My friend and her dad were SCREAMING in Dutch!

The SPA-NET game started at 9pm Dutch time, I got back home around 7am... although it was a planned night out with friends, I usually never make it that late any more. My poor head.

Centre of Rotterdam was wild, people dancing in the fountain, fireworks and honking cars. I'd even say people went more crazy than 4 years ago when Holland reached the final after beating Uruguay. Probably because expectations were lower than ever this time, the sensational outcome and it being a Friday night.


Have to focus on the Germany-Portugal game now... as always the Germans look great up front, but I'm more interested whether Hummels can play an important game without pulling a "Hummels"... and whether Ronaldo shows up today.

oh man! i never expected things to go this way!!!

jogi low, i will eat my shoe.

and pepe, what an idiot.

USA v. Ghana is at 5 PM CST. I will rush home and watch the full match on the DVR.

Pepe was an idiot but Muller deserved a card too for play acting. Germany look bloody good either way.

what!? no way! muller was rubbing his face when pepe came to express his affection. the guy reacted, didn't playact-- probably telling him to get the fuck out of his face. wouldn't you? watch again. he puts up his hands, starts yelling, stands up to him-- doesn't pretend he was bloodied or anything. just a matter of personal space.

if you mean playacting before… maybe a little exaggeration but certainly nothing unusual. one could say more of gotze's penalty which looked really bad live but not on replay.

AND i'm super-happy for the ramdeuter. what a game he had!

USA benefits from all the injuries today-- too many really.


ha ha haa ha-- i knew it! it deserved no less.

and congratulations. that was tremendous.

Yeah I meant his reaction when he initially hit his face. It's 'part of the game', I know, but it drives me mad when I see it. No excuse for Pepe's reaction though.

Anyway, Germany do look very good. They seemed pretty much in control even before the sending off. After that they were cruising. Absolute nightmare for Portugal though.

USA will take any benefits or advantages we can get as this Group of Death is proving to kill itself thus far more than us ;)

Yeah, Germany were in control right from the start, even before the penalty and red card. No defensive errors from Hummels today, although it should be noted that he didn't stay on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.

Also, Portugal didn't really show up. It's going to take a lot to still make it Ronaldo's tournament. With that goal difference they'll need two wins now, while missing two key defenders. Feel a bit sorry for Coentrao.. should've been Pepe who tore that muscle.

After 5pa1n's defeat that is yet another massive blow for the Iberian Peninsula. Thankfully Gibraltar won their game with Malta earlier this month to maintain at least some of its football reputation.

Höwedes started ahead of Dürm for Germany, so I've decided to play the mighty Pejman MONTAZERI of Iran in my fantasy team. He's a midfielder but is listed as a defender in the game, so let's see if he can get a clean sheet and keep Thomas Vermaelen on the bench tomorrow.

Iran look really poor, but it's still 0-0.

Hahaha

Nigeria is proving as boring as I predicted, they beat up on a completely underdeveloped Ethiopia team and got cocky about, meanwhile the very fact that that underdeveloped Ethiopia team was even remotely competing with Nigeria for the WC slot speaks volumes about (a) Ethiopia's potential and (b) how much Nigeria really suck this year.

Grrr...
I'm in the South of France right now, and won't come back home til friday.
That's part of my job (I'll take a look out the window to see the sea in the distance).
I have only one game per day to watch under those conditions; and not in its entirety...

Apparently, Iran-Nigeria could have been missed so far.

First thing that came to my mind with Pepe & Coentrao's been mentioned: it should boost the US.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Bertrand again.

Giving Iran Russia a miss. I need a time-out. Really looking forward to the US game though

God this game is just bad. Off we go.

I'm not gonna be able to watch the U.S game rather annoyingly. Got a pissing 6:30 start tomorrow.

ha ha ha. it's iran nigeria. though russia korea is tomorrow. same difference!

it's nap time.

14:20 maaaan

Nigeria could have beat up on Iran if they wanted to, but as I said, Nigeria sucked more than people realized, though really I dare say that perhaps in its way Iran is better than we realize too..

Don't sleep on Korea, though I know less than nothing about Russia's team, meanwhile I can go into endless discussions about Russian politics or Church business..

That is why I like the World Cup best of any other tournament or championship, its the one time in sports where people have realistic expectations and further are better sports about winning or losing. Futbol in general isn't this way, but the World Cup brings out more realism than hyperbole and parity which normally dominate sports.

The stories about the Japanese fans cleaning up after their loss are cool.