Odds & Ends

Another hapless attacker chokes on a hairball at the hands of Coloccini and Sorin.


Random thoughts while watching a lackluster Argentina-Holland game.

Dennis Bergkamp, where are ya?

The hilarity of listening to ESPN's commentators butchering names continues (Argentina's Abbondazieri is a nightmare for poor JP Dellacamera). Unfortunately, so too does the dreadful analysis. Marcelo Balboa appears determined to enter an elite club of announcers (Dick Vitale, Hubie Brown, the old ESPN Sunday Night Football crew) that make the "Mute" option seem more appealing than Claudia Schiffer on a desert island. Hey 'Celo, Bill Walton wants his mic back. Overheard during the last 50 hours of Cup-watching at the World Soccer Blogger headquarters:
- "Ronaldinho needs to work on his defending. That's his big weakness." Ronaldinho plays as a forward/offensive midfielder. He is widely regarded as the greatest player in the world and even Pele has said he may one day be the greatest ever - well, if works on his defending, of course.
- "Beckham, at age 34, is really showing his age." Beckham is 31, captain of England, and provided the assist on Crouch's game-winning goal against Trinidad & Tobago - he had also played the best pass of the entire Sweden game, a 70-yard ball to Rooney. And he's coming off one of his best seasons ever for Real Madrid.
- "That was Germany's last chance. Germany is probably just chalking this up to it not being their day." After Germany hit the post against Poland with a few minutes to go, Balboa pronounced the game over. Germany scored 30 seconds later.

The loss of Michael Owen to a torn ACL is no loss at all. If anything, it may allow Eriksson to switch to a 4-5-1 with Rooney as a lone striker and Owen Hargreaves as a sorely-needed defensive midfielder.

To avoid having the presentation of their new uniform for the 06-07 season overshadowed by some soccer tourney in Germany, Barcelona took the logical step of presenting their new kit in Frankfurt today. And it's definitely a new look for them - two wide blue and red stripes (or 'azul' and 'grana' for those in the know) and blue shorts instead of the red ones they wore last year. No word yet on whether or not the Unfrozen Caveman was in Frankfurt to model them. More photos and analysis coming in August during the 2006-07 edition of World Soccer Blogger's Uniform Preview.

Their game against the Dutch was a letdown, but when they were playing with their first team it was clear that Argentina is at a whole 'nother level. Spain and Germany are the only teams that have looked half-as-good so far. Those three teams - and Brazil simply on the basis of potential - are your new short list of teams that can win it all.

Four teams that have looked as bad as the previous four have looked good are England, Mexico, France and Italy. Don't be surprised if a couple of them make the quarterfinals simply because of easy 2nd round matchups, but they're all crap.

Der Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer has gotten a lot of press for complaining that too many cards are being shown in the tournament. While you'd like to see the best players playing in the biggest games (and not sitting on the sidelines suspended), you also want to see the best players playing the beautiful game, free of the shirt-pulling, elbowing, and illegal tackling that can sometimes prevent that. It's like what happened in the NHL last year. Over time, hockey had deteriorated into an ugly, boring game to watch because of all the grappling and holding. The top players were overshadowed by the more physical ones. The refs needed to get control of it again. And they did. Just as important as the establishment of new, stricter rules was the emphasis on re-inforcing old ones. All of a sudden, hockey became a fun, attractive game to watch - speed and youth were once again at a premium, rather than brute strength and combativeness. Sure, hockey still sucks and no one gives a rat's ass about it, but they had the right idea. And soccer's going through that same process right now. There's a reason why Italy always has players sent off in these big tournaments - no league in the world allows more holding, fouling, clutching, and grabbing than the Serie A. Watch a corner kick in the 90th minute of a Juve-Roma game and it's more like a rugby scrum than soccer. And then, in international play, the Italians are unable to adapt to the international refereeing - plus, they throw elbows nasty enough to warrant incarceration. Beckenbauer is right that no one wants players to be suspended for big games because of cheap yellow cards - but what good is it to have the best players on the field if the referees aren't protecting them and letting them do their thing?

Is there a defensive center-back partnership in the world with more hair than Fabrizio Coloccini & Gabriel Milito of Argentina? Throw in Juan Pablo Sorin and you've got more hair between the three of them than in ZZ Top. Just imagine trying to win a header against them - you'd be lucky not to choke to death on a hairball.

US-Ghana tomorrow is must-see TV. If the US-Italy game was the biggest in this country's history, US-Ghana is bigger. Ghana is a fast, young team with one of the best players in the world, Michael Essien. If the US can stop him, they can win the game (and set up a 2nd round meeting with Brazil, where they still remember Keller's heroics in a 1998 Gold Cup semifinal). If they can't stop Essien, fuggedaboutit. My pick: US 1-0, goal from McBride. Italy nil-nil with the Czechs, and the Americans out. Ya heard?