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Today we find out if our team has a real shot at the knockout round. Slovenia are a scrappy team that put out Russia on the way to qualification, so they'll be no pushovers. Let's hope it's the Slovenians who will be the jittery unsettled side when the game starts, and that we're the ones who score an early goal for once. The cultfootball team will be off joining in the watching and hopefully some celebrations afterward, so no liveblogging (sorry all you poor computer-tethered bastards, we still love you, promise). We'll put up a little recap and some other various thoughts later. Okay everybody have fun out there, and let's keep it clean.
The lynchpin game for Mexico today, and they're favorites to put down an unsettled French squad who by all rights shouldn't even be at this tournament. Should be an exciting, attacking game with lots of pretty passes and deft movement. Should be... Still a little groggy from the trip into Times Square for the breakfast-time Korea match, so please excuse us in advance if we confuse the occasional accent grave with an accent aigu. Past the bump for all the action, sportsfans! ————————————————————————— [liveblog]6[/liveblog] Mexico: Perez, Osorio, Moreno, Rodriguez, Salcido, Marquez, Giovani, Juarez, Torrado, Vela, Franco. Subs: Ochoa, Barrera, Castro, Blanco, Aguilar, Hernandez, Guardado, Magallon, Torres, Bautista, Medina, Michel. France: Lloris, Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra, Govou, Toulalan, Diaby, Malouda, Ribery, Anelka. Subs: Mandanda, Reveillere, Planus, Gourcuff, Cisse, Gignac, Henry, Squillaci, Diarra, Valbuena, Clichy.
This was an upset that absolutely no one thought would happen, except, perhaps, for Switzerland’s veteran German coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, who has, as they say, seen it all, or at least he’s seen the film of how the United States beat Spain last summer in the Confederations Cup. His surprisingly simple game plan gave the world a blueprint to beat the European champions. Journalists like the venerable @sidlowe are saying that Switzerland’s goal was “absurdly silly and fortunate,” but France went down to such a goal against Senegal and never recovered in 2002. It looked unlucky at the time, but seems indelible in retrospect. Because Spain’s football is considered the standard for beauty, symmetry and international poetry, watching the Swiss defend them out of the match was a little like watching Republicans outmaneuver Harry Reid. It simply isn’t fair! Still, Spain will have to be more than poster children for
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The wheel goes round, and we're back to Group A action with the Bafana Bafana back up, this time against the dangerous Diego Forlan and Uruguay. It'll be another tough match for the African side, at least it's the late game and we don't feel so bad about drinking while running commentary. All the fun stuff after the break! ————————————————————————— [liveblog]5[/liveblog] South Africa: Itumeleng Khune, Siboniso Gaxa, Aaron Mokoena, Bongani Khumalo, Tsepo Masilela, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Steven Pienaar, Tsholofelo Modise, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Katlego Mphela Uruguay: Nestor Muslera, Jorge Fucile, Diego Lugano, Diego Godin, Maximiliano Pereira, Alvaro Pereira, Egidio Arevalo, Diego Perez, Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani
After much anticipation, the tournament favorites start their campaign to add world glory to that '08 euro. No baby-faced striker up top for the boys in red, so please, enjoy this action shot Nando instead. Switzerland finished at the top of their group in tournament qualifying, so are certainly no team to be dismissed outright. Let's save that for the second half. Follow the play after the bump! ————————————————————————— [liveblog]4[/liveblog] Spain: I. Casillas, S. Ramos, C. Puyol, G. Piqué, J. Capdevila, X. Alonso, S. Busquets, D. Silva, Xavi, J. Navas, D. Villa Sweden: D. Benaglio, S. Lichtsteiner, P. Senderos, S. Grichting, R. Ziegler, G. Inler, B. Huggel, T. Barnetta, P. Schwegler, G. Fernandes, B. Nkufo
[Editor's note: With this post we introduce Ryan Reft, who co-founded and contributes to the group historical/cultural studies blog Tropics of Meta (from which this essay is cross-posted).] Don’t waste your time on soccer kid it’s a game for commie pansies … - Sports columnist Dick Young Over the past 20 or so years, the study of history through sites of leisure and sport has expanded. No longer do historians simply view sport as spectacle alone. Instead, scholars have considered the meanings and cultural importance of sport in the lives of a nation’s people. For example, Arjun Appadurai’s Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (1996) proves to be a largely theoretical text focusing on issues of transnationalism, identity, and social imaginaries. Built on the theoretical underpinnings of Foucault and Habermas while drawing upon the work of numerous anthropologists before him most notably Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and Clifford Geertz’s
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Sometimes seats above the roofline are a good thing. But, first, let's rewind a bit. Winter found its rhythm today, managing sun, wind, rain,and hail, rotated nicely about every hour til the sun went down. The other three left him behind without missing a beat. Visited the & Union for the Netherlands v Denmark match. It's the brewpub of sorts for a South African craft brewer, but, strangely, their product is actually brewed in Germany according to their bottles. Both the Amber and Dark Lagers were perfectly drinkable, yet lacked depth, leading to quick finishes. Sadly, in a bid to maintain some sort of sanity and coherence, I had to cut back, and those were the only beers tried. For the Japan Cameroon tussle we strolled, after a warming cup of chocolate (no powder, real bits), across a few blocks to The Perserverance or The Pressy. Stopped to purchase some
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Big excitement for us here today, as we don't have to travel far to be in the heart of Italian Brooklyn (only as far as my couch, in fact). We're eating cannolis and drinking Moretti, and we've got a pot of marinara on the stove to dip our bread in. Let's see how the old men of Italy perform. They tend to start off slowly in these tournaments. Follow us live after the bump! (We expect auto-refreshing today, so you shouldn't have to keep reloading the page to get updates. Let us know if it isn't working ...) ————————————————————————— [liveblog]3[/liveblog] Here are the lineups: Paraguay: Justo Villar, Carlos Bonet, Dario Veron, Paulo Da Silva, Claudio Morel Rodriguez, Enrique Daniel Vera, Jonathan Santana, Cristian Miguel Riveros, Aureliano Torres, Roque Santa Cruz, Lucas Ramon Barrios Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Christian Maggio, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Gianluca Zambrotta, Claudio Marchisio, Daniele De Rossi, Riccardo Montolivo,
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