You can stick a fork in Algeria and Australia.
Serbia has to have a significant result against Australia to have any hope of moving on, scoring a significant number of goals and not surrendering any. They have to hope they can at least tie the Germans. Neither is likely to happen. The schedule does not favor Serbia as they play Germany next and the Germans will want to put things away. I picked Germany and Ghana to go through and I still believe it now more than ever.
Slovenia did not impress me. I saw little creativity, precious little offense in the first half and not a lot of cohesion in the midfield. A stat courtesy of ESPN: 19 crosses not one of which connected.
Memo to Radomir Antic: Nikola Zigic is not the answer; he’s the question. No is the answer.
Bonehead handballs by professional players for Algeria and Serbia. It boggles the mind, especially Ghezzal’s for Algeria. Dying to see who’s going to be among their attackers against England.
If the Ghana and Germany contest means anything significant to either team at that stage, that will be a memorable game.
Glad to see the yellow cards for diving. I hope it sends a message. Are you listening Ronaldo? How about you Alberto Gilardino? Or you, Steven Gerrard?
Tim Cahill was treated a bit harshly. Wonder if that will send a message.
Punchy
I thought Ghana plays wicked fast futbol. I think they will be difficult to beat by anyone.
Now I need the Danes to upset Holland in a huge way.
The Gimp
Slovenia and Algeria were not impressive. After getting our point out of England, if the US fail to get out of this group we deserve to be treated like pretenders. Anything less than 7 points will be at least a slight disappointment, though I’ll take getting out of Groups with 5 if necessary.
Serbia’s toast. Maybe they did us a favor and stole the ‘biggest flop’ award we so stunningly earned in Germany, last Cup.
Ghana look damn good – fast, relentless, and playing with nothing to lose. If Germany hadn’t spanked Australia I’d say they should be concerned. But they did. The Germans look as unbeatable as ever. Definitely the early favorite as the only big team to play big, so far. Argentina blew a gazillion chances, and England looks shaky.
Argentina vs Germany for the Semis?
Bill Murray
Algeria had a couple of their better player’s suspended, which didn’t help them
Polish the Guillotines
Okay, I’m admittedly not a soccer fan, but I’ve been watching the games and I’ve noticed this tendency among the players to simultaneously play dirty (holding, throwing elbows, etc.), yet perform Shakespearean death scenes when a passing opponent rolls his eyes in their general direction. It’s a contradiction I just can’t get my head around.
Take the hit, fucking jump right back up, and get back in the goddamned game.
Jeez.
t jasper parnell
I’m not convinced that Cahill was treated harshly. It’s true he could have been given a yellow on one of his earlier tackles but at the same time the Socceroos, is there a worse nik in the history of sport, play an Englishesque game, which is to say thuggishness in defense with some more imagination on offense, and the ref was clearly done with all that. He was also, wasn’t he, the ref who gave the yellow for diving.
Ailuridae
Less as Americans and more as fans of watchable soccer/Total Football how worried should we all be about Slovenia playing for a draw from the get go against the US on Friday?
Martin
The audio engineer that can develop a filter to remove the sound of vuvuzelas from the live video feeds should be given a million dollars.
Martin
@Polish the Guillotines: It’s part of the game. Remember, football and baseball have automatic breaks in the play to give you a few seconds to assess your injuries and to get your breath back – soccer doesn’t. And if you can get enough attention to draw a penalty, so be it.
Hockey isn’t much different. Hockey players do the grand theatre as well, just not as often, also hoping to draw out a penalty.
Soccer players really know how to do the high drama, though.
slightly_peeved
Well, if Graham Poll was refereeing, Tim would have been good for two more yellows before he got sent off. See Australia vs. Croatia, World Cup 2006.
Polish the Guillotines
@Martin: Yeah, I get that it’s part of the game. I’m just personally put off by it. I’ve seen hockey players bleeding like stabbing victims and they just keep going. I think what rubs me the wrong way is the mentality that it’s okay to take yourself out the action, leaving your team short-handed, however temporarily, while the game goes on.
I hear ya on baseball. No clock, so plenty of time to assess the damage. Actually, I came to realize from watching soccer and hockey that baseball only has two “dirty” plays: plunking a batter, and spiking someone while sliding.
RE the vuvzelas: It’s a fairly steady tone and should probably be easy to notch out with just a targeted frequency, kind of like notching out 60Hz hum due to ground loops.
You’ve given me something to try at work.
Calouste
@Punchy:
Holland rolled over Ghana 4-1 in a pre World Cup friendly about two weeks ago. On recent form, Denmark is not going to beat them.
