News-Record.com

.... has painstakingly reenacted the Michael Barrett - A.J. Pierzynski brawl. I don't know whether this is impressive or just plain sad. But it is pretty darned funny. And it makes me wax nostalgic for the days when I could run the basepaths with a crossbow in hand. But I digress ...

small FCC warning. The blogger here, Bat Girl, is pretty clearly a Cubs fan. I can tell by the not so nice name she has for the Sox and their field. Nothing horrible, just a female dog synonym.

... and nobody was there to see it on the Outdoor Life Network, then did the NHL playoffs ever really happen?

As I eagerly await tonight's Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes -- OK, not nearly as much as I would if the Capitals were playing -- I wonder how many others in the Triad will be tuning in.

There was at least some mild interest in Greensboro four years ago when the Canes made the Stanley Cup finals, but it was mostly a bandwagon-jumping phenomenon mostly, I think, which was basically reflected in this paper's coverage of the series.

But, as it stands, few in the area, and few in the U.S., seem to give a hockey mullet about the NHL's first playoffs back from a year-long lockout. According to last week's Triad TV ratings, no hockey games on OLN cracked the top-10 most-watched sporting events on cable TV. You had eight NBA games, a Busch race and a Yanks-Sox game. The Mavs-Spurs on May 22 had a 5.7 rating; hockey apparently isn't even cracking the 1.0 barrier.

From what I heard on the Jim Rome Show today, this is the trend nationally. Even Monday-night pro wrestling is drawing more viewers. So can hockey make it in non-traditional U.S. markets? Is OLN just too hard to find on most TV's? Or are these matchups -- Buffalo-Carolina/Edmonton-Anaheim -- just too lame to draw in moderate, borderline hockey fans.

Too bad. I suspect it will be seriously high drama at the RBC Center tonight, particularly if we have overtime. And the Finals should be very compelling. Folks in Canada certainly will be enthralled to see the Great One's old team trying to relive past glory.

Just don't miss it next year when the dynamic Alex Ovechkin leads the Caps to the Cup. OK, that's a pipedream. Sorry, it's all I can muster right now.

Junior left-hander Andrew Miller is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick of the Kansas City Royals in next week's baseball draft. (Cy Young himself couldn't save the woeful Royals, but that's a blog for another day.) Oddly enough, Miller will not be pitching the all-important first game of this weekend's NCAA Regional at Boshamer Stadium when the Heels face Maine today at 6 p.m.

Coach Mike Fox hasn't lost his mind. He offered pretty solid reasons for opening against the Black Bears with soft-tossing righty Robert Woodard and coming back with Miller against either Winthrop or UNC Wilmington on Saturday in the Tar Heels' first home regional since 1983.

For instance, Woodard has been a No. 1 starter before ('05), Maine has a lot of right-handed bats and Woodard is better on short rest than either Miller or Daniel Bard, another high first-round talent, meaning he could throw again Sunday or Monday if needed.

Then, there's this:

We just made the call and felt like Robert's going to get deep into the game. Not that Andrew won't, but the history with Robert is he throws so many strikes, he's going to get us into the sixth or seventh inning more than likely. The last thing you want to do is tax your bullpen the first game of regionals, so we'd rather not do that.

Let's see how it pans out. If they lose Game 1, the Heels would likely need to win four games in 48 hours to advance to the Super Regional.

I'll also be interested to see whether UNC's surprising two-and-out at last weekend's ACC Tournament in Jacksonville is a sign of trouble or maybe a blessing in disguise. We'll see how fresh and focused the Heels are in comparison to N.C. State, which made a strong tournament run and now might possibly have some tired arms when it plays a brutally tough regional in Austin, Texas.

... any time soon. That's CTK as is in Christ the King. As in, one of the top talent-producing schools in New York City. As in the school where former State signee Larry Davis played.

Last week the Fayetteville Observer-Times caught up with Davis' high school coach, Bob Oliva. You can find the article here, or you can just check out this quote.

Oliva's speaking here when asked to speculate on why Davis decided he'd rather go to Seton Hall than N.C. State.

--

“Well, they (N.C. State) took two months to name a coach, and then, when they did, they named a guy who can’t coach.

“That is about the stupidest thing I ever heard of.”

---

Ummm.... wow. Maybe Oliva just got up on the wrong side of the bed. Maybe he was miffed about being bothered on Memorial Day. Or maybe State should just look elsewhere in the future for New York City talent.

As the words "We stand on guard for thee" trailed off in the pregame rendition of "O Canada," and someone in the RBC Center crowd hoisted his sign -- reading "REDNECK HOCKEY" -- it was clear what we have in these Stanley Cup Finals is a clash of cultures, nation vs. nation. That point was hammered home when, after the Hurricanes took three penalties in less than two minutes late in the first period, a Canes fan said to me: "They should repeal NAFTA."

The Oilers lead 1-0 on Fernando Pisani's rebound goal. For those who can pick up the CBC on their dishes, hope you enjoyed Don Cherry's bright-colored Hawaiian blazer during the intermission ... and of course his typically irreverent rants.

For those who like to scan the International press on the Internet in the morning, there were quite a few non-U.S. publications credentialed for these Finals. In addition to two Edmonton papers and media from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and other points north, there was my favorite journal -- Blick, from Switzerland. And the Gothenburg Post, the Sport Express Daily (Russia), Galaxie Sport (Czech), Spits Newspaper (Netherlands, I believe), Turun Sonomat (Finland), Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Veikkaaja, TV4 Sweden and ... well, you get the picture.

Oh, and I waited in line for my media pass behind none other than former Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, arguably the greatest goaltender in hockey history.

It's Glasnost in the Carolinas.

Steve Smith was an outstanding defenseman for the Oilers for several years, but it's hard for folks in Edmonton to shake the memory of his "own goal" in a Game 7 against rival Calgary in 1986. The Flames went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Perhaps Jason Smith's entanglement with backup goalie Ty Conklin behind the net, leading to Rod Brind'Amour's game-winning goal with 31 seconds left Monday night, will propel the Hurricanes to their first Cup. Starting goalie Dwayne Roloson is lost for the series, according to Oilers coach Craig Mactavish, and given how little his backups have played in the postseason, this series very well could be over -- even after just one game.

The Canes had already rallied from a 3-0 deficit, having even taken the lead on Justin Williams' short-handed goal in the third period. The finish -- and loss of Roloson -- will be near-impossible to overcome against the offensively talented Canes. No, sir, these aren't your '02 Canes, who lost to Detroit in five.

I've surprised a few of my friends in recent days by telling them that Ced Simmons is a lock to be a first-round pick in the NBA Draft. They were ACC hoops fans and apparently thought that the trouble Ced had against guys like Wake's Eric Williams might give NBA scouts some doubts.

But if they were NBA draftniks, they'd know that things like wingspan, baseline to baseline speed, leaping ability and the vague but all-important "upside" are more critical when David Stern steps to the mike. And Ced Simmons has those in spades. Which is why I'm not that surprised to find more and more mock drafts putting the former State big man in the lottery.

A lot of them have Ced going No. 13 to Philadelphia, where GM Billy King - the former Duke defensive whiz - thinks Ced could be the second coming of Theo Ratliff.

One of the advantages of having a newborn child around the house - aside from the opportunity to accessorize my shirts with spit-up patches - is that it gets me out of bed early in the morning to watch sports in Europe as they're happening live. Two years ago when my daughter was born, it was the Olympic Games in Athens. She and I will also have that shared memory of the kayak race on CNBC at 4 a.m. This time around, my son and I have been taking in a lot of the French Open.

That means a lot Rafael Nadal.

I'm not personally crazy about Nadal. His muscle shirt and capris get-up has got to go. And I've never loved players that thrive off defensive tennis. Still, his record of 58 straight wins on clay - and counting - a remarkable achievement that deserves to be praised.

Too bad the old record holder, Guillermo Vilas, doesn't feel the same way.

You'd think that Vilas, who now looks disturbingly like Gerard Depardieu, would appreciate Nadal's mark because it gives him a chance to remind everyone how great he was back in the 70's. Well, he's definitely enjoying the reminding part. The appreciating part? Not so much.

Check out this blog, which quotes extensively from a Reuters article I can't seem to find.

It's unbelievable to me that Vilas is trying to claim that Nadal padded his record, and that somehow it means less because it was accumulated over two years. This from a guy who reached his number of consecutive clay court victories by winning tournaments in such tennis hotbeds as Tehran and Bogota.

As for the tournament itself, it has been a woeful display for the Americans on the red clay. But I think these things are cyclical. I've heard there's some talent coming through the pipeline that will hopefully take the torch from Agassi/Sampras/Courier after it's been fumbled by Andy Roddick.

For those of who who are already getting World Cup fever - who know who you are - here's this critical piece of information.

Raica Oliveira, the girlfriend of Brazilian star Ronaldo, recently told the press she will not - repeat, not - pose in the nude.

Now that this critical issue has been settled, you may all resume your daily lives.

By the way, expect more World Cup blog items in the very near future. Don't expect all of them to continue info on models, though.

No, we're not going there live. But we did chuckle quite a bit when OLN flashed to a shot of Edmonton's Rexall Center yesterday.

You've seen this sort of image before - in 2004 Fox kept giving us live shots of a Jillian's in Boston, with insane Red Sox fans mugging for the camera. It makes sense when the team that the fans have gathered to cheer is actually winning.

In this case, the Oilers fans who were watching the game on the big screen at the arena were watching their team - which already trailed 1-0 in the series - fall behind 2-0. Needless to say, OLN gave us a shot of a bunch of people with ticked off expressions on their faces, who kept shooting glares at the camera that was intruding on their grief. I dubbed it the "Devastation Cam." It was a
moment high on the Unintentional Comedy scale.

If you were rooting for the Canes, that is.

