World Cup Day One

So far just action in Group A

One thing I can't stress enough for anybody watching the World Cup, when
watching soccer don't take anything the commentators say too seriously.
For instance, ESPN's commentators for the Germany-Costa Rica game
(Marcello Balboa and Some Other Guy) couldn't decide if Germany
dominated or Costa Rica imploded. Given that comment, you'd expect some
sort of blow-out win by Germany, not a 4-2 win in which they looked in
serious danger of giving up a draw until the last few minutes. Four
goals is great, but they won't be playing any more games against Costa
Rica's horrible defense. Seriously, the Ticos defenders just stood and
watched half the goals, with my favorite being the guy whose sole
contribution to one play was to jog down the far side of the field and
play a striker onside.

Poland's defenders in JSK'02 were nicknamed "The Terracotta Warriors"
for being slow, and their Deutschland'06 line-up are similarly slow as
hell, and compound it by defending a really high line with a flat-back
four, leaving a ton of space behind them for anybody with speed.
Ecuador exploited that weakness nicely in a 2-0 win, and stymied the
Poles pretty well defensively. They look like the class of the group
after the first day. Another "don't listen to ESPN" moment though, as
they kept getting into tangents about England the whole game, apparently
oblivious to the fact that the game is being broadcast in America, where
we have a party coming up to celebrate throwing England out at
gunpoint. Which is why I'm rooting for France, because of the debt of
honor to General LaFayette.

Ecuador looks like a lock to make it out of the group, and Germany has
to be a heavy favorite as well. Unless Poland can beat Germany at home
or the Ticos can upset Ecuador, both of which are unlikely, the third
game between Germany and Ecuador is going to be for the group lead. I
do think Costa Rica is more than capable of scoring enough goals to play
spoiler, and Poland might wake up and take points off of Germany, and
both games were entertaining, so this should still be interesting.
Group A plays off against Group B (England, Paraguay, Sweden, Trinidad &
Tobago). Winning the group does mean avoiding Brazil until the final.

Also, to the person who called me from England during the England game,
I'm obviously not going to take that call until I've watched the game
(up next on my tivo).