Ups and Downs of the World Cup

Yesterday was exhausting. Czech played against Ghana at 18.00 and Team USA played Italy at 21.00. I watched both games at home, kd came over to join me.

I had been out with kd and Scouseman in the afternoon, and barely got back in time. In fact, I missed the Czech-Ghana kick-off because I was downstairs in the beer store stocking up for the evening. No big deal, I thought, what’s going to happen in the first couple of minutes?

So when I turned on the tv at about 3 minutes into the match, I couldn’t believe that it was already 1-0 to Ghana. It’s history now, the Ghanaians outplayed the Czechs and won 2-0. Headline on the BBC’s website immediately after the match: Ghana stun Czech Republic. To say the least.

Interesting observation: during celebrations, i.e. when Ghana scored and at the end of the match when they had won, player number 15, John Pantsil, took an Israeli flag out of his sock and waved it around in front of the cameras. I wondered why. Just now, I googled and found what may explain the flag. From Wikipedia:

John Pantsil, né le 15 juin 1981, est un footballeur ghanéen. Il joue au poste de défenseur avec l’équipe du Ghana et le club de Hapoël Tel-Aviv.

In case you didn’t get that, Pantsil plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv football club. He has also played for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Mystery at least partially solved.

On to the next match…

Italy and the US drew 1-1. The game was a big disappointment for Italy, but somewhat of a success for the US. While the 1 point the US gets for the draw may not help the team in the tournament, not losing to Italy whilst playing a man down (9 to 10 because of red cards) was a big psychological victory. And if DaMarcus Beasley’s goal had not been called back for offside…

US goalkeeper Kasey Keller was the hero (and named man of the match). Italian Daniele De Rossi was the villain. His “sickening, needless” elbow that bloodied Brian McBride’s face was “the undoubted low point” of the World Cup tournament, according to the BBC.

The important thing was that Team USA showed that they can play at World Cup level and that making the quarter-finals 4 years ago may not have been a fluke after all. The Americans looked like a different team than the one that had lost 3-0 to the Czechs 5 days earlier.

The USA-Ghana match on Thursday should be a good one. So should Czech-Italy, for that matter.