While this day is surely giving you everything you could possibly need in terms of World Cup blog content, there’s much more out there to be had, particularly at the World Cup Blog itself, which is actually composed of 34 different blogs, one for each team in the tournament.
Being American, we’re drawn immediately to the USA blog – we want, need, and want and need to find out what’s happening with our squad over in Germany.
Turns out we beat Angola yesterday, although there aren’t too many details to be had out there.
Details are scarce, but the US beat Angola 1-0 in a behind closed doors game.
A spokesman said that Brian McBride scored the only goal, but wouldn’t reveal who played, what formation was used or any other details, presumably to stop nosy Group E rivals Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana from knowing too much.
Awesome – there’s no better way to excite an indifferent fanbase than by being secretive about a sport that few know much about.
Now when that first game rolls around, we can be all like “Hey, there’s…um…” and “Yes, it’s my favorite player! Go…you…”
Yeah, we know we could go watch and read about old games, but why would we do that, when there was a game yesterday we should be knowing about? This is pure and typical soccerish weirdness.
How much strategy is there to hide anyway? What, is one of them secretly using their hands or not booting it down the field as hard as they can?
Anyway, from what we can gather, our best player is this Landon Donovon guy, who…why? Why do they do that? Keep your clothes on, sir – there’s still a game going on.
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There is as much strategy involved in soccer as there is in any other sport. If I’m not mistaken, other sports have closed door practices. And to put it into perspective. In 2002 the US upset Portugal, due in large part to a surprising lineup that included 3 unknowns, including Donovan, Demarcus Beasley and Pablo Mastroeni, who are now well established players. This lineup was completely unfamiliar to Portugal and surprised them, which allowed the US to go up 3-0 rather quickly. Portugal made it close with 2 goals but the US still won. So, I think there is plenty of strategy involved and you don’t want to tip your hand too early.
After also reading that ESPN article about the ‘surprise lineup’ a little doubt crept into my mind (something I’m sure my RoboSoccer overlords could fix). Anyhow, I thought the reason those 3 played wasn’t so much ’cause the US was incorporating great strategy as it was due to 1) Reyna being hurt (hamstring?) and 2) Mathis not getting along with Arenas (douche bag?). I got nothing on Mastroeni except every single time I’ve seen him handle the ball it reminds me of Ben Wallace: PLEASE GIVE THE BALL TO SOMEONE ELSE. And while Jack Johnson (Donovan) is pretty damn good, our best player is Keller, the goalie.
Thoroughly entertaining so far, Wigan Athletic. And speaking of Germany 2006, I’d just like to point out that my Dirk for MVP is still looking like a solid argument.
This is funny … but it’s not basketball. Where’s the basketball?
I’ll be sick of the Finals before they even start if I talk about it straight through Thursday night.
I’m impatient and ADD.
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