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MVH

8 Million Stories in the City: USA-Algeria..and Jonathan Bornstein

June 24, 2010 — by AmyChiu

I’ve been recruited by two lovely gentlemen to write this piece because my usual posts on FSM (www.fantasysportsmarket.com …shameless plug) are on hiatus after a heartbreaking Celtics loss in the NBA finals.

I woke up yesterday morning a nervous wreck. A Canadian, who shall remain nameless, taunted me pre the USA v. Slovenia game. Meanie. What happens? We tie. USA v. Algeria this morning. The foreigner better keep his negativity to himself.  Unfortunately, I could not come up with a feasible excuse to skip work to watch the game, so I sucked it up and listened to Spanish radio with my co-worker while sketching on my Wacom tablet.  My Spanish is not that awesome.

Video

Joy in Huskerville

June 23, 2010 — by Tommy4

Video of crowd in Lincoln, Nebraska — ground zero of cornfed football America — watching Landon’s goal. You can tell exactly what’s going on in the sequence of play by the crowd’s reaction. Wonderful.

Group SummariesVideo

Group C Summary – England/USA/Algeria/Slovenia

June 23, 2010 — by Suman

Scenario Analysis:

Here’s who advances in each of the 9 possible outcomes of this morning’s 2 matches:


USA win USA draw USA loss
ENG win USA & ENG ENG & SVN ENG & SVN
ENG draw USA & SVN SVN & ? SVN & ENG
ENG loss USA & SVN SVN & USA SVN & ALG

(?: if both games end as draws, both USA & ENG will finish with 3 points.  The tiebreaker is total GF, so USA has the advantage, having scored 3 so far to ENG’s 1.  It’s possible but unlikely that ENG could advance in this scenario–if they & SVN play to a high-scoring draw, e.g. 3-3, while USA plays to a low-scoring draw, e.g. 0-0.)

Group C fixtures & results:

  • Sat June 12 (Day 2): England 1, USA 1
  • Sun June 13 (Day 3): Slovenia 1, Algeria 0
  • Fri June 18 (Day 8): USA 2, Slovenia 2
  • Fri June 18 (Day 8): England 0, Algeria 0
  • Wed June 23 (Day 13): Slovenia v England
  • Wed June 23 (Day 13): USA v Algeria

Standings:

Team MP W D L GF GA Pts
SloveniaSlovenia 2 1 1 0 3 2 4
USAUSA 2 0 2 0 3 3 2
EnglandEngland 2 0 2 0 1 1 2
AlgeriaAlgeria 2 0 1 1 0 1 1

Video highlights below.

Dispatches

Dispatch from Cape Town: Rowan Flad on FanFest, USA-SLV, ENG-ALG

June 23, 2010 — by Suman

We just received via email a dispatch from South Africa: friend, former teammate, and archaeologist Rowan Flad on watching the US-Slovenia game last Friday at the FanFest in Cape Town, followed by watching England-Algeria live:

Today [Friday, June 18] we (me and my wife In Paik) attended our first live match of WC2010 – England v. Algeria.  We spent the day exploring Cape Town a little more, after having done Table Mountain and some other sites yesterday, first going to a sweet little coffee shop in Observatory (Obz), the part of town where we are staying, called “Queen of Tarts,” and then heading into the City Bowl area where we had a lunch of African tapas at a joint called “Africa Café.”  We then headed to the District Six museum, which was only a few blocks from “Fanfest” – the designated viewing area where a huge screen had been set up outside city hall for people to watch games.

Commentary

The Big E.A.S.Y. (via @johnglally)

June 21, 2010 — by Suman

Via an Englishman in New York, @johnglally (whom we hope will soon shift (or at least crosspost) his commentary from Twitter to CultFootball):

“I wonder why England players might suffer from complacency and overconfidence…”


Dateline = December 2009, when the group draw was announced.

Live Blog

Liveblogging England v Algeria

June 18, 2010 — by Sean2

After this morning’s game we’re throwing all our support to the Desert Foxes. England have replaced Green with James between the sticks, which apparently is a better choice. Let’s not forget his nickname is Calamity James…

England are heavy favorites, but Algeria did knock out two-time defending African Cup winners Egypt to qualify for this cup. There’s a chance, especially if Gerrard and Lampard continue to trip over each other in the center of England’s attack.

All the vitriol after the bump!