World Cup 2010: Looking ahead to 2014

Spain and Paraguay won, thus completing the quarterfinals, and also setting up a statistic that has the USA rather shamed: of the eight group winners, only one failed to advance to the quarterfinals. Take a bow, America - we're special!

This got me thinking about what needs to happen between now and Brazil 2014 - besides the USA successfully qualifying again, of course - for the Americans to be in the quarterfinals and beyond. Here's my top five things:

1. Tim Howard has to stay healthy and stay effective.

Howard will be 35 by the time the next World Cup rolls around, but right now, the crystal ball says that's all we've got. Brad Guzan may challenge for that spot, but first he has to get a few games at Aston Villa (or elsewhere) to prove that he's actually got what it takes. Brad Friedel at Villa retired from the national team early, but he's still getting it done in England at age 39, so - as long as he stays healthy - I see no reason that Howard can't be back in 2014, if he wants to be.

2. Jozy Altidore has to learn to be a real striker.

He's shown flashes, of course - the hat trick in qualifying springs to mind - and he's just 20. And yet, Eddie Johnson was just 20 at one point, too, and so was DaMarcus Beasley. Altidore hasn't showed any real nose for goal for his club teams, either, scoring just once in 28 games at Hull City last year.

An American striker hasn't scored at the World Cup since Brian McBride in 2002, and apart from the goal-poaching ability of Herculez Gomez and possible developments on the Edson Buddle front, the cupboard is looking a bit bare beyond Altidore. America needs a legitimate threat up front; it can't continue to count on Landon Donovan, grit, and shinned-in goals from corner kicks to score.

3. The team needs to develop, or possibly adopt, some new defenders.

Like the American defense, I'm at a loss, and have no idea what to do at the back of the team. All of the American defenders are the wrong side of 30 (Jay DeMerit, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo) or demonstrably useless (Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, Clarence Goodson, Heath Pearce, Chad Marshall). The jury's still somewhat out on Oguchi Onyewu, but he had horrible World Cups in 2006 and 2010, and still is mostly living off his manhandling of Jared Borgetti six years ago.

I guess the only hope is that the USA can cobble together four mediocre defenders and somehow teach them to be a disciplined unit. Failing that, I say we forcibly naturalize young defenders from other countries.

4. The team needs to hire a new coach.

If you want a summary, there's two easy words that can explain this: Ricardo Clark. He wasn't exactly working with top-notch clay all of the time, but Bob Bradley has a record of curious and confusing team selection, which has been combined with some underachieving from his team, which means it's probably time for the end of the Bradley era. The Americans made a mistake by letting Bruce Arena hang on until 2006 after his success in 2002; the country may be better off this time by moving on to a new coach for the next four-year cycle, rather than letting the current one stick around too long.

If they could get a coach that begins with discipline and tactical acumen, it'd go a long way towards solving problem #3, too.

5. Somebody besides Landon Donovan needs to step up as a world-class outfield player.

I've spent plenty of time criticizing Donovan, but he's truly the best non-goalkeeper this country has ever produced. That said, he's currently the only one at that level. Clint Dempsey probably won't get there, nor will some of the other old hands (DeMarcus Beasley comes to mind), but the USA needs more players who, on any given day, can step up and be a force. Michael Bradley may be the team's best hope. Some other young midfielders - Benny Feilhaber, Jose Torres, Sacha Kljestan, Maurice Edu - have shown very occasional flashes of being special, as well.

Donovan went through his lost-in-the woods period around the 2006 World Cup. We can only hope that one of those other players, or Altidore, or someone else, can step up in 2014.

World Cup 2010: Setting Up the Quarterfinals

The World Cup, for all of its bluster, is basically about setting up the quarterfinals.

Only the top team in each group was seeded for this tournament, along with hosts South Africa. Each top seed is made to go through the group stage, but the bracket is set up so that theoretically, the winner of each group will play another group winner in the quarterfinals.

It's not that easy, of course. Italy collapsed in the group stage and went out. England failed to win its group and had to play Germany in its first knockout round game. South Africa was only nominally seeded, and failed to qualify themselves. But the other five seeded teams - in order, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, and Argentina - won their groups, and four are already through to the quarterfinals, with Spain to play tomorrow.

Already the talk is all about two of the quarterfinals, with Germany set to take on Argentina, and Brazil slated to face the Netherlands. Those two matchups represent the four best teams in the tournament so far, and frankly, it's the way the organizers meant this tournament to go.

Tomorrow, Spain also plays Portugal, a knockout round match that looks drool-worthy on paper (which probably means a boring goalless draw and penalties.) And then, another less classic matchup... Paraguay against Japan.

Really, aren't those the interesting matchups left in this tournament? The moment the draw was complete, you could have predicted Germany-Argentina and Brazil-Netherlands quarterfinals. But who could have seen Uruguay-Ghana coming, or a theoretical Paraguay-Portugal matchup? Spain may yet make it through, but either Uruguay or Ghana is going to play in a World Cup semifinal. Uruguay hadn't even been to the quarterfinals in forty years. Ghana qualified for the first time ever in 2006.

So yes, there will be some classic quarterfinals, and yes, nobody's really looking forward to Japan-Spain or Ghana and Uruguay or whatever may happen. But frankly, I think the latter might be the most interesting matches left in the tournament.

Ghana 2, USA 1

The USA, in the end, exactly met everyone's expectations - through to the knockout round and no further. The favorable way the bracket set up, and the wave of emotion following the way the Americans qualified, had us hopeful that better things were possible. In the end, though, this was exactly the team we knew we had.

Throughout qualifying, the USA seemed determined to play from behind. Yet again, they went behind early, allowing a sixth-minute strike by Ghana. We've seen a team with a propensity for disastrous defensive errors - and Ricardo Clark and Jay DeMerit combined on that first goal to turn nothing into something for Ghana, and DeMerit and Carlos Bocanegra allowed a goal early in extra time in the same way. Both of Ghana's goals came out of nothing, and really, those were the only two chances the Africans had. As it so often has, the game came down to whether Tim Howard could bail out his defenders - and the keeper was not at his best on Saturday.

We knew those defensive flaws were there. We knew that the USA had never found someone to play next to Michael Bradley in midfield; Clark lost the ball that led to the first goal, picked up a stupid yellow card two minutes later, and was substituted half an hour into the match, with coach Bob Bradley basically admitting he'd made a mistake starting Clark. Maurice Edu was the best in this tournament in that midfield role, but he'd hardly made an impression in qualifying, any more than Jose Torres or Sasha Kljestan or Benny Feilhaber or anyone else the USA tried there.