Martin
@Polish the Guillotines: Send your solution to ESPN so they can implement it on all their feeds. I can appreciate FIFA backing down and allowing the fans to play them, but I can’t imagine there’s any real benefit to keeping them on the broadcast, at least not at the volume they are. My wife can’t even be in the same room with the game on.
MikeJ
It’s in German, but it’s been done.
http://www.surfpoeten.de/tube/vuvuzela_filter
I’m still looking for a filter that cuts the whining about the vuvuzela.
Martin
@MikeJ: Oh, right. I wonder if I could just do it in Airfoil. Takes audio from any source, send it to any destination, apply filters on the fly.
Americanadian
@Calouste: At the same time, Holland only beat us because Jonathan Bornstein gift-wrapped 2 goals to them. If the Danes are having a good day they could steal a point.
Americanadian
@Ailuridae: They’re going to do just that. If they can steal a point against us they’ll be ecstatic.
Mark S.
Why the fuck did I pick Serbia to advance? I meant Ghana. I just got the two countries mixed up. Honest.
Martin
@Mark S.: They’re totally like the same place. Like Japan and Alabama. I get those two mixed up all the time.
Nethead Jay
@Punchy: As a guy with Danish roots, thanks for the pood thoughts :)
@Calouste: I have a lot of respect for Holland, both the players and the playing style, but don’t be too overconfident. The Dutch defense isn’t invulnerable and the Danish defense and midfield is a good tight collective most of the time. And they have a history of doing well against better, offensive teams. As an example, they took a big step in the qualification by beating Portugal 3-2 in Portugal.
Shalimar
As an Everton fan I am also a big Tim Cahill fan, but I’m not sure he was treated harshly. He was throwing his weight around all game and could have picked up several yellow cards for earlier fouls. He should have known better than playing that recklessly in international play.
r€nato
Basketball players flop too, but futbol players are the worst and Italians might be the world champs at it.
Know how to tell when a player is flopping? No matter where the (incidental) contact – head, chest, arm – he falls and grabs his shin.
NobodySpecial
Question.
If England, the US, and Slovenia all draw against one another and all beat Whatzerface 1-0, how do they decide who goes through?
Mark S.
@NobodySpecial:
Going by this, I think it would depend on what the scores were in those draws (#3 who scored the most goals). If they were all 1-1 like the US-England game, I think they’d draw lots.
wengler
The Danes look pretty positive in the first 10 minutes. This looks like it’s going to be a pretty good game.
Lisa K.
I interrupt this thread for a sport people actually like….
GO CELTICS!!!!!! WOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Carry on.
Roger Moore
@Polish the Guillotines:
Just plunking a batter isn’t considered dirty; it’s part of the game. It’s only dirty if you throw at his head. There are some other dirty plays, but baseball players enforce them effectively enough that you rarely see them. Some examples of rarely seen dirty plays:
Trying to dislodge the ball from a fielder other than the catcher
Using technological help to try to steal signs
Threatening another player with a bat
Base coaches trying to draw a throw by acting like base runners
Bailey
@Lisa K.:
You interrupt the thread of people discussing a sport they actually like to inform them of some other sport you’re sure they actually like? Dick move.
I could give a rat’s ass about basketball. But thanks.
SRW1
@Lisa K.:
Lisa, I was tempted to say that your comment was somewhat puerile, yet you seem to be of the wrong gender for that. But then the gender-appropriate term would be sexist, so shove it. Would you mind doing the same with this kind of comments?
Randinho
@Lisa K.: Grow up. That’s your sole warning. Do it again and your comment is yanked.
@Ailuridae: It’s a risky strategy. If the US manages to nick a goal, then Slovenia has to press forward to equalize. Then they’ll be in trouble.
Randinho
@Shalimar: Then the referee should have cited him before as one of the reasons for a caution is “persistent infringement of the Laws of the Game.” Then he could have been sent off for a second yellow as that foul seemed to be more a yellow card offense.
Jim in Chicago
Cahill did what he could to pull out of the challenge and kept his studs in. No way that should have been a red. You can’t hold against him earlier yellows he might have picked up.
The commentators said it was a 2 match ban for reds. Does that mean he’s out the rest of the first (and for the Aussies, the only) round (or did the commentators mean one match plus the one he was ejected from, per normal)? If so, I wonder if FIFA might at least cut the extra match ban in half in this case.
Other than that, the ref was spot on. I especially love the cards for diving. Can players ever get a red for that? The two the ref penalized were so flagrant, I wonder if the players shouldn’t have been sent off for making a mockery of the game.
Randy Paul
@Jim in Chicago: By the definitions in the Laws of the Game, these are the only offenses resulting in a red card:
Accordingly, the only time a dive would get a red would be if it were a second yellow.