England v USA

60 years ago, the USA beat England at the 1950 World Cup 1-0. It was quite possibly the biggest soccer upset ever. (Many in England assumed at first the score had been reported incorrectly, and it was USA 1, England 10.)

They had never played in a serious competition since, but England had won all the friendlies, save perhaps one or two draws mixed in there somewhere. The USA has come a long way since 1950, but England is still the big dog and the US the underdog in this match-up.

Thus for background. Now! Yesterday. We (my friend J and I) made our way to AT&T Park bright and early so as to get good seats in which to observe the Jumbotron, chant "U-S-A!", &c. We were among the first through the doors and grabbed seats in the shade, where we were promptly surrounded by a loud mother and her relations, including any number of lads in the 10-12 age range, most of whom were firm for the USA but one of proclaimed his allegiance to England through his Liverpool jersey (with Steven Gerrard's name all over the back of it).

The game got off to a miserable start when Steven Gerrard slipped past his man and buried a nifty little sidefoot shot in the 4th minute. Four minutes! And already the USA was shipping goals! They have formed the very bad habit of going behind early, and against a team like England it looked foreboding. However, the Boys in Blue (England was in all white, the USA in blue with a white diagonal on the chest) rallied nicely and had the better of it for most of the first half.

And then, DISASTER!

Not for the US. For the English goalkeeper, who made the most astonishing gaffe I have ever seen in a soccer game (yes, worse than Fabianski's dubious duo, tho it was a singleton). Here it is.

It was really shocking, but very welcome. (I kinda wished it had happened in some other way, because poor Mr. Green will see that one in his nightmares, and the English tabloids, for the rest of his life.)

Thus fortified, the US went into half-time level. And there they stayed. England woke up a bit and stirred the ball around rather well for longish stretches, but they never had any good shots to back up their good developments in play--and Tim Howard is not going to make a gift of a goal. Before the match I read in an English newspaper that the US had an advantage at only one position: keeper. Of course, if you can only have an advantage at one position, that is the one to choose, and this game illustrated why perfectly. Mr. Howard was man of the match; he made some good saves, despite getting kicked in the ribs at one point, marshalled the defense and generally brought home the bacon.

Mr. Green, on the other hand, let the bacon slip through his nerveless hands. Alas!

So, England and the US take away a point apiece, and Slovenia, having beaten Algeria on a somewhat similar but less egregious slip-up by the Algerian goalie, goes into first place in the group. US-Slovenia next!

The big one

But I was not there to see Argentina-Nigeria--well, I was, kinda, but it was mostly to be on the scene for England-USA--probably the most anticipated match of the group stage.

Of which...more to follow!

I Love the World Cup

It is the television I will cross the street to watch.

Or go down the street to AT&T Park to watch on the JumboTron, which is what I did this morning. I went bright and early and hung around in the Public House, which is the restaurant attached to the stadium, and watched Argentina play cat-and-mouse games with Nigeria. The Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, was Man of the Match, as well he should have been, because he made at least three world-class saves.

The rest of the Nigerian team was fairly dire.

Argentina looked quite bright and sprightly, though they tended at times to kick the ball around just to look good. Lionel Messi (by acclamation, the current Best Player in the World) looked very good and got off several nice shots, all of which were parried by Enyeama. The redoubtable Enyeama had less luck with Gabriel Heinze, who snuck up from his defender position to head in a corner. Just when you thought you had contained all 5 or 6 or however many it is of Argentina's world-class strikers, the defender gets you.

So, 1-0 to Argentina, fair play to everyone.