Germany-Costa Rica 4:2
Good game and it doesn´t mean Costa Rica is out. In the starting round the 32 teams are competing one against one in 8 groups. The first and second in each group will be part of the next round.
In the first group there are Germany, Cost Rica, Equador and Poland (who will play later today).
So there is still a fair chance of Costa Rica going further. The did play quite well today. I am impressed.

Posted by: b | Jun 9 2006 17:58 utc | 3

Equador did beat Poland 2:0, but they exausted themselfs quite a bit. Poland’s team was unconvincing. I guess the are out.

Posted by: b | Jun 9 2006 20:53 utc | 5

oh…most importantly: players can use hands.

Posted by: slothrop | Jun 9 2006 20:55 utc | 7

For a good world cup mixed with dumb politics you have read Justin’s blog today.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jun 9 2006 21:22 utc | 9

LOL was unsure really whether to bring up the subject of the world cup yesterday as it is a particular bugbear. That is european migrants in this part of the world, especially those from one of the islands off the coast of western europe, tend to prattle on about soccer incessantly, to the point of obsession.
The world cup is even worse as this appears to be the vehicle by which europeans continue the internecine feuding and war that has wracked their continent for millenia.
A story in yesterday’s gruniad provoked this line of reasoning.
The story is a bit odd since it is in a english newspaper and concerns the alleged non-involvement of two italians in the rescue of an australian climber by an amerikan, whilst all were climbing in the tibet/nepal border region (Mt Everest). For all I know or care such jingoistic stories may be common in all european media at world cup time.
Those in the world too ignorant or lazy to be proficient enough in other european languages to follow the nuances of non-english language european media, use the brit fishwraps to provide a window into that continent.
The article is but a small round fired in a month long bitter battle in which somehow all the major european nations get to participate due chiefly to the way the qualification playing field is tilted.
If I follow the arcane structure correctly there was a time when that ‘playing field’ was also tilted to allow the US a ‘free pass’ but that may no longer be the case.
It doesn’t make an iota of difference in this part of the world since little boys affection for the round ball game is normally kicked out of them during the first few years of school.
But nations in africa, asia, and latin america are generally disadvantaged by the venue of this competition which allegedly embraces the whole world but is mostly played ‘at home’ in europe.
Still it is pretty trivial in comparison to the other shit that goes on. Nevertheless it is a good opportunity to apply an objective eye on the perfidy of albion, german nationalism, dutch multiculturalism and french opportunism. (hmm which particular former european empires were left out? italy, spain. and portugal. oh well there’s plenty of time; almost a month, to insult them)
Which oddly enough brings one back to the gruniad article. Because as per usual in times of conflict, the perfidious ones suddenly decide that they do indeed still own colonies. This makes the australian and the amerikan climbers, theirs. So displaying the cruel treatment of their brave and stout hearted fellows at the hands of the slippery italian, does help prepare the ground for enmity, whilst sowing the seeds of victimhood, ready for the “we was robbed” excuse.
It also gives them a chance to try and claim the first whitefella to the top of mt everest, ed hillary, who is in fact a kiwi. Although for the purpose of this article he cops the whole titled bit, something he doubtless finds extremely ironic since he declined the kind invitation during ww2 to get involved in that conflict and spent the duration in prison. no he’s not a facist, he’s a pacifist with more than a touch of old skool socialism about him.
The most interesting thing about the world cup is trying to guess the excuse that the humans living at the southern end of the island to the west of the european continent will find for their failure in this world cup campaign.
It looked like the first justification was going to be lame in every sense of the word. One of the few players in the english premier league who both qualifies to play for england and is good enough to play in the world cup final had broken a couple of small bones in his foot.
Perhaps that attempt at exculpation was a bit too likely to remind of the last time a human appendage excuse was used, that was at the world cup finals in barcelona, when the england defeat was erronously blamed on argentina’s diego maradonna getting a hand to the ball within the penalty area.
The reality was that like most world cup finals in the last forty odd years a latin american team deserved to win, not just because they are better, but because the england team wasn’t trying to win nearly as much as it was trying not to lose.
This is a perennial problem at world cup finals, not just for england although they have it worst of all. Many other european national teams suffer from this problem, chiefly imho because if they do take a chance and it doesn’t succeed they are torn apart by the pack of wolves known as their domestic gutter press.
mind you the dangers are greater for latin american teams. I believe it was a uraguayan defender that was assassinated by some thug for scoring an ‘own goal’ at the world cup finals’.
If it were a truly “world cup”; african and latin american teams would totally dominate the finals, because they do take chances and they appear far more ‘driven’ than their european competitors.
So seeing whether the increased use of latin american and african players in the european leagues will spreed the ‘meekness’ disease could be another mildly interesting distraction from the beginning of the southern hemisphere’s international rugby season.
Those african and american players who already have a very successful career in europe may cop damage to their european profile from an unsuccessful outing in the world cup finals.
In addition their long absences in europe do little to aid the team-building that is neccessary for a successful campaign.
Inevitably the tension between the demands made on players by their primary employers, their football club, and those made by their national teams will cause many national coaches to prefer the local players. The overseas players still need the world cup exposure to secure their club profile, so they won’t take non-selection lightly.
One of the major reasons why national teams have stuck with the overseas players despite all the hassle, which as per usual include the club refusing to release their players for training or ‘friendlies’ has been that the overseas club players have a local knowledge of european conditions.
Another incentive for the europe dominated Fifa to keep the finals ‘up north’.
In fact when South Africa was likely to win a world cup final venue, the northern hemisphere, in particular aforesaid island to the west of europe, managed to take advantage of a ‘ring-in’; a delegate from NZ who was meant to represent Oceania. However consideration need be given to the fact he was born much closer to edinburgh than dunedin. At the last minute and against the instructions of the Oceanea nations he was representing he voted for a european venue, just for a change. The reward? the nz team ‘the all whites’ (not kidding, that is their name), got to get embarassingly hammered by the brazilian team a few days ago. An outcome which wasn’t in the best interests of either side but no doubt aided non-brazilian teams in some small way.
the outrage felt by kiwis at this disgraceful move didn’t penetrate the bastion of britishness that was nz soccer of course.
So european jingoism will be almost certain to reach new heights in some quarters. Here’s hoping the english come up with something more original than blaming the ref (yawn), their usual tried and tested excuse for sporting inability.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 10 2006 2:03 utc | 11

