My friend and her dad were SCREAMING in Dutch!

The SPA-NET game started at 9pm Dutch time, I got back home around 7am... although it was a planned night out with friends, I usually never make it that late any more. My poor head.

Centre of Rotterdam was wild, people dancing in the fountain, fireworks and honking cars. I'd even say people went more crazy than 4 years ago when Holland reached the final after beating Uruguay. Probably because expectations were lower than ever this time, the sensational outcome and it being a Friday night.


Have to focus on the Germany-Portugal game now... as always the Germans look great up front, but I'm more interested whether Hummels can play an important game without pulling a "Hummels"... and whether Ronaldo shows up today.

oh man! i never expected things to go this way!!!

jogi low, i will eat my shoe.

and pepe, what an idiot.

USA v. Ghana is at 5 PM CST. I will rush home and watch the full match on the DVR.

Pepe was an idiot but Muller deserved a card too for play acting. Germany look bloody good either way.

what!? no way! muller was rubbing his face when pepe came to express his affection. the guy reacted, didn't playact-- probably telling him to get the fuck out of his face. wouldn't you? watch again. he puts up his hands, starts yelling, stands up to him-- doesn't pretend he was bloodied or anything. just a matter of personal space.

if you mean playacting before… maybe a little exaggeration but certainly nothing unusual. one could say more of gotze's penalty which looked really bad live but not on replay.

AND i'm super-happy for the ramdeuter. what a game he had!

USA benefits from all the injuries today-- too many really.


ha ha haa ha-- i knew it! it deserved no less.

and congratulations. that was tremendous.

Yeah I meant his reaction when he initially hit his face. It's 'part of the game', I know, but it drives me mad when I see it. No excuse for Pepe's reaction though.

Anyway, Germany do look very good. They seemed pretty much in control even before the sending off. After that they were cruising. Absolute nightmare for Portugal though.

USA will take any benefits or advantages we can get as this Group of Death is proving to kill itself thus far more than us ;)

Yeah, Germany were in control right from the start, even before the penalty and red card. No defensive errors from Hummels today, although it should be noted that he didn't stay on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.

Also, Portugal didn't really show up. It's going to take a lot to still make it Ronaldo's tournament. With that goal difference they'll need two wins now, while missing two key defenders. Feel a bit sorry for Coentrao.. should've been Pepe who tore that muscle.

After 5pa1n's defeat that is yet another massive blow for the Iberian Peninsula. Thankfully Gibraltar won their game with Malta earlier this month to maintain at least some of its football reputation.

Höwedes started ahead of Dürm for Germany, so I've decided to play the mighty Pejman MONTAZERI of Iran in my fantasy team. He's a midfielder but is listed as a defender in the game, so let's see if he can get a clean sheet and keep Thomas Vermaelen on the bench tomorrow.

Iran look really poor, but it's still 0-0.

Hahaha

Nigeria is proving as boring as I predicted, they beat up on a completely underdeveloped Ethiopia team and got cocky about, meanwhile the very fact that that underdeveloped Ethiopia team was even remotely competing with Nigeria for the WC slot speaks volumes about (a) Ethiopia's potential and (b) how much Nigeria really suck this year.

Grrr...
I'm in the South of France right now, and won't come back home til friday.
That's part of my job (I'll take a look out the window to see the sea in the distance).
I have only one game per day to watch under those conditions; and not in its entirety...

Apparently, Iran-Nigeria could have been missed so far.

First thing that came to my mind with Pepe & Coentrao's been mentioned: it should boost the US.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Bertrand again.

Giving Iran Russia a miss. I need a time-out. Really looking forward to the US game though

God this game is just bad. Off we go.

I'm not gonna be able to watch the U.S game rather annoyingly. Got a pissing 6:30 start tomorrow.

ha ha ha. it's iran nigeria. though russia korea is tomorrow. same difference!

it's nap time.

14:20 maaaan

Nigeria could have beat up on Iran if they wanted to, but as I said, Nigeria sucked more than people realized, though really I dare say that perhaps in its way Iran is better than we realize too..

Don't sleep on Korea, though I know less than nothing about Russia's team, meanwhile I can go into endless discussions about Russian politics or Church business..

That is why I like the World Cup best of any other tournament or championship, its the one time in sports where people have realistic expectations and further are better sports about winning or losing. Futbol in general isn't this way, but the World Cup brings out more realism than hyperbole and parity which normally dominate sports.

The stories about the Japanese fans cleaning up after their loss are cool.

BAM, bitches!!!

Dempsey opens up the USMNT World Cup run with an exclamation point goal and with the Portugal failure (even before their injuries) suddenly the group of Death looks a lot less deadly..

shut up you fucking jinx

jozy's leg + clint's nose = YOUR OWN PERSONAL FAULT

USA look great. Dempsey's first touch for the goal was beautiful. Ghana's only real threat is Atsu.

and now besler

fucking jinx!!!

Today was a horror day in my neighborhood. The whole area basically got turned into a big public viewing event and there were are crazy amount of people EVERYWHERE and it was really hard to get anywhere. I was advised not to take the train home from class cause security people apparently wouldn't let people get in or out of the train around my neighborhood in order to not let the area get too crowded.
GOD, I hate the world cup.
but then again, the supermarket was empty <3

(Thinking about showing the Honduras game at work. But only that. I will even make a big Honduras banner. Not interested in the whole thing but I want people to start silly fights with me about how I should be wanting Germany to win and not any other country)

HOLY FUCK THAT WAS TORMENT!!!!

and incredible incredible relief. :)

Fantastic game. Ghana really picked up in the second half and seemed the more likely to get a winner but hats off to the USA. Their game against Portugal will be epic.

we hope!

ghana really dominated the whole game really, and one for one had the better players (essien, boateng, etc, buncha names i can't remember), but USA had a better tactical armature--- klinsi has disciplined them well and they did their jobs. i applaud him 10,000,000 times. he's not exactly a football messiah, but it's great to see the mentality that he brings to the team-- and good tactics.

still, i think USA had a lot of flaws-- couldn't keep possession and cool the game after that first goal-- as a result there was a lot of pressure, running, etc-- as a result also probably some of the injuries. a lot of bad passes up front, not just late when they were tired but throughout. probably nerves.

i hope jozy's injury is not too terrible. though those hamstring pulls are a fucking horror. not sure johansson is up to doing 10% of what jozy does, certainly didn't show today. again probably nerves.

ref was i think too lenient, which favored ghana's machete-style marking. that boot to clint's face was really reprehensible. it was fucking tae kwon do on an aerial contest.

bedoya had a great game by the way, and he was a starter as i had expected. he carried a lot of the game. fabian johnson came through near the end. clint wasn't the same after the busted nose-- fuckers! and when brooks scored i asked "who the fuck is brooks?". bradley was terrible today. nerves again?

jermaine johns i think had a notable game. not that he was particularly brilliant but he kept grinding it out & getting kicked & getting up & grinding it out. beckermann too though he wasn't so punished. fucking shit, they were all heroic, because in terms of individual talent they are no great stars but they gave everything they had. that was amazing.

the ghanian witchman was fucking creepy btw, if you saw him.

okay. rant over. need beers now.

ghanian witchman? you mmean the guy who slapped himself in the face with baby powder? lol that was funny....



I couldn't stay awake for the 2nd half.but man that kick to the face was fucked up....you can't really expect him to be the same since he was probably restricted to one nostril.

but real talk....I dig Ghana's uniforms.

Tactically I agree but some of those names, like Essien, were well past their prime. Ghana may have just edged it on individual quality but only just. Dempsey was a rock.


I never noticed them losing possession too much but I may not have noticed. Your main strength was discipline and Dempsey's flair. Ghana were very strong in midfield and really dominated you there but lacked a clinical finisher. The commentators here were going mad at Atsu for being so wasteful in good positions.


Be surprised if his WC isn't over.


Both teams were going at it very hard but neither of them seemed to cross any moral line. Nothing like we'd seen from Uruguay or (shudders) Honduras.

I thought that was a very good team performance by the US. They looked very well organised and solid at the back. Despite having a majority of the ball Ghana didn't really create much, which is a testament to Klinsmann's tactics.

It's been a great tournament so far no dull games bar the snoozefest which was Iran vs Nigeria. A Massive improvement the tournament in South Africa.

Looking forward to seeing Belgium in action tomorrow. Haven't actually missed a match so far.

