I am sick of the NBA free agency with the US media hell bent on covering LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and the likes and their tonnes and tonnes of analysis of where these guys should be and would be and shouldn't be and wouldn't be. Nauseating.
I have a high running fever; World Cup fever that is. Once in 4 years, the excitement of the world's biggest tournament is just hyped for all the right reasons. Surely it is bigger than the Summer Olympics. South Africa has planned and executed the tournament quite brilliantly, ala the Chinese during the Beijing Olympics. India has got to learn a lot about planning and organization from these nations. Come October, the Commonwealth Games should be a good measuring stick.
Back to the World Cup, even the office was hooked onto the Uruguay-Ghana game. Considering there is a colleague from Ghana in our team, that heightened the importance of the knock-out game even more. So much that my boss asked me to update her in case there was any result in regulation. But still, by and large Americans are very much disconnected from the Beautiful Game.
Ghana lost on PKs (a game they should have won in extra time) and Uruguay meets the Dutch in the semis. Netherlands-Brazil was a game that was won by the team that needs this WC more. The Dutch have not won a WC and a comeback win just proved how much they want this Cup. I have never liked Brazil for all their shenanigans about style. Even they buckled and folded under pressure and ended up with a Red Card for stamping on a Dutch player. Great result.
Germany-Argentina, Saturday morning, must watch. A game that was already decided by an octopus deciding which country's box to choose lunch from. It picked Germany after a long deliberation, meaning the game would be tight. Considering how correct this octopus has been (it predicted Serbia would beat Germany in the group stages), this was an important selection. I woke up at 9:04 am to see the replay of Thomas Mueller's 3rd minute header. The rest of the way, I made sure I was not going to miss another moment, should it arrive. And boy, did the Germans erupt in the second half scoring 3 more and allowing the Argentinians none. Lionel Messi would have to wait 4 more years to get a shot back at the Jules Rimet trophy. Germany move on and await their Euro 2008 final beaters, Spain in the semifinal. Should be a mouth watering clash since Spain has been hyped to win it all. ESPN and SI websites will be closely monitored come Wednesday.
Enough about the World Cup. Went to a beach on the North side of Chicago. 90 degree weather but the water was freezing. Not to mention the pebbles on the shore and the water was like an acupressure session. A whole lot of Indian-style barbecue, a little bit of volleyball and frisbee and a night full of Poker made it a nice holiday weekend. We planned for a St. Louis trip on Sunday but getting up at 11:00 did not make it a hard decision to skip it.
Oh well..
I have a high running fever; World Cup fever that is. Once in 4 years, the excitement of the world's biggest tournament is just hyped for all the right reasons. Surely it is bigger than the Summer Olympics. South Africa has planned and executed the tournament quite brilliantly, ala the Chinese during the Beijing Olympics. India has got to learn a lot about planning and organization from these nations. Come October, the Commonwealth Games should be a good measuring stick.
Back to the World Cup, even the office was hooked onto the Uruguay-Ghana game. Considering there is a colleague from Ghana in our team, that heightened the importance of the knock-out game even more. So much that my boss asked me to update her in case there was any result in regulation. But still, by and large Americans are very much disconnected from the Beautiful Game.
Ghana lost on PKs (a game they should have won in extra time) and Uruguay meets the Dutch in the semis. Netherlands-Brazil was a game that was won by the team that needs this WC more. The Dutch have not won a WC and a comeback win just proved how much they want this Cup. I have never liked Brazil for all their shenanigans about style. Even they buckled and folded under pressure and ended up with a Red Card for stamping on a Dutch player. Great result.
Germany-Argentina, Saturday morning, must watch. A game that was already decided by an octopus deciding which country's box to choose lunch from. It picked Germany after a long deliberation, meaning the game would be tight. Considering how correct this octopus has been (it predicted Serbia would beat Germany in the group stages), this was an important selection. I woke up at 9:04 am to see the replay of Thomas Mueller's 3rd minute header. The rest of the way, I made sure I was not going to miss another moment, should it arrive. And boy, did the Germans erupt in the second half scoring 3 more and allowing the Argentinians none. Lionel Messi would have to wait 4 more years to get a shot back at the Jules Rimet trophy. Germany move on and await their Euro 2008 final beaters, Spain in the semifinal. Should be a mouth watering clash since Spain has been hyped to win it all. ESPN and SI websites will be closely monitored come Wednesday.
Enough about the World Cup. Went to a beach on the North side of Chicago. 90 degree weather but the water was freezing. Not to mention the pebbles on the shore and the water was like an acupressure session. A whole lot of Indian-style barbecue, a little bit of volleyball and frisbee and a night full of Poker made it a nice holiday weekend. We planned for a St. Louis trip on Sunday but getting up at 11:00 did not make it a hard decision to skip it.
Oh well..
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