Recap Days 11-22

The last time I did this was June 20, before I embarked on my jaunt to South Africa. I will now, game-by-game, provide you all with some insight.

Day 11
POR-PRK. Complete demolition of the North Koreans. Apparently their hired-Chinese fans weren't enough. Still hate C. Ronaldo though.

CHL-SUI. This game was dirty. I think a Swiss guy got red carded in a questionable game. Right about this time I was driving in a car to Fedex to drop off clothes that I couldn't fit in my carry on bag.

ESP-HON. My passport arrived during this game. That's all that's important. Honduras did not rep CONCACAF well.

Day12
MEX-URU. Completely missed this game. I was somewhere between San Francisco and Seoul.

FRA-RSA. See above. Geoff, Nate and Noah were in a super market when bafana bafana scored. It was awesome. (Hey, remember in the URU-GHA QF when John Harkes said "baghana baghana"? He sucks.)

NIG-KOR. Saw a couple minutes of this game while running to my gate in Singapore. Along the way - in the airport - I saw a Red Sox bar. That's all I know.

GRE-ARG. I know nothing.

Day 13
SLO-ENG. All I know is that when this game was going on I was orbiting another planet. The closest I came to experiencing this game was when I was trying to get my fucking smartphone to tell me if Slovenia scored. At that moment, Donovan scored. Thank you smarthphone?

USA-ALG. Emotional high of a lifetime. See many other posts on this subject.

GHA-GER. Something happened in this game, I'm sure. But I was smoking a Cuban.

AUS-SRB. See above.

Day 14
DEN-JPN. I was rooting for the Danish because I like small central European countries. But the Japanese were actually exciting and I later joined their bandwagon.

CMR-NED. Love the Oranje. They won.

SVK-ITA. Hate the Italians. They lost.

PAR-NZL. My favorite team in the tournament may have been the Kiwis. I had to continuously fight myself to avoid buying a New Zealand jersey in the airport (which is, amusingly, basically just a white t-shirt with "New Zealand" in the corner; I really wanted it.) In any case, the Kiwis - completely written off - drew three games.

Day 15
POR-BRA. Brazil tied nil-nil. Really Brazil? I bet you are going to lose in the QF. Great work Dunga.

KOR-CIV. Really wanted something miraculous to happen with the Ivorians so they could advance. Not much more that you can ask than 3-nil. Pretty sure the 2010 World Cup was wiped off the North Korean history books. (I wonder what those looked like to begin with.)

CHL-ESP. Noah went to this game. Nate, Geoff and I got emotional over beer, scotch and a lot red meat.

SUI-HON. Remember the Swiss border patrol in 2006? That was funny.

Day 16
URU-KOR. Really joined the Uruguaian bandwagon here. Diego Forlan is pretty awesome, as is Suarez. This period of my life was spent preparing for the following four hours. Or, as Nate put it, preparing to yak later.

USA-GHA. Another incredibly emotional moment of my life. Please see elsewhere in this blog. Remember Ghana. Fuck Ghana.

Day 17
GER-ENG. Read the first chapter of Soccernomics. It explains everything that took place in this game with remarkable accuracy. I love Ze Germans.

ARG-MEX. Pretty exciting game here. No CONCACAF teams advance to the QF.

Day 18
NED-SVK. Dutch defend their unofficial world title again. Around this time Geoff was extremely close to killing: the GPS, the entire population of Sun City, an elephant (that was already dead) and several South African drivers.

BRA-CHL. Listed to this game on the radio after dropping Geoff and Nate off at the airport. It was a sad moment. I also liked Chile much more than Brazil.

Day 19
PAR-JPN. Boring 120 minutes. Exciting shootout. Rough way to get eliminated. No Asian teams get to the QF.

ESP-POR. Spanish win in a game that they dominate possession. I dislike C. Ronaldo. Every first place team won their R16 game... except us. No stars from the Write the Future ad reach the QF.

Day 20
There were no games this day. It was weird.

Day 21
See above. Noah left. I went to Cape Town.

Day 22
BRA-NED. HELL YES ORANJE. Caught the two Dutch goals while running through the Newark airport in the midst of my IAD-EWR-PHL connection (don't ask). Really excited for this team.

URU-GHA. Karma's a bitch ain't it? I hate Gyan. Can't believe that he missed that penalty at the end of time. Incredible. Fuck Ghana. Love that Uruguay gets through. Would be pulling for the Dutch anyways, but I don't think the Uruguaians can't get through without Suarez.

Pool leader: Guess who's back on top? ANDREW! (And Josh too). But seriously, I picked the Dutch upset of the Brazilians with the correct score. One of the top moments of my life.

Favorite Quotes from South Africa

"There is nothing to do now but yak later."
-Nate, before the USA-Ghana game

Geoff: "I couldn't have done this trip then."
Andrew: "I couldn't do that trip now."
(general agreement)
Comparing the 2006 and 2010 World Cup trips

P.s. I got the Nederland-Brasil game correct, with the correct score. Fuck yeah.

Day 3 Recap

ALG-SLO. Watached at home. Here's my thoughts on this. It should have been a tie. The goal was weak (as was ours of course). But these two teams are both battle tested in a way we are not. We haven't had a win-or-go-home since Ghana in 2006. (I'm discounting any Gold Cup type events and the Spain/Brazil games in the Confed Cup because we were just happy to be there at that point.) Algeria and Slovenia have both won two-leg playoffs in the last year, and they were underdogs in both cases. We need 6 points from these two games - well, at least 3 from Slovenia to start - and I think Slovenia is going to be harder to handle than we expect.

GHA-SRB. Watched at home. Not much to say about this one. I wasn't really paying attention/didn't really care. But I'm impressed that Essien-less Ghana pulled out a win.

GER-AUS. Watched at home. Let's concede that the Aussies are a mess, but that was still pretty impressive. Ze Germans are ridiculously consistent in World Cups, have less pressure than normal, and if Podolski/Klose/Schweinstaggerrrrr are on, Germany is scary. I also feel like I'm supposed to hate Germany, but I don't.

Pool leader: Noah (it's like he does this for a living or something).