The World Cup fired up last Friday and I was ready for hours of intense action. These are the best footballers in the world and the action was going to be intense from beginning til end of every 90 minutes! Maybe because I thought this way, I let myself down a tad. It's now the end of day 4 and 11 games have been played. That's 22 teams that have competed. Out of those 22 teams, exactly 3 teams have scored more than 1 goal. As stated previously, I am not the hardened soccer viewer, but that seems a little low to me. I know most of these guys just kind of joined together and haven't gotten a chance to gel in the matter of a month or so since most leagues just ended across the world. I have watched parts of at least 4 or 5 games over the weekend, and the action seems to be less than stellar for the most part.
I'm starting to have flashbacks of the 2004 men's "dream team" disaster that happened in the Olympics. All of these guys get together at the last minute, practice a couple of times, then go out and try to dominate the world. We all know how that ended. They were almost dubbed the "disaster team". No one will deny the NBA has some of the greatest talent in the world against most of the other countries as far as American players go. If you can't be committed to playing as a team and practicing together and getting into a flow, it's obvious you can be beat. As we've seen so far in the World Cup, a lot of world powers are struggling out of the gate. It turns out there's not enough time in the tournament to bond as a team because if you lose a game in the pool play, you might be done before you can get started. Heavily favored teams are getting by by the skin of their teeth in these matches, some are losing. If you're not at peak performance come day 1 of the Cup, you could be hosed.
Do these guys need more time to bond together before they hit the pitch in the tournament? If you watched any Friendlies before the tournament started, there were quite a few head scratchers that left you wondering how well some of the better teams would do. I didn't know what to expect from Team USA, as the English were heavily favored. The effort put forth by the English, however, was less than stellar. Dang near all of these guys play in the "NBA" of soccer over in Europe. They are the best of the best. They looked like they hadn't played a match together in their life. You may have seen my bold statement on Facebook about whoever won that match would get my loyalty throughout the tournament. After that it was impossible to show loyalty. Yes the English were heavily favored and walked away with a mere tie, USA looked to be playing lights out but really couldn't get much done. And let's be honest with ourselves, that goal the Americans got was all but gift wrapped. It seemed the Americans had 1 legit shot in the 2nd half that was about ten times harder to defend against, and England's goalie did a pretty good job of shutting it down. After that performance, it was impossible to pick a team to support. Don't get me wrong here, I'm American through and through, but I am also a realist and know that in the end good soccer will prevail and that's what I want to see. I thought I was positive that the red coats would be a dominating force and be easy to root for as when was the last time USA came home with a trophy? I'm just setting myself up for heartache rooting for them aren't I? Now only another match will tell, so I have to hold off until Friday to see if a real team shows up.
I know not all of the best teams have played yet, but come on. Germany scored 4 goals in a match! They're not the powerhouse of this tournament are they? Maybe as of teams that have played so far they are it. I just don't know any of the players on Germany, so I find it tough to root for them. It's kind of like rooting for team Slovakia in Olympic basketball. Who plays for them? Even if they were on fire, how fun is that? Do people really live in Slovakia? Oh wait, is Goran Dragic from there? He's cool. South Korea scored 2 goals. I'm surprised they were allowed to play in the tournament. And the Netherlands scored 2 this morning against Denmark. Not 2 countries that come to mind when you think of a football powerhouse.
Italy won the 2006 Cup if I do recall, and they barely squeaked out a 1-1 tie against the awesome country of Paraguay! Paraguay? It took me a minute to remember that country is actually on the South American continent. I know there's some stellar South American teams out there, but Paraguay doesn't come to mind in the top 2 or 3 countries from there.
I'm not sure what the remedy is here, but maybe the World Cup is too soon after most seasons end around the world. The players keep complaining about how exhausted they are. That's never a good sign. You have to exert a little energy while playing soccer, and when you're exhausted it's no fun. Tomorrow we have Brazil playing, they're bound to take it to North Korea, right? Well maybe Kim Jong Il will have the crazy Koreans fired up tomorrow, but Brazil should have the ways & means of thoroughly spanking them. If that ends up 1-0 or 1-1, I may just throw the World Cup in the toilet. Please don't make me go back to watching the Diamondbacks, because that's the only option I have left right now. Maybe the College World Series, that would work better. Time to get it fired up World Cup!!!!
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