World Cup Football (Soccer) Fever?
 

The U.S. is out but like the Volkswagen commercial says "It's time to get on the wagen." World-class sports at its best. 90 minutes of full-throttle sprinting all the while passing accurately and almost no substitutions. I played in school and love the game. I have no team in the tournament but man Iceland beat Argentina this morning 1-1. Yep - that was a win for Iceland. A country the size of Maine with the national population of Honolulu (so the commentator's said). Great match. So, because this is an international forum - what say you?

Thoughts so far...

Iceland: Yay! Everyone likes an underdog, and they got a draw by working hard and having a go when they could.

France: Disappointing performance given the names on the teamsheet, will need to improve if they want to do anything.

Portugal: Boo! Ronaldo dived for the free kick that he scored from to equalise.

Spain: Class in most areas of the pitch, could do very well.

Everyone else... Meh. Waiting for someone to stand out from the crowd.

I'm onboard, watched Russia v KSA and Spain v Ronaldo, er I mean Portugal . About to watch Croatia v Nigeria.

Refereed soccer for 25 years, played for 20 years, and worked as referee liaison for the San Jose Earthquakes for 20 years. Yeah - I’m into it!

Soccer fever? Surely original poster jests.

The only iota of soccer interest I ever experienced occurred in 2010.

That's when I encountered anticipatory excitation while Paul the Octopus oracle continued to correctly predict the winner in successive World Cup games involving Germany; in all, Paul the Octopus oracle successfully foretold the winning side in each of Germany's seven 2010 World Cup contests: Cephalopodic prognosticating superiority, in the main.

Which brings to mind a lesson: If you have another octopus oracle out there--let the world know about it. Don't be shellfish.

Interesting results today. Mexico made a statement that they're there to play beating world-champion Germany. Switzerland got a tie against Brazil which is almost as good as a win. And, Costa Rica vs. Serbia won't matter much in the end. However if the referee's don't start yellow-carding fish-flopping players like Neymar for poor acting, and time wasting (poor sportsmanship), there are some teams, like Brazil, that will become too painful to watch as their players would rather try to convince the refs that they were fouled instead of playing hard football/soccer.

Great performance by Mexico, they should have had 2 or 3 more. Germany were appalling.

The MEX-GER game was incredible. Mexico really took it to them in the first half and defended well in the 2nd. Ochoa had a great game in goal. As for Germany (and as is his want for Arsenal much to my chagrin), Mezit Ozil was non-existent.

Iceland were impressive against Argentina too. I really felt bad for Messi. I love that guy!.

My dream for this tournament is for Iceland and England to somehow make it thru far enough for them to face each other, so Iceland can beat them again and knock them out of this tournament too.

A decent performance by England. Good passing, plenty of chances, some should have been finished off.

What happened to VAR? Kane was repeatedly rugby tackled in the box.

That goalie for Mexico is an absolute wall.

Wow Thursday matches were brutal, and surprising. Friday is starting out fierce as well. Nigeria continues strong against Iceland at 1-0 Iceland has to move from all defense to playing some smash-face offense. Brazil over Costa Rica was surprising with Brazil scoring nothing in regular time. It should have been a blow out but Brazil hasn't found their game yet. Serbia v. Switzerland will likely be good also. Although Serbia has a slight edge over the Swiss I'm expecting a strong match.

Friday World Cup is cutting into my golf day. Still, it doesn't effect Mimosa's and guitar on the patio. :)

Well, that was about a minute too soon. Musa (Nigeria) just scored one of the most Pele-like goals I've seen in decades. Bravo. What a goal. 2-0 so Iceland can almost pack it in for the day. With little offense they can't really fight back at this level to score at least 2 goals.

Well again, an end-of-match surprise from the Swiss. At approximately 89:39 Switzerland scored a second goal to go ahead for the lead. Another one-on-one breakaway from mid-field. Gorgeous. Now, to see if I can get a t-time for this afternoon. Man, life is hard.

I missed the second half of the Ser/Sui game (much as I had the second half of yesterday's Arg/Cro match). I have some catching up to do this weekend!

OK ......... :hmm: