ich bin ein auslander

Well, it’s 6:30 in the morning and the first round is officially over. The USA advances to the second round, which is a miracle, particularly since they just got creamed by Poland. While they played well against South Korea and had the stunning win against Portugal, tonight… well… the Lazer Beams, the team I played in when I was 8 years old, could have beat them. Luckily, South Korea pulled a second suprise upset against Portugal, allowing the US to slip through the group in the second spot.

What a World Cup so far! Three of the top 5 teams in the world have been eliminated in the first round. France, gone. Argentina, gone. Portugal, gone. Look at these teams that have made it - the US, Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Senegal, Turkey, Paraguay… unbelievable. Germany, Spain, Denmark, England, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Belgium all in there still as well.

Time for some predictions… I’d have to say it’s Brazil’s Cup. They’re playing brilliantly, knocking out opponents left and right even with most of their strongest players on the bench. Looking at the schedule and the way the teams are stacked up… I’m seeing a final four of Sweden (could be England, but I think the Swedes will take them out), Brazil, Italy (could be Mexico but I think Italy will step up to the plate and make up for their pretty poor performance so far) and Germany, although Spain is going to give them a run for their money.

This is when it gets good - no more ties, it’s win or go home! Time to stock up on the coffee… looks like I’m going to be living off of 3 hours of sleep a night for awhile.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 14th, 2002 at 6:22 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.