Z/Web

Terrific game. The first 35 minutes stunk as neither side seemed to want to attack, but finally they got over whatever was making them tentative and began to fight. Cameroon owned the first half, with tons of chances that culminated in a goal. But Ireland showed they had skill in the second half, attacking relentlessly and nearly connecting on tons of chances. They equalized on a great long shot by Matt Holland. In the end neither side could top the other, but it was a great hold-your-breath fight until the final whistle. Final: 1-1.

Great game, with lots of end-to-end action, passionate, aggressive play, and a deserved win by Denmark. Denmark’s goals were textbook, arising from team play; the goal from Uruguay was pure inspiration on a long blast by their leftback. Great stuff. Final: 2-1 Denmark.

My only complaint here is about ESPN. What are they thinking???? ABC isn’t going to air the Ireland-Camaroon game until 3:30 p.m. this afternoon, yet in the first minute of this 4:25 a.m. broadcast they tell us the result of that game with no warning or anything! Don’t they want us to watch the ABC game? It’s so ridiculous and infuriating. While I appreciate ABC/ESPN covering the World Cup, if any other network would take over the duties, I’d go for it. They’ve go to be the most incompentent network on the planet. I already have to tape paper across the bottom two inches of my TV screen to keep from seeing the idiotic running scores ticker, which often reveal the score of the games you haven’t seen yet. But when they blantantly announce the final score of a game that hasn’t aired yet, that’s just stupidity.

Okay, rant off. Back to soccer. Wow, a complete blow-out. I wasn’t excited about this game (the Saudi’s are usually poor), but I was curious about Germany, who haven’t been in best form the past few years. But they showed world class domination in this affair, putting in four goals in each half! Wow. Absolutely incredible. Germany’s biggest win in World Cup history. I hereby predict the Saudi’s coach won’t last the day. Final: 8-0 Germany.