Hello faithful readers! I'm here to note that summer break has officially begun, and I won't be going back into the classroom, so for me, it's a summer break with no end in sight. Of course, I will be going to work somewhere else soon, I hope.
But with this last school year now just a memory, I have other things to focus on.
I noticed that my friend Jeff's adopted country (Japan) and the U.S. both lost miserably in the World Cup today. Japan at least had the lead for most of the match, which doesn't make the loss any less painful. Australia scored three goals in 8 minutes to win the match. The U.S., on the other hand, got roundly beaten and should be embarrassed if play doesn't improve on Saturday against Italy. They weren't ever close to scoring except for one shot and looked overmatched from beginning to end. It was quite painful to watch, actually, but that's what I love about sports. The exquisite agony of defeat. (Note heavy sarcasm here. It sucked.)
Jeff, if you're reading this, or anyone else, I hope you feel my pain as a patriotic American sports fan. Maybe we can put odds on both Japan and the U.S. to win their next match or something (in the spirit of Vegas). Let me know what you think.
2 comments:
Howdy Scott. I caught all of the Australian/Japan match and 75% of the Czech/USA one. At 2:30am (halfway through the 2nd half of Czech/USA) I conked out. For the first game, Japan's goalkeeper Kawaguchi seemed like the best player on the field. In fact his name translates to River Mouth, which lets things out but nothing in. He played up to his name but got overpowered in the last 8 minutes. Well, many can make a legitimate argument that the final score should have been 3-0, Australia.
For the second game, there was an obvious skill discrepancy between the two teams. It looked like the Czech team (2nd in the world?) made crisper passes and had a better strategy than the US. The US seemed to rely too much on stealing the ball by sliding on the ground (don't know the term, sorry). In basketball, everyone would praise the effort as sacrificing one's body for the taem, but in soccer this approach appeared to sap the team's energy 10 minutes into the game.
good analysis jeff -- the U.S. got in "foul trouble" early, to use a basketball analogy, because they got caught by the Czech team's overall speed and attacking style. it cost them an early goal, which can be a killer in soccer. they seemed pretty overmatched to me the whole rest of the game. they couldn't get the ball past midfield hardly at all.
i only saw the end of the japan-australia game, which was a thrilling ending for australia fans. i think i'll root for both japan and the u.s. to make comebacks in the rest of group play, which may be all both countries get at this world cup.
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