Jim Young beat me to it Wednesday with his post on Ronaldo's girlfriend deciding not to pose nude for a magazine, but this is my Eric Cantona/Nike/Joga Bonito moment as I hijack this blog to talk about "the beautiful game:" Soccer.

The World Cup starts Friday and, while the first-day matchups are not exactly marquee games (Germany-Costa Rica at noon and Poland-Ecuador at 3 p.m., both on ESPN2), it's still a great day to be a futbol/soccer fan. I can remember the first time I watched a World Cup game. It was 1978, and Tunisia stunned Mexico 3-1 -- the first time an African nation had won a game in the tournament. The picture was fuzzy and the broadcast was in Spanish (Univision at my soccer buddy Mike Heredia's house in Dover, N.J.), but I was hooked.

I didn't get to see a World Cup game in person until 1994, when I watched Ireland hand Italy its only loss until the final, beating the Azzuri 1-0 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. What an atmosphere! For about four hours that day, I felt as if I'd been transported to the San Siro, Bernabeu, Wembley or one of the sport's other European cathedrals. The weather was miserably hot and humid in a "swamps of Jersey" kind of way, with apologies to Bruce. But even my wife, who is not a soccer nut, didn't mind.

A lot has changed since 1978. Every game is on live TV here (WXLV-45, ESPN, ESPN2, Univision and Telefutura) and the tournament is being promoted by U2 in commercials. But it's still the beautiful game and, while I've never been able to "play beautiful," as Cantona implores, I can at least "watch beautiful" and try to "blog beautiful." Between now and the final July 9, Jim Young and I will bring you live updates from some of the games and share our thoughts on the world's largest sporting event.

Until kickoff at noon Friday, I return you to Jeff Carlton's Stanley Cup finals updates and regularly scheduled blogging.

As well as the urine bags, the batteries, the rocks and maybe even a little bit of acid for good measure.

ESPN.com's Wayne Drehs follows up on a point made quite well by a recent Gatorade ad: when it comes to playing in hostile environments, no other team in the world has it as bad as the U.S. soccer team. It's a compelling article.

Ironically, all that anti-Americanism that gets spewed at the team probably has the opposite effect. It tends to build the team's chemistry by fostering an us-against-the world mentality that is very real. And it toughens them up. Think any "Yankee go home!" chants in Germany are really going to faze these guys? I doubt it.

Now, stopping the Czech forwards? That might be considerably tougher.
But the U.S. did get this bit of news which could be potentially huge. If Pavel Nedved isn't good to go on Monday, then the U.S.'s chances suddenly get a whole lot better.

Umm, not so much. No real big preview show on ESPN2, unless you count Woody Paige and that Eric whatever-his-name-is talking about it on Cold Pizza. Eric went with the chalk, picking Brazil. Woody went with Trinidad and Tobago, opting for the ridiculous rather than actually putting his neck on the line with a predicition. Gee guys, thanks for the insight.

Earlier in the show though, and on ESPN this morning as well, former U.S. women's national team member Julie Foudy was much better. I hated the fact that ESPN made her compare six World Cup players to NBA counterparts. Geez, can't these people stop promoting the NBA for one moment? Plus, I think it's the worst sort of copout in sports commentary when you have to rely on another sport to explain the sport you're broadcasting. Like when Dick Enberg inevitably refers to a big tennis match as "two heavyweight fighters slugging it out." Ugggh..

Anyway, back to Foudy. She did her best to play the silly little NBA-World Cup game. Then she went with a bold, gutsy pick to win it all ...

The Netherlands.

Yes, Clockwork Orange, the guys that brought you Total Football and the Cruyf turn. The Dutch have always had tons of talent and yet nothing to show for it in the World Cup. Zero titles. They've also always had chemistry issues stemming from racial tension between the team's white and black players.

But, as I said, they're loaded with talent. It's a bold, yet informed, pick.

My only question is whether the Dutch can get out of Group C - the one that Foudy correctly noted is the REAL Group of Death, not the U.S. Group E. Group C features the Dutch, Argentina, Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro. Yikes.

Okay, only about five or six minutes to the start. Meanwhile on Cold Pizza, two sumo wrestlers are pushing around the host.

Sigggh...

C'mon, this event's being held in the mecca of beer, Germany. But the official beer of the World Cup is ... Budweiser?

That's just wrong.

We're 1 minute into the Germany-Costa Rica game. The U2 "City of Blinding Lights" opening was impressive, but I still favor the music on my old FIFA World Cup computer game - Song No. 2 by Blur. Oh, and another version I had started off with Tub Thumper by Chubba Wumba.

I'll take one-hit wonders for 500, Alex.

Just as I was typing this, Germany's Philip Lahm just cut in from the left wing, beat two Costa Rican defenders and launched a shot that banked in off the far post.

1-0, Germany. Thanks for coming Costa Ricka.

I was all set for a bunch of cracks about HD being useless in this game because Costa Rica would never see the German half of the field. I was about to ask whether Jens Lehman was really in goal for Germany becuase we never got to see him.

Then everything just changed

A really ragged offsides trap by Germany allowed Paulo Wanchope to slip in all alone. He easily beat Lehman low and to the left and suddenly it's 1-1.

Let's hear it for North American soccer!!!

17 minutes into the game, and already a third goal.

Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger (don't you love these German names?) got free in the box and sent a beautiful pass to the far post, where striker Miroslav Klose redirected it into the goal.

2-1 Germany. What an unbelievable start. I don't think Klose did his trademark foreward flip after the goal, but other than that, no complaints here.

The Costa Rican goalkeeper is getting peppered right now. Already, just 24 minutes into the game, he's had to face eight shots. A close offsides call just prevented Germany from getting a ninth.

The Costa Rican defense is ... what's the word?

Porous. Yes, that's it. Very, very porous.

The first yellow card of the 2006 World Cup goes to Costa Rica's Danny Fonseca in the 30th minute.

I've got chills ...

First you spend much of your history as the victim of the territorial ambitions of Germany and Russia.

Then, when you finally get some decent soccer talent, it moves to Germany.

Yep, both of Germany's star strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski were born in Poland. C'mon, is that really fair?

Some day, Poland will have its time in the sun. Some day ....

Goes to Germany's Schweinsteiger. (say it with me, it's fun!!!)

If you remember, back in 2002, both David Beckham and Clint Mathis showed up at the World Cup, sporting the mohawk. Why? Beats the heck out of me. Schweinsteiger's is more like Beckham's in the sense that it's not a fully shaved head around the mohawk. Rather, it's just a nice mousse job on the blond hair in the middle.

Germany leads 2-1.

Thanks to Germany's insistence on playing an offside trap against a quicker team, Costa Rica has had some scoring chances and would have had more if the referee's assistants understood that level when the ball is played IS ONSIDE.

Wily old Paolo Wanchope, a former EPL regular, has made the German defense look slow on more than one occasion.

It says here that if the Germans abandon the trap in the second half, they win by three goals.

... which means no incredibly jingoistic game-calling when the U.S. is playing.

I'm fairly pleased with the broadcast crew ESPN's trotted out for the opener. Dave O'Brien is normally a baseball guy, but I think his lack of soccer background actually works well here. He calls the action and then gets the heck out of the way for his color man, Marcelo Balboa.

While Balboa still owns one of the most awful hairdos ever - it's like a mullet on steroids - I've been impressed so far. His best analysis so far? That Germany is playing with fire by trying to use an onsides trap against fleet Costa Rican forward Paulo Wanchope. They've already been burned once. Why not just try some good old fashioned man-on-man defense? You're Germany, for the love of Lothar Mattheus (I have no idea if I spelled that right).

Oh boy, this could get ugly for Costa Rica.

Lahm crosses over to Klose, who heads it down toward goal. Porras gets a piece of it, but can't control the rebound. Klose pounds in his second chance.

3-1 Germany.

Another good point by Balboa. Porras had no business trying to catch that header. He should have deflecte it out wide. Instead, the ball went off his chest and hands and right back to Klose.

In Porras' defense, he doesn't appear to have one in front of him. No one was anywhere near Klose when he attempted the header. That allowed him to then waltz in and knock in the easy rebound.

Meanwhile, Polish fans continue to claw their eyes and wonder what might have been if Klose was playing for their squad.

A little old-fashioned justice just meted out on the pitch, Legend of Billy Jean style.

Martinez for Costa Rica went down with an apparent calf injury. The unwritten rule of soccer is that the opposing team knocks the ball out of bounds during that time to give the injured guy a chance to get off the field. The Germans didn't do that, though. So moments later, Wanchope plowed over Schweinsteiger (sounds like a bad metal band doesn't it?). After a few more moments of play, the Costa Ricans punted the ball out of bounds, as if to say, "See, that's what you should have done!"

This game could get chippy down the stretch. Not George Laroque cheapshotting Andrew Ladd chippy, but pretty close.

But the Germans wouldn't listen. That stupid offsides trap - and a potential missed call by the refs - results in Wanchope getting behind the German defense and getting another one past Lehmann. (You can almost hear Germany's fans yelling "Kahn!!!!!!" for their backup keeper, Oliver Kahn, just like William Shatner in the Star Trek movie, or George Costanza in Seinfeld.)

So it's 3-2 now, in favor of Germany. And Costa Rica, which needs to limit its goal differential if wants to advance out of group play, has some hope. Heck, Costa Rica might still have a shot at tying this game.

Every time they called his name, I kept thinking about Gabrielle Solis, Eva Longoria's character in Desparate Housewives.

Maybe I shouldn't make that sort of knowledge of chick tv so public.

I knew German coach Jurgen Klinsmann was making his squad a more aggressive, attacking unit, but ... wow!

The Germans just added another goal, this one on a wicked, knuckling blast by Torsten Frings from about 40 yards out. So much for sitting on a one-goal lead.