Up front, too, the Americans never really found someone to partner Jozy Altidore, who was good as a target man, but unable to find the back of the net. All three players who did score - Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and Landon Donovan - scored from midfield. Robbie Findley did a lot of running but hardly had a sniff of goal; Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez did very little when coming on late.

All these problems we knew - but we still got our hopes up. After Wednesday, anything seemed possible.

And now, the hardest part - waiting four more years for another shot. Donovan, the best player America has ever produced, will be 32 years old in 2014; Howard, the first-choice goalkeeper, will be 35. Much of the rest of the current team - with the notable exceptions of Bradley and Altidore - will be into their thirties by the time the next World Cup rolls around. A new batch of players will need to step up, by then. Someone will need to score besides Dempsey and Donovan. Someone will need to plug the holes.

We knew that this day was probably coming. We had hoped it wouldn't come quite so soon. And now, we wait for Brazil, four years from now, for another shot.

Weekend Links: Getting Ready for Ghana

The weekend links are up at RandBall, and of course, there's plenty of World Cup content. Just over two hours until the match today. I'm ready for anything.

World Cup 2010: The Group Stage Awards

After the first set of group games were completed, I ranked all 32 teams at the World Cup. Looking back now, of course, I see that I was an idiot. North Korea at #16? Switzerland at #4? France as high as #21?

Now, of course, all of the group games are done, and so it's time to hand out the awards. Sixteen teams remain in the knockout round, but others deserve recognition, like the following:

• The Leaky Sieve Award (Defensive Incompetence): Take a bow North Korea! You're headed for the coal mines, as the only team to concede more than six goals. Having let in an astonishing even dozen, you've also taken the award for worst goal differential, a robust -11. In fact, you're the worst team at the World Cup since Saudi Arabia in 2002, which let in twelve but scored none.
• The Mercury-Redstone I Award (Offensive Incompetence): This award is shared by Algeria and Honduras, both of which failed to score a goal at the World Cup and ended up with a single point apiece. Nice trip to South Africa that they got out of the deal, though, I guess.
  
• The Departing in Shame Award (Overall Failure): North Korea is your winner here, but a special mention of Cameroon, the only other team to lose all three of its group matches. The Indomitable Lions do win an award for the best team nickname, however, and to be totally fair, they lost each match by only one goal.
• The Stan Gable Award (Beating Up on the Weak): Portugal wins this one for their epic performance in Group G: Scoreless draw with Ivory Coast, scoreless draw with Brazil... 7-0 beating of North Korea.
• The Chastity Belt Award (Defensive Excellence): A tie between Uruguay and Portugal, both of which allowed zero goals in their three games. To end this paragraph, you may write your own coarse "tougher to score on than..." jokes, if you like.
• The "It Happens To Every Team and It's Not A Big Deal" Award (Peaking Too Early): Slovenia and Switzerland won their first group games - and then failed to qualify for the knockout round.
• The Bloodied But Unbowed (But Still Going Home) Award (Unbeaten but unlucky): Those poor Kiwis. New Zealand didn't lose any of its three matches, but didn't win any either, and heads out of the competition.

In a way, we've now played the final qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup. The USA have now survived groups that have eliminated Barbados, Guatemala, Cuba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Algeria, and Slovenia. We're down to the real tournament: 16 teams, no second chances, and no excuses.

It starts tomorrow. You know it'll be exciting.

World Cup 2010: Back to Reality

I spent Wednesday watching Landon Donovan score. I saw it live, I replayed it on the DVR a good two dozen times after the match was over, and pretty much throughout the day, whenever I had a free moment, I'd flip over to the clip and listen to Ian Darke's call:

"Howard, gratefully claims it, distribution - brilliant. Landon Donovan, there are things on here for the USA, can they do it here? Cross, and Dempsey is denied again, AND DONOVAN HAS SCORED, OH, CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? GOAL, GOAL USA! CERTAINLY THROUGH! OH, IT'S INCREDIBLE! You could not write a script like this!"

Wednesday night and Thursday, I spent watching the reactions to the goal. The post below this one has most of the links, including the definitive version, set to the music from "Rudy."

Over the last 48 hours, I've had to wipe my brimming-with-tears eyes more times than I can count. There are sports fans that go their entire lives without feeling like this, and now, in two decades, I've had three of these moments (the 1991 World Series, the 2002 NCAA hockey championship, and this). I follow an unconscionable number of teams, but still: I am lucky.

So naturally, on Thursday morning, when New Zealand was a goal down to Paraguay and searching for a late winner that would send them into the knockout round, I wanted them to find it. Italy, too, needed one more goal in injury time to go through to the knockout round. Even hateable, diving, preening, arrogant Italy - this feeling's so rare, I wanted them to get a taste as well.

Of course, neither one got a late winner. The Azzurri had late chances that they couldn't convert; the All Whites didn't even come close.

That, I suppose, is the true reality of the World Cup. For every Landon Donovan, there's a Daniele De Rossi. For every USA, there's a New Zealand. I can't imagine what it was like to be a Slovenian fan on Wednesday. They played over an hour without getting the equalizer that would have taken them through to the next round for sure - and then literally, at the moment the whistle went to give England the win, the USA scored the goal that knocked them out. Slap-bang, they went from in plus having a chance to score to out and going home. How cruel is that?

New Zealand came into the tournament without a World Cup point on its resume. They'll go home Friday knowing they're out of the tournament this time around without losing a match. Italy will know that they hit the side netting in injury time, and if that shot had been the other side of the post, they'd still be in South Africa. The South Africans have to watch the party continue in their front room while they sit in the back, watching on TV.

It's harsh, this "reality" thing. How glad I am that I can wait until Saturday to deal with it again.

USA 1-0 Algeria: Reactions

Links to crowd reactions to Landon Donovan's winner in the USA-Algeria match are now trickling in - from everywhere. Below, a few links (many of which came from the Twitter feed of Bill Simmons).

San Diego | Portland | Las Vegas | Seattle | Lincoln | New York | Kansas City | Kansas City Part 2 | Lyon, France | Minneapolis | An even bigger list

I love that, across the country, people had the same reaction: the temporary madness of utter joy, then random hugging, then chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as loudly as possible.

I know it's not in any way comparable, but for those of us born post-1980, this is the closest we've ever come to our own Miracle on Ice.

I know that this is about one-tenth as good as that, but still. What a day. What a game. What a goal.

UPDATE: Possibly the definitive version, set to the music from "Rudy."

USA 1 - Algeria 0: A letter to non-fans

Dear anyone who can't understand why I'm so nuts about sports:

This is why.

This is why you pick a team and follow their every move. This is why you live and die with all of their successes and failures, why you make their foibles yours, why you say "we" and "our." This is why you endure heartbreak that seems like it can never be topped. This is why you put yourself out there, again and again, daring to take the results of a game personally.