Then again, we can all use a break from history and politics and just enjoy the beauty of the game and the rich diversity of humanity. The complexities we can examine later; the hype and the fluff we can ignore.

Posted by: biklett | Jun 10 2006 6:19 utc | 13

Thanks Biklett!
a bit of setting straight what Debs said:
There is a European overweight in taking part in the championship. But the number of teams that can take part from a geographical area is based on the ranking of all teams of that area in the world ranking list. So Europe has some 51 teams and could send 13 teams to the current round while Africa has 51 teams and could only send 5 teams.
It may suck, but the overall European teams do play better than the overall African teams. There are sound reasons for this. Of course money but also a lot of organization. The 4,500 inhabitant village I grew up in had 10 active league teams, including children and women teams, I can count off my head playing on 4 official fields.
With such organized basework you can expect allover better national teams.

Posted by: b | Jun 10 2006 7:22 utc | 15

@Rowan
Either “Ghanians” or “Ghanans” will do, just don’t call them “Gannons”.
Team Norway probably won’t place, but they seem to be doing some interesting things right now by studying Coach Gresham’s classic playbook.
But I guess we were supposed to be talking about football.

Posted by: Monolycus | Jun 10 2006 10:22 utc | 17

Thank you very much for the football discussion.

Posted by: M. Kaltz | Jun 10 2006 18:44 utc | 19

The most interesting thing about the world cup is trying to guess the excuse that the humans living at the southern end of the island to the west of the european continent will find for their failure in this world cup campaign.
Well, to be fair, Ireland is providing players for more than one team. :o)

Posted by: gylangirl | Jun 11 2006 1:16 utc | 21

Said island seems to be blaming the German heat for their weak performance against Portugal.