The game's now in injury time, so it looks like Germany will hold on for a 4-2 win.

Unless it wants to go for five.

Final score, Germany 4, Costa Rica 2.

A very, very entertaining opener to the World Cup. The Germans have ton of scoring power - they scored four even without main man Michael Ballack in the lineup. The Costa Ricans showed their dangerous enough to contend for the No. 2 spot in Group A and - more importantly - showed that Germany is very very vulnerable on its backline.

The mistakes Germany made agains Costa Rica cost them two goals. What will it cost them once they get out of group play?

Okay, that's all for now. I don't think I'll do a running diary for the Ecuador-Poland match, unless the public demands it.

and so much more is available at this blog site - sportolysis.com These guys took the time to interview people from each of the 32 participating countries. Well, they had to rely on a journalist who's been to Togo, but still you've got to applaud the effort.

I'll be sending along other World Cup blog links as we go alon.

But first, you gotta see the clip of this kid from Brazil, Kerlon Souza. He's not in the World Cup, but he's apparently come up with this new move, called the Seal Dribble. Basically, he bounces the ball lightly off his own forehead as he runs down the field. It's funky looking, but how do get the ball away from him without fouling?

The seal dribble stuff is shown at the beginning of the clip. After that, just enjoy the vocal stylings of the King.

So much for my projected Group A runner-up.

Ecuador was the fourth-place finisher in South American qualifying, but was considered suspect because all but one of its qualifying wins came in the rareified air of Quito (9,252 feet above sea level). Now, it looks as if the Ecuador-Costa Rica game at 9 a.m. Thursday (ESPN2) will decide who joins Germany in the knockout stage from Group A.

Well, at least I didn't have Poland reaching the quarters in my bracket.

Saturday's tripleheader presents at least two intriguing matchups: England-Paraguay, which will probably pack Keegan's Pub on Battleground, at 9 a.m. on WXLV-45; and Argentina-Ivory Coast at 3 p.m. on ESPN2.

Who knows if Wayne Rooney will be fit for England's opener, but Sven Goran Eriksson's side is already preparing for the knockout stage by practicing penalty kicks -- with a twist.

As for the Argentina-Ivory Coast matchup, this is a scary one for coach Jose Pekerman's side. The Ivory Coast looks like the most dangerous team to come out of Africa this year, and at least one African squad seems to pull an upset or two every four years. With EPL stalwarts Kolo Toure (Arsenal) and Didier Drogba (Chelsea) in the lineup, the Elephants -- yes, that's their nickname -- can't be taken lightly.

The least attractive of today's three games is the Group B matchup between Sweden and surprise qualifier Trinidad & Tobago at noon on WXLV-45.

OK, I'm not Andreas Cantor, but if you want to hear World Cup games in Spanish in the Triad, you can tune in to two AM stations for the passionate call on every game.

Que Pasa Radio will have coverage throughout the 64-game event on WTOB-1380 and WWBG-1470.

Bueno, muy bueno!

Where are the articles on Eddie Pope in the News & Record? Just as in 2002, High Point's soccer star has been elusive during the buildup to the World Cup.

Eddie spoke with me briefly and was downright cordial after the U.S. MNT's 1-1 draw with Jamaica in Cary back on April 11, leading to a short feature story and photo in our April 12 print edition. But all attempts since then to set up an interview with the veteran defender through his club team, Real Salt Lake, through the U.S. Soccer Federation during the subsequent MNT camp in Cary and even through his family during his three-day break before traveling to Germany proved fruitless.

A Chicago Tribune story in the print edition of Friday's News & Record included Eddie's thoughts on the growing problem of racism in soccer. And we're keeping an eye on our wire services for word on how the former Southwest Guilford and UNC standout is feeling as Monday's opener against the Czech Republic draws nearer.

One of these days, Eddie will tell us why he doesn't want to talk to us at length. But until then, you can check him out on video at the U.S. Soccer Federation's Web site. Just launch the Studio 90 feature and go to Wednesday, June 7, in the archive for "Back 4 - Convey and Pope." It's an informal Q&A with Eddie and his World Cup roommate, Bobby Convey.

Most of the laughs are provided by Convey, including a Jeff Agoos own-goal reference, but Eddie is his usual thoughtful and articulate self. I just wish he'd send a little shout out to the folks back home.

Well, that was 90 minutes of my life I can't get back.

When David Beckham's long free kick resulted in an own goal by Paraguay in the fourth minute, I was settling in for what I thought would be a pretty entertaining soccer match. Instead, the lads appeared content to play it safe with that lead and Paraguay appeared content to come away with a minimal -1 in the goal differential. The result was hundreds of millions of people worldwide collectively watching grass grow.

I'm a fan of England - after the U.S. of course - so while I'm happy to get the three points, I'm also looking at the down side, like any good English fan would. This club is supposed to be loaded with talented midfielders, have talented goal scorers up front and a rock-solid defense. I saw some decent D today, but not much else. The buildups through the midfield were nonexistent, as England appeared content to rely on longballs to its 6-7 striker, Peter Crouch, who was a poor man's Thor Andre Flo today.

Ahh well, at least I can console myself by heading over to www.healrooney.com. I used my mouse over the foot and helped England's star striker, Wayne Rooney, get that much closer to healthy.

Watching a bit of Japan-Australia while waiting for the U.S.-Czech Republic game.

It's in the 58th minute and Japan leads 1-0 on Shunsuke Nakamura's goal that certainly looked to me as if it should have been called back. Nakamura's cross from the right wing got past Aussie keeper Mark Schwarzer, who appeared to be interfered with by not one but two Japanese attackers.

Not the most stirring game to this point.

Let's hope the United States is ready to put on a better show at noon. Bruce Arena's squad really needs at least a point against the Czech Republic, and three would go a long way toward booking a spot in the knockout round.

WOW!

Australia had never scored a goal in the World Cup finals. The Aussies just scored three in a span of eight minutes to beat Japan 3-1.

That's the good news for the Aussies. The bad news?

Brazil is next, at noon Sunday on WXLV-45.

Oh, well. That means the Aussies' fate in the group stage will be determined June 22 against Croatia.

And what of the Brazilians? They don't play their opener until 3 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN2). I guess FIFA wanted to save the best for last.

Ummm, still not sure. I watched the first half of Holland's 1-0 win over Serbia & Montenergo and was duly impressed. The team that gave us "total football" looked skilled and efficient, strong from the frontline, with Arjen Robben and Ruud Van Nistelrooy, to the back, where the ageless gumby Edwin Van der Sar pitched a shutout.

Still, this wouldn't be the Dutch if there wasn't somehow a problem, even in victory. Allegedly, some of Robben's teammates believed he fell a litlte too in love with his own skill - after scoring the game's only goal - and didn't pass enough. I'd heard they made some comments to the press about him, but I haven't found it yet.

And you wonder why one of the most talented soccer nations in the world has never won the Cup.

... when the crowd sings along. Either they've got mikes strategically placed in the U.S. cheering sections or the Americans really did travel well to this World Cup. I'd heard that the crowd was roughly 60% Czech, 40% U.S. The national anthem response seems to confirm that.

Come to think of it, when was the last time you actually heard a crowd at an American sporting event roar the national anthem as one? I thought about this on Saturday when I heard the Edmonton crowd proudly belt out "Oh Canada." You just don't see - or hear - that much on American soil.

Let's hope that's not the high point of today's game for the Yanks.

Geez, you look down to type something and the U.S. may already be done in the World Cup.

Somehow, the Czech'e found a ton of space on the right side and crossed it in to the box to their giant striker Jan Koller. He easily headed it in for a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute.

Time to shift goals. A tie would be nice wouldn't it?

The Czech Republic's 6-7 Jan Koller with a header in the sixth minute after he pushed Pope out of the way as if he wasn't even there. Kasey Keller had no chance to make the save.

after the despair of how watching the Czechs go ahead with disturbing ease. Now the U.S. is controlling possession, has gotten the ball into the Czech box and has won a corner. They look like they're settling down.

Or maybe I'm just reaching. I still have no idea how you defend Koller. That guy's huge.

Marcelo Balboa - who's been very good so far as the color commentator with Dave O'Brien - just made a very good point. The one position where the U.S. really doesn't have a comfortable fit is left back. Eddie Lewis is much more of an attacker when he plays for his club team, Reading, in Englad.

Where was the weak link on that first goal? Left back.

I don't know whether to feel happy at what almost happened or to sob about what didn't happen.

After a beautiful buildup through the middle, Claudio Reyna blasted a shot from the top of the box that bounced once and slammed off the left post.

It was impressive, but you also wonder how many opportunities like that the U.S. will get against a Czech tam that is already starting to play conservatively.

...Tomas Rosicky with a 25-yard blast to make it 2-0 Czech Republic.

Jim Young was right. The U.S. missed it's chance when Reyna hit the post, and that's it for this game.

Now, it's all about goal differential.

His question to Balboa - "Can the U.S. get one back before halftime?"

Maybe he should ask - "Should the U.S. just go with five midfielders and five strikers since their defenders have been so poor so far?"

As Balboa pointed out, Rosicky's great shot was the result of a very poor clear. It looked like it was Onyewu who, though he had no pressure whatsoever, headed the ball out of the box and right down the middle of the field to Rosicky.

Oh, and Balboa just told us the U.S. can come back.

I guess, in theory, there's a chance. But, wow, the U.S. speed is nonexistent right now.

This could be bad for the Czech's shot in this tourney. He was racing for a long ball and just went down on his own, clutching is right hammy. They've already subbed him out.

But hey, as smilin' Dave O'Brien just said, it's a good break for the U.S.!

Careful Dave, you're edging into Jack Edwards territory here.

Let's see...

What went right?