This is why you're a fan, because sometimes, Landon Donovan pops up in injury time, with the USA out of the World Cup, to score a goal to send them on to the next round.

You become a fan because sometimes, every so often, something happens that sends you hopping around the room, delirious with joy, screaming words that have never before existed in any language, hugging anyone you can reach, running, running, just running to express your joy.

Real life, sadly, has few opportunities for this. But sports - if you're willing to put yourself out there, sometimes, this happens.

What a game. What an epic, epic game. What joy. What heartbreak and then, what joy.

World Cup 2010: On Misses

Today at the World Cup was the final games in Group A and B. In the morning, Mexico backed into the knockout round despite losing to Uruguay, thanks to South Africa not making up three more goals on goal difference. In the afternoon, Argentina torpedoed Greece's hopes, while a South Korean draw with Nigeria was enough to see the former through.

Only Nigeria provided much excitement. Had the Nigerians grabbed a late winner in their 2-2 draw with South Korea, they could have placed second in Group B, despite entering Tuesday with zero points. The "Super Eagles" took an early lead, but South Korea scored on either side of halftime to go ahead. And then, around the one-hour mark, came perhaps the miss of the tournament: Yakubu, open three yards in front of goal with the goalkeeper out of position, needing only to stab the ball into the yawning net to tie the score.

He missed, of course. Somehow, he redirected the pass from his left wide of the left post, which you or I couldn't have done even if we had tried.

He later scored a penalty to make the game 2-2, and the Nigerians came close to a winner in the final minutes, so perhaps his miss will be forgotten. Yet for me, the look on his face after his miss - a combination of disbelief, embarrassment, and laughter at the hand he'd been dealt by fate - is so far the enduring image of this World Cup. To come so close, and to have glory within your grasp, and have it slip through - in a way, that's what sports are all about.

In honor of that: an old clip with some of the worst misses of all time. (An updated version would include Yakubu, methinks.)

World Cup 2010: Three essays

Kind of a predictable day in South Africa today - Portugal slaughtered North Korea, Chile beat ten-man Switzerland, and Spain rolled over Honduras - so instead, a few essays.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee needs to get it together.

The committee only has the power "for rectifying obvious errors in the referee's disciplinary decisions, for example in the case of mistaken identity," according to FIFA.com. Yet every match contains refereeing mistake after refereeing mistake. Kaká will miss Brazil's next match after his sending off, even though his second yellow was due to the biggest dive of the competition. Robbie Findley will miss the USA's final group match after being carded for deliberate handball on a ball that hit him in the face. These are ridiculous decisions, but since they don't fall under the purview of the disciplinary committee, they haven't been overturned.

In the same vein, I wonder when instant replay will finally make an appearance at the World Cup, if for nothing else than to review goals. We've yet to see a "did the ball cross the line or not?" moment at this World Cup, but leaving this decision to referees and linesmen - none of whom could possibly be in position to call this as well as video could - is silly. (And you wonder if there's a way to prevent Luis Fabiano's double-handball goal as well.)

Speaking of Fabiano - where's the outrage?

France defeated Ireland in qualifying thanks to a blatant handball from Thierry Henry. (Never mind that Ireland benefited from a handball of their own in qualifying, against Georgia.) Now, Fabiano scores in the actual tournament, handling the ball twice on the way to his goal - and all I heard were a few "perhaps a hint of a handball there" chuckles from commentators. No one has castigated Fabiano. No one has labeled Brazil a bunch of cheaters.

Why not?

John Terry is my least favorite player of the World Cup

I have always hated Didier Drogba. So, too, Cristiano Ronaldo, the A-Rod of soccer. I have great distaste for several Barcelona players in Spain's side, who continue their public attempts to get Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas to switch to the Catalan side.

And yet, John Terry is my least favorite by a wide margin. Perhaps I hardly need remind you that Terry not only carried on a four-month affair with the significant other of club and England teammate Wayne Bridge, he got her pregnant, then paid for the end of the pregnancy. (Terry is married with two kids, by the way.) He was stripped of the England captaincy for that, but still went to South Africa with the team.

Now, Terry - a big part of the team that's scored once in two matches, with two draws to show for it - led an publicly-conducted, no-followers, dressing-room coup against manager Fabio Capello, attempting to shift the blame onto the manager. (Reminder: England, with Terry but without Capello, failed to qualify for Euro 2008.)

I cannot imagine a player being more hateable than John Terry. What a ludicrous human being.

World Cup 2010: Day 10 Notes

Three quick essays on Sunday's matches at the World Cup...

Brazil 3:1 Ivory Coast

Three talking points from this one.

1. Kaka was sent off in this one, thanks to one of the worst dives you'll ever see. Kader Keita, the Ivory Coast forward, ran into Kaka, whose elbow therefore hit Keita in the midsection. Because Keita ran into him, remember. Keita then went down, grabbing his face - which again, had not been touched - thus earning Kaka a second yellow card and a sending off. I am sad, not for Kaka, but for soccer.
   
2. Luis Fabiano scored what originally I thought was the goal of the tournament, somehow working the ball over and around three defenders in the penalty area before booting the ball into the net. Replays showed that two of those touches were fairly obvious handballs. Oh, replay, you have ruined my youthful wonder.
   
3. Brazil has two wins, have qualified for the next round, and yet there are still those talking about how they have not played well. How dangerous is Brazil?

Italy 1:1 New Zealand

Three talking points from this one:

1. If I happened to be a New Zealand fan, I would have been pretty peeved about commentator Ian Darke's call of the Kiwis' seventh-minute goal. He misidentified goalscorer Shane Smeltz as Winston Reid, despite - and I wish to be sensitive here - the fact that Smeltz is white and Reid is black.
2. I think we could all enjoy the sight of Fabio Cannavaro falling over and thus directing the ball directly to Smeltz for the goal. (We are, however, surprised that Cannavaro didn't stay down clutching his face for five minutes.)
3. After saving a draw against Slovakia for their first-ever World Cup point, this draw is surely New Zealand's greatest-ever World Cup result. I'm quite pleased for them. (Not least because if they pulled off their first-ever World Cup win against Paraguay next week, they'd be into the knockout round.)

Slovakia 0:2 Paraguay

Three talk... no, I don't have them in me. I didn't see this match; the highlights jumped directly from Paraguay's 27th-minute goal to their 86th-minute goal. They also showed only one Slovakian shot on net, which didn't come until the 93rd minute. This one must have been a doozy to sit through.


Monday, though, has all the makings of an exciting day. Portugal tries to beat the pants off North Korea, while Switzerland and Chile battle for control of Group H, and Spain must win against Honduras to keep pace.