Posted by: folkers | Jun 11 2006 9:10 utc | 23

the robotic american announcer all through the first half of the iran v mexico: holocaust denial, if iran wins, will women in tehran rip off their veils in celebration? always a threat of terrorist attack, should they be here?
yadda yadda. it goes without saying, but we hear it anyway: iran just sucks, sucks, sucks. didn’t you know?

Posted by: slothrop | Jun 11 2006 16:55 utc | 25

How to Watch the World Cup
Politics and War by Other Meanns

I have a pretty good idea where Osama bin Laden will be on June 14 — and June 19, and again on June 23. Not his exact location, but it’s a safe bet he’ll be in front of a TV tuned in to Saudi Arabia’s World Cup soccer matches with, respectively, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Spain. Legend has it that soccer is one of bin Laden’s guilty pleasures. He’s unlikely to miss the spectacle of the men from the land of the Prophet taking on the infidels of al-Andalus. He probably has a soft spot for Tunisia too, that country being the only one on record thus far to see one of its professional soccer players attempt to join al Qaeda’s martyrs.

Posted by: beq | Jun 12 2006 12:13 utc | 27

Didn´t watch much because of other issues. To bad Iran lost and the US is currently getting a beating by the Chechs. I would wish for a game Iran vs. USA (unlikely) ending 3:3 – the hyping about this would be funny and then on the green the players would just enjoy a good game.
Another football (soccer) world championship is about to start in Germany. There are five Iranian teams, as well as Chinese and Japanese, but non from the U.S. Didn´t the get through the qualification?
The website of the RoboCup 2006 Humanoid League has some funny videos.

Posted by: b | Jun 12 2006 17:22 utc | 29

comrades, comrades
day & night 24/24 foot – in the bars at the bottom of my studio -in the streets of the city i live – you can’t walk a metre here without seeing something – in relation to the mighty ball
& perhaps i am just a bad dialectician who cannot understand a group of people running from one side of the field to the other
& those goals they take at then end -now there is pure metaphysics & i am sure that the german idealists understood a thing or two about that

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 12 2006 18:45 utc | 31

do these sports commentators get paid by the word, by any chance? hadn’t watched the telly for a couple years until the ivory coast match & was instantly reminded of how annoying the narration can be. inane stats & trivia delivered as relevant fact & predictor. subjective biases replayed over & over. blending adverts into commentary. there’s no way one could visualize what was happening by listening to the soundtrack only.

Posted by: b real | Jun 12 2006 22:00 utc | 33

Second round of matches through and while I might complain about the lack of upsets, I certainly won’t about the quality of matches.
The forthcoming US-Ghana match I am both looking forward to, and dreading. It has the potential to be the best, most intense match of the last round of the group stage. And according to my anti-imperialist rooting sentiments, I’m all Ghana here – especially if I drop in a reference or three to Nkrumah. Yeah, but I grew up a soccer fan in America. I’ve seen all these guys for years, cheered for them for most of those. Watching the Italy game had me on unexpected pins and needles, though I wasn’t jumping up and chanting U-S-A. The habits of a lifetime are difficult to break.
I’m also looking forward to France vs. Togo, and I didn’t expect to be saying that. That’s a match that, even if France wins 1-0, they can still be eliminated (although 2-0 guarantees they’re through).
Still, my pre-tournament prediction of Italy and Argentina is looking good.
I hope that this World Cup is putting to rest the racist canard of African teams being “tactically naive.” Not only have the Africans looked tactically able, the African teams in general and the Ghanaians in particular hold their shape like a coach’s dream. (certain internet commenters, catching on, have started claiming that is due to their white European managers. Some things never die).
And speaking of Africans and race, anyone else notice the Spanish fans waving a Confederate flag after beating Tunisia? Bizarre and more than slightly disturbing.

Posted by: Rowan | Jun 20 2006 5:47 utc | 35

oops, wrong thread

Posted by: anna missed | Jun 20 2006 7:25 utc | 37