You knew this was coming. I jump on the sports bandwagon of whatever is currently playing off. My son has been prepping us for the World Cup and explaining to me the group system, and how they all play each other, then it is a different kind of elimination after all that. If you can like and cheer for several teams, like I can, then you can watch a lot of soccer. After about 3 days, I think I can referee that, too.
Nevertheless, I check the schedule every day just to see who is playing in these early rounds. Today there were some Group C and Group D games played. The only one I caught was Japan vs. Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire). Chief walks in and says, "Ivory Coast is a big enough country to have a World Cup team that qualified?" Heck, I don't know. Must be.
Looks like a questionable place to visit.
Well, the unlikely happened, and they handed Japan a loss. I wouldn't have guessed it, and I have been watching some of the qualifying over the long playoff-qualifying period.
So far I have only had one dog in the fight, and that was yesterday when the Netherlands put the whoop on Spain. You probably won't believe this, but we cheered for the Netherlands before our son and D.I.L. went there for grad school. One of his favorite MLS players is from the Netherlands, and in case you don't know, MLS players return to their home countries for the World Cup. If you have favorite teams or players, then you might have occasion to root for their teams in the World Cup games, as long as they aren't playing the U.S.
Personal opinion -- we are in the toughest group, and our group doesn't start play until Monday. Brazil won their first game after some debatable call. Uruguay loses to Costa Rica after entering the tournament as a favorite. And now Ivory Coast? The more upsets there are, the more I learn from those quality ESPN reporters. I love sports. Nobody knows it all.
Including me. The blog server and I are not getting along tonight, thus a large gap and lack of consistency. But I am okay with that, and going to post this 'as is.'
By the way, been loving your comments and emails. Thanks!
