Well, that turned into work in a hurry, didn’t it?
I’m so lulled and dulled by most of the soccer I’ve seen over the past two days, I don’t even remember the circumstances of Slovenia’s winning goal against Algeria yesterday morning.
I was eating French toast in bed in Peterborough, and was about 15 minutes away from driving back to Toronto. I know I’d spent the better part of two hours watching what looked for all the world like a Portland Timbers intrasquad game from 1976 – both for the uniforms and the quality of play.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
I saw the goal, reacted to it, explained the bit about the selfish red card against the Algerian to my sweetie, finished eating, grabbed my bag, fired up the Honda and hit the 115 – leaving all memory of the actual scoring play behind me at the big house in the Kawarthas.
It was far from the only forgettable incident to saggily unfurl on these lackluster third and fourth days of World Cup 2010.
Serbia and Ghana cooked up some passion, bless them. But the game sounded far more exciting in the occasional radio updates on the highway than it turned out to be when I watched the late replay at home last night. Another red-card act of selfishness (Serbia), and another late 1-0 win (Ghana).
In between, of course, was Germany. More on them in a few grafs.
This morning, the Dutch burped out a 2-0 win over Denmark, on a deflected own-goal and a dead-ball sitter off the post. Full credit, but neither of those scoring plays was exactly planned.
Japan and Cameroon put in some effort, but there was no genius at all on display in a 1-0 Japanese win that could – and possibly should – have gone the other way late.
We actually had news and incident when Italy fell behind late in the first half to a brilliantly headed-in free kick from Paraguay. But the Italians – playing with their usual lack of opening-round urgency – were content to wait for the Paraguayan ‘keeper to completely miss a corner kick, allowing for an open-net nudge-in to split the game – and the points – 1-1.
What all these contests lacked was real inspiration. Too much caution. Too much waiting for the other side to make a mistake.
Remember, folks, when Senegal hugely upset France in the opening match of World Cup 2002? What I loved most of all about that game was that the African team – made up almost entirely of unheralded players from the French second division – had the cheek and nerve to go into that match with a plan for winning.
Yeah, the goal was scuffed home, and was even worse than the ones the Dutch and Italians scored today. But there was a plan.
Except for the Germans, I’m not seeing much of that right now.
What the heck? These teams qualified to be here. Only a small number have any realistic chance of lifting the trophy on July 11. Why not come out and play your best?
France and Italy are half-assing it, like they always, always do off the top. The Dutch looked ordinary, and England – surprise, oh soggy surprise! – underachieved. Heck, the only team I’ve seen play with all-out joy, desire and hunger so far are the South Koreans.
… And the Germans.
THAT was brilliant. Ripping up a pretty decent defensive Australian side 4-0, with a dizzying series of timing patterns, laser passes and carefully disguised, impossible-to-defend runs. And even when a German actually got in alone on the Aussie goal (Thomas Muller, to make it 3-0), the player executed an outrageous spin-o-rama to shred what little resistance the Aussies were already positionally unlikely to offer.
Maybe it was just the way the teams matched up, but the game was very reminiscent of that unheralded German side of four years ago, who ripped the spit out of Costa Rica with sudden, brilliant goals and a 4-2 triumph in the lid-lifter. And the Aussies weren’t bad, you know. This one could have been 4-2 as well. There was never any doubt, though, once the balls started flying in, that the youthful Germans were going to win this one going away.
If only that match weren’t utterly out of keeping with the dull, dour, defensiveness that is drowning this tourney in the early days. I’ve seen five better-than-okay matches out of eleven (RSA-MEX, KOR-GRE, ARG-NGA, ENG-USA, GER-AUS), and the England game only captivated me because I did 1,500 words of surgery on my own psyche whilst it was unwinding.
We desperately need a Group of Death. Right now.
And we’ve got it – as soon as New Zealand and Slovakia quit kitten-fitting each other at dawn. Portugal needs very urgently to show up for its opening match against Cote D’Ivoire, and your guess is as good as mine what Brazil v North Korea is going to look like.
Certainly, tomorrow has to be better. We’re only four days in. I deeply hope that what we’ve seen isn’t what we’re going to get the rest of the way.
Onward!