I spent most of the day yesterday on a bus from DC to New York. A bus without air conditioning I might add. Pretty miserable. I also don’t have a very good internet connection which means I wasn’t able to watch the games I missed on ESPN 3 like I hoped. That makes yesterday the first day I missed more than 90 minutes of the action.
Slovakia 0 – 2 Paraguay
I watched most of this one, but don’t have a lot to say. Slovakia looked weak an ineffectual. Paraguay (continuing the trend of South American dominance) looked well up for it. Crisp passing, solid finishing, no-nonsense tackling. I said yesterday that Slovakia pretty much had to win this game if they wanted to qualify, but that was on the presumption that Italy would win. And…
Italy 1 – 1 New Zealand
Plucky New Zealand! It sounds like this was a bizarre game, with some talking points on each of the goals. The New Zealand one had a hint of offside depending on who was responsible for the little flick on, while the Italy penalty looked like a lot more simulation than genuine foul. This is shaping up to be a seriously strange tournament. Italy, France, England, Germany, and Spain all find themselves in situations where they absolutely must win their final games (in the case of Spain, they probably need to win their last two games) just to survive. I still think most of them probably will make it, but if they don’t, it would make for the most surprising set of results from any World Cup I can think of. And New Zealand is in a situation where a win in the last game would secure qualification! Wow.
Brazil 3 – 1 Ivory Coast
I also completely missed this one, which is a shame as it sounds like a pretty good game. Brazil is one of the only big teams who appear to be clicking. Ivory Coast will regret losing this one, but may regret losing by two goals as much as anything else. This one may well come down to them and Portugal both on 4 points, with it being decided on goal difference. Though, as I said after the first round of games, the order of play really favors Portugal. Brazil have already qualified and won’t need to play at full strength now, which gives Portugal a better chance of getting a result.
Predictions for tomorrow (well, today since the first game is just now starting as I post this):
- Portugal 1 – 0 North Korea
- Chile 0 – 1 Switzerland
- Spain 2 – 0 Honduras
That would put Spain and Chile in a de facto elimination game in the 3rd game of the group. If Chile can get a result today, it means they would only need a draw against Spain