The first half of the round of the knockout bracket
USA vs Ghana (Saturday, 2:30 pm EST, ABC) plays the winner of South Korea vs Uruguay (Saturday, 10:00 AM EST, ESPN)
on the other side Germany vs England (Sunday, 10:00 am EST, ESPN) plays the winner of Argentina vs Mexico (Sunday, 2:30 pm EST, ABC)
All four teams playing on Saturday must be thrilled to be playing on Saturday and dreaming about a chance to the semifinal. Saturday's the day of teams happy to be this far, Sunday's the day of countries who will be utterly crushed if they lose.
If the US win, they play on July 2nd. That has collective four day weekend written all over it.
Please tell me we'll get an England-Argentina matchup in the Quarters. The only way that would be more awesome would be if Peter Shilton was coaching England.
Originally posted by UnsUweIn Germany there's a saying like "the luck of the hard workers",
Oooh, I like it. Between this and schadenfreude, Germany's got some good sayings.
I think we need to be educated on the German version of that saying so we can casually drop it in conversations this weekend. Can you help us out, UnsUwe? :)
Originally posted by MoeGatesPlease tell me we'll get an England-Argentina matchup in the Quarters. The only way that would be more awesome would be if Peter Shilton was coaching England.
Krusty the Clown must be used to provide an overview.
I haven't been so excited at a big sports play like I was after Donovan's goal since the Bucs' playoff run back in 2002. This was a great moment and I'm glad I got to see it, and I hope the theory that this accelerates the game's growth in the U.S. proves to have merit.
The U.S. has a very good chance to reach the semifinals. I saw Ghana today and their attack looked great, they were so fast and putting tons of pressure on the German keeper. But then, the same team couldn't score when playing with a man advantage for an hour against Australia - the same Australian team that Germany beat 4-0 when the Aussies had a player sent off. Either way, getting first in the group made a big difference, because this is way better than a bracket with Germany, Argentina and Mexico.
Here, for as long as it stays up, is the winning goal, with the ESPN call:
I find the international (by which I mean, non-American) soccer announcing to be refreshing, much better than commentators in American sports. I shudder at the thought of Joe Buck making the call in this situation.
Originally posted by MoeGatesPlease tell me we'll get an England-Argentina matchup in the Quarters. The only way that would be more awesome would be if Peter Shilton was coaching England.
Well, it would be the MOST awesome if England scored the winner on a Wayne Rooney handball, leaving Maradona to explode on the sidelines.
Originally posted by MoeGatesPlease tell me we'll get an England-Argentina matchup in the Quarters.
Hell will freeze over and the Sun will rise from the west before that happens. There is no way England can go over Germany. It's wrong for a team I hate so much to do so well.
Forfeit the game, before somebody else takes you outta the game, and puts your name to shame Cover up your face, you can't run the race The pace is too fast, you just won't last - "Points Of Authority" - Linkin Park
And so both of the finalists from 2006 are no more, both having finished bottom of their group. Meanwhile, New Zealand make their exit from the tournament but do so unbeaten after drawing with Paraguay.
All these shock results are doing a fine job of making me look stupid in the Fantasy World Cup thing. Of course in many cases, my stupid picks aren't helping either....
Please PM me if you currently have a UK flag and would like it temporarily changed to an England flag. (Ideally, you would also be in England when you made this request, but our programming is not that sophisticated so we're on the hono(u)r system here.)
Originally posted by CHAPLOWHighly anticipated Brazil-Portugal ended on 0-0 which I had predicted; Im thinking we'll see a rematch later on in the tournament?
They can only rematch in the final match for the Cup as group winners are on the opposite side of the bracket from the runner-up.
Best you could say about Brazil-Portugal is that both sides were very "professional".
Full marks to Chile for coming back with a goal playing down a man to potentially win the goal differential tiebreaker, even though I think Switzerland trying to play attacking football was like looking for a service break in that Isner-Mahut match. Ugly, ugly display - I think the Swiss' only idea of offense was flopping around the outskirts of the box in hopes of a juicy free kick chance.
That's a pretty good draw for the US. I don't expect us to make the semifinals...but we probably have a better chance than we would in any of the other quadrants. Man, that Argentina/Mexico/Germany/England quadrant is brutal.
Originally posted by CHAPLOWHighly anticipated Brazil-Portugal ended on 0-0 which I had predicted; Im thinking we'll see a rematch later on in the tournament?
They can only rematch in the final match for the Cup as group winners are on the opposite side of the bracket from the runner-up.
They could also meet in the third-place match, but that's...less than likely.
I'm not a diehard fan, but I think I've figured the game out enough to know that you can't expect to do well in this tournament if you only play hard when you're behind (or when the chips are down, as v. Algeria).
After dominating play in the second half leading up to the PK equalizer, once the game was leveled, you could visibly see the urgency ooze out of the US side. And then giving up a score early in extra time seemed more obvious than anything, only the fourth comeback attempt proved the laws of probability trumped any 'team of destiny' talk.
Fair or not, soccer goes back into the American sporting consciousness closet until 2014. I love the Cup games, and will continue to watch, but asking me to watch MLS is sort of like going to a minor league baseball game - the rules are the same, the uniforms look professional.. but there just isn't the skill (or the stakes) there to make it interesting.
Even the Donovan miracle moment goal in the third game? After having two disallowed, I swear I waited five seconds to see if the score would be waved off. Never did get around to celebrating it like the folks in the YouTubes did.
If I'm disappointed about this, it's only because with the Cubs going down the tubes so soon, it's two extra weeks of tedium I have to endure waiting for Da Bears to start.
I think, thanks to ESPN's coverage of the EPL, we will still continue to see small growth of futbol fandom in the US.
The good thing is that people in the US don't have to follow "the minor leagues" (MLS) when they have easy access to the "major leagues" (EPL, La Liga, Seria A).
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