World Cup 2010: Day 9 Notes

I wrote plenty last night about referee Koman Coulibaly, but here's the latest from ESPN. This week's Weekend Links at RandBall also covers Coulibaly in some detail, mostly to ruminate on what might be an appropriate punishment.

A few notes on today's games:

Denmark 2:1 Cameroon

The Danes got the win, Cameroon is going home, and both teams should be fairly embarrassed with how they played. The highlights were littered with horrible giveaways - I'm talking things like "keeper, apparently blinded by the sun, accidentally passes the ball directly to opposing forward." Dennis Rommedahl set one up and scored one for the Danes, who mostly got better goalkeeping than did Cameroon (even though the Danish defense might have made more horrible, horrible errors.)

Cameroon is the first team eliminated this year, and the Danish win also made The Netherlands the first team to advance to the knockout round. (That Cameroon-Holland game next week should be a real doozy.)

Holland 1:0 Japan

It's funny - as I mentioned, the Dutch have two wins, something only one other team has managed from their first two games, they're through to the next round, and yet all anybody can talk about is how disappointingly they've played. We've all come to expect glorious, entertaining soccer from the Oranje, and they've scored two goals along with a Danish own goal so far. Everyone's so disappointed. (I suspect no one from Holland is too concerned about qualification, though.)

Ghana 1:1 Australia

The Aussies finally scored, with Brett Holman putting them in front after just 11 minutes, but they can't seem to stay on the field. Tim Cahill was sent off in their match against Germany, and Harry Kewell got the gate after just 24 minutes against Ghana, with a deliberate handball on the line causing the dismissal. Ghana scored the resulting penalty to tie it, but couldn't take advantage of their extra man to get a winner, mostly thanks to the goalkeeping of Mark Schwarzer. And frankly, the Aussies could have grabbed their own winner; they may even have had the better of play after Kewell left the field.

Group D, then, is incredibly muddled; any two of the four teams, with Germany and Serbia, still could go through to the knockout round (though the Aussies need a win, some help, and a wheelbarrow full of goals to do so.) In Group E, Denmark needs a win against Japan to go through; a draw or a loss will put Japan in the knockout round.

It's all so complicated, really. (I think we'll all feel better if Italy loses to New Zealand tomorrow, which would frankly be hilarious.)

USA 2, Slovenia 2 [World Cup 2010]

Now that the match has been over for nearly twelve hours, I've finally calmed down enough to talk about USA-Slovenia. It was... disappointing, for lack of a better term.

Koman Coulibaly. We might as well start there, for the discussion of this match starts with he, the Malian referee. All match, the USA would swing the ball into the box, only to have play stopped for some mystical, invisible foul that had been committed. The disallowed USA winner was not the first.

But that's the talking point, because it should have counted. I've seen the replay a few (hundred) times now, and here's what I notice:

1. Maurice Edu scores, of course.
2. Michael Bradley is locked in a bear hug by a Slovenian defender.
3. Josy Altidore is being held.
4. Clint Dempsey is thrown to the ground.

Perhaps FIFA would like to go back and give us three penalties? (We would settle for the goal.)

My greatest wish is that I had not heard the whistle go before Edu scored. I knew what that whistle blast meant, I knew the goal wouldn't count; I regret hearing that, because had I not heard the whistle, I would have - for just a moment - felt that wonderful soaring late-winner feeling. There is no better feeling, people. Soccer is designed for that feeling. That feeling is why people become fanatics for the game.

All of that said, of course, it never should have come to that. Oguchi Onyewu's ridiculously bad defending made it 2-0 at halftime. I wrote before the England match that the USA was good for two comically bad defensive errors per match; I've been right on the money so far. Slovenia got two goals to show for it, England got a goal plus a breakaway that Emile Heskey hit straight at Tim Howard. Presumably, either Algeria will have to fail to take their chances, or the US will have to win 3-2.

I hardly want to think about Wednesday's match against Algeria: win, or (probably) go home. There are unlikely scenarios where a draw works out, such as if England lose against Slovenia, but - even after the Three Lions drew with Algeria - it's still hard to imagine this happening.

Still, on the flip side, it's easy for the USA going into the match: just win. That's all. Victory or failure. No shades of gray.

To sum up: to be denied the clear winner was disappointing. To draw is both frustrating and miraculous in equal measure; to fall behind was awful, to come back from the dead, tremendous. We live to fight another day, and I suppose, that's all we can ask.

World Cup 2010: Today's Losers

We're fully into the second go-round for most teams - which means that the groups are beginning to separate into the haves and the have-nots. With this in mind, a look at today's biggest losers at the World Cup.

Third Runner-Up: That Guy With The Flag

Mexico beat France 2-0, but their first goal was a good yard offside, a violation somehow ignore d by the linesman. I'm not saying that France deserved to win, but now Mexico's a draw away from round 2. Given that their co-leader in Group A, Uruguay, is in the same boat, and the two teams play each other in their final group game... what's the betting on a miraculous 0-0 draw?

Second Runner-Up: South Korea

Got waxed 4-1 by Argentina, which is no shame - the Argentines were awesome - but does present a problem in a group that could end up tied. The loss is bad, but losing three goals in the goal differential is even worse.

First Runner-Up: France

Failed to score a goal or win a game in their first two. Now, would need to beat South Africa and have either Uruguay or Mexico lose, plus get some help on the goal differential. In other words: Bye-bye, France!

The winner of the losers... Sani Katia!

Katia is the Nigerian midfielder who, in a moment of pure, unadulterated stupidity, got himself sent off for kicking a Greece player in full view of everyone in the stadium. Nigeria was leading 1-0 at the time; they lost 2-1 after playing most of the match down a man. Nigeria is now pointless, on the bottom of Group B, and in need of a minor miracle to qualify for the second round. If they'd even got a draw, they probably would have gone through with a win against South Korea; now, they're stuck at the bottom of their group.


Tomorrow morning, the USA takes on Slovenia in what is a truly pivotal match for the Americans. In a lot of ways, it's like a CONCACAF qualifying match; the USA will have more firepower and should win, but to do so, will have to break down a defensively determined team (and manage to avoid their own lapses) to get the job done.

Does it surprise you that I'm already so nervous I can hardly speak?

World Cup 2010: The Rankings

It's Day 6, and every team has played at least once - so what better time to rank the teams 1 through 32?

1. Germany - It's not even close. So far, they've put on the only dominating performance of the tournament. They were the only team to score even three goals in their first game, and they put four past wildly overmatched Australia.
2. Argentina - Only an acrobatic Nigerian goalkeeper held them to a single goal.
3. South Korea - Sure, Greece was terrible, but the Koreans dominated.
4. Switzerland - Beat a Spain team that was picked by many to win the tournament. Switzerland still hasn't allowed a World Cup goal since 1994 (though they assisted themselves in that by failing to qualify in 1998 and 2002).
5. Chile - Overran Honduras, but couldn't finish.
6. Brazil - Had trouble with North Korea, but showed flashes of their expected brilliance.
   
