Somerville, MA and Newark, NJ will be rocking. Ivory Coast has a huge hill to climb. who wins the group?
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by Randinho| 23 Comments
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Somerville, MA and Newark, NJ will be rocking. Ivory Coast has a huge hill to climb. who wins the group?
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Breezeblock
If this had been a weekend game, I would have considered heading to the Ironbound in Newark.
Randy Paul
Me too.
handsmile
For your speculative pleasure: imagine you’re the referee in today’s match between Brazil and Portugal.
During the run of play, Cristiano Ronaldo, who it so happens is carrying a yellow card, performs his standard half-gainer with a twist before your eyes.
What do you do?
Montysano
OK… help me out here. I can see where Group H is still in play. But Group G looks to me to be settled at Brazil and Portugal. So Ivory Coast’s “huge hill is”: Brazil beats Portugal, Ivory Coast beats North Korea by enough goals to pass Portugal in the “goals for” category? Amiright?
Crashman
Sure wish I was at home right now to see what the neighborhood is looking like. Will there be anything left when I return?
Ash
I’m only watching to see what color Cristiano Ronaldo’s skin is, a light roasting or extra crispy.
cmorenc
In about the 15th minute, the referee tentatively allowed advantage to Portugal after a Brazil foul, but then stopped play to administer a caution to the Brazil player committing the foul. Play then restarted with…a drop ball???? It should have been an indirect free kick for Portugal from the spot of the misconduct, although Brazil did use the drop ball to kick it back to Portugese possession (of course with possession regained in Portugal’s defensive half).
What was up with the incorrect restart? (using a drop ball rather than IFK)?
mem from somerville
No rocking here yet. Usually I can tell when there’s been a goal by just listening out the window.
catclub
Ivory Coast up 2-0, only 6 more to go!
Randy Paul
@Montysano: Yes
Leeds man
I’ve seen nothing yet to contradict the impression I got in my playing days that, by nationality, the Portuguese are the dirtiest players.
Leeds man
I just noticed – Bruno for Portugal, Dani for Brazil. It is a game of two Alves’.
burnspbesq
Julio Cesar wins the prize for best pornstache at this year’s World Cup.
Randy Paul
@Leeds man: FTW!
hfbvm
WTF is the referee doing. They already have 11 yellow cards and he just showed 7!
Steeplejack
It looks like both Brazil and Portugal are playing to win. That’s good. The ref is handing out cards like a Vegas blackjack dealer.
Breezeblock
Well, I’m sure glad I didn’t take the day off to watch a 0-0 tie in Newark! Feh.
Violet
Boring game. Meh. Expected them at least to make it slightly interesting. The Ivory Coast game was much more interesting to watch.
SLKRR
This was an example of jogo feio. Brazil better step up their game really soon or they are going to get walked on by someone like the Netherlands.
cmorenc
I’d bet the ONLY people who were watching the Ivory Coast v North Korea game were either in Pyongyang or else in the Ivory Coast itself. And I’d bet even in Pyongyang, any group of high-level party hacks with precious access to satellite TV reception (and who could get away with it) turned to the Brazil v Portugal game after the first 20 minutes. I doubt even everyone in the Ivory Coast stayed with that game past the first half, once it became obvious that their remote chance of scoring a huge enough pile of goals to pass Portugal into second place simply wasn’t going to happen.
cmorenc
@Steeplejack @hfbvm
Probably because the game had some emotional charge to it on both teams, and started out with lots of cynical, chippy, and dangerously sloppy fouls. The referee doubtless had the 2006 debacle between Holland v Portugal in mind where the referee in that game wasn’t quick enough to crack down hard enough early to put a lid on control of that game, and the ref in Brazil v Portugal wanted to snuff out any chance of that sort of game evolving. That would have been disasterous, and once a game like Brazil v Portugal slips out of control, it’s difficult to regain control without some straight red cards and second yellows, and sometimes not even then (Holland v Portugal).
It worked; the second half was downright civil, with two or three rather mild exceptions. No cards after halftime.
handsmile
@ cmorenc
At least one person in Astoria, NY was watching it as well.
When do you suppose we will get the chance again to revel in the stylish play of the squad from Korea DPR, to marvel at their creativity and bold flashes of individual brilliance. Who needs “total football” when you’ve got totalitarian football?
Also, the romantic in me wanted to see likely the final CIV match of Didier Drogba.
(It could also be the fact that the Brazil v. Portugal match will be rebroadcast tonight at a convenient time.)
mem from somerville
Well, that was funny: I went over to Cambridge for something, and the only hoopla I saw was a pick-up truck with a huge Portugal flag in the back.
That wasn’t what I expected.