a sunburn and the world cup

it may take me months to recover from this world cup. this is even worse than two years ago when i stayed up nightly to watch the european 2004 football championship. add to my lack of sleep a healthy dose of beautiful weather and lots of sun while working out or hanging at the beach, and it all adds up to haggardness.

however, because of last night's games and today's matches, thus far, it's a fate i accept willingly. if the african teams can keep up their current good form, then it's all good with me...

after last night’s draw with mexico, angola might have believed they were carrying the hopes of a nation and a continent on their backs, but that was pretty much dispelled by an impressive portugal tonight, who dispatched iran with relative ease, 2-0, sending the iranians out of the cup ignomiously.

angola now only have a slight chance to advance because they are -3 on goal difference to mexico. it will be tough enough for angola to beat iran, much less beat iran by enough goals combined with an equally dominant portugal win over mexico for the black antelopes to run through to the second round.

however, after taking no points from their first four games, the african teams have bounced back and now have taken 5 points from their next four–and the pointless game, ivory coast’s losing last night to holland to crash out of the cup, was an undeserved no-pointer.

iran were a major disappointment in this cup, having exited their group surprisingly meekly. it was thought by many that they were a legitimate threat to nick runnerup in this group because mexico and portugal are not always reliable on the international stage. instead, the iranians are out and unfancied angola are still hanging around. i can assure you that not many “experts” would have thunkit before the world cup started.

but the first real “upset” of the tournament just finished a few moments ago. just days after coming close to italy, the ghanians were not too fancied to win this match against the czechs–more especially because of the czechs’ dominant performance against the u.s. in their opener. however, nearly from start to finish–even before the czechs went down a man to a red card for tomas ujfalusi 25 minutes from time–the west africans reinstated pride to the forgotten continent with a fairly thorough thrashing. the 0-2 scoreline is actually flattering to czech republic because ghana missed a penalty and had czech goalkeeper petr cech make five nearly incredible saves in the last twenty minutes of the match to keep the score close. the czechs are very lucky not to be -2 or worse on goal difference.

this sets up an even more intriguing-than-before match between italy and the u.s. not long from now. if italy win, they’re through and the u.s. crash out. if the u.s. win, then all four teams will sit on three points each, with only goal difference to tell them apart–and setting up some fine, tense third matches next week. if italy and u.s. play out a draw, then the drama is still there, just not as thick, for both games three.

both italy and the yanks have to take heart from ghana’s thrashing of czech republic, but for different reasons. italy know a win will put them in the group driver’s seat and the u.s. now can be boosted by the knowledge that this group is as evenly matched as they initially thought it was. of course, italy will face a dangerous, wounded czech team in game three, while the u.s. will face a dangerous, confident ghana team in their game three.

just for the sheer drama of it, a u.s. victory over italy tonight would be fantastic. it’s always nice when the final group stage matches mean something for every team in a group.

enjoy the u.s. match and see you back here again soon…