1. The quick buildup to Claudio Reyna's shot that clanged off the left post.
2. Jan Koller is out for the Czechs.

What went wrong? This is more like a Letterman top 10 list, just a bit shorter.

7. The Czechs scored first. With the lead, they were able to get numbers behind the ball and thwart the slow U.S. attack.
6. DaMarcus Beasley started the game on the right side of midfield. Beasley is left-footed, very left-footed. He was already whining a week ago about the possibility of having to play on the right side. Unless he's on the left for the second half, bring on John O'Brien and let Beasley pout on the bench.
5. Eddie Lewis got caught forward a couple of times. Having a natural midfielder (Lewis starts there for Leeds United in England) playing in the back is great when he's going forward; it's not so good when he has to get back. He also seemed to get in the way of Bobby Convey on the left, and his presence pushed Beasley to the right side, where he clearly wasn't comfortable.
4. Landon Donovan has been invisible. Donovan is playing like he did during his two stints in the German Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen. He needs to pick it up considerably in the second half.
3. Eddie Pope was matched up with Jan Koller on a ball in the air. The whole point of adding Oguchi Onyewu's athleticism and size (6-4, 210) to the U.S. backline was to match him up with the likes of Koller. Instead, the Czech counterattack created a mismatch that made it 1-0.
2. Tomas Rosicky hit a bomb. Rosicky's shot beats any goalie in the world, any time, anywhere. The problem was the poor clearance by Onyewu. He couldn't have set up Rosicky any better.
1. And the number one thing that went wrong was ... the U.S. went behind 2-0. As ESPN2 just pointed out, teams trailing 2-0 at halftime have never won a World Cup game in seventysomething tries.

Substitutions for the U.S. in the second half: Eddie Johnson for Steve Cherundolo and John O'Brien for Pablo Mastroeni. Clearly offensive moves as Arena shifts from a 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2 with O'Brien much more offensive-minded in midfield than Mastroeni and Johnson looking to bring speed as a forward (also allowing Donovan to drop into midfield, where he's more comfortable) with Cherundolo out on defense.

I rely on Joe's greater soccer expertise for analysis in moments like these, when my initial response would be to say that the U.S. played like (expletive deleted).

I will, however, begin a different sort of analysis to pass the time in the second half while I wait for the U.S. to do SOMETHING.

Who exactly, does Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved - he of the long flowing blond locks - look like.

My initial attempt? Owen's Wilson's character, Hansel, in Zoolander, a totally forgettable movie about male models.

Okay, I tried to be nice and I tried to be optimistic.

And hey, I'll gladly conceded that the Czechs were the better team coming into this.

But hey, how about some sort of spark from the U.S. team? Some semblance of effort? How do you come out for your World Cup debut and look soooooooooo flat?

Reyna just made a horrible giveaway deep in U.S. territory that almost made it 3-0 Czech Republic.

When you feel lucky to be down just 2-0. Rosicky, the guy who pounded in the second goal, was left all alone near the top of the box for another shot. This one glanced off the crossbar.

A little defense? Anyone?

... is the stock of U.S. players crashing on the transfer market.

It's never quite as bad as it seems at the time, but this performance has been bad. When your highlight for the half is Eddie Johnson turning and firing wide from the top of the box, it's not good.

... that was Onyewu getting torched again on Tomas Rosicky's second goal, which made it 3-0.

Onyewu is probably wishing he'd already signed with Middlesborough. Neither 'borough nor anyone else in the EPL is going to want anything to do with him after this.

And that means the U.S. is probably toast in the realm of goal differential.

Of course, if the U.S. keeps playing like this, the second round is a mere pipe dream.

I'll still keeping asking this question for a while though.

Why, why, why is DeMarcus Beasley still on the right side?

Atleast this guy's doing something. Narrowly put one over the cross bar.

I know Bruce Arena is a genius, but maybe I could make this suggestion?

Put Johnson up front with McBride at the forward position and move Donovan back to midfield. The only time the U.S. had any kind of a buildup was when Donovan was starting it from the middle.

This, THIS is the best U.S. World Cup team ever?

Again, I understand the Czechs are a very good team and a loss here by the U.S. not a shock. But the shock lies in how the game was lost. A flat U.S. team showed no creativity, no energy and no heart.

Even Alexi Lalas and Eric Wynalda - who have been acting as U.S. national team PR reps in the studio - couldn't help but blast the Red, White and Blue.

"A complete failure" was Lalas' analysis.

Wynalda took aim at the two wingers for the U.S. - Beasley and Convey.

"Go back and take a look at how many balls you played backward," Wynalda said. "Your job is to move the ball forward, not backward."

Couldn't agree more, Eric. The supposed strength of the U.S. was in its speed. The thought was that the U.S. might be able to exploit the Czechs by stretching them out wide and attacking on the wings. That meant that Convey and Beasley had to play key roles. Instead, they may have been the two worst players on the field (although Onyewu could give them a run for their money).

One final time, I will ask - why was Beasley on the right wing? He clearly doesn't want to play there.

That performance set U.S. soccer back 16 years.

No life, other than Eddie Johnson. No fire, not even any anger. I'll be curious to see if Bruce Arena falls on his sword and takes the blame or he points a finger at the players in the postgame.

About the only thing the U.S. players can take away from this game is some nice, clean Czech Republic jerseys they received in the traditional postgame swap. None of the Czech players had to sweat much or got many grass stains on them.

For any U.S. fans still watching the World Cup after that performance, you want a tie from Italy-Ghana. Not that the U.S. has a prayer of advancing now, but that's the best mathematical result. And even if the U.S. gets that result, it will need to beat Italy and Ghana.

Oh, well, maybe the Italians will be overconfident Saturday. It would be hard not to be after watching the U.S. performance against the Czechs.

I thought Alexi Lalas and Eric Wynalda were going to throw down in the ESPN2 studio during their postgame "analysis." When Wynalda said something about this being the first World Cup experience for Onyewu, Lalas launched into a tirade about how this U.S. team's strength was supposed to be experience and how no one led the team against the Czechs. Wynalda got defensive and you could see some of their old animosities from their days as teammates in the World Cup flare anew.

Lalas and Wynalda showed more emotion and fire in that segment than the U.S. team did all afternoon.

I've said a lot over the past four years about how far the U.S. has come as a soccer nation. Some evidence of that progress was just how upset the U.S. analysts were after the game.

This team is at a crossroads. It can regroup and show some heart and professionalism by grabbing three or four points from its remaining games against Italy and Ghana. Or it can go in the tank like the '98 team did in France.

I'd like to believe that Bruce Arena, unlike Steve Sampson, won't let that happen. But I also thought back after today's game to the 4-1 loss March 22 in Germany, where the U.S. was totally dominated by the hosts at a time when German coach Juergen Klinsmann's job might have been in jeopardy. After that game, U.S. keeper Kasey Keller ripped his teammates on a day when his own performance was dreadful. Hindsight is 20-20, but that may have been a sign of things to come in Germany for the U.S. team.

Is every member of the Italian national team required to use some sort of hair care product? It sure seems that way.

Pretty boys or not, the Azurri are up 1-0 on Ghana.

But again, why was Beasley on the right side?

As Joe pointed out earlier, the speedy wing is VERY left-footed. And apparently never happy about playing on the right. Yet Arena still insisted on putting him on the right side against the Czechs. Beasley's effort all day ranged from tentative to disinterested.

"We got nothing from Beasley," Arena said afterward.

Zing! I take that as a sign that Beasley probably won't be on the right side, or even in the game, against Italy.

Still we knew this was a problem going into the Czech game and it was apparent 10 minutes into the game that the problem wasn't going away, Yet Arena stuck with Beasley the entire game.

Who's to blame for that? Not just Beasley if you ask me.

The Togo party has been canceled. (Blame Jeff Carlton for that one.)

After going up 1-0, Togo saw one of its players sent off and South Korea scored twice to win 2-1.

France and Switzerland are scoreless at halftime in the day's second game. After that game, we finally get to see Brazil, against Croatia, at 3 on ESPN2.

We could be France.

OK, they won the World Cup in 1998 (which one English commentator at the time called "the only significant victory on French soil by the French" in anything, ever). But they haven't scored since.

That's right, two losses and a tie in 1998 and now a scoreless draw with Switzerland without scoring a goal in the World Cup finals.

The United States still has a long way to go before it can produce players as brilliant as Zidane and Henry, but at least the Red, White and Blue has scored in a World Cup game this century. France is supposed to be better than that.

What in the name of Michel Platini is wrong with Le Bleu?

Not exactly an example of Joga Bonito from the Brazilians, but the score could have been much worse.

And, of course, the goal was scored by my favorite of the one-name Brazilians, Kaka.

Group H finally kicks off Wednesday with Spain vs. Ukraine at 9 and Saudi Arabia vs. Tunisia at noon. The first game of the second wave is the 3 p.m. matchup between old rivals Germany and Poland. All three are on The Deuce.

It's already 3-0 against the Ukraine in the 49th minute, thanks to two goals by David Villa (the second a penalty) and one by Xabi Alonso. Will this be the year the Spaniards finally live up to their potential?

I picked Spain to win Group H, but I also picked Ukraine to advance.

High Point's Eddie Pope suffered a hand injury in a collision on the left sideline during Monday's U.S. debacle against the Czech Republic. The question is: Will the veteran defender be able to play Saturday in a must-win game against Italy?

Coach Bruce Arena doesn't sound worried, but there hasn't been any official word on what X-rays taken Tuesday revealed. We'll keep you posted.

Seriously, what would a World Cup blog be like without a little My Fair Lady?

Okay, getting this blog back on track, let me address Joe Sirera's $64,000 question -

Could this (finally) be the year for Spain?

