Footballing My Eyes Out

Far be it from me to suggest that people are actually regulary reading this blog, but apologies to those out there who are getting frustrated at my lack of updating. I never thought getting a full time job could be so time consuming, after all it's only 40 odd hours out of a 168 hour week (about 24% worth for those of you with a mathematics bent). That and the fact that I can't always find things to write about. Fear not though for the second problem has been remedied with the commencement last night of the oh so eagerly anticipated 2006 Soccer World Cup. If you don't know what I am talking about then stop reading now and don't come back for the next four weeks coz this aint gonna be the place for you.

Right, so the opening game saw the hosts Germany take on the Central American 'powerhouses' Costa Rica. Seriously though, these guys have qualified for the last two World Cups, but that could be due to their ordinary qualifying group in which the biggest threats are Mexico and the U.S.A. I mean they got belted 5-2 by Honduras in qualifying and just got past Cuba on away goals. Back to the Germany game, the final score was 4-2 but my inkling is that Costa Rica scored twice simply for the fact that the German defence is more porous than a single-ply Black and Gold facial tissue. Despite this weakness at the back, the Germans look good in attack and both their first goal, scored by Phillip Lahm, and their last, driven in by Torsten Frings from all of thirty yards, were absolute crackers. Miroslav Klose, who has been banging them in for fun this year with Werder Bremen, scored Germany's other two, with his feet surprisingly enough. Paolo Wanchope grabbed Costa Rica's two goals with well time runs and cool finishes, though he looked marginally offside for the second.

The other game of the night was the less exciting Poland vs Ecuador, which I only watched because at this point of the tournament quality international soccer is still a novelty. Don't be expecting any in depth analysis of the upcoming Tunisia - Saudi Arabia, Trinidad & Tobago - Paraguay or Iran - Angola, I mena, I am a soccer tragic, but I'm not some kind of sadomasochistic sport addict. Anyway to wrap things up, Poland were downright disappointing up front and were undone with two well-worked goals by the well disclipined and disturbingly muscular South Americans. It just wasn't going to happen for the Poles who ironically hit the post twice (get it, poles and posts..... yep) and now look to be heading home from Germany after just one week. It's a bit unreasonable to think they could get a result from their game with the hosts, although there will be a lot of hate flying around for that one so anything could happen. Ecuador could be the surprise packets from group A. They qualified simply because they play all their home games in their capital city Quito, which is about 3,000,000,000,000,000,000 metres above sea level meaning teams that come to play there have enough trouble staying conscious let alone running around for 90 minutes chasing 11 Ecuadorians who are quite used to the thin air.

Anyhoo, my house is the venue tonight for England vs. Paraguay, although the only taker seems to be Dave 'I like sport as much as you do, but don't give me that volleyball crap' Yeend. I'll be back tomorrow with more results and hopefully more wit as well, but don't hold your breath (especially if you are in Quito).

PS: I have never asked Dave about his views on volleyball, he could actually love the game, I just could think of a sport that he didn't like to make his nickname amusing.