Joga Bonita, Table Cloths, Playgirl, Hopp Suisse and Barthez

Some crack research (i.e googling) has led me to find out some things about my favorite broadcast tandem of Glenn Davis and Shep Messing. Shep, a Harvard Graduate and Pele's personal choice as goaltender for the NY Cosmos of the old NASL, was also a Playgirl Centerfold. This was very controversial at the time. Apparently this picture is one of the pictures in that spread. Thankfully for us it is cropped as to not show off his Ivy League educated Junk. Looking at this picture I'm not sure if this is Shep Messing or Freddy Mercury. Really I can't tell. The appearance in Playgirl led to fans of visiting teams throwing blow up dolls at Shep when he was in goal for the Cosmos...Gotta love the 70's.


Now To The Matches


I apologize to the fans of S. Korea and Togo, but I didn't watch your match yesterday. Right during the time that I would have been watching your match, the Red Sox decided to play one of the best games of the year, right up to the very end when they lost the game on a walk off grand slam by some dude named Google or Kegel or something like that.

So, I only had time to watch two matches, Switzerland and France and Brazil and Croatia.

I watched Switzerland and France with some friends of mine over in Allston Rock City. Thank you very much for the nice dinner by the way Cynthia, it was a great surprise. Drinking some Stella, watching the match, eating some burritos, I was in for a good night.

Too bad the match itself was pretty boring. It appeared neither team was very strong on the attack. This is especially surprising considering the attacking players that France has. I mean, Thierry Henry is arguably one of the top 2 players in the world, and he could get nothing going. Of course, you can't score if no one can get you the ball, there was absolutely no display of individual runs that Henry is famous for. Switzerland definitely had the best of the chances, with both Senderos and Frei missing from a corner, and Gigaz heading a beautiful cross that Barthez somehow saved. Usually Barthez finds a way to put a ball into his own net, but this time he kept it out. I'm pretty sure that Barthez may have used a reflection off of his shiny bald dome to discombobulate Gigax long enough to cause Gigax to not be able to direct the ball exactly where he wanted to.

France inexplicably did not put on David Trezuguet to help with the attack, instead opting to send on Vikash Dhorasoo, who was the first player of Indian Descent to ever play in a world cup. A 2$ beer will go to the first person who can tell me what makes this even more interesting than it sounds. Dhorasoo almost scored on a great set up from Saha (a second half replacement for the ineffective Frank Ribery) , which would have made Dhorasoo the first ever player of Indian Descent to score a goal in the world cup.

Anyway, with S. Korea defeating Togo earlier 2-1, both Switzerland and France will have some work to do to qualify out of this group. Both should defeat both Korea and Togo, to move on, but it will be a tough hill to climb.

So after Julian Tavarez cemented himself as the person most sox fans want to kill, I threw the old DVR into overdrive and started watching the Brazil vs. Croatia match at about 11:40 pm. Brazil really plays a nice flowing fast paced, attacking one touch kind of game, but I'll still give the advantage to the Table Cloths in the first half. Just look at these jerseys...how can you not root for them?!?! (I've tried several times to post a picture to no avail, so I'll post a seperate blog with their picture so you can feel the brilliance of the Croatian Jersey)

But Kaka was able to get some space and score the only goal of the match. Brazil, didn't dominate like I thought they would, but they were able to soundly secure 3 points...on the way to a potential 6th tournament victory.

Finally, I'd like to ask Fifa...actually plead with fifa that they do something about the following things, as they say they are going to do.

1. If someone requires medical attention on the pitch, don't allow reentry to the match for say...Two Minutes. A lot more people will bounce back up and get into play rather than staying on the ground looking to get a free kick. I know that if the ref calls for the stretcher, the player is required to leave the field, but what good is it, if the ref waves him on immediately after the free kick is taken?

2. Start giving out cards to players in the wall who creep up on the free kick taker. Something, anything. By the time the kick is taken, most walls are about 6 or 7 yards away from the taker, not the required 10.

3. I applaud the effort to penalize players for time wasting, but also, please take into account that players are going to take quick free kicks and kick them right at opposing players in order to get them a card. Refs should have a little tolerance to this, and possibly card the kicker for trying to get the other guy in trouble. That's hardly the spirit of the rule.

4. Find a way to get diving out of the game...forever. Maybe some post match review or something that can fine or suspend players after the fact.

That's it for now. I'll try to post again tonight, or tomorrow. Remember:

A goalie who wears pants, has already given up a goal, in the game of life.