen. And I have a feeling there are still plenty of zebras in store! :)

It isn't over 'til it's over...

For all of you who haven’t been following the World Cup, I have a few words for you: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? You’ve missed a great time. But don’t worry, it’s not too late to join the fun! We just finished the first of three rounds of group-stage play, which decides who goes through to the elimination rounds that start on the 24th. And, while we still have a long way to go until the finals on June 9th, there has already been enough excitement to keep even the most detached of non-soccer-fans on their toes!

You see, the beautiful thing about soccer is that every team has a shot. There is no team that is guaranteed to win any match, and no team that can be dismissed altogether. Sure, there are favourites, teams with World Cup tradition, with big-name stars, with high expectations. But the best play doesn’t always come from the people of whom we expect greatness, but rather from the most unexpected places. And so far, the only big team that hasn’t disappointed has been Germany, although for a team touted for their defense, they didn’t get the win easily, with Costa Rica putting in goals. England won, but barely. Brazil won, but barely. Portugal won, but barely. Argentina sweat to beat first-timers Cote d’Ivoire. France barely managed a sleepy, scoreless tie with Switzerland. Trinidad and Tobago, in its first-ever World Cup appearance, proudly holding the record of being the smallest country ever to play in the World Cup, brilliantly held the Swedes to a scoreless tie, even being down one player for most of the second half. You may ask, “90 minutes of play and nobody scored? Wouldn’t that be boring?” And my resounding reply is, “NO WAY!” It was one of the most intense, nail-biting, phenomenally-played games so far. Probably tied in my book with yesterday’s Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia game for best-games-to-watch-so-far. (Yes, even more favourite than the opening victory of my heart-team, Brazil, 1-0 over Croatia.) Tunisia and Saudi Arabia ended in a 2-2 tie, but it went right down to the wire, with Tunisia scoring the tying goal in stoppage time. (For those of you who don’t know, those are the minutes the ref adds onto the game after the official 90 minutes are up.) Just goes to show that it isn’t over ‘till it’s over! J

And, although of course I am biased, some of the best stories so far belong to the world’s goalkeepers. Take, for example, the Mexican goalie, Oswaldo Sanchez, whose team didn’t think he was going to make it to the opening game against Iran because he had gone back to Mexico just a week earlier when his father unexpectedly passed away. But, even though nobody would have questioned him at all for missing the first game, or even the entire World Cup, for not having the emotional energy to play, he flew in and suited up for his team. When the teams shook hands before the kick-off, the Iranian team gave Sanchez flowers. And he played an excellent game to help his team to a 3-1 victory over Iran. It was impossible not to cry when the game ended and the entire team piled on top of a crying Sanchez, hugged him, kissed his head, and celebrated by crying with him.

And then there’s Shaka Hislop, the backup goalie for the Trinidad & Tobago team, who was called off the bench just minutes before the opener when the starting goalie got hurt in warm-ups. And he played the game of his life! He made one unbelievable save after another, and was a veritable brick wall for his team. All without having the mental preparation of being able to anticipate the game and plan for it. Or Tunisia’s goalkeeper, who at the age of 40 is the oldest player in the World Cup and was one of the reasons they stayed tied with Saudi Arabia.

I LOVE THIS GAME!!! Who is YOUR favourite team so far?

Finally!

I must have really bad timing, because every time I've tried to post something on my blog in the past week, the Blogspot site tells me something like, "Sorry, we're overloaded right now, try back later!" Or, "Blogger is undergoing maintenance." And then, when I checked back later, it gave me some similar message. But apparently other Bloggers have been able to update just fine! I must have really bad timing...Grrrrr...

I also hate technology because, for some reason, my phone is doing the same thing that Michelle's was doing a little while ago, and showing absolutely nothing on the screen. So while all the mechanisms still function normally for taking calls and making them, the problem is that I can't see what I'm DOING! Which means I can't see who's calling me, what time it is (this is very important since I don't have a watch...), or find anyone's number inside my phone! (Which of course aren't written down anywhere as a backup.) Grrrr again...

But in other, happier news, Amy & I have moved into a new apartment, just for the summer, and while I HATE moving (with the fire of a thousand burning suns), it WAS wonderful to discover that our new place comes with cable TV and high-speed internet included! SWEETNESS!!!!!

And, after tomorrow, my job is only half-time for a while, giving me the afternoons off! Perfect for spending the entire day...

WATCHING THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!

That's right, people, the World Cup starts today! (Bet you can't guess who I'm cheering for...) :)