Ah! It's World Cup time again and I've got the fever. I spent all day (8:00 AM - 4:00 PM) today watching all three matches: England (1) vs Paraguay (0) ; Trinidad & Tobago (0) vs Sweden (0), and Argentina (2) vs Cote d'Ivoire (1). Football in high-def; what a rush!
Alright, the first game between England and Paraguay was a snore. Neither team got into any rhythm and seemed to be playing some sort of back-alley scrimmage instead of World Cup football. I was hoping for more intensity. For crying out loud, it was England with Beckham (who scored the only goal) and Rooney (who didn't play). Where're the goals? I have to admit though, whenever Beckham did touch the ball, which was only a handful of times, he made it look so effortless.
The other two games were just brilliant! The Trinidadians put up a magnificent fight and held Sweden to a draw. OK, let me repeat that, the Trinidadians, who were at the World Cup for the first time... ever, held Sweden, a football powerhouse, to zero goals! Holy crap! All thanks to Shaka Hislop, the Trinidadians' goal keeper who rejected everything Sweden threw at him. Sensational! And, get this: he wasn't even the originally slated keeper. He was, literally, a last minute replacement. What's more, he is 37, the second oldest keeper to hold a team to zero goals in World Cup history. Besides having a great game, the players were super-sportsmen; exchanging jerseys at the end of the match.
The last game of the day between Argentina and Cote d'Ivoire started out slow, but things got super-charged quickly. The first Argentinian goal was ruled not a goal. It looked like a goal to me, but apparently the entire ball didn't cross the plane of the goal line. You could hear the collective groan of the stadium. The Argentinians didn't waste any time though. Riquelme (the next Maradona?) quickly fed a ball to Crespo who scored and soon after fed a second ball to Saviola who put them up two goals to none. Drogba, the main man for the Cote d'Ivoire team, was sensational; never giving up. As the game was almost to an end, he scored the sole goal for Cote d'Ivoire.
Mesmerizing football. Fast. Dramatic. Thrilling! And, it's only the second day. (I wish I had TiVo.)
