Friday, June 16, 2006

6/15 I often wonder how I don't have a girlfriend

I'll tell you this, nights like last night, make me wonder why I'm without a girlfriend, I mean, I'm a great catch. How many girls would line up to date a guy who had this for plans on a Beautiful Thursday night/evening:

5:30PM Travel to Boston Common Theater to see sneak preview of the Jack Black film Nacho Libre.

6:00PM Wait in line for 1.5 hours to see free sneak preview of Jack Black's new film Nacho Libre.

7:30PM Finally get into theater to see Jack Black's new film Nacho Libre.

9:07PM Leave theater to travel to train, then bus to the pad in Brighton, which is only about 2 miles away, but it seemed like 20.

10:10PM Fire up the DVR, laptop and ceiling fan. Watch all of the England vs. T&T match.

11:45PM Watch 3 episodes of the second season of the show Entourage.

12:50PM Scan at 4X speed the Ecuador and Costa Rica match.

1:05Am Bed.

For dinner I had movie theater popcorn and a smuggled diet coke.

I tell you, I really fuckin' rule.

So here are some thoughts...

England, really looked weak, as Marcelo said early in the match, you'd expect that after the criticism they took after the paraguay match, they'd come out and try to prove something. But they didn't. With few exceptions (I believe Ashley Cole got forward a few times) they didn't attack the wings, there was very little in the way of attacking through the midfield, and Peter Crouch and Michael Owen looked lost at times. I believe Beckham sent Owen free once or twice, but really, it was kind of boring.

Then the subs came in. First, Aaron Lennon and Wayne Rooney came in. This was the moment that everyone in England was waiting for. Wayne Rooney who earlier broke a bone in his foot, made what some people are calling a miraculous recovery to play in the second game of Englands Group stage. The injection of Rooney for Owen, and Lennon for Carragher (playing for the injured and ineffective Gary Neville) was the spark that was needed. And with the final sub of Stuart Downing for Joe Cole, it was complete. Energy was brought into the side, and they started to play like a favourite to win the whole thing, and started to dominate the 1000 to 1 shot that T and T really are.

A goal by Crouch (no robo dance, he says he's holding that one for a goal in the final)



A goal by Gerrard, and things were back to normal, and if you hadn't seen the game, you'd think England had dominated througout. Although if it wasn't for the acrobatic save of John Terry on a Stern John effort at the end of the first half, this would have been a completely different ballgame.

This morning, I scanned through the Sweden vs. Paraguay match. And I'm very happy to report that Arsenal Midfielder Freddie Lungberg was responsible for the only goal scored on a header. This is even funnier given that Lungberg and captain Olaf Mellborg were involved in what was described as a Training Ground Row by the BBC.

Finally, One amusing note. The sale of Carribean booze and food in Scotland skyrocketed before the match with England. Looks like Scotland is rooting for ABE...Anyone But England in this worldcup. I wonder if Swedish Meatball consumption will go up before next weeks Sweden Match.

Also, I haven't seen any of it, but I did follow the match on the internet. Argentina wiped the floor with Serbia and Montenegro. Beating them 6-0 and drawing a red card on Mateja Kezman. With Ukraine and Serbia getting whitewashed, people must be forgetting about the US Czech Match.

This weekend should be fun...US Vs. Italy being the highlight.

Down with the Azzuri!

3 Comments:

Blogger Dan Nolan said...

three comments:

1. interesting how the defender's head snapped back on the Crouch goal. Wasn't because Mr. Roboto grabbed his hair and yanked it to get position, was it?

2. the agony of defeat: All within 24 hours, Germany eliminates Poland breaking a 0-0 tie in injury time, England eliminates T&T breaking a 0-0 tie in the 84th minute (roughly?), Sweden eliminates Paraguay breaking a 0-0 tie in the 88th minute. ouch ouch ouch. but, hey. gotta score. that's the name of the game.

3. Believe it or not, the 6-0 score does not do justice to the beatdown that Argentina put on S&M. They totally dominated and now have to be considered favorites to get to the Final. It should have been 8-0 - the ref robbed Crespo of a goal when he was clearly onsides and robbed him again of a penalty kick when he was mauled in the box. They could have beaten them 11-0 if they needed to. They literally were trying not to score at the end. The 2nd and 5th goals were two of the best in the Cup so far. I think these guys might beat Brazil. The big question is their keeper apparently (and their outside midfielders' ability to defend), so I think we're going to really get a lot more info about them when they play Holland and Portugal, Mexico, or still possibly Angola, who have much better offenses than S&M. But holding Ivory Coast to 1 goal was something.

6:08 PM  
Blogger Duffless said...

Hey, I hung out with you!! Glad to know that 5 hours spent with me makes people question the very worth of their lives!! Me=man poison!

Ps. I'm awesome.

7:28 PM  
Blogger Dan Nolan said...

poor quality video but here are the goals from the Argentina game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4haekl8tBA

12:43 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home