7. The Netherlands - Got the win over Denmark, but needed a Danish own goal to send them on their way.
8. England - Probably deserved better than the point they got. (Thanks again, Robert Green!)
9. Japan - Beat Cameroon through sheer scrappiness.
   
10. Ghana - Needed a late penalty to scrape three points against Serbia.
11. Portugal - Offensive strategy: Cristiano Ronaldo dives, followed by free kicks. I hate them.
    
12. Ivory Coast - Drew with Portugal. Everyone expected more entertainment from them.
13. Spain - Were denied a draw with Switzerland via the post and about eighty missed chances.
14. Nigeria - Playing Argentina to open the tournament is a tough job. Staying within 1-0 is respectable.
15. Uruguay - Admittedly, wouldn't have been this high, except for their 3-0 win over South Africa in their second game.
16. North Korea - Lost to Brazil, may not win a match - but they could give both Portugal and the Ivory Coast problems. (Disclaimer: I am required to mention here that they are tools of a horrible fascist regime.)
    
17. United States - Got the draw they wanted against England. (One more time: thanks, Robert Green!)
18. Mexico - Held to a draw by South Africa, but possibly still the favorite in Group A.
    
19. Paraguay - Gah.
20. Italy - Double gah.
21. France - Triple... you get the picture.
    
22. Denmark - Lost to The Netherlands; scored the strangest own goal ever, as one defender sliced a clearance off of another's back and into the net. With Japan and Cameroon in the group, still a chance to qualify from Group E.
23. Slovenia - Three points, but mostly due to an error by the Algerian goalkeeper. (Still, on track to qualify if they can get a result against the USA on Friday.)
24. Serbia - Unlucky to lose to Ghana.
25. Cameroon - The "boy, they should have been better" team of the tournament. Contrived to lose to Japan, which makes you wonder what else they might contrive to do.
26. New Zealand - Got a late draw against Slovakia. The feel-good story of the tournament, really.
27. Slovakia - Bet they're not happy to drop points to New Zealand.
28. Honduras - If Chile could finish, they would have lost 5-0.
    
29. Algeria - Lost to Slovenia. With England and the USA left to play, staring way, way uphill at qualification.
    
30. South Africa - I admit, I wouldn't have ranked them this low, except that they got whupped by Uruguay in their second game.
    
31. Australia - Positively spanked by Germany. Still could qualify, but getting beat 4-0 in your first match does not breed confidence.
    
32. Greece - I swore to avoid their matches because they were boring. I didn't know they'd be terrible, too.

For another opinion on the rankings (though we're in the same boat), check out the always-good Grant Wahl at si.com.

Presenting... SB Nation Minnesota [Site News]

A bit of a non-World Cup announcement this morning. Today - last night, really - marks the official launch of SB Nation Minnesota, which is part of the SB Nation network's nationwide stab at local sites. They've always had great team-specific sites - Twinkie Town, Canis Hoopus, Hockey Wilderness, Daily Norseman, and the Daily Gopher are the blogs of interest to local fans - but now the network is launching sites that cover an entire area. Minnesota's just the latest of a bunch of them.

I already write for two of the aforementioned sites, and now, I'll be contributing at the local site as well, with one feature a week, plus other random commentary. My first feature went up last night - an opinion piece about the fans who are always calling for the coach's head.

I've also written a number of other short posts over there, all of which you can see here. But really, just read the whole site: http://minnesota.sbnation.com .

As I've done for Twinkie Town and Canis Hoopus, I'll post the links to the longer features here as well. I hope you'll check out the new site - it should be fun.

(On the subject of Twinkie Town, I wrote something about Drew Butera on Monday. Suffice it to say that the title is "On Futility.")

World Cup 2010: Day 5 Notes

What a strange, low-scoring tournament. Another 1:1 today, another 0:0 as well. Maybe we're learning something about the futility of international soccer rankings. For all of the hype and all of the collections of superstars on display, these teams haven't played very many games together, even in qualifying. Even the teams with the most firepower - Brazil, Portugal, et cetera - aren't set to blow opponents away.

Notes on the matches today - which were exciting, if not in the traditional goals-for-all way:

New Zealand 1:1 Slovakia

Ah, my second-favorite type of goal: the late equalizer! My favorite is the late winner, of course - but for New Zealand, a tie has to feel a little bit like a win. The "All Whites" (kind of an unfortunate nickname for a tournament in South Africa, really) were said to be the weakest team in the tournament; in their one previous World Cup experience, 28 years ago, they'd lost all three matches. And after 90 minutes had gone from the clock, they looked to be continuing that record, thanks to a Robert Vittek header for Slovakia early in the second half.

With one of three added minutes to go, Shane Smeltz picked up the ball on the left wing for New Zealand. He dipped left, as if to head towards the end line, then cut back onto his right foot, as if to drive to the middle of the field - then swung a perfect ball in to the middle of the penalty area. The Slovakian defenders somehow got caught flat-footed, leaving Winston Reid alone in the middle of the penalty area.

What must that moment have been like, for Reid - to see the ball floating in his direction, to know that all he had to do was turn it on goal" I can only imagine. Reid won't have to; he headed the ball just inside the post, turned, and sprinted for the stands, waving his shirt above his head, having scored by far the most exciting goal of the 2010 World Cup thus far.

Ivory Coast 0:0 Portugal

It was the match with the most hype today - the first clash in the Group of Death. Brazil, Portugal, the Ivory Coast, and (the afterthought) North Korea enter; only two can survive. With Brazil, as always, picked by everyone to advance, a winner from this match would have the early edge on qualification from the knockout round. Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Didier Drogba! What a show!

In the event, both keepers were hardly tested. Ronaldo hit the post early on, but also dived about ten times and was openly mocked by announcer Ian Darke for his lightness on his feet. Drogba came on late, and had a chance in injury time, but managed to drag his shot from six yards away about forty yards wide of goal (it wasn't even moving in the same compass direction as the net). And we got a draw that settled nothing, and that could mean that the question of qualification between these two nations is settled based on their results vs. North Korea.

Speaking of whom...

Brazil 2:1 North Korea

For all of the jokes about the North Koreans, and the fact that their only fans are paid Chinese volunteers, and the fact that they tried to slip in an extra striker as a goalkeeper... okay, they're sort of a joke. But they're not a bad team. They held Brazil scoreless in the first half, and were only undone in the second half by a goalkeeping error (not covering his near post) and a beautiful goal (which happens to everybody who plays Brazil.) Meanwhile, they scored one of their own late in the second half, and had a few slight chances for more.