Count me among the skeptical crowd. Yes, I know this is an impressive route of a respectable Ukraine team - although that red card and penalty shot was, well .... Kaka. But I've seen this before from Spain in group play. They look talented, creative, incredibly deep. Yet somehow, someway, they just don't get it done when the real action starts in the second round.

Don't get me wrong. I'd like to see a team like Spain - or the Dutch- break through, just for a little variety from the Brazilian monotony. But there's usually more than a little truth to soccer stereotypes. And right now, Spain wears the "Good, but not when it counts" label a little too comfortably.

After just watching the dazzling display Spain put on to score its fourth goal, I may be forced to reconsider.

Carlos Puyol did a phenomenal job of winning a ball near midfield, and keeping it alive while stumbling through two Ukraine defenders. He then passed it over to Fernando Torres, who one-twoed it right back to Puyol who headed it down to Torres who drilled a half-volley strike into the left side of the net.

If that sounds complicated, you should have seen it unfold in the space of about three or four seconds. Ridiculous.

Spain is absolutely dominating ... for now. I classify them as a phenomenal front-runner. If they get out to an early lead, they play loose and their talent takes over. If things get tight though, then the decades of World Cup angst set in.

And with Raul on the bench.

That was the most dominating performance of the World Cup so far, I think. It will make the inevitable Spanish collapse later in the tournament -- my dad is Spanish, so I know of what I speak -- all the more crushing.

While hard-core Cup fans wait for Saudi Arabia-Tunisia at noon on ESPN2 and U.S. fans wait for the next bit of finger-pointing from the Red, White and Blue, here are a few World Cup sites to check out:

-- Goal.com is a pretty good site with a lot of multimedia content, as long as you don't mind all the ads (particularly Pepsi).

-- Goal Post is a World Cup blog on The New Republic's site. Fellow N&R blogger and compadre John Newsom pointed me toward this one, which offers a unique world view to say the least on the world's game.

-- And then there's the old standby, FIFA's official World Cup site, brought to you by one of the corporate partners, Yahoo!.

... at least score some goals. That's what Saudi Arabia and Tunisia just did.

It was the only all-Arab matchup of the group stage, and it proved to be entertaining if not artistic. Maybe the French could take a lesson from these guys.

Speaking of Les Bleus, the French newspapers were all over their still-scoreless-since-1998 side. One went so far as to compare the aging 1998 World Cup champions to the Rolling Stones on a farewell tour.

Hmmm. I guess Zidane would have to be Mick Jagger. Maybe Barthez as Charlie Watts and Henry as Ronnie Wood. But who's Keith Richards?

Anyway, if I were the Stones, I'd be insulted by the comparison.

Germany and Poland, meeting again. This is already longer than Poland held out in 1939.

Sorry. No more Polish jokes for the rest of the tournament.

Oliver Neuville's lunging poke off a cross from the right wing by David Odonkor in injury time gives the Germans a victory and six points, booking a place in the knockout stage for the hosts.

Poland, a team I foolishly picked to advance, was reduced to 10 men by a second yellow against Radoslaw Sobolewski in the 75th minute. After that it was all Germany, which outshot the Poles 23-8 overall.

If Costa Rica beats Ecuador on Thursday (9 a.m., ESPN2), Germany will win Group A with one game to play -- against Ecuador. If Ecuador wins, their match Tuesday will decide who wins the group.

We interrupt the World Cup to bring you an interesting Greensboro-related note about the Stanley Cup Finals, which has the RBC Center buzzing in anticipation right about now.

Jeff Brubaker, a popular coach once upon a time with the Monarchs, then Generals, has played for both these clubs. He played for the Whalers in their final year in the WHA in 1978-79 and first year in the NHL. He played four games for the Edmonton Oilers in 1985-86 as he was winding down his playing career.

Maybe it wasn't just the altitude in qualifying. Or maybe it's how weak Costa Rica and Poland are, but Ecuador just locked up a spot in the knockout stage with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica.

Germany and Ecuador meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday (ESPN, not The Deuce) to decide the group champion, which gets the Group B runner-up. The loser gets the Group B winner. A tie would make Ecuador the group winner on goal differential.

Next up is a Group B matchup between England and Trinidad & Tobago at noon on ESPN2.

Wayne Rooney (foot) has medical clearance to play for England, but something tells me Sven Goran Eriksson will bring him in as a substitute in the second half.

Sweden and Paraguay will close the day's action at 3 p.m. on ESPN. Paraguay has to have a win to stay in contention for the knockout stage.

For my money, the best goal celebration of a weak tournament so far in the category was Ecuador's Ivan Kaviedes with his Lucha Libre masked wrestler bit after his clincher in injury time today. Kaviedes pulled his jersey up over his face ala Rey Mysterio Jr.

With Jack Black's "Nacho Libre" movie coming out this weekend, maybe it was a paid advertisement.

A header by the Dork, er, Stork, Peter Crouch, off a David Beckham cross from the right in the 85th minute makes it 1-0 against T&T. Crouch proves that it does help to be 6-7, no matter how awkward you may look.

Steven Gerrard with a rocket in injury time as both England goals were scored by Liverpool players.

A T&T goal a minute or so later was waved off for offside. Not that it would have mattered, but I thought the offensive player was level with the last defender when the initial shot was struck. As much as I love soccer, the offside rule still puts too much on the officials.

It hasn't exactly been convincing, but England has punched its ticket to the knockout stage with six points from two games.

Sweden and Paraguay are up next at 3 on ESPN.

Except for my bracket.

The Swedes edge Paraguay 1-0 on an 88th-minute header by Arsenal's Freddie Ljungberg.

I had Paraguay advancing, which it definitely will not do. If I was looking for a South American dark horse, Ecuador would have been the choice.

With four points, Sweden looks to be in good shape to reach the second round from Group B, along with England, despite its shocking scoreless draw with Trinidad & Tobago in the opener.

Since our resident soccer experts are out of town, let me just make a few comments about the first half of the U.S.-Italy World Cup match, which is 1-1 at intermission.

A) Maybe Bruce Arena is the coaching genius he purports to be, after all. Lineup changes were expected after the 3-0 humiliation against the Czechs, but not entirely what was expected. Big-mouth Beasley out (no surprise), Clint Dempsey in. Pablo Mastroeni remained in, though. Instead, Arena dumped Lewis in the back and put in Bocanegra. Dempsey was a force up the right flank throughout the first half. Good move there.

B) The Americans, instead of coming apart at the seams -- as I suspected they might be with their public comments of the past few days -- were energized and, biggest surprise of all, were the better team for the first 45 minutes. Italy, which already has 3 points, seemed almost disinterested by comparison.

C) That said, one bad foul and the US trailed 1-0 on Hilardino's header. At least it took Italy 22 minutes to score. The US was buried in the opener by the fifth minute.

D) A corner kick into the box and an OWN GOAL, and the Americans are alive and well. Moments later, De Rossi throws a thuggish elbow into Brian McBride's nose, bloodying him, and the red card gives the US a man advantage, potentially for 60 minutes.

E) But, no! One of the worst makeup calls in the history of sports -- or so it seems at the moment -- evens it up. Mastroeni's late tackle gets a red card late in the half. Maybe a yellow. But red? Preposterous. Well, wait, it gets better. Eddie Pope gets a yellow on a tackle in the 48th minute, his second. So it's now 10 on 9, Italy. Good night. Thanks for coming to Kaiser Soze, Germany, now be on your way.

F) Pope wasn't very good before he got disqualified. I'd say he's a step slow at this point in his career.

G) Ghana beat the Czechs earlier, 2-0. What the !$^!$&@#??? Anyway, it gave the U.S. life, at least until it meets the Ghanans. We'll see if it really matters. A loss here would certainly be near-fatal.

The Ukraine is bouncing back nicely after its humiliating 4-0 defeat at the hands of Spain. Now Shevchenko and the boys are rolling over Saudi Arabia, 3-0, midway through the second half.

Ukraine's pathetic loss in its first game prompted this classic one-liner by analyst Julie Foudy:

"Ukraine is weak."

Nice! Beautiful use of a pretty obscure Seinfeld line (from the episode where Kramer and Newman are playing Risk and Kramer has Newman down to his last stronghold, Ukraine.)

Speaking of good lines, Foudy had this one when viewing yet another replay of Brandi Chastain's jersey toss after winning the World Cup in a shootout.

"Too bad Brandi had a beer gut."

Ouch! Zing!

Or, as J. Peterman might say - "It's a good old-fashioned cat fight!"

Somebody really missed the boat on this one. I just watched them pan down the Spain lineup during the playing of its national anthem. Wow, there are a lot of guys putting a lot of stuff in their hair. Sergio Ramos looks like he just stepped out of the shower, his hair is so slick.

So why hasnt' Vidal Sassoon or someone like that stepped foward to become the official hair care product of the 2006 World Cup? They could have done something like, say, be the exculsive provider of mousse and hair gel for the Italian team. It would have been a huge boost to the bottom line.

Just when you thought Spain was emerging as best threat to Brazil, the Spaniards show why they're, well, Spain.

Seven minutes into the game and massive underdog Tunisia strikes first. Sure, maybe the Tunisians were a bit physical in getting the ball free for a strike in the box, but c'mon Spain. You've gotta do better.

As Tommy Smith just said - "Now we'll see what Spain is made of."

Spain's gotta hope the answer is different from what's it's been in the past.

Consider this a bit of a mea culpa to the Spaniards. Yes, I've been more than willing to chronicle their history of World Cup underachieving. And yes, maybe I've even enjoyed that a little.

But I've got to be fair. The goal that Raul just scored - tying the game with Tunisia, 1-1, with less than 20 minutes remaining - was pretty darned clutch. After a teammate launched a shot from the top of the penalty box, Raul had to fight his way inside a defender to get a foot on the rebound. Then, somehow he managed to toe punch the ball over the keeper and into the upper right corner of the net.

