More World Cup Comments

Happy Bloomsday! Not much left of it - time to take in the words, though: "Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine." Such a beautiful book.

Anyway - my mind has not been on literature this past week - but rather, Sport. The World Cup (eclipsing even the Celtics' run) - thanks to the magic of DVR, I have managed to see every game played so far - not every minute, perhaps, but a good percentage of them. And might as well offer opinions, group by group?

Group A? France looked terrible; after the first game, Mexico looked solid and South Africa looked passable, though the second game against Uruguay changes that - though they really only fell apart after the penalty. But Uruguay has been a revelation. They packed it in against France and completely baffled them - then came out playing a much freer, more open game against South Africa, dominating them. They look well deserving of the second round, and Diego Forlan looks like one of the players of the tournament so far - he looked to have more real chances on goal than France did in the first game, and he scored a perfect beauty of a goal in the second game... I think Mexico has a fine shot at beating France - France would have to play far better to get past them. Could happen, but - they look ready to collapse, and god, I hope they do. It's Bloomsday, after all...

Group B: Argentina looks legit - they didn't overwhelm Nigeria, but they dominated play. Though Nigeria kept the pressure on, and their goalie was huge. I could see them coming back from that. South Korea looked very good, though against Greece, who were helpless. Tomorrow's game there will tell - whether Argentina is really a title contender, and whether South Korea is really as good as they looked. If South Korea gets exposed, NIgeria might be able to beat them - I could see that. Finally - Messi didn't get a goal, but looked his brilliant self.

Group C: Slovenia's win complicates things, but I think they're still hard pressed to get through - even if they can draw out, both England the the US should beat Algeria, and should get more than a goal... England lost on that ghastly bit of keeping, but looked beatable anyway - they mounted decent threats, but had lots of trouble at the back, defenders getting beaten and so on... The US, meanwhile, looked like a pretty complete team - solid D (after their ugly breakdown on the Gerrard goal), great keeper, enough offense. They have choked before in the world cup though. England too, though they usually wait for the second round...

Group D: deutschland, deutscheland uber alles... They are always sort of favorites - they looked like the real deal there. Their strikers are going to score - their midfield play looks strong and creative - they don't mess up on D - they should be around at the end. They're young and all, but they laid those doubts to rest. Of the others - Serbia probably played better than the results - though they obviously ran out of steam at the end - got a red card when a beaten defender grabbed a player; and lost on a penalty after an idiotic handball. (Lots of strange incompetence in the first round - goalie blunders by England, Algeria, Paraguay; this handball; the Danish own goal... nerves? exhaustion, in Serbia's case, I think.) Ghana, on the other hand, looked very impressive. The African teams have been a bit disappointing, but not Ghana. They had injury problems too, with Essian out - but the rest of the team came through - Kevin Prince Boateng had a very nice game... The US and England (assuming they get through) will get the top two teams in this group, and frankly, I think Germany and Ghana will both win those games...

Group E: The Netherlands is another team with a load of talent but a bad track record - their opening game was rather bland. Denmark hung around, and looked like they were going to beat themselves, with that own goal - though the Dutch got better later. They looked a lot more dangerous without Van der vaart and Van Persie - I think because they were all coming into the middle - the subs went wide - and Wesley Snejder began to operate in the extra space. A couple teams have this problem - England worries about having too many midfielders in the middle; I thought SPain's troubles were partly due to their tendency to bunch up... Holland looked much better late. In the other game - the commentators were right - Cameroon had nothing coming through the mid-field, reduced to long balls into the box at the end. Japan played hard and did a good job creating chances, and played a pretty good D as well. Denmark can beat them - they have to, I think - but I can see Japan getting through. I'd like to see that, being a Japanophile - though I like the Denmark team too...

Group F: This is Italy's group, isn't it? All ties of course. Italy looked dull and inoffensive, though probably more organized than France. Paraguay gave them a good game, and should have won - gave them a gift. The other two - Slovakia outplayed New Zealand, but looked like they though the game was over by the 80 minute mark - you could see trouble brewing - they stopped working on D... NZ didn't stop and you see the results. Italy and Paraguay should get through anyway. Ho hum.

Group G: The Portugal/Cote D'Ivoire game was not much fun - Portugal has nothing but Christiano Ronaldo and their defense to go on, though both are first rate. (Though if there is a more irritating player in the game than CR I don't know who it is - a diving diva, though my god, he can do things on the field...) CIV had trouble mounting scoring threats, but they played a good game - hopefully, Drogba will be stronger in the later games - he looked very tentative out there - this game might re-establish his confidence - and they could do better. They have to - Brazil wasn't overwhelming, but they were Brazil. They got careless at the end, but still... and North Korea - played DEFENSE and played it well, and even managed a couple counters... things might go differently for them against less composed teams - they might get some points out of this group yet...

Group H: Spain looked beautiful, but came up empty. Switzerland gave them very little, and took what they got. Chile looked great - Honduras looked like what they were - a team in a weak confederation sneaking in on a late goal by someone else... Spain is hardly out of it - Chile can score, but can they stop Spain? Can Switzerland repeat their performance against Chile? Can they score enough against Honduras? Interestingly - you can almost imagine this group leaving someone behind with six points - if Spain wins out, while Chile beats Switzerland and Switzerland Honduras - none of them all that far-fetched... that would be very interesting in itself. It's probably a bit more likely to see the Swiss and Spanish go through, though...

And so... second set of games, here we go - with Brazil and Germany the two powerhouses who've basically established themselves - the rest are still a bit up in the air. I think Ghana and Uruguay are the most impressive underdogs so far (Switzerland is a bit too one-dimensional to get away with it forever), though South Korea is certainly promising. The rest, I imagine, will be clarified this upcoming week...