29 June 2010

World Cup Football update

Well, despite the temporary elation of last week (a few people in the US actually cared about soccer for a split second), the US team is now down and out of the FIFA World Cup tournament, having been beaten rather neatly by Ghana. Bye-bye, Mr. American Pie!

The Netherlands, on the other hand, are doing splendidly and moved into the quarter-finals, with a 2:1 victory over Slovakia. I was able to only see the highlights reel, but my guess is that overall, there was a solid game of football as it should be played. That second goal by the Dutch was lovely, with a simple pass from Kuyt to Sneijder, who then slammed the ball straight back, right past the Slovak goalie. The Netherlands are now set to hit their first real challengers of this World Cup, battling it out with highly-ranked Brazil on Friday. Has their series of straight wins been just a fluke, or is the Netherlands team (traditionally underachievers) really playing on a higher level in South Africa?

No comments: