Cote d'Ivoire v Argentina

Still watching this (until somebody calls to tell me the score), but on
Argentina's goal in the 25th minute, I really wish I could see this in
HDTV so I could tell who the guy was marking Hernan Crespo. The free
kick comes in, Crespo hangs back while other players break towards the
goal, Drogba gets to the ball but can't quite clear it, and then
Crespo's man watches while he runs forward and knocks the ball in with a
pretty strange move, jumping up and coming down on the bouncing ball so
he can knock it down into the corner. I just want to know because I
really hope it wasn't one of the guys who play for Arsenal (Emmanuel
Eboue and Kolo Toure).

Some quick information about Cote d'Ivoire, first off, I thought they
asked in the past that people actually call their country by that name,
and not translate it into english, what with them speaking french and
all. According to Bono, they called a ceasefire in a civil war when
they made the World Cup. A few years ago the national team was detained
by the military after deplaning on their way back from a poor showing at
the African Cup of Nations, and only released when FIFA threatened to
ban them from future international competitions.

Their nickname is Les Elephants, and they're like the mirror universe
Ireland, playing in orange with orange, white, and green bars on their
flag. Then again i did not all that long ago explain to somebody that
Italy does not in fact fly the Irish flag (red and orange are not the
same color), and to somebody else that the Finnish flag he was raving
about was the flag of Nova Scotia. Then he asked pointedly why Nova
Scotia would fly a Finnish flag, and I tried to point out that the flag
he was talking about had the colors of the Finnish flag in a St.
Andrew's Cross (which the Finnish flag does not), a big honking yellow
seal with a red lion rampant (also not on the Finnish flag), and that
the guy who owned the boat told me he had the flag of Nova Scotia on his
boat because he kept his boat there (and not Finnland). That person
then told me the St. Andrew's Cross was Scotland's flag like I was some
kind of idiot, so rather than explain that I was obviously talking about
the shape, I just killed him. And I'll note, St. Andrew's cross can be
used to refer to a flag with a diagonal blue cross on a white background
as well, so I'm glad he's dead. Tomorrow, more on football, heraldry,
and people I've murdered because they annoyed me (you may be next).

But before I go to bed, Argentina's second goal was certainly
interesting, Riquelme sliced a nice ball through Cote d'Ivoire's defense
into the box,
three Argentine players got in behind the defense, and Saviola tapped
the ball in. Here's the thing, two of the Argentine players were
offside, but since the ball went to Saviola, who was just on and timed
his run a hell of a lot better, the goal stands. FIFA's really been
pushing relaxing the offside rule to allow more passive offsides, and
instructed referees that they have to see daylight between players
before they raise the flag, so it's nice to see this stuff paying off.
I'm still mad about Buffalo Bill getting a goal called back against
Colombia in the '94 World Cup (he was never offside) and great goals
that don't count because of ticky-tack calls by linesman really get
annoying. The ball where the Ivorian keeper turned around and pulled it
back out of the goal mouth (the whole ball has to cross the line) was
pretty interesting as well.

I'm definitely turning my phone off tomorrow until I've seen the Holland
game. And I don't know who gets the orange uniforms on Friday, but I
think you'll be able to see Stuttgart from space.