It was a great goal - the kind of play that might define a lengthy Cup run for the previously cursed Spaniards.

Less than five minutes after Spain finally broke through to tie, they scored again to go ahead, 2-1.

This time, it was a beautiful through ball from Fabregas to Torres, who calmly tapped the ball off the outside of his right heel past the Tunisian keeper, who was out to the edge of the box trying to cut off th pass.

2-1 Spain. Welcome to the round of 16 fellas. Maybe this time will finally be different.

Just after Fernando Torres scored Spain's third goal - yes, you read that correctly - they panned the euphoric Spanish crowd. There, in the middle of the crowd, in full view, was a Rebel battle flag. Yep, the old stars and bars was on display.

Why? I have no idea. Was it some Basque separatist making a rebellious statement? Maybe, but you'd think if you wanted to rebel from Spain you wouldn't be cheering them wildly in the World Cup. I just don't get that one.

By the way, before you get too giddy about Spain, here's this stat - this is the sixth group stage game in a row in which Spain has scored at least three goals. In other words, they are no strangers to hot starts.

Strong finishes? That's another story ...

I'd planned to blog about how bizarre it was that England hasn't beaten Sweden in 38 years in soccer (four losses and seven ties over that span) but already there is big news in the match.

Less than a minute in, Michael Owen - England's boy wonder before Wayne Rooney came along - just slipped on the turf and has injured his right knee. He just got stretchered off the field - no embellishment here.

Not good, not good at all.

Peter "The Stork" Crouch, who'd been replaced in the lineup by Rooney, has come on in place of Owen.

A brief glimpse of the brilliance of Wayne Rooney. He ran under a long ball from David Beckham, tapped it to himself, split two Swedish defenders and almost got a clean shot off on goal, only to have it deflected at the last moment.

No goal, but plenty of excitement. Man, if he and Owen were in the game at the same time ...

No word yet on Owen's status.

Joe Cole just added to the high number of long-range goals scored at the 2006 World Cup. He settled a ball from - I don't know, 30 yards out? - and then launched a moon shot that dipped down over the hands of the Swedish keeper - who looked like he got caught off his line - into the goal.

1-0 England. The lads are playing well. And the kids I'm watching it with here at the Duke student center (post Coach K press conference) are decidedly pro England.

If you're the underdog and have been outplayed badly all game, you're only one well-placed corner kick and header away from knotting things up.

Of course, if you're the favorite and you've dominated, you can have all your hard word wiped away on one defensive lapse.

Case in point, the England-Sweden game. It was all - I mean, all - England for the first 50 minutes. Yet the Brits were only able to push across one goal. Then, Beckham falls asleep while defending (I use the term loosely) a Swedish corner and Marcus Allback heads it in to tie it up.

Oh yeah, and while I've been typing this, Sweden just put one off the crossbar.

1-1, for now.

First, allow me to belatedly apologize to our friends from the proud province of Alberta, the oil town of Edmonton in particular, for giving the Oilers up for dead after Game 2 last week. Obviously, Carolina hung on to win the Stanley Cup, but I clearly underestimated the wherewithal of the Oilers -- the No. 8 team in the West -- after they'd lost the goalie who'd gotten them to the finals.

I predicted a sweep or Canes clincher in 5, thinking they'd turn to a shell-shocked Ty Conklin in goal or a Finnish guy who'd split the load with Conklin until Dwayne Roloson arrived and had played in the Olympics but was apparently no better than a third-stringer in Game 1. Well, Jussi Markkanen was just peachy in goal, and Edmonton gave it a good run against a better team.

As for the NBA, I've been critical of the pro basketball league for a long time, and I see no end in sight after watching what should have been a fantastic finish in Game 5 Sunday night. Sorry, when one great player (Dwyane Wade) can beat what seems to be an actual team (Dallas) by himself, with the help of suspect officiating, something's wrong. Good to see ESPN.com's Bill Simmons agrees here.

And, until the NBA cuts down on timeouts -- by, say, 30 or 40 a game -- I won't be able to sit still through the final 3 minutes of any game. Maybe Josh Howard agrees after calling one at the wrong time the other night.

Funny how the NHL gets by with one timeout per team per game.

I'm watching the Mexico-Portugal game - more on that later. But during halftime I just scanned through ESPN.com and came across this story.

As a longtime Braves fan who lived through the Chuck Tanner/Russ Nixon eras, this is profoundly depressing.

Say it ain't so Smoltzie! He's the last link, the one guy who connects all the great - and all the almost great - Braves teams since 1991. The best big-game pitcher I've seen in my lifetime. He's the next Mr. Brave, taking over from the line of Warren Spahn, Eddie Matthews, Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy.

And now, apparently, he'd be okay with leaving.

Somehow, I just don't see Jorge Sosa filling that void.

Siiigggggh.

Who should I cheer for in the Mexico-Portugal game?

Should I cheer for Mexico, the best hope to prove to the rest of the world that North America can wear soccer?

Or should I cheer for Portugal because, well, they're not Mexico. They're not the most bitter rival of the U.S., the country that remains convinced its still superior to the Americans in soccer despite all the recent contradictory results? The team that seems loaded with hot heads, divers and over-actors?

Yep, let's go Portugal.

2-1 Good Guys right now.

Luis Perez just took a huge dive in the penalty box, trying to get another penalty kick - Mexico's Omar Bravo just completely shanked a would-be game-tying PK a few minutes earlier.

Perez was given a yellow card for his flop. It was his second of the game, resulting in a red. So now Mexico plays a man down.

The color commentator, Robin Fraser, is busy moaning about the injustice of it all, saying the ref just completely changed the game by making an unnecessary call. Fraser's argument is that Portugal had gained possession, so calling the dive was unnecessary and had too much of an impact.

I can see some merit in that, but to me diving is the scourge of the game, particularly in the U.S. where the idea of faking an injury doesn't fit in with our football driven, shake-it-off, sports culture.
Yes, ejecting Perez changes the course of the game. But what if the ref had been fulled by his theatrics and had ordered up another PK? Assuming Mexico didn't choke this PK as well, the game would have been tied at 2. You don't think THAT would have changed the course of the game?

Oh, and things just got more interesting. Angola scored to go up 1-0 on Iran. If both games ended now, Mexico and Angola would both have four points, but Mexico would be one up in goal differential.

Stay tuned folks.

Mexico lost to Portugal - which sat almost everyone relevant except for Luis Figo - but still made it through with four points.

So who will the Tricolores play? The winner of the Argentina-Netherlands game. Right now it's tied 0-0 in the second half, even though the Argentines are dominating. Again, that's what frustrates me about soccer. One team dominates, yet has nothing to show for it.

But I digress. If the score stays the same, Argentina wins the group based on its huge goal differential - thank you Serbia & Montenegro. The sons of Maradonna (who gives me almost a visceral feeling of annoyance every time they show him on the tv) would then play Mexico.

That would then set up ....

wait for it ...

THE SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE MATCH!!!

Yes the Dutch versus Portugal. Two extremely talented teams with reps for umm, being Spain-like when it really matters in the World Cup. Granted, The Netherlands has made the finals twice, but even then, they were the favorites. Underachieving just seems to go with wearing orange.

Or the maroon (or is it wine) unis of Portugal, a country rich in soccer skill that just made the second round for the first time since 1966. Yes, you read that correctly. The U.S. had made the second round more times in that span, despite not even playing in the World Cup from 1966 until 1990.

So, no, "clutch" is not a word used in sentences describing the Portuges or the Dutch.

But, this hypothetical match would be in the second round. Somone has to win. Something has to give.

I predict the Dutch advance after Portugal misses four of five penalty kicks in a shoot-out.

They just showed a highlight of the phenomenal goal that Dutch great - and, ahem Arsenal great - Dennis Bergkamp scored to beat Argentina, 2-1, in the 1998 quarters. That Dutch squad went on to play a highly entertaining semi against Brazil, losing 3-2. I'm still convinced that tough game left Brazil very flat for the final, which it lost to France.

Boy, the Netherlands could really, really use Dennis today. Not much cooking up front for the Orange. Looks like they're perfectly happy to play Portugal at this point.

Still 0-0

While I was glued to the utterly boring 0-0 tie between the Dutch and the Argentines, Ivory Coast completed a huge comeback, scoring three times in the final 53 minutes to beat Serbia and Montenegro (S&M to its friends), 3-2.

The winning goal scored on a PK by a guy named Bonaventure Kalou.

The best name my game could manage was Cocu.

Am I psyched? Yes. Am I optimistic, not really.

My prediction, a 1-1 tie.

In case you've been under a rock, two U.S. players, Pablo Mastreoni and Eddie Pope will sit this game out after getting red cards against Italy.

Dave O'Brien told us that Bobby Convey will start in place of Pope. Clint Dempsey in place of Mastreoni.

The U.S. will use a 4-5-1 formation with McBride as the only striker. I hate this formation.

It's his second of the first round, which means the Chelsea midfielder, Ghana's best player, has to sit out his team's second round game, if they make it that far.

Color commentator Marcelo Balboa - who's been great this entire Cup - roundly criticized the call. Too early for a yellow, he said. Nice to see he's making an attempt to be objective when you know inside that he'd love to have the U.S. win.

Still though, I miss the jingoism of Jack Edwards.

It's almost impossible to watch two soccer games simultaneously. With no real stoppages in play - as well as long, long stretches when nothing much happens, followed by a sudden flurry of action - when do you decide to make the move from one channel to the other?

So far it's 0-0 in boht games, but I'm still nervous about missing something.

Claudio Reyna gets picked clean by Ghana's Haminu Dramani who dribbles in alone and beats Keller to the far post.

