England, meanwhile, look almost shockingly Englandish.
So Englandish! Tough look for all the pre-tournament talking heads who thought they’d turned into Brazil. England, they rhapsodized, isle of the samba. Instead it’s been a lot of laborious trucking the ball around by superstar players who look lost without the better, non-English superstars they play with on their club teams. If Bruno Fernandes played for England, Harry Kane might have seen the ball at some point. Poor Harry has spent this tournament slowly freezing to death in a remote tent, like Scott of the Antarctica. A search party will turn up his remains sometime in November. He’ll be frozen solid in a snowdrift near the opponent’s 18-yard box.
Head coach Jogi Löw is a master at grim lingering. If I had to put it into words I’d say he’s the exact midpoint between the Angel of Death and an oatmeal fart. Either one might prove capable of winning this tournament.
Thing is, that rivalry is a bit one sided. It’s a huge game for Germany supporters as well, but they usually have a lot of admiration and good will for England. I don’t mean this in a condescending “England are no rivals since they have been less succesful” way, but no matter how crazy the tabloids get in the lead up, it’s just not a grudge match for Germany that is in any way comparable to facing Italy, the Netherlands or more recently Spain.
A match against England is always a big occasion, but it’s the kind you actually look forward to and enjoy, since it does not come with as much emotional baggage and trepidation as some others. I doubt that is going to change until the two countries meet at a very late stage in a tournament again. `66 is part of football lore here, but it does not have the same weight as a semi final defat to Italy in 2006 for example.
Rock8man: 71, Canuck: 73, rho21: 70. I think that’s right, but I was having trouble remembering which matches went to overtime. (An overtime or penalty kicks victory gives the losing team 1 point, and the winning team 2 points). I think Italy-Austria went to overtime, but last Saturday seems so long ago, I can’t be 100%. :-P
Things are very close, and the round of 16 was very kind to me, because I still have 5 teams left, while the other two have 4. More importantly, we each have one unique team left in the tournament that the other two don’t have. Rock8man: Spain, Canuck: Denmark, rho21: England
Protected from the eyes of those who might still have the matches on their DVR.
Anyone happen to have an overall update on the standings? I’m pretty sure I don’t have a shot against NostraDissensus but maybe I have a chance if Italy wins out!
Woah. Your numbers are different from mine. Did you do the 2 point and 1 point thing?
For example, France should have 7 points, not 6, since they should get 1 point for getting a draw in full time in a losing match. And Switzerland had 4 points before the round of 16 match, in which they should get 2 points, so they should have 6 points, not 7.
Yes, here’s the rules in question from marquac’s post:
Which are pretty brilliant rules. It makes a nice difference that a team that can win in regular time counts for me. And getting to extra time and then losing still gets some points.
