Match day 10 & 11 review

Normal, everyday life caught up with me in a big way over the last few days, so my viewing on Sunday and Monday was sporadic (better, I thought, to pace your self for the last set of group games this week.) Here are some isolated thoughts from the last six games.

Is it me, or has Ronaldinho not shown up for the Cup yet? Everyone is talking about Ronaldo--fat, fat, fat... but no one has pointed out that Ronaldinho has not been a shadow of the player he's been for Barcelona. I can't figure out if he's tired after a long season, if he's having trouble working with Kaka, or if he's just saving himself for the games to come. In any case, he certainly has not been all that. I could say the same thing for Adriano, until he popped up to score the nice goal that put away Australia.

I suspect that there's not much to worry about for the Brazilians. The most important thing is that you get through to the next round... you can worry about playing well later. Same goes for England for that matter.

Speaking of the next round, you have to fancy Australia for the last spot in group F. All they need is a tie against the Croatians and they are through... and based on how they played against Brazil, they're more than capable of getting it. My guess is that their biggest enemy will be weariness. They expended a lot of energy in the Brazil game, and I think there's a fair chance of them coming out flat, especially with so many semi-injured players on their squad.


France... still lame. They can feel aggrieved that that goal didn't go in (I'm pro video replays, by the way. Allow one replay request per game on each team and let the ref and the 4th official view. Only hidebound traditionalism prevents them from doing it.) On the other hand, they're kind of in a good position here, since they have to play against an eliminated Togo in the last game. Go at them hammer and tongs and you're automatically though to the final round, and if Korea and Switzerland tie (a not unlikely result) and you can snatch the group on goal difference. It's that possibility that made the second Switzerland goal against Togo today so important. Those nudniks Davis and Messing (remind me to blog about my burgeoning Shep Messing hatred later) were saying the Swiss should sit on the lead. But that second goal gave them the advantage in goal difference. Now a tie definitely gets the Swiss through, and might give them the group if France can't beat Togo. Interesting stuff.


It was a shame that Tunisia couldn't hold on to their lead, but once they let the Raul goal in, the rest of the goals didn't matter. They still need to beat Ukraine to go through to the next round; a tie would have done them no good.