Blow It Like Beckham

England fell in the World Cup round of sixteen early today, losing to Germany, which has made it to every World Cup quarterfinal beginning in 1954, which, as any who saw The Marriage of Maria Braun knows, was their first tournament victory.

As for England . . . hmmph. Being an English soccer fan is the equivalent of being a baseball fan who roots for the Mets. You always hope for your team to repeat a miracle victory that happened decades ago, but you know in your heart of hearts that it's not . . . gonna . . . happen. Actually, that's an unfair comparison. The Mets at least won the World Series twice.

England scored a goal in the game that replays showed was clearly over the goal line and would have tied the game at two apiece but the German goalkeeper grabbed it and threw it back, and the goal was never counted as a point. The English protested, but the result stood. It was an ironic reversal of a German score in the 1966 championship game that gave England the victory.

In other news, Argentina eliminated Mexico three to one. Not exactly the most elegant game. Gee whiz, the Mexican players were hurling themselves into their own net while unsuccessfully trying to stop the Argentines from doing the same with the ball.

Germany and Argentina now meet each other on Saturday.

World Cup Update

The contest for the World Cup in South Africa won't shape up for awhile, as the national soccer teams vie for position to get out of their respective groups, but the big surprise was that England and the USA tied at one apiece. American goalkeeper Tim Howard let a ball get by him early in the first half, but English goalkeeper Robert Green made an even bigger blunder, letting the ball go right through his hands and roll softly across the line and into the net. Had Jozy Altidore, who had a blazing run with the ball across the field in the second half, managed to get it through Green's defense (and he came very close!), The United States would have won outright.

The United States can claim a morale victory for going against England, one of the mightiest soccer teams on the planet, and holding their own. The United States still has an outside chance at the cup at best, but England could be on its way to winning it for the first time since 1966.

Meanwhile, perennial Cup powerhouse Germany (three Cup championships) scored four to nothing in their match against Australia today. Geez, those Aussies are playing like Canadians! :-D

World Cup Kickoff

The 2010 World Cup tournament is underway, and the United States faces its first match - and will likely meet it - against England. (The United Kingdom doesn't send a single team to the Cup; the three nations that comprise the British state have separate teams.) I hope the the American team will go far, and hopefully reach the top eight, but that long-ago goal (no pun intended) to win the cup this year is pretty much a pipe dream. World Cup by 2010 - it can't be done!

The most amazing thing about the American team is that they're in South Africa for the tournament. This marks the sixth consecutive World Cup tournament that Team USA has participated in. A little over twenty years ago, the idea of any American team in the World Cup was crazy. Reasons that soccer hasn't taken off in the United States that it has in other countries include rules incompatible with American commercial television (hard to have a lot of commercials without timeouts) and scoring incompatible with bookmakers (not enough of a point spread on which to place bets). But Americans play soccer, some of them even like to watch it, and the fact that Team USA is a contender despite the shaky situation at home (Major League Soccer doesn't exactly enjoy a high profile) says something. We're a lot better off than Canada, which sent its team to the World Cup only once, in 1986.

That's astonishing!

Canada has a soccer team? :-D