Adding injury to the insult, it appears Reyna had a knee-on-knee collision with Dramani. He went down in a heap after the steal and it wasn't just because he'd made a huge mistake.

So, the Yanks trail 1-0 and their captain just got stretchered off.

Sigggggggggh.....

Word just came through that Italy scored to go up 1-0.

So the Azzuri are doing their part. Anyone from the U.S. want to step up?

Paging Landon Donovan ... paging Landon Donovan.

Balboa continues to urge the U.S. to push forward, to speed things up, to be more aggressive.

Instead, the U.S. continues to knock the ball wearily around midfield before trying a long ball which has almost no chance of success.

Paging Bruce Arena ... Paging Bruce Arena.

a nice through ball to Eddie Lewis that resulted in a dangerous cross ... a very nice buildup through midfield that unfortunately died when the ball was played back to Beasley (you could hear the U.S. crowd groan when he did that) ... another nice buildup through midfield that resulted in a narrowly missed long ball from Donovan to Beasley.

If this was still 0-0, I'd feel pretty good.

By the way, Reyna, who had come back in the game for a while, had to call it a day. Ben Olsen comes in for him.

Nice to see Ben sporting a playoff hockey beard.

Goooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll USA!

Beasley makes a steal deep in the Ghana end and then make a phenomenal play.

He's got room to run in the Ghana box, but instead, plays the ball across to Clint Dempsey. He hits the ball at full speed, hammering it into the back of the net.

Tie game and the U.S. has momentum and some real World Cup life.

Dempsey's goal celebration dance was unbelievably cheesy, but really who's being picky.

A really, really picky call against Ogenwu results in a PK for Ghana. The Black Stars buried it.

2-1 Ghana.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic just had a man sent off.

Siggggggghhhhhhh.

Wow, how quickly things changed.

and no subs for the U.S.

Huh?

C'mon, put Eddie Johnson in and go for it, Bruce! Stop standing on the sidelines with that sour expression on your face!

Meanwhile, Dononvan just sent a nice ball into the box, but Beasley - for reasons known only to him - didn't break for it.

Marcelo - my new lead candidate to become the next coach of the U.S. team - is calling vociferously for Johnson to get in the game.

Guys are slipping all over the place, including McBride who went down just before he had a possible chance to put a shot on goal.

Shouldn't a field for the World Cup be a little better than this one?

Striker Eddie Johnson is on for Cherundol, an offense for defense substitution that quite frankly could have been made at halftime.

That move got a loud cheer from the U.S. fans. There might have been a little sarcasm mixed in as well.

A beautiful run by Eddie Lewis down the left side. He crosses it in to Brian McBride who strikes a brilliant diving header ...

that bounces directly off the left goal post.

Aaaarrrrggggghg....

Then, just as I'm typing this, Onyewu had a header toward an open goal, but put it too high, just over the cross bar.

Double aaaarrgggggghhhhh...

23 minutes left ...

A throng of people on the island in the middle watching the big screen. Granted, it's not exactly the sea of people they showed in Mexico City yesterday, but when's the last time you saw that many people in New York actually standing still on a sidewalk?

Considering that Bobby Convey just came in the game, for Eddie Lewis, I'm guessing it was Jimmy Conrad who was the one that replaced Eddie Pope in the starting lineup - not Convey.

A mistake? Yes. As bad as Reyna's giveaway or the ref's call against Onyewu? I don't think so.

Convey fights through two people to get possession and draws a foul just outside the box to set up a free kick - a wonderful opportunity for the U.S.

Donovan comes in to take the critical kick and floats it way, way, far and wide. Jeesssh..

Meanwhile, speaking of missed opportunities, Italy just scored to make it 2-0.

Donovan is supposed to be the best player for the U.S. right? Right?

Seven minutes to go ...

Meanwhile, we're in the 89th minute for the U.S., which shows no sign of scoring a goal.

C'mon, at least tie the game so we can complain about the horrible call by the ref on Onyewu!

Landon Donovan - you remember him, right? - just got free in the Ghana penalty box. Then he suddenly looked lost. He tried a pass to Ben Olsen, who promptly whiffed on a shot and fell on his backside.

Moments later though, Olsen had a sweet volley in the box, only to have it blocked.

Granted, it's not a goal, but it at least he made contact.

C'mon folks, look for the little things.

That's who I'm rooting for now that the U.S. has flamed out.

Positives for the U.S.? They tied Italy and they actually scored a goal. So hey, that's better than 1998.

The negatives? I'll be back with those later.

For those of us who are not passionate about the "beautiful game" -- like Jim and Joe -- and are more than willing to point out soccer's ugly -- in some cases, ghastly -- blemishes, here are a few of my thoughts on the U.S. national team, World Cup refs and reasons this game might never gain traction stateside:

First off, I beg of SI, Soccer America and any and all media outlets to not overhype players like Landon Donovan. OK, he has some speed. Yippee. Ronaldhino he's not. Not even close.

Man, the lads belted out the tune God Save the Queen with plenty of gusto. The Ecuador players looked like they'd never heard their anthem before. I know I sure hadn't.

The dreaded one striker forward formation that gave the U.S. sooooo many goals is now being employed by England, which lost striker Michael Owen to a freak ACL injuury when he he slipped on a slick field (again the field!).

So far Ecuador's had the best shot after a horrible missed clear by John Terry. Fortunately Ashley Cole came to the rescue, sliding in to deflect the Ecuador shot so that it went off the crossbar.

Both O'Brien and Balboa - doing a great job again - are wondering why you wouldn't play 6-6 Peter "The Stork" Crouch against a team whose tallest defender is 6 feet even.

I'd just been on the phone with Joe Sirera, complaining about how useless David Beckham had been, how he kept slowing down the England attack on the right side.

Then Beckham showed us why he's in the game. Despite the overall drop in his game, he's still the world's best at the free kick.

About five minutes he ago he took a free kick just outside the Ecuador penalty box, bent it over the defensive wall, down and just inside the near post for a goal.

1-0 England. Many shots of Posh Spice celebrating.

Because of some sort of technical glitch with the feed, ESPN didn't get us to the Italy-Australia game until midway through the first minute. That caused me a bit of concern when it was 9:57 or so and I couldn't find the game anywhere.

I didn't get a chance to comment on the last game from yesterday - the slugfest between the Dutch and the Portugese. 16 yellow cards and four red cards. 9 v 9 by the end. Sheesh. The announcers were all over the Russian ref, Valentin Ivanov, for losing control.

And they were also killing Dutch coach Marco Van Basten for refusing to play the Netherland's best scorer, Ruud Van Nistleroy (sp?) in a game that Clockwork Orange lost, 1-0. Surely there's some explanation here - maybe bad blood between coach and player, maybe an unnannounced injury. I'm going to search for a story about it. If I find one, you'll be the first to know.

In the meantime, England stands to benefit, because two Portugese starters, including the talented Deco, won't be playing in the quarters because of their red cards.

Materazzi just got a red card for taking down an Aussie attacker on his way toward the penalty box. As Balboa pointed out, Materazzi wasn't Italy's last defender on the play - so a red card really wasn't warranted. A yellow, sure. Red? No way.

What do you know? The refs are once again having an undue influence on a World Cup game.

Siggggghhhh.

Italy plus on, a man down. 0-0 the score in the 53rd minute.

The Azzuri, playing a man down for the last 40 minutes or so, gets the winning goal on a penalty kick by Francesco Totti just moments before the referee's whistle.

This time the penalty call was pretty legit. An Italian attacker - not sure who it was - made a nice move in the box. and had Australian defender Lucas Neill beaten before tripping over Neill - who made an ill-advised slide-tackle attempt.

So Italy moves on to face the winner of Switzerland-Ukraine. Look for the Italians to advance to the semis.

More thoughts on Balboa and Aussie coach Gus Huudink later ...

The head of FIFA is watching the Swiss and the Ukrainians muddle their way through regulation and one overtime in a scoreless tie. It's getting to the point where I actually WANT this to go to a shootout just so I can get a teensy bit of excitement out of watching this.

Sigggggh....

Look, I know there's a lot of pressure here and I know the guys are fatigued, but don't you think that maybe somebody - anybody? - could make a penalty kick for Switzerland in its shootout with Ukraine?

Apparently not. After Shevchenko gacked the Ukraine's first penalty kick, his teammates picked him by nailing their next three tries. The Swiss? They rolled one to the keeper on the left, clanged one off the crossbar up the middle and then banged one off the Ukraine keeper's legs on the right.

Hey, give Olexandr Shovkovskiy - the Ukrainian keeper - some credit. He guessed right and he made the saves. But man, could the Swiss come up any smaller?

That's how you become the first team ever to get knocked out of the World Cup WITHOUT EVER GIVING UP A GOAL.

Like Duke's Speedo Guy. Some enterprising - or very bored - soul has managed to post the video of Speedo Guy's appearance in the Duke-UNC game. I believe it was the 2003 game.

Speedo Guy can be spotted shimmying on the left side of the screen. Enjoy. And kids, PLEASE don't try this at home.

This time it goes against France. A shove, sure, at the very edge of the penalty box, with the Spanish player in absolutely no position to score a goal.

Never mind, it's on to the penalty kick! Buried by David - Don't Call me Aston - Villa.

1-0 Spain.

Finally, FINALLY, France managed to break through the Spanish defense and NOT get called for offsides.

Patrick Viera - yet another French player who spent at least part of his career at Arsenal - threaded a pass through to Franck Ribery. Ribery calmly scooted around the keeper and buried the shot.

1-1 tie heading into the half.

This is a question that's been nagging me for some time. Why do all the bench players have to wear those weird mesh tops that look like the work vests that prisoners wear on roadside chain gangs?

While was pondering this question, the stretcher guys came out to treat someone on the field and lo and behold they're wearing those funky mesh tops as well!

