World Cup Highlights and Upsets

Being a Monday I usually tend to reflect on the weekend past, but this time I am going to break that tradition and talk about what went on in the soccer these past few days. There are a few reasons: 1. Argentina kicked ass, baby! What a performance! 2. I don’t remember too much else about what happened this weekend. 3. And what I do remember, I wish I could forget. Ja, let’s just say Mr Jagermeister and friends got a bit too friendly with me. Enough said.

Anyhoo, back to the soccer. Unfortunately I did not get to watch too many games as I was busy partying up a storm but I did get to watch the most important game of all and the highlight of my weekend: Argentina v Serbia & Montenegro. I was so proud of my country! Wow! Without trying to be biased, oh hell, who cares, I AM going to be biased, Argentina whipped S&M (note the pun) 6-0! This side has truly shown they can possibly take it all the way! I certainly hope so!

What annoys me is the commentators at the end, who most of the time have nothing better to say, and how they now say that they would love to see Argentina play against one of the “stronger” sides. Now wait a minute. During the build-up to the World Cup, ever since the teams were drawn and put into their respective groups, everyone who is anyone has mentioned that Argentina’s group, which also consists of the Ivory Coast and the Netherlands, is the “Group of Death”, meaning that all these countries are quite “strong sides”. So now that the Argentinean side is giving one of their best performances ever, these so-called experts are somewhat doubtful that they will do just as well against a country like say, Brazil (don’t get me started on them) or Germany (who is looking dismal at the moment, despite their two wins).

Maybe I am just analyzing their comments way too much. Sure, they did credit Argentina for their excellent performance and I suppose, in the end everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So I will leave it at that. In no time we will see whether Argentina has what it takes to win the World Cup.

Other matches that went on this weekend were Ghana v Czech Republic – what an upset! I was almost sure, as were a whole lot of other people, that the Czechs were definitely one of the favourites after their first performance against the USA. This time they were beaten 2-0. I was disappointed because, god forbid, should Argentina or Germany not make it to the finals, I would have definitely like to have seen a side like the Czech Republic win the World Cup. But all is not lost, they still have a chance against Italy. Now there is another team that has failed to impress me in this tournament. After beating Ghana unconvincingly 1-0, they only managed to draw with the USA. It will be interesting to see which 2 teams make it to the next round.

The rest of the matches I won’t care to mention. I am just sad that this World Cup is going so fast! And I wonder how SA will do when they host the 2010 game. I will leave that to your imaginations…