your daily recap

[rone]

Italy 1 - Australia 0: the Aussies played well.  Very well.  They only lacked luck and finishing.  And then the referee stabbed them all in the back with a phantom penalty call in the last 30 seconds of the game.

Ukraine 0 - Switzerland 0 (3-0 PKs): Couldn't watch it due to actual work being done.  Sounds like the Swiss are the Shaqs of soccer.  Italy-Ukraine should actually be duller than England-Portugal.  This Cup is really not taking a good shape.

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

When the Ukraine-Switzerland game reached penalties, the radio commentator said, "Well, the crowd will finally get some excitement." To quote a friend, "Fuck these two - their quarter final place should be given to the Dutch."

Today's games have to be better.

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing an Argentina-Brazil final. Doesn't look like any other good teams are going to make the quarters, and of those two Argentina deserves the win IMO.

It's tempting to cry "we wuz robbed" but really, if we couldn't score against Italy with one man down, and they were able to get close enough to goal for that penalty in the first place, then they probably deserved to win. Just.

[(Anonymous)]

Naah, we wuz robbed!

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Germany will win against Argentina in the quarter finals. Not a certainty by any means, but Mexico made that Argentine defence look a bit suspect, and Germany have been scoring easily in every game so far... That said, I think the winner of that game is a shoo-in for the final.

IMO, the only side that looks like it might upset Brazil's progress to the final is Spain, and they still have to win against France this evening. If the French manager had the cojones to drop Zidane, they might have a chance, too (they just announced the teams, though, and Zidane is back in for Trezeguet). It's a disturbing stat that, despite all the times they've played together, Zidane has never made a pass to Henry which led to a goal.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

And, after saying that, Zidane scored one and made one for France. That's why their manager is a football manager, and I'm an underpaid chemist.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Which reminds me... how do you distinguish a "real" chemist from a drugstore "chemist" in England?

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Technically, the latter is a pharmacist, but a lot of people use "chemist" for that, too. If I'm introduced to someone, and just say I'm a chemist, they are as likely as not to think I work in a pharmacy. If asked, I'll add some kind of description or, rather than saying, "I'm a chemist," I'll say something like, "I work for a nasty little chemical company in [wherever]." If they don't get it, I don't really care enough to try to correct most people.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

The MBM reporter for the Guardian spent the Uk-Sw game reposting email (http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/minbymin/0,,1788427,00.html) and hosted an amusing thread about Miss Marple. It's the only game in this cup for which an excess of carding would have helped, not hurt. As far as I can tell, it's the first game of this round with no ejections.

If I had the ability to distort time and space, I would create a universe with a Togo/Ukraine final. Just out of spite.

[khrister.livejournal.com]

That penalty for the Italians was really, really badly called. But, Australia should've scored before that...

[arian1.livejournal.com]

That Ref needs to be BEATEN. Then left in the middle of Sydney!