Superfluous Rants

Ladies and Gentlemen, Spain has arrived in South Africa. The final score definitely doesn’t do justice to the dominating performance by Spain today against Honduras. Spain had a handful of chances and they could have easily won 5-0. The team that did win big today was Portugal. They trashed North Korea with 7 unanswered goals. I wouldn’t get too carried away however, it is North Korea after all. The Koreans should have stuck to the same game plan as they did with Brazilians, and perhaps the course of the match would have been different. They tried to play on the counter and failed miserably as clearly they don’t have the quality for it. Either ways, this victory will be a great morale booster for the Portuguese and here is hoping that they defeat Brazil in their final group match on Friday.
That way the possibilities of a Spain - Brazil second round match will be higher and following that the Samba boys can go back home, dancing of course.

Trying to catch the games in between my studies…or the other way around. Hmm. Slovakia is officially the worst team in the tournament. The expected holders of that dubious title, New Zealand had an extraordinary outing against the defending champions Italy. Then again Italy have been horrid for quite sometime now. Sub-par defence, short passes in the midfield and long ball to the striker, hoping for penalties can only take you so far.
Brilliant play by Brazil that lead to the goal by Luis Fabiano. I am hating the referee in this game so far though. It is as if he calls every call against Ivory Coast simply because they are larger in size than the Brazilians.

(Update)
Too easy for Brazil. The second goal was controversial though. The ball was clearly handled by Luis Fabiano before shooting the ball in, even the referee acknowledged it. Really disappointed at Ivory Coast. Expected them to play much better.

So Serbia has brought the Germs back on Earth and the Yanks fought tenaciously to tie minnows Slovenia. Ferocious goal by Landon Donovan btw. He definitely needs to move out of Mediocre League Soccer (MLS). Dubious refereeing in both games, however. 14 bookings altogether and a ridiculous robbery of a goal by former Toronto FC man Maurice Edu. 
Right then, on to the English and Algerians. I hope they save all the drama till the second half as I will miss the first part of the game due to a test.

(Update)
Well I guess the English didn’t want their good friends the French to hog the shame-light. The players just randomly ran about with the ball and gifted away possession almost the entire match. The Algerians on the other hand were far more composed and should be very content with the draw. England’s case can be best described by the proverbial phrase “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Gerrard, Lampard, Barry et all looked confused every time they had the ball and could not even complete simple passes. Forwards Heskey and Rooney spent far too much time in their own half and I will spare the defence’s blushes and not even talk about the horrid man marking. And where the hell is Joe Cole?? Surely he is a better bet on the wings. Anyways, Group C is now completely open and any two team can progress to the knock out stage. Based on today’s games, my money would be on Slovenia and the United States.
Oh, and don’t let the cynical English fan fool you. England have NOT started slow, they are just living up to their reputation of being a team full of world class talent that cannot play cohesively. I really hope Capello can motivate them to play more effectively in their final group match against Slovenia.

Final Scores from Matchday 8:
Germany 0 – Serbia 1
Slovenia 2 – United States 2
Algeria 0 – England 0

Finally got the chance to kick back at home, relax and watch all 3 matches of the matchday live back-to-back-to-back. The day got off to a perfect start with the 4-1 slaughtering of South Korea by Argentina. Argentina displayed what they are capable of creatively and offensively while the Koreans looked lost and confused until a defensive blunder by Demichelis gifted them a goal. I still question Maradona’s choice of starting with 3 center-backs and I am afraid against more offensive teams, the defence will be left wide open. But for now, it’s all good. VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!
The second game was surprising to say the least. I have never favoured Greece’s boring game play but today they went all out. They came from behind to beat Nigeria 2-1. I am disappointed at Nigeria as they were one of the African teams expected to do well in the tournament but at the same time I am happy for Greece for finally winning a game at the World Cup finals.
The group A clash between Mexico and France was the last game of the day and the Mexicans beat an insipid French team 2-0 to go one step closer to the next round. France is all but out of the tournament and oddball Raymond Domenech’s reign is almost at the end. I mean who in their right mind would insist on starting Govou in the flanks and bringing on Gignac instead of Henry while down by 1 goal. They should have gotten rid of him after Euro 08. Oh well, justice is served and karma is a bitch. France cheated (Henry’s “hand-of-frog” for the uninitiated…see picture below) to get here and now they can barely score a single goal.

I will try my best to post my thoughts on the World Cup more frequently from here on but for now its adieu as I have to prepare for midterms season.

More football comic fun at [Studs Up]

And so it starts in less than 12 hours, the biggest sporting event in the world today. A month long frenzy of international football. It is unfortunate that most games will be played in the mornings as I am in school during the early hours of the day; but having said that, I will be tuning in any way possible. (My laptop is ready and loaded with SOPcast and TVUplayer hehe) (Update: CBC will stream all the matches live online!!)

I will be supporting Argentina and Spain of course. Personally, a victory from either team will make me  ecstatic. Argentina is the reason why I fell in love with football. Watching Maradona lift the World Cup trophy in 1986 is one of my earliest and best memories. As much as I want Argentina to win, I believe the road to the finals for them will be really hard. I am still not convinced Maradona is the best coach Argentina can have at the moment. He has been constantly experimenting with the squad through out the qualifications phase and still isn’t sure of his starting eleven. I do pray and hope that he builds his team around Lionel Messi to get the best out of the world’s finest player. 
I have been following Spain largely due to the fact that it featured a number of Liverpool and Real Madrid players prior to 2008.  On paper, Spain is the best team and almost everybody’s favourite to win this year’s tournament. Their team depth is unbelievable to the point that they could field two competitive teams. The only thing that will be against Spain is being caught up in the tremendous pressure as seen in last year’s Confederation Cup.

Anyways, enough of my fanboy analysis. Here are my quick picks instead:
Winner of the 2010 World Cup: SPAIN
Sentimental pick: ARGENTINA
Darkhorses: NETHERLANDS
Team with the last best chance to win until a long time: ENGLAND
Underdogs to look out for: SERBIA, IVORY COAST, URUGUAY, CAMEROON
Teams generally expected to do well but most likely won’t: ITALY, PORTUGAL, FRANCE
Teams with good chance to win but I don’t want them to: BRAZIL, GERMANY

Enjoy the World Cup everyone!

Check out the awesome new banners for Inception by clicking on the link below:

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This one in particular is my favourite and is already my desktop wallpaper.

Wish it was July 16 already :-(

[Nolan Fans]