At the very least, they looked as good or better than another certain team which faced the Brazilians in South Africa.

The North Koreans got stuck in the hardest group of all, and they may very well end up with zero points in this World Cup. But they don't look like the pushovers that everyone assumed them to be.

World Cup 2010: Day 4 Notes

Another 1-1 draw today at the World Cup - but at least one decent upset, at well. A few notes from the fourth day of World Cup 2010:

HOLLAND 2:0 DENMARK

This match was at 6:30 this morning, so I taped it, then rushed home to watch it after work. In 2006, the Dutch were far and away my favorite team to watch, playing more or less entirely like the Germans did last night. Tie game? Attack! Up two goals? Attack! Behind? ATTACK HARDER!

Maybe I went into the match with my expectations too high, or maybe the Danes were just organized enough to disrupt the Oranje, but this one wasn't particularly great. Holland scored via an own goal and a rebound off the post - a far cry from the super-exciting soccer that I expected. Holland certainly looked good, even dominating for stretches, but nothing like the team I remember from four years ago.

Then again, last time around they fizzled out, so maybe that's a good sign for them.

JAPAN 1:0 CAMEROON

Allow me to sum up the Cameroonian offensive strategy:

1. Line up four players along the edge of the opposition penalty area.
2. If one of the other seven players should get hold of the ball, boot it in the general direction of the first four.

By the middle of the second half, I was wondering things like, "Do they have passing in Africa?" and "They know that they can kick the ball along the ground and nothing bad will happen, right?" Frustrating to watch, especially from a team nicknamed the "Indomitable Lions," which is the greatest nickname ever.

As for Japan, they got a goal from a guy named Honda, which sounds like something out of a game designed by mid-80s American Nintendo game designers.

DESIGNER 1: What should we call the Japanese players for our game, Nintendo World Soccer?
DESIGNER 2: (dismissively) How about Honda, Honda, Toyota, Sushi, um... Yokozuna?

Much was made out of this being Japan's first World Cup win outside Japanese soil. I thought this was cute. Then I remembered that the USA has a grand total of five, two of them in 1930. Then I stopped feeling superior.

ITALY 1:1 PARAGUAY

To be honest, I love cheering against Italy. They're well-known divers and cheats, they tend to play boring and defensive soccer - and they won last time, so this makes it more fun. And so I was quite pleased when Antolin Alcaraz rose highest to head Paraguay into the first-half lead.

Of course, after that, Italy dominated the game, and they certainly deserved Daniele de Rossi's equalizer in the second half - even if de Rossi was the jerk who tried to elbow Brian McBride's nose up into his brain in 2006. Italy may be the oldest team in the tournament, but they're not tired yet, and though some are still predicting they won't get out of Group F, it's pretty inconceivable that they wouldn't make it to the knockout round. They will find a way. It will be dive-filled and argument-with-the-referee filled and it will not be fun to watch, but this is the Italian way.

Germany vs. Australia: The Running Diary

Sunday was Day 3 of the 2010 World Cup, and so, what better time to get back into the running diary groove. Group D looked to be one of the more hotly-contested groups in the tournament this year; with Germany, Serbia, Ghana, and Australia thrown together, some were saying that you could pick any two to qualify.

Ghana beat Serbia early on Sunday; I chose to watch 2006 semifinalists Germany take on Asian champions Australia, live from Durban. Martin Tyler and Ally McCoist called the match.

PREGAME - In the ESPN studio, Jurgen Klinsmann says, "I think Germany's always ready." Frightened yet, Polish people?

Speaking of scary, Tyler leans in to the camera to shout something about German klaxons. He's terrifying up close. One presumes children are sobbing across America.

Also speaking of scary: The German national anthem, everyone! On the flip side, Australia's fans just belt out their anthem, which is always nice to hear. Well done, Aussie fans.

0 - For the 45th time, Tyler mentions that this is the youngest German team in 76 years, while Australia is the oldest team at the World Cup. We get it. Please stop.

1 - Miroslav Klose is about ten yards offside for Germany. Tyler makes a "Klosing in" joke. He needs better writers.

2 - Germany's wearing white and black. Australia, which always wears green and yellow, is wearing... dark blue and light blue. I don't get it.

3 - The Germans are using zonal marking on corners, covering space instead of players. This never ever works for anyone. I don't know why they're doing it. It nearly leads to a goal, as Richard Garcia's swiveling shot is denied from five yards out.

7 - After sitting back for a few minutes, the Germans come absolutely swarming forward. They would do this a lot. Their plan: long pass up the middle from a defender, followed by an immediate pass to a darting forward, or an immediate pass wide to a streaking winger. It's like the hook and ladder every time, and it works every time, as all of the passes are timed to perfection to beat the offside trap. Who said Germany wasn't a favorite? Anyway, this time Klose is through on goal, but can't finish.

8 - Here they come again, and this time, the finish is good. Lukas Podolski blasts a shot off of keeper Mark Schwarzer's hand and into the back of the net. Germany 1:0 Australia Quite a good-looking goal.

12 - In the category of "Not good-looking," Mesut Özil gets booked for one of the most outlandish dives you've ever seen. We should all get to run on the field and punch him in the shoulder. Germany doesn't need that - why, Mesut, why?

14 - The Germans are supposed to be efficient and clinical, but instead, they're just playing incredibly attractive soccer. Every pass is right on the money, every run is timed perfectly. It's quite beautiful. Where are the steely-eyed Germans who will out-efficient you to victory?

17 - We finally get a clip of the coaches' celebration following the goal. Klinsmann, the team's coach in 2006, set the bar pretty high for unintentionally-hilarious celebrations, but new coach Joachim Löw is no slouch. KARATE CHOP CELEBRATION!

21 - Just noticed that everybody on both teams is lily-white, which I think we can all agree is a little strange for South Africa. Tim Cahill, for Australia, is half Samoan; he's about all we've got right now. Weird.

24 - Klose, wide open ten yards from the goal, blasts one wide. Aye yi yi.

26 - Making up for it, Klose beats Schwarzer to a cross and finds the back of the net. Germany 2:0 Australia Boy, the Germans are good. Though Klose is about 1-for-3 so far in unmissable chances.

29 - Turns out the Aussies didn't allow more than one goal in any of their qualifying matches. Baptism of fire here for the "Socceroos," as Tyler insists on calling them.

31 - The Australian defenders are constantly convinced that the German forwards are offside. They have been wrong every time, except for a few instances in which Klose was terrifically offside by ten or twelve yards.

37 - Germany's had the possession by a count of 60-40. Though they don't show the stat, they also have more completed passes, by a score of 1379 - 8.

