In the opening rainy day game on Day 11 of the World Cup, Portugal pounded the People’s Republic of Korea. History repeats itself as Portugal scores five (plus) goals for the first time since 1966 when it defeated, you guessed it, Korea by a score of 5-3. Not even the Chinese citizens paid by Kim Jong-II’s scary government system could do anything about the absolute beatdown which ensued when Cristiano Ronaldo’s supporting cast did what it was supposed to and laid out a score fest in an eight-minute stretch of the early second half. For American football fans, it was like the equivalent of having a field goal lead at halftime, returning the opening kick of the second half for a touchdown, intercepting a pass and returning it for another touchdown, stopping the opponent’s offense cold, and then marching down the field for another score, again and again. (Sure, football doesn’t kick off for another eighty days, but I can’t wait!) Portugal basically guaranteed itself a spot in the second round, given that even if Brazil beats them and the Ivory Coast beats Korea on Friday, the goal differential is too great for the Ivory Coast to overcome. Seriously, can Ivory Coast beat Korea worse than Portugal did? Doubtful. (In a late update, Portugal is STILL scoring on Korea hours later…) And, thankfully for Portugal, the scoring has been spread around, proving that the team isn’t just Ronaldo and his henchmen… even if Ronaldo’s was the prettiest. (If you haven’t seen it by now, go back and check out that goal on Youtube!) And maybe that 7-0 beatdown will keep American football fans happy…
Chile took Switzerland down 1-0 in the second game of the day that was marred by a total 45 fouls, including a red card on Valone Behrami that sent him to the showers (but was probably a flop by the Chilean player). You could tell the referee Khalil Al Ghmadi was sick of both teams when yellow cards started flashing for players he caught flopping, but it appears that Chile has locked up a trip to the second round. Still, between the flopping, fighting, and yapping, the tone of the Cup has gotten significantly more chippy, even on the field. Cynically, that probably means that the U.S. will end up losing to Algeria after three of their players are sent off with straight red cards for looking at the referee funny…
My pre-Cup pick for runners-up, Spain, waged a small skirmish with Honduras, tacking up fewer fouls and much less negative chatter between players. This was never expected to be in question, but neither was the game between the Spanish and the Swiss which ended up in a 1-0 upset by the neutral country. All-in-all, this second game in the group stage only served to make it seem like the Spaniards were just waiting to turn on the jets. For much of this tournament, this would’ve been quite a winning score but after the touchdown win that Portugal got, it was kind of ho-hum.
Either of the first two games was more entertaining, either for the goals or the fouls, but sportsmanship still seems like an afterthought. Apparently the French woke up today and realized they were embarassing the heck out of themselves and their nation and decided they could practice again. Seems like maybe they were watching the Iverson “practice” video on Youtube yesterday and got carried away. Let’s just hope they don’t watch Hanley Ramirez’s baserunning video to get warmed up before their next game….
