US is out
Saturday of this past weekend, a few friends and I watch the US play like a high school soccer team—and the officials throw up cards like they were flags in football—against Italy in what ended as a draw. So the group of four teams the US was playing against after this past saturday was still really, really close. In most other groups, by that point it had already been decided what two teams will advance and what two were going to be elimated, because enough teams had won to secure their spots. But in the US’s group, after 2/3s of the games in the first round had already been played, things were still very much up in the air.
In order for the US to advance to the next round, the US needed Italy to beat the Czech Republic. Czech is ranked like number two in the world, so chances seemed sort of slim that that was going to happen. But the other game we saw last Saturday made us wonder if it was really a long shot, cause Ghana, who was a team that not many people gave credit to, had just got done whomping on Czech, in a game where they just outplayed a team that came into the tournament with a lot of weight on their side. So if Ghana could do it, maybe Italy could to. In which case, all the US had to do was beat Ghana. In yesterdays game, low and behold, Italy beat the Czech Republic, elimating them from the World Cup tournament altogether. So all the US had to do was beat Ghana… but Ghana kicked our asses yesterday… So the US is elimated, too. I’m glad to see Ghana doing so well, cause they were underdogs in the group, especially among the heavily eastern european patrons of the bar we were at last weekend (the bartender asked me if I was from Ghana… being only one of a few people of color in the bar that morning, I guess he assumed I was out supporting my “home team”). So, go Ghana, hopefully they’ll keep playing with the aggressiveness they’ve showed thus far. But that sucks the US got elimated…
Tonight I’m going to my buddy Jim’s place, he’s having a “movie in the park night”, where he’s going to have a bunch of friends over, and watch movies projected against the garage in his backyard. How sweet is that??? Tomorrow morning I’ve got the June maahaul discussion session happening at my place, then a karaoke birthday party for a friend that evening (look out Bon Jovi, here I come), and Sunday I’m helping another buddy move to Oak Park. SWEET!!