Tag Archives: world cup

It’s a sports day…

Well…after a brutal second ride, I’m now settling in for a big sports day with a cup of coffee and the heating pad on my back…and it has started out good with Croatia and Morocco each scoring a goal in the first ten minutes of the match…and after that, I’ll go out and shovel the snow for the first time and I’m sure not the last time since we are supposed to get 4-8 inches out here today…and then lunch and football games start and run for the rest of the day…so, I think I’ll veg out and just watch sports all day…I may clean a bit but I may not…who knows? More later…

How about some sports?

Well…still feeling a little worn out today but I did want to talk about some sports…didn’t watch all of the Michigan game last night but I did see the important part…they are now 13-0 for the season and I do have to remind myself of their pattern that I’ve seen in all of their games this year…they allow the other team to stay close through the first half and then pull away in the second…so that win made them Big Ten champs and they will be in the college football playoffs along with Georgia but the other two spots are still to be determined this morning so I’ll update that after it happens….not sure how I feel about the matchups or if Michigan can win it all…they have looked good at times and iffy at times and with the loss of Corum, the other runners will have to stop up….hmmm…the World Cup…now that the US is out, I should lose interest but France is playing right now against Poland and then England plays this afternoon and I wonder what team will show up in that one? I mean they only drew with the US but beat another team 6-2 so I think they will win it as I think France will win this morning….but I really don’t have any other opinions right now…yeah, and that surprises me, too….more later…

I’m conflicted…

Well…with the world cup starting today, I’m conflicted about watching it knowing what I know about Qatar…the country is one of the biggest human rights abusers on the globe and it should not be rewarded for it…and they bribed their way to getting the tournament in well known corruption that FIFA always seems to be involved in…but the biggest reason that gives me pause is the fact that over 6,000 laborers died constructing the venues and infrastructure needed to support the games….and many, many more went unpaid like slaves so the rulers could make money from the games….so, will I watch the tournament…yeah, probably, but I’m not sure how much I’ll enjoy it…especially since the rulers there have put strict rules on the broadcasts so they get only good propaganda out of it…no criticism is allowed at all…still don’t think these games should have even been awarded to what is a dictatorship that abuses it’s people…but FIFA equals corruption so what can you do?

A little more World Cup…

Well…just watched a stunning match with my guys from Belgium knocking off Brazil 2-1 and I actually stood up and cheered when the final whistle blew…and that leaves my two teams still in it…at least until tomorrow when England plays Sweden early in the morning…Belgium went up 2-0 in the first half but the Brazil just kept throwing attack after attack at them….and scored a goal at around 75 minutes to make the rest of the match pretty nerve wracking….this is the best word cup that I have seen since I started watching them in 1994 when the US hosted them…. and my guys from Man U, Lukaku and Fellaini were terrific all day…I’m still smiling…

Having some problems…

Well…no, nothing really serious…even with everything that is going on in the world, I just am having some problems figuring out a topic for today…and that started yesterday as you can see. Oh, okay…let’s talk about the world cup…have been watching quite a few of the games and there have been a lot of surprises…my adopted team from Mexico beat the Germans yesterday and that was not supposed to happen…the Germans looked slow and like they had no ideas how to cope with Mexico’s fast break and energetic defense that challenged every ball for the entire 90 minutes…I’ll surely be rooting for them the rest of the tournament. Another big surprise was when another favorite, Argentina, was tied by Iceland…yep, you heard that right, Iceland tied the powerhouse Argentina and Messi looked pretty ordinary for the best player in soccer…I am a little disappointed that England is playing this aft just when I’ll be shooting pool but they may have a replay somewhere later so I’ll have to look for that…okay, Belgium and Panama is almost ready to start so I’ll end here and try to find something political to write about later….

World cup wrapup…

Well…haven’t really thought about politics today so that will have to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday…right now, with the world cup ending yesterday, it’s time to put down a few thoughts about this cup…the thought just came to me that this is the 5th one that I have really followed and I think it is certainly my favorite…it might be that I had more knowledge of the teams and players since I follow the BPL and many of them play in that league, so it was cool to see some of them play for their countries…it was a little weird to see Tim Howard, or vanPersie not in their BPL colors but it was still fun to watch. I picked Germany to win it all and they did…and I was just thinking that I could have made some money if I would have bet on it but they were only about 5-1 so the money wouldn’t have been that good…I do feel good that the US only lost to Germany 1-0 and the favorites, Brazil, got bombed 7-1 by them…..but now, it is back to the boring days that were before the cup…oh, well….

World cup…again

Well…sitting here watching the last semi final and there is nothing going on in this game so I thought I’d talk about yesterday’s…I had the feeling that Brazil would lose, but I never thought it would be 7-1…but, Brazil was so overrated throughout the tournament that I thought a bad loss could be possible…after all, they tied Mexico in the group stage and Mexico could easily have won that game if they would have brought Chicharitto in earlier….I don’t feel bad for
Brazil either…especially since their fans were operating in a fog of over confidence for years and years….now, I guess I’ll go back to the match and update this later when it is over….

We’re through!

Well…one of the most remarkable things I have seen in quite a while just happened…the US is through to the round of 16 in the World Cup! This is something that no one in the world thought could even happen with the US being in the  “group of death” that had Germany and Portugal in it…and also included our nemesis, Ghana, who have put us out in the last two cups….I am so relieved but more than that…I’ve been a soccer geek for the past 20 years and have endured the ridicule that the US has gotten around the world and it makes me feel good that we can compete with the best of the world…even England and Spain went home in the group stage…now, it is going to be a long wait until the 5th when we play Belgium in the knockout round…but, I can bask a little for the gritty performances I’ve seen from our team…good job!

Disappointing…

Well…haven’t come up with anything to write about in politics so I guess I’ll do a little more sports…it was a disappointing day yesterday with the US tying Portugal when it looked like they were going to win until the last minute…so, that makes the chances of us getting through to the next round pretty slim…have to beat Germany Thursday, which is not going to happen, or tie them, which may happen, or lose to them and then let the math and tie breakers drive us nuts until the Ghana/Portugal match ends. Not going to be a good day Thursday but I guess we can look at it that we tried hard and looked better than expected….not sure if I’ll watch the rest of the matches but I’ve invested too much time to quit now….I just hope Brazil loses this aft and makes it interesting…more later…

World cup part two….

Well…it has been a  fun world cup so far and most of the matches have been good ones, no real blow outs but a bunch of surprises with Spain not going to make the round of 16 and the US having the possibility of getting through with today’s game. I am starting to get pretty excited about it but with Portugal losing it’s first match, I think they will come out much harder than they did against Germany.  if they do that, we could be in trouble….but, there are a couple of ways we can get in…tie today’s match and then tie Germany Friday…or, if we lose, we need to beat Germany and I just don’t see that happening. So, today’s match is going to be a nail biter but if we play like we can, we’ll have a chance…not sure if I can take the stress….