40 - "Ze Group of Death? FOR YOU, MAYBE! WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU LOSE!" My German accent needs work, I discover.

41 - McCoist and Tyler discuss whether Australia is to blame for this. Honestly, the main thing they did wrong was showing up for kickoff; Germany's been that good.

HALFTIME: GERMANY 2 AUSTRALIA 0 - I am left to contemplate. How can we all learn to be more German? These guys were supposed to be young and inexperienced, yet they're absolutely playing Australia off the field.

46 - About ten seconds after the second half starts, Aussie defender Lucas Neill gets carded for what appears to be a rugby tackle. Something bothering you, Lucas?

48 - Germany gets away with a blatant handball in the box. McCoist says it wasn't deliberate, so it's not a penalty. Either I don't understand this rule, or McCoist doesn't. Lucky for Germany? They just seem ready to sit back for this half.

53 - After a tic-tac-toe circus move from Germany that should have been accompanied by calliope music, Thomas Müller drives just over the crossbar. Never mind what I said about sitting back.

56 - Whoops - Tim Cahill just got sent off. Replays show is was a bad tackle, deserving of a yellow card, but hardly a red. Now Australia's really done for. They've been complaining about the linesmen and the referee the whole game; this won't help.

59 - Schwarzer turns away a blast from Özil. This has the potential to get ugly.

60 - Klose and Sami Khedira contrive to miss from about six feet away. I can't see how that was physically possible.

62 - This game could be 5-0 at this point. Equally, though, if Schwarzer stops the Podolski shot (he did get a hand to it), and gets the cross that Klose scored on (he should have got there), it could still be 0-0. Strange how these things work.

64- Nikita Rukavytsya comes on for Australia. In case you're wondering, like I was, Rukavytsya was born in Ukraine but moved to Australia at the age of 14. I'm not sure what the classic Australian name is, but "Nikita Rukavytsya" isn't it, I don't think.

66 - I think Tyler has said of Klose, "He should have scored," at least four times. Yikes.

68 - Germany 3:0 Australia - It's Muller this time, wide open to ricochet a shot off the post and in. Germany has been very good, but Australia's defending has been bad, bad, bad.

69 - Klose is substituted. Does he have a little, um, German-esque upper-lip fuzz? Not a good look for a German to be sporting, Miroslav.

By the way, German's three subs today are named Cacau, Mario Gomez, and Marko Marin. Go ahead and try to pick out the native-born German from that group, I dare you. Answer later.

70 - While we ponder that, Cacau scores on the break to make it Germany 4:0 Australia. This is getting hard to watch. Painful for the Aussies. I feel bad for them.

72 - "It's a spanking for the Socceroos," says Tyler. Naughty.

77 - Tyler and McCoist somehow begin discussing rugby. Tyler says, "Anything that's oval I'm not very comfortable with, I'm afraid. Except perhaps a boiled egg in the morning." Martin Tyler has now officially stopped making sense to his American audience. Congrats, Martin!

80 - The Australian players are yelling at each other. Guys, you're down 4-0. It's a little late for that.

81 - The answer: Cacau was born in Brazil, Marko Marin in Bosnia, and Mario Gomez in Germany. How someone named "Mario Gomez" was born in Germany remains a mystery to me. "Dieter Gomez," I could believe.

86 - Nothing entertaining happened here, but I feel the need to update.

91 - Corner for the Aussies! Whoo! And another! Wheee! (As you might expect, this game got a bit boring once Australia went down four goals.)

92 - Now Cacau is booked for another horrible dive. Guys. Knock it off. You Germans played such wonderful soccer, I want to like you - but not if you're going to keep flopping around like a bunch of Portuguese players.

FINAL: GERMANY 4, AUSTRALIA 0

And just like that, the Germans go from "Hey, maybe they won't get out of their group!" to "Hey, the Germans look like the best team in the tournament yet again!" They beat Costa Rica 4-2 in their opener in 2006, Saudi Arabia 8-0 in 2002; somehow, they always come to play.

England 1:1 USA

I think it's important to start with this: England has still never beaten the USA at the World Cup.

Pre-match, ESPN asked its analysts for match predictions. Ruud Gullit, the only level-headed one of the bunch, predicted a 1-1 draw. Alexi Lalas, ever the unrepentant homer, predicted a 2-1 USA win; Steve McManaman, ever the England homer, predicted a comfortable 3-1 win for England. I was thinking along with McManaman; in today's RandBall post, I predicted at least two horrid USA defensive errors. I was thinking 3-1, maybe 3-0, and consoling myself with the upcoming chances the USA will have against Algeria and Slovenia.

Barely three minutes in, it looked like I and McManaman would be right on the money. Both Ricardo Clark and Carlos Bocanegra stood around and watched Steven Gerrard nip in and score. I'd say I was surprised, but it was in every way exactly like so many other goals that the American team has allowed, right down to Tim Howard screaming at his defenders. At that point, it looked to be a long, long afternoon - much like the opening game against the Czechs four years prior.

What I forgot is that England - no matter who's in charge or who's on the field - will always find a way to be ordinary, no matter what. Usually this means they lose on penalties; that wasn't an option this time, so instead, Robert Green helped out by dropping a Clint Dempsey shot directly into the goal.

A friend gave me a plant as a housewarming gift today. This plant has now been named Robert Green, in the honor of a true hero to America and to USA fans everywhere.

A few sites claimed that England "dominated", but really, both teams had chances for a winner. Emile Heskey was alone against Howard, but hit his shot straight at the American keeper; on the other end, Josy Altidore drove a prospective second-half tally off of Green's hand and the post. Though England had more possession at the end, either team might have claimed the winning goal.

Most English newspapers I've checked seem to be putting a brave face on things - there's still plenty of time to win the group and qualify for the knockout round - but this is truly a great result for America, and a disappointing one for England. The USA might well have expected to be on the bottom of Group C after tomorrow's Algeria-Slovenia match; now, they could well be tied for the top of the group. For England, the pre-match talk was about whether the Three Lions could breeze through the group with three wins; now, they'll sweat their own results against the two other Group C teams.

This was a good day for American soccer fans - something that we couldn't have said at this point in 2006.

World Cup 2010: Day 1 Notes

Well, I suspect that no new soccer fans were created today, except perhaps in South Africa. Notes from the first day of the 2010 World Cup:

SOUTH AFRICA 1-1 MEXICO

Certainly the better of the two games today, the South Africans took the lead via a counter-attacking strike from Siphiwe Tshabalala, who might have the single best name of any World Cup goalscorer ever. Unfortunately for American fans, Mexican defender Rafael Marquez popped up late in the match to equalize for the visitors. Katlego Mphela hit the post in the final minute of regulation for South Africa, but the hosts were denied the victory. Too bad, for all those of us who were rooting hard against Mexico.

