World Cup appreciation thread - games are on NOW! (1 Viewer)

[Larry Seno Jr.]

I've missed ONE game so far, and Italy pounded Equador anyway. I sadly was awake for the Germany/Saudi game. We're about to watch the US game and I am QUITE excited. Im hoping that Figo doesnt explode for a few and that this is the real coming of age for the US team who are QUITE young (Barring the goalies)

 

[Jed M]

Its half time, so far so good...

 

[ChristopherS]

Great game and quite the upset! USA 3 Portugal 2! I certainly was not expecting this (I picked Portugal in my office pool).

And the boys in green pull off another tie! Germany 1 Ireland 1. Another good game with Ireland tieing it all up in the last 30 seconds of extended play. Ireland may actually get to the Second Round.

It sounds like the coverage in Canada on TSN is superior to what our American friends are getting on ESPN. Hopefully the dual coverage between CBC and TSN coninues to be good.

Chris

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

Woo hoo! USA wins!

The Columbus Crew have been hosting free parties each morning for the World Cup games. They have several TVs set up under a big tent, and free snacks for attendees. I decided to go down this morning to watch the US/Portugal game, and wow, what a surprise! Since there were about a thousand people there, I went out and sat in the stadium's stands and watched the game on the big scoreboard monitor. Pretty cool. Seeing it with all those people beats watching it at home, although it did necessitate getting up a lot earlier than I desired.

That Germany/Ireland finale was a real corker too!

 

[MickeS]

Peter, I actually haven't watched the Univision feed with ESPN sound, and since you say it's delayed by 10 secs, I won't do it either.
I taped the USA vs Portugal game on ESPN and watched it this morning, and the picture was fine, but I taped it in LP so that degrades the picture quite a bit in itself.
But what a nice surprise to see USA beat Portugal 3-2! The USA played with confidence and really made good use of the chances they were given (which I assume was their strategy all along, since they probably expected not to have the ball the majority of the time). Two own goals, but poor Jeff Agoos' goal was of course much more of a mistake than the Portugese one. I was so happy for him that it didn't change the outcome of the game at least.
Yay USA! A win against Poland looks almost like a sure thing after seeing the USA play in this game, but who knows, Poland is a weaker team and the USA might be less effective when it comes to being the offensive team.
South Korea next, they'll be hard to beat though with their home crowd cheering them on, but I expect the US to at least tie them if they play like they did today.
/Mike

 

[ChrisMatson]

I'm more of a casual fan, but I did catch the last 25 minutes or so of the USA-Portugal game. I came in shortly before Agoos scored the own-goal. I feel bad for him--after waiting so long for a World Cup appearance, he goofed big-time. US played pretty good defense for the last part of the game, but I would have liked to see a few more shots. McBride's goal looked great on the replay I saw--what a perfect cross from Tony Sanneh.

 

[MickeS]

"he goofed big-time"

He just had some bad luck, it happens to most players one time or another. Good thing it didn't change the outcome though.

/Mike

 

[Larry Seno Jr.]

I officially HATE Jeff Agoos. I hate his monkey hair, I hate his monkey face, and i hate his monkey own goal scoring ass. I would have MUCH rather seen David Regis in there instead of Jeff Agoos (It was agoos first world cup game) but a W is a W! I must have been the only one picking the US. On my Yahoo picks I have them winning the group undefeated. I guess Im a homer, but look at the team! A TON of US Players play first division football in Europe and the players from the MLS are just HORSES. Damarcus Beasley showed why he made the world cup as he will OBVIOUSLY be a superstar. For those of you that don't know, this match was a HUGE HUGE HUGE upset. I mean something along the lines of the US beating the USSR in 1980 in hockey, or say if the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were to beat the Yankees in the ALCS. Portugal is STAR studded. I mean for god sakes, FIGO was the football player of the year this year! He played ok.

PLEASE dont anyone equate the Portugal fullbacks "Own Goal" with Agoos'. The portugal defender was turning his back so that landon donovans shot didnt take his face off, jeff agoos actually KICKED his goal in. Admittedly there were two Portugal strikers on the pitch, but id rather let them shoot than do their work for them.

I can't WAIT for the next US game!

