All will change after Thursday.
It was a great World Cup (with a poor final) but you’re right, Bulgaria and Stoichkov’s play was the story of the tournament for me. In the knockout rounds they beat Mexico, Germany, and then had some good chances to equalize in the semi-final against Italy. Stoichkov was so good as a mid-fielder who was also their top goal scorer. Normally most top scorers are forwards, so it was really refreshing seeing him set up the goals and score them. And he had that magical touch on the free kicks. I still wish they could have beaten Italy in those semi-finals. I think they would have had a great chance to win it all that year, a team that came out of nowhere. And it certainly would have made for a better final than what we got with Italy vs Brazil I think.
I think we can put a fork in Northern Ireland at this point of the match. Even though they’ve been behind so long, it’s only been Poland with the best scoring chances even after they went ahead.
Every now and then there’s a Best, or a Dalglish or even a Rush that would get in the team, but England’s failings at major tournaments have close to zero to do with the lack of a British team.
“Slawomir Peszko has four kidneys” may be the most interesting part of this game.
Ukraine should have scored there. Great save by the keeper though. This has got to be pretty much the same German team that won the last World Cup two years ago right? I’m expecting lots of scoring from them today.\
Edit: Beautiful first goal by Germany. They are so dangerous in the air. Their ball control using their heads never fails to astonish me.
Germany looks pretty amazing, but they’re trying to pull an England in these final minutes. Yeesh.
And just like that, Germany counter-attacks and seals the deal. World Class, indeed.
Yep; just the sort of clinical precision lacking in England’s opener. Plus Mueller is all that.
One nice thing about watching this through ESPN3 and/or SlingTV is that I was able to make it a small window, and watch it in the corner of one of my two monitors at work, while I work on spreadsheet and browser in the rest of my work space, and can glance down and check on the match every once in a while.
This Croatia/Spain match has started off pretty lively. Some nice offensive football already.
I made a lot of use of WATCHESPN/ESPN3 myself over the weekend and look to continue through the tournament. I also tried using FoxSportsGo (or 2GO?) for some Copa America coverage; the non-subscriby one. A little apples and oranges I think because I get the WATCHESPN because I subscribe yearly to ESPN the Mag. The quality of ESPN’s stream is SO MUCH superior to Fox’s that at times I didn’t know why I was even bothering with Fox. I’d have enjoyed a radio broadcast more.
The Czechs are playing a dangerous game. I know Cech has been very good in the first half, but Spain have created enough chances that just sitting back with 10 behind the ball is going to end up at 1-0 Spain.
Wow, I hope that play makes the highlight reel. Play of the game so far. An amazing save by Fabergas. The ball was past the goal keeper for sure if he hadn’t kicked it straight up in the air to prevent the Czechs from scoring.
They took Cesc off shortly after. I presume they saw Fabregas actually working back and thought it’s probably an imposter.
Second game about to kick off. Zlatan about to Zlatan.
Ah, classic Belgium.
That was a fun game. Any day I get to see Chiellini booked for a cynical foul is a good day. Everything feels right with the world.
Truly, that was a masterclass from Italy. They will be tough to beat if they keep up with that form and level of teamwork and desire.
Mr Bismark, might you be a Chelsea fan? That’s a great line and you made me laugh.
I can’t help but think that in a decade people are going to be talking about how crazy it was that this generation of players didn’t win a Euro or World Cup.