Perhaps the main talking point of the match was an offside goal scored by Carlos Vela for Mexico, in which the striker was clearly behind the second-to-last defender, thus making him offsides. Somehow, ESPN commentator Martin Tyler declared this goal to be clearly onside, despite Vela being completely offside (Tyler was confused since, in this case, the second-to-last defender was the goalkeeper). Tyler has been the lead Sky Sports commentator in England for years and years; how is it possible for him to so completely bungle the offside rule, after seeing all that soccer?

This match was treated as somewhat of an upset, but South Africa - especially at home - is not as bad as their ranking makes them out to be. They've gone 13 matches now unbeaten, and remember, they finished fourth at the Confederations Cup last year; Brazil needed a late goal in the semis to beat South Africa, and Spain needed two goals in the final five minutes of regulation AND an extra-time winner in the third-place game.

One other note: It was nice to hear Tyler all but openly mocking Cuauhtemoc Blanco for being fat. "The oldest, and probably the heaviest player on the field," said Tyler of Blanco. WHO ATE ALL THE EMPANADAS?, etc and so on.

URUGUAY 0:0 FRANCE

I suppose French fans will do well to remember that, in 2006, France opened the tournament with an incredibly boring draw against Switzerland. They also drew with Korea and only scraped past Togo before making an improbable run to the final.

Nevertheless: boring draw. Uruguay was more than happy to keep eight or ten or seventeen defenders back at all times; most of their attacks consisted of Diego Forlan challenging for punts from the goalkeeper.

(An aside: I know he's scored a million goals in various leagues in the intervening time, but it's still shocking to me to see Forlan being used as a legitimate goal threat. Remember, this is the man that provoked mocking "I SAW FORLAN SCORE" T-shirts to be printed when he finally managed to find the net for Manchester United, way back when.)

So there's Group A for you: two matches, two goals, one point for everybody, and no advantages gained or lost. You'd have to say that Mexico looks to be the favorite, even though they seemed to lose interest for long stretches against South Africa. Maybe if they play Blanco the whole time and put slices of pie on either end of the field to motivate him.


Other than Tyler's offside gaffes, the coverage was honestly not bad. Ian Darke called the other game; Darke, like Tyler, is normally a Sky Sports commentator, and apart from his tendency to talk only about those players who he sees regularly in Premier League matches, he's fine. He did mention that French players Abou Diaby and Bacary Sagna both play for Arsenal. About fifty times each. Given that French defender William Gallas is on his way out at Arsenal, and strikers Nicholas Anelka and Thierry Henry both formerly played for the English club, it was sort of an Arsenalesque day. Doubly so since France failed to score against a team that put all the defenders behind the ball.

A word of praise, too, for the ESPN3.com broadcasts, which trailed the cable broadcasts by only a split-second, and didn't suffer from the connection and broadcast problems that one might expect for the first day of the biggest sporting event in the world. Well done, ESPN.

World Cup Eve

Tomorrow morning, South Africa kicks off against Mexico, and our four-year wait for the World Cup is over. For USA fans like me, in some ways it's really an eight-year wait that's over.

In 1990 and 1998, the Americans may have been the worst team in the tournament; in 1994, a shocking win over Colombia helped the home team to the knockout round. But in 2002, it seemed like maybe the USA was finally turning a corner on the world stage. A strong opening half lifted the USA over powerhouse Portugal, a Brad Friedel penalty save helped rescue a draw against South Korea, and even a bad loss to Poland in the final game of the group stage couldn't prevent America from reaching the knockout round.

And the knockout round - well, I wasn't alone in thinking that the script would be rewritten. The red, white, and blue waxed Mexico 2-0 in the first game. In the quarterfinals, America was cheated by a Torsten Frings handball that kept a sure goal out of the German net. Disappointing, for sure, but we American fans could only assume the team would be back to improve upon that showing in 2006.

As you know, that didn't happen. The USA got slaughtered 3-0 by the Czech Republic in their first game, and never recovered; a wild, card-filled draw with eventual champions Italy ended up being the only point the Americans got. It was incredibly disappointing, especially since we fans had waited four long years for another crack at the tournament, and knew it'd be at least four more before we got another chance.

Four years have elapsed, finally, and now the USA is back with another chance. We're in a group with Algeria and Slovenia, two of the weaker teams in the tournament - and we also have a chance to play England, and nothing's more fun than a chance to cause our friends across the pond some serious consternation. Most pundits expect our team to qualify for the knockout round again, and while nobody's picking us to beat England, the mere chance of causing the rending of English garments is, frankly, quite delicious.

Tomorrow morning, South Africa kicks off against Mexico. Tomorrow begins our chance to end eight years of waiting.

---

As in 2006, TNABACG will be more or less entirely a World Cup blog for the next month. I've got my list of games printed out, with 30 of the 48 first-round matches highlighted for viewing purposes. There are certain matches I won't watch - anything with North Korea (communist jerks) or anything with Greece (the most boring, frustrating team to watch on the planet) - but other than that, I'm more or less willing to watch every match. Happily, thanks to the time difference, most of the matches are taking place in the morning or early afternoon, so I'll be able to flip them on at work. It's like March Madness, except the entire world is watching and it's a month long. What could be sweeter?

I'll be doing a few random running match diaries, like 2006, and, otherwise be updating daily with World Cup thoughts. In '06 I had random German blog fans popping out of the woodwork; if you're back this year, folks, let me know.

Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the show. I couldn't be any more excited for the World Cup to be here.

Who's the most popular Timberwolf? [Canis Hoopus]

Over at Canis Hoopus, I've posted a discussion - and accompanying poll - about the most popular Timberwolf. (Right now, the voting is trending towards someone who's never played for the team.)

Weekend Links [RandBall]

It's time once again for the weekend links!

(Short, sweet, and to the point today.)

Seattle 2, Twins 1 [Twinkie Town]

I pinch-hit over at Twinkie Town last night, with a recap of the Twins' 2-1 loss in ten innings in Seattle.

On a day of blown calls by umpires, what else would the recap focus on?

What's with all the double plays? [Twinkie Town]

Over at Twinkie Town on Monday, I looked into a few numbers that could be behind the Twins' tendency to hit into double plays. Three theories are studied, some better than others.

Weekend Links [RandBall]

I'm just now making it back to town after a long Memorial Day weekend - and despite my lack of connectivity, thanks to the magic of the internet, I wrote Saturday's Weekend Links at RandBall. This week, I cover all the usual subjects - the Twins, television, TV analysts with awesome hair, and so forth - so join me at the Strib site for a belated edition of the Weekend Links.