Our own version of the Socceroos met up again at the Old Angle Tavern for this morning's England-Ecuador match at the World Cup. England gets through, 1-0. It's amazing about England in this tournament. They continue to show absolutely no creativity, cannot seem to generate any offense except for set pieces, and they still advance. England advanced from a bad group and Ecuador assumed the "happy to be there" role and didn't play very well and handed the game to England. Today it was David Beckham with the game-winner. Becks had an absoultely beautiful goal off a free kick, certainly bending it like Beckham can for the only goal of the game. He then threw up. Not that I saw that on TV, but he had to leave the game. Maybe he had a bad kraut dog or got a whiff of the "Magic Spray", the stuff that seems to heal every injured player instantly. I think he was sick from the heat. Of course, there was a fan there dressed in a suit of armor. And it was 90 degrees. I'm thinkin' he threw up, too.

Becks hurling:













Today's second game between the Netherlands and Portugal was the one to see, however. Portugal won 1-0 on a first-half goal by Maniche. The Russian ref lost complete control of this match, so we got to see lots of stuff you don't see very often. The ref was handing out cards so often, you'd think he was shopping at Nordstrom.

The goodies:

A head butt.
An intentional hand ball.
An elbow to the head.
Lots of hard tackles from behind.
The Dutch did not do the sporting thing and give possession back to Portugal after an injury. Deco gets a yellow for viciously mowing the guy down from behind to remind them to be sportsmanlike.
Deco gets a 2nd yellow card for delay, resulting in ejection, but not before a Dutchman threw him down, while trying to grab the ball and start play. An absurd call.
Dutch player goes down, Portuguese guy standing next to him, another Dutch guy, maybe Todd Gack, pushes the Portuguese guy to the turf. Cards aplenty. Ha!
Every time they show Figo, I think of "Ghostbusters".
4 red cards.
16 (an epic number) yellow cards.

So, Portugal meets England next without two players. Losing Deco was huge for Portugal and England may luck out again.

Meal of Links

A bunch of ways to eat a cheeseburger. Jimmy Buffett working on new material.

"Whistler's Mother" returns for a visit. It has been omitted from an art history text this year, so maybe this will boost its image, so to speak.

Looks like 500 English supporters were arrested in Germany. Only six more days until their next game. That means lots of drinking time.

World Cup Photo of the Day















In the words of Nigel Powers: "There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch."

Exercise Yard

"Boxing After Dark" on HBO last night lived up to its acronym of "BAD". Saw the heavyweights fight. Hated it. It was the typical dancing bear affair, because neither guy wants to get hit by a punch from a heavyweight. Calvin "The Boxing Banker" Brock won. With a name like that, you know that guy's going places. Good grief.

What made me chuckle the most was all the jail references last night. The trainer of Brock was Paul Spadafora's trainer. Paul is in jail. Mike Tyson was there. Uh, he was in jail. They showed an old highlight of Ike Ibeabuchi whipping David Tua. Ike's in jail now. Then one of last night's combatatnts had boxed Clifford "The Black Rhino" Etienne. Well, "The Black Rhino" just got handed a 150-year jail sentence last week. He robbed a check cashing business, tried to hijack a car with two kids, successfully hijacked a car with two kids in it, then shot at two policemen. I think he's in for a time.

Visitor

None, it's a World Cup Sunday. And couldn't all Sundays be like that?