Well…I almost forgot to come back to do this one with all of the soccer that has been on today…but that is the topic I wanted to talk about so that would be just too ironic…so far, the matches have been pretty good, especially the US 2-1 win over Ghana last night…one of the most hard- fought games I have seen in quite a while but the US can play so much better…but maybe not the next match with Altidore being injured and no one that I can see to replace him…that is one of the reasons I thought that leaving Donovan off the squad was a bad idea…he would have made a good backup for just this instance and Altidore has been injury prone throughout his career…I guess it will be left up to the no name forwards to break out…I hope they do…or maybe Dempsey?  The Mexico/Brazil game just finished a few minutes ago with a 0-0 tie and I’m not surprised…Brazil didn’t look that good in their first match…Mexico looked okay in their first but still not what they can play….I do need to get a life and stop doing nothing but watching soccer….maybe tomorrow….

Well…not the result I wanted or expected from the USA Ghana match yesterday but our guys tried hard and did overcome a lot of bad calls and adversity to get to the knockout round….so guys, I salute you! I am still going watch the rest of the games and we have a Germany England match going on right now that is going to have a great second half…the game should be tied at 2-2 but, inexplicably, England had a clear goal nullified since none of the refs saw it…I guess England knows how we feel now, huh?

I’ll probably update this later today after the Mexico game…might even go over to the Mex place for a beer but should probably give the stomach and liver a rest.

Well…the World cup took a turn this morning when Switzerland defeated the heavily favored Spanish team by a score of 1-0. These guys were favored to take it all but I think that rating may have been a little too optimistic given that the US beat them in the Confederations Cup last year. I know, Spain has only lost like 2 games in the last hundred years but these tournaments can be surprising…just look at our tie with England which easily could have been a win for the US.

On thing I have noticed is that there haven’t been any teams, from the matches I’ve seen, that have played up to level that I expected…I was prepared for some elegant soccer like you see in the EPL and Champions league but most of the play looks disjointed, although Spain did put together some short spurts of beauty that you can’t help but marvel at…even Brazil looked ordinary yesterday…maybe we have a chance? Hope so….

Well…need to say a few words about the USA/England match from Sat afternoon…walked over to a local bar owned by an Irishman who, when he saw that my son-in-law was English, gave us pretty good service. But, we were there at about 9:30 for the 1:30 game so that was a long wait; especially for me since I could only have a couple of beers with coming back home later in the aft. Had corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast and it was some of the best I’ve had…not the weird tasting stuff you get from a can but really tender, home-cooked corned beef.

Oh, the game, I thought it was a good result for the USA to come away with a tie 1-1, but my son-in-law and the other Englanders were despondent that they could tie with the lowly US. I have to say congrats to Tim Howard, our goaltender, who took what I thought was a red card play when the English player came in studs up and put both feet into his chest. This was early in the match and he stayed in and made so many game saving plays it was hard to count them…doesn’t say much for our defense, though….

Now we just need to beat Slovenia Friday morning and we might get to the knockout stage…..