 

[Jed M]

YEEHAW!!! Looks like the U.S. may make it out of the first round. Those last fifteen minutes were a nail biter... whew!

 

[Peter Kim]

I'm not really familiar with World Cup dynamics. All I know is this - in the first round, the top two teams advance to the next round. What I don't have a feel for is what ensures that a team will make it out to the next round (other than winning all of their matches)? What is the worst a team can do and still make it out to the next round? Thanks.

P.S. I've officially caught the fever...I never planned on watching both Russia and the US matches, but I stayed to the glorious end for both. I can't believe I ate the whole thing....

I wonder how little sleep I'm going to get in the following couple of weeks?

 

[felix_suwarno]

chinese playing soccer? hahahahah

well i am chinese, and i know that chinese prefer badminton to anything else.

 

[Yoshi Sugawara]

Peter, the tournament goes by a point system - the top two teams with highest points in the group advances to the next round. A win counts as 3 points, a draw is 1 point, and a loss is 0 points. If two or more teams have the same amount of points in the group, then the judgement is based on goal differential (goal differential = goals made - goals allowed).

After getting a few hours of sleep the night before last, I had to turn in early last night so I missed the Russia and U.S. games. Wow, the U.S. upset of Portugal was impressive. I think the U.S. national team is often overlooked and overshadowed by the other sports we have - the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals seem to be the current focus at the moment over here. The U.S.-Korea match looks to be very exciting...

 

[Mohsen Sadeghi]

A team can advance to the next round as long as it has more points than the rest of the teams in that group. Now suppose all the games in a group are ended in a draw. Therefore each team has three points (you get three points for win, one for draw). Because the points are equal, the two teams having the best goal difference will advance. If goal difference is also the same, there are other criteria like corner kicks, etc. to determine the winners.

Edit: oops. Somebody posted the answer a few sconds before me.

 

[Todd Henry]

The next tie breaker after goal difference is total goals scored. Thus 3 goals for the US is very helpful. A win over South Korea will be plenty to get the US in the next round.

Todd

 

[Hugh M]

the game didn't start until 2AM out here. I fell asleep after the first half.

I did see a very poor performance of Portugal's defense. And I understand that the number one player in the world, Figo(??), is quite injured actually.

Would have loved to see Reyna in action though, I played against him in High School.

I haven't been that excited to see a goal since the NY Rangers games, back when I followed them several years ago.

 

[Alex-C]

1.5 days until England v Argentina.....I sure hope England can eek this one out, however unlikely that may be.
After '98's thrilling loss and of course the Maradonna Touched by the Hand of God in 1990, its time.
Now where is that New Order - World in Motion cd ...
"we're singing for England...Eng-ger-land !"

 

[Hakan Powers]

Good game today with Senegal reaching a 1-1 tie with Denmark. I was hoping for them to win over Denmark and they had a few good chances, but unfortunatelly never really came through.

Todays game between France-Uruguay will also be interesting, though I won't be seeing it. (took a couple hours off from work for todays first game).

I hope Sweden can tie or win over Nigeria tomorrow, and I expect Argentina to score a victory over England. This way Argentina will be ready for advancement and will hopefully rest some of their best players for the Sweden-Argentina game next wednesday - and hopefully we can then win over Argentina and go on further becoming nr 2 in our group.

Nr2 in our group (F) will then play nr1 in group A, and I think we have a better chance of advancing to quarter finals if we first play against Senegal instead of Denmark.

 

[Stevan Lay]

That was just atrocious refereeing in the match between France - Uruguay. The offside calls against Trezeguet were dubious.

If France can win from this point on, I'd be extremely impressed considering the adversities they had to face. No other team that I can remember has had a tougher task ahead of them to win the holy grail.

 

[MickeS]

I watched the 2nd half of the France - Uruguay game, and it was pretty exciting, but not very pretty. Rather disorganized football, with lots of kicking around in the midfield until one team got a chance and took a shot. Uruguay seemed to have the edge though, but both teams had some great chances. France REALLY have to get their act together if they want to advance, I'm not impressed at all with their game so far.

 

[BrianB]

France REALLY have to get their act together if they want to advance

I don't see it happening. They need to beat Denmark by at least two goals & rely on Senegal to beat/draw with Uruguay.