Can someone with Euro fashion taste clue me in here?

A header by Patrick Viera in about the 83rd minute and a nice run, cutback and finish by the ageless Zinedine Zidane in the 92nd minute give France a 3-1 win over Spain.

Suddenly Les Bleus, who looked pretty lame two games into this World Cup are gaining momentum. Viera - did I mention he used to play at Arsenal? - has been the key figure.

As for Spain? Another year, another impressive performance in group play, three more wins and still, no progress past the quarterfinals. Heck, not even an appearance in the quarters. So, one of life's great sporting mysteries continues.

And Joe Sirera's looking pretty depressed right now.

Don't forget about rugby! Particularly down in New Zealand, where the All Blacks - the national rugby players - are just about all that matters on the sports scene.

Apparently the word is out that the new All Blacks poster contains - I'm not making this up - DNA taken from blood given by each of the players. So now fans can feel even closer to their heros ... I guess.

The funniest part of this may be the first comment on this Scottish sports site, suggesting that the Scots buy a poster and use the DNA in it to breed a new generation of Scots who can actually win in rugby.

Remarkably well, considering the land of his forefathers, Spain, crashed and burned in the World Cup ... yet again.

But at least Mr. Sirera, the closest thing we have to a soccer expert in house here at the News & Record, can hold his head high when looking back at how he'd predicted the World Cup would go thus far.

Checking back on Joe's picks, which he was bold enough to put in the paper before this whole thing started, we find that he predicted 12 of the 16 second round qualifiers correctly, striking out only on Poland, Paraguay, the Czech Republid and Croatia. No, he did not predict that the U.S. would advance.

He's stayed strong in the second round as well, picking six of the eight quarterfinalist. Joe's only misses: Mexico and Croatia. While I have to question his judgement in picking Mexico over Argentina, he wasn't that far on that one either.

As for the semifinalists, Sirera has all four still alive - Brazil, Germany, England and France. Now, he'll have some problems at this point because France and Brazil play each other and either Italy or Ukraine will be on of the semifinialists. Still, his projected finalists, Germany and Brazil are very much alive.

Are those bold picks? Not really, but hey, if we were holding a World Cup pool here at the office - which we're not - Joe would be blowing away the rest of the field.

It's that time of the year, in the doldrums of summer, when a football writer's fancy turns to ... kicking around Chuck Amato.

How else to explain Stewart Mandel's recent mailbag for Sports Illustrated? Now, I like Mandel and he readily concedes that his list of the best and worst coaches in America is primarily just a conversation starter, but is Chuck Amato really the worst coach in America?

Mandel makes two oft-made arguments - a) State had a ton of defensive talent last year and still only went 7-5 and b) State's offensive has been rudderless since Philip Rivers left.

I'm not going to argue either point - although both are arguable - I'm just going to disagree with putting Chuck up that high on such an ignomonious list. Five winning seasons and five bowl games in six years makes you the worst coach in America? Really?

While Chuck has been known to be ... um .... very confident and while that can sometimes rub folks in the media the wrong way, I don't think you can let that factor in too much when you grade him as a coach. I can't help but wonder if that's part of what's going on when Chuck gets bashed.

Meanwhile, Rivals recruiting analyst Mike Farrell has a piece up on SportingNews.com wondering if Amato has made a critical mistake by not focusing more on in-state talent in recent years.

This article might have made more sense if it had come out right after the 2006 signing day, when UNC had reeled in much of the state's best talent and when we were first hearing about how good the state's 2007 talent crop was going to be.

Now, though, after State has already gotten commitments from seven players - all of them in-state - Farrell sounds a little dated. Back when most analysts were giving UNC a decided edge over State in the 2006 rankings, State's coaches were privately telling people that they didn't think much of the 2006 in-staters and that they felt time was better spent in Florida. But, they added, State was planning to really push hard in-state for the 2007 class, which is believed to be one of the deepest in-state talent pools in recent history.

Based on the early results, that's exactly what we're seeing. It's a bit of a stretch to say right now that Amato's previous focus on Florida is haunting him with 07 in-state recruiting.

In the 50th minute, Roberto Ayala gets free in the box and bangs a header into the back of the goal. 1-0 Argentina.

Finally we got a replay that really shows us what happened. Ayala was actually Miroslav Klose's man. But in addition to Klose, I think some of the blame for the goal should go to German defender Philip Lahm. There was a reason why the keeper, Jens Lehmann, had positioned Lahm on the goal line - to be a human shield in case a ball got headed in that direction. It looked like from the replay that Lahm could have reached Ayala's header with his foot but his reaction time was way too slow.

Still plenty of time for Germany but somebody needs to wake up Michael Ballack, pronto.

Of course, you already knew that.

Here's my point. In hockey, you MUST have a good goalie if you're going to have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup. Or you have to have a decent goalie who gets hot at just the right time.

In soccer? All you have to know is that France swept to the title in '98 with the always entertaining - that's not a good adjective for a keeper by the way - Fabian Barthez in the goal mouth.

I bring this up now because Argentina's keeper Robert Abbondanzieri is looking reeeeaaaaallly shaky in this game - he just completely butchered a German corner - but the Germans still haven't found the back of the net yet.

.... and just as I write this Abbondanzieri is being taken out of the game. Apparently he caught a knee in the gut from Klose while screwing up that corner. Backup keeper Leo Franco is now in the game.

Balboa's saying that this is a big advantage for Germany, getting to face a cold keeper in Franco. But I'm wondering if it might be addition by subtraction for Argentina.

Then again, if Franco couldn't beat out Abbondanzieri for the starting keeper's job ...

Roberto Abbondanzieri

In the 80th minute Ballack crosses it into the box to Borowski, who heads it over to Klose, who heads it back into the opposite corner of the goal, past a helpless Franco.

1-1.

By the way, with guys like Podolski and Borowski going up against guys like Franco and Abbondanzieri, I'm starting to feel like I'm watching Poland vs. Italy.

Anyway, things look bad for Argentina now. They'd already used up all their subs, switching out offense for defense and now have to regroup themselves with very differnent personnel.

One good thing - Argentina put forward Julio Cruz into the game, bringing back memories of the light-hitting second baseman for the Seattle Mariners in the '80s.

No word on whether Jim Beattie or Alvin Davis will get on the field.

I'm not sure what the name of the ref handling the Germany-Argentina game is, but I think he's done a fabulous job. Actually, the fact that I don't know his name is probably all the proof you need.

We're headed to penalty kicks now and there really hasn't been a whiff of controversy due to any calls.

What a refreshing change.

As for the game, the overtime period was a waste - unless you took perverse pleasure in watching Michael Ballack struggle to run with leg cramps and a bum ankle. Both teams look totally exhausted. I'm inclined to agree with Balboa - FIFA should allow teams an extra substition when overtime begins.

Germany keeper Jens Lehmann hasn't gotten a whole lot of respect so far in this World Cup. Many people thought that Oliver Kahn should have been the starter in goal instead of Lehmann. Balboa, just minutes before, had said that he'd been totally unimpressed by Lehmann the entire tournament.

Then Lehman went out during penalty kicks and changed a few hundred million opinions.

He guessed right on every single Argentina attempt and stuffed two of them, leading Germany to a 4-2 win. (The German penalty takers, it should be mentioned, were also flawless).

By the way, Lehmann was the starting keeper for Arsenal this year, my favorite European club team. Just thought I'd mention it.

Also, a really nice scene before the penalty kicks when Kahn, once widely considered the best keeper in the world, came over to offer his support to Lehmann before the penalty kicks started.

Right after the game, there was a near brawl as the Argentinians appeared to be ticked off at Germany assistant coach Oliver Bierhoff for some reason. I felt like I was in watching a Miami-FSU football game for a second.

Now, though, a bunch of the German players appear to be performing the Safety Dance out on the field.

Yep, we're still in Europe.

When the Azzurri score early, as they did in the sixth minute on a goal by Gianluca Zambrotta - shaky, shaky work by the Ukrainian keeper by the way - be prepared for 85 minutes or so of fine defensive technique from the Italians. Translation: boring soccer.

While we're kicking around the Italians, I wanted to share the contribution from one of our readers, Magpie (I don't think that's his real name, do you?). Magpie was in Germany for the U.S.-Italy match and apparently regaled fans with this song, to the tune of "That's Amore."

"When you fall on the ground
and you scream like a clown,
that's Azzurri.

"When you tumble and twirl
and you cry like a girl,
that's Azzurri."

Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, Buffon just conked his head on the goal post making a nice diving save on a Ukrainian header.

Just a minute or so ago, Italy needed a great save by Buffon and then a goal line clearance by Zambrotta to keep Ukraine from tying it.

But in the space of time it normally takes an Italian player to run his hands through his heavily gelled hair, the Azzurri attacked on the other end. After a short corner and a cross by Totti, Luca Toni drilled in the header to put Italy up 2-0. Once again, bad work by the Ukrainian keeper who realy should have come off his line to pick off Totti's pass.

While I've been writing this Ukraine just put a header off the cross bar. I take back what I said about how boring games are when Italy gets an early lead.

Zambrotta makes a great move to beat two defenders at the left side of the penalty box then made a sliding pass over to Toni, who simply tapped the ball into a wide open goal.

3-0 Italy. You know, maybe Italy could win this whole thing.

As for the Ukraine, a pretty impressive effort in its first ever World Cup. Plus, their striker, Milevskiy, looks just like Ashton Kucher's character in That 70's Show.

Jim's boundless fondness for Tour de France cycling is only exceeded by his love for Arsenal futbol. But, since he's busy blogging the World Cup, we turn now to News & Record cycling correspondent Charlie Stafford for some thoughts on the Tour de Fraud's latest doping scandal news: Here and here. Too bad I picked Jan Ullrich in the office pool.