Saturday, June 24, 2006

Who To Root For?

Now that the US is out (I'm not sure why everyone is surprised -- it's supposed to be hard) of the World Cup, I am having a hard time knowing who to root for. I thought the South Koreans would be a fun team, but they didn't make it through either.

I was primed to root for Ghana. It's their first time in the World Cup, they're speedy, resilient and they believe in themselves. However, watching their players flop all over the field kinda made me disgusted. So unless they show more class in their next match, I can't route for them.

The Brazillians are always fun, but they're also too much the favorite. Same with the Portugese. Italy are just blech. Same with France. If France didn't have Henri, I wouldn't even care about their games. (Their game against Spain should be a good match, now that France has discovered that the ball goes in the back of the net.)

Switzerland, meh. Ecuador, meh.

The German team looks pretty dominant and I like their coach, but I just can't root for the Germans. Especially seeing the havoc it's causing for Laurie in Berlin. The Argentinians squeaked by Mexico yesterday, but I wasn't too excited by that game.

Is it wrong that I really want to root for the two english speaking teams still in the tournament? England has Beckham and Rooney who are always fun to watch. And the Aussies, like Ghana (without the flopping), are playing way past expectations.

So my list of teams to route for: England, Australia, Spain

My expectations for the finals: Brazil v. Germany. Germany's goal keeper more than makes up for their weak defense. Brazil's defense cannot contain Germany's strikers. In a very exciting game (even for a World Cup final), Germany wins 3-1.

4 comments:

Tom said...

I'd like to give thanks to Nelly for copy-editing this post

Anonymous said...

arriba espana!!! if only i could make the spanish letters.

your small american said...

Yeah, I am not rooting for anyone after a lot of agonizing over who to root for. Of course I am for Ghana but I can't get too emotionally invested 'cause I think they don't have much of a chance of advancing far. The English apparently suck and are also ugly. I was for the Portuguese but then they played so dirty last night, what an awful game! Hmm. So, I'm basically against Germany.

Anonymous said...

oh spain. how could you let me down like this? who can i root for now?!