Painful but still no more than a yellow for me.

right, but there was no yellow, was it? not even a fucking caution, nothing.

on another incident, some ghanian sweeps jermaine jones from behind, complete… i don't know how to translate "carretilla" ("wheelbarrow"). jones, pissed, sort of rubs his cleats on the skull of the ghanian as they roll on the floor. the ghanian, sore, gets pissed and gets on top of jones and starts either punching or stabbing him on the stomach with the fingers.

what does the ref do?

a) makes them shake hands

b) gives the free kick to ghana

WTF???

without jozy and with a busted-nose clint, the us attack was poor. johansson was a zero. thank fuck for corner kicks.



precisely, USA never even had any possession to lose. which made ghana's pressure relentless. too risky! they couldn't slow them down. that's just fucked. howard, we've forgotten to mention, was the best US player.


i know. wishful thinking.

Amen.. Those dirty fucking bastards.. In US we know those Hondurans too damned well.




Yellow is ALL that I wanted. That was a dirty fucking play, he knew damned well that his foot was never going to touch that ball.. But Clint is a big boy, he can handle himself. I'm much more worried about Altidore, and this is when the Landon thing comes to bite a little harder in the ass.



Weren't you watching any of the past few years, corner kicks are USMNT bread and butter, its really an essential part of our game ;)





I agree with this. Some people are saying Ghana was the better team because they had more shots and more possession time, but in this instance they were playing from behind.

As to not slowing them down, I agree and disagree, they may have had the ball, bu they didn't score for 82 minutes. That says something. Our defense isn't always predicated on controlling the ball so much as not letting them score, and we did a lot of typical US last minute saves by players NOT named Howard near the goal.. Its our last ditch effort, but its also part of our CONCACAF style, a lot of CONCACAF teams play this kind of risky defense. Its not just what has always hurt USMNT internationally, but CONCACAF teams in general which is why our league has a somewhat unwarranted bad reputation. What I have been hoping about Klinsmann is that he can help shake up our team to play a more Euro style BUT the downside is we still play in our league most of the time and I watched Jurgen struggle the first two years trying to readjust his own game plans to a different futbol reality. Jurgen tried to do some Euro things in the first year and got embarrassed by CONCACAF rivals who stuck to their original game plan and made us pay. The Gold Cup was a great example of US hybrid style potential, to blend a more Euro style approach to offense while still playing more traditional (for USMNT that is) defense. It worked..

So what we should expect from this world cup is a bit more of this game, and while it is risky I think it can work. After all, winning possession isn't winning the game, scoring the most goals and not letting the other team score is how you do that.

I loved this game, in many ways we came and punched Ghana in the mouth, and they played pretty hard by the way, a lot of dirty plays that I won't hold against them, we're tough enough to handle it, but it showed that they were under more pressure than they were not.

Honestly, I did feel a bit responsible :(





I don't think that Jones was rubbing the cleats on purpose, it was part of the momentum and that Ghanian dude diving forward. In a word, he ran into it. What was dirty was how the Ghanian dude pounced on Jones on the ground and literally tried to choke him out!

Come on. That is a red card, not for the play itself, but literally going for the jugular after the play was clearly done.. I dare say US got into Ghana's head in this one..

You have to assume you won't get anything against Germany but a draw against Portugal would probably be enough to go through. Given what you say there, that puts you in a nice but tactically quite tricky spot: do you play for a draw, pack up the defence and inevitably invite a barrage from Ronaldo? Portugal, as bad as they looked against Germany, will be going all out from the 1st minute and their attacking threat is obviously far greater than Ghana's. Your weakest area is on the right side and I wouldn't be surprised if that's where they stick Ronaldo. I do think you can beat them but a lot will depend on how Klinsmann decides to play it, and which Portugal shows up.

Packing the defense is what we do, I say go with it. I don't think USMNT is good enough defensively to "slow" anyone down, but what we do (and do it well) is stop goals one way or another. I actually like what Klinsmann has done discipline wise, he blended things the USMNT used to do before he got there defensively with things he wants them do to new on offense and its been working the past year (more or less). If the USMNT injuries aren't significant we can do this, but not against Germany unless they have a really, really bad game. Portugal, I wasn't as scared of them when they were healthy as I probably should have been, so now I'm almost naively confident.