the morning started off with virginia tech avenging their ridiculous last-second loss last year with an overtime win over duke at cameron. then, the ducks took out top-ranked ucla at macarthur court, opening the way for the tar heels to take over the nation’s #1 hoops ranking. as far as my teams go, this was about as good as it gets without the heels even stepping onto the court. best sports day ever? not likely, but it was pretty fun to watch.
on tuesday night i launched a new web site for a us ski team member, and a friend of mine, kevin francis. now you can keep up with kevin as he travels around the world for nor-am’s, europa cup, and world cup ski races on www.kevinfrancisracing.com. this is one of the first sites that i have used pure css for the layout, and i have to say that it makes things a whole lot simpler. it is also the first site i have made using some transparent styles, so i’m interested to see what browsers support it.
after a full 24 hours of travelling followed by another 20 of work, i find myself back in the states, head still spinning from a crazy football road trip and the subsequent return to normalcy. all said and done, we drove our opel corsa over 5000 km (~3200 miles), covering the majority of germany in 3 weeks, not to mention forays into the netherlands, belgium, and the czech republic. of the twelve host cities, the only one that we didn’t visit was stuttgart. from munich in the south to hamburg in the north, germany opened its arms to us and millions of other football pilgrims, and put on what has to be one of the most successful world cups in history. i will begin posting my pictures starting tonight, and the majority should be online through this weekend, so you all can share in the sights, places, and people of world cup 2006 germany.
hello all from krefeld, germany where we have been spending the first 2 rest days of the tournament, less than 5 hours before the germany v. argentina game (quarterfinal). the first few days of the trip were crazy, driving across much of the southern half of germany for football matches in various cities. the first game we went to was in the brand-new allianz arena in munich, where cote d’ivoire scored 3 straight goals in pouring rain to come back from a 2 goal defecit against serbia and montenegro, including a penalty kick blasted in the back of the net to the sound of thunder booming in the lightning-covered sky above. we were about 10 seats from the serbian fans and it was intense, especially when they jumped out to an early lead and lit flares in the stands.
the next day we went on to nuremburg for the usa v. ghana game – i’m sure you all know of the 2-1 outcome in ghana’s favor. it was amazing to see the us team play in the frankenstadion, and had the penalty kick not been called, we may have been active in dortmund versus brazil (likely not much longer than that). after the game, we took it to fan fest and dominated some other fans at a game of futsal played in a small cage. that night we spent in a very sketch campsite or “fan camp,” which, contrary to what a kid from eugene that we met said, was not tight.
another day, another football match. this time we drove west to kaiserslautern, which was a small town with the huge presence of fritz-walter stadion overlooking the city. the match featured spain versus saudi arabia, and was a hard-fought 1-0 result. the comraderie between the fans was impressive, and the atmosphere of the spain supporters was very positive. the saudi royal family and some saudi celebrities were also balling out in a caravan of S500’s after the game.
after 3 days of covering nearly a thousand kilometers (in our surprisingly roomy 4-door opel corsa), we pushed on to maastricht, a city positioned strategically between germany, france, belgium, and holland so that it’s a great meeting place for western europe, and has become our favorite place to kick back and relax between games. we were in holland for the disappointing dutch loss to portugal, and then drove back to dortmund to catch the brazil v. ghana game, and see what the brazil fans were like… too bad we didn’t get to play any futsal here.
that brings us to the present, awaiting another round of quarterfinal matches, beginning today. we will be travelling to hamburg tomorrow to check out the stadiums and fan-fest up there, as well as just taking in the sights of germany’s largest port city. from there we will hopefully drive through leipzig to view the zentralstadion, on our way to prague for a few nights, before returning to berlin for the finals, where likely more than half a million fans will watch the game in a closed 1-mile stretch of june 17th straße. i will have many great photos when i return to the states that will eventually make their way onto the site & photo map. until then, i bid you farewell
after 3 days of great soccer, let’s take a look back at some of this weekend’s world cup action.
host nation germany started off group A play with a solid 4-2 win over the ticos of costa rica, even without the services of captain michael ballack. ecuador was the story of the second fixture, with a resounding 2-0 win over disappointing poland. look for defensive titan espinoza, and striker delgado to lead the rest of the tricolor past the group play stage.
group B featured defensive matchups between england and paraguay, and trinidad & tobago and sweeden, the only goal in either game coming on an early paraguay own goal from a spectacularly played beckham set piece. sweden showed star power but were unable to put anything past last-minute replacement goalkeeper shaka hislop, who put in a man-of-the match performance among many notable opportunities by ibrahimovic among others. the england/sweden game in koln should decide the winner in this group.
group C appears to be living up to its name as the group of death, with solid performances across the board. argentina looked to be quite stacked in the midfield in their 2-1 win, and had a great performance by abbondanzieri in goal to deny the ivory coast the chance to grab a point. didier drogba proved he can perform on the world stage, but he needs more support if his team plans to advance past the group play. the netherlands looked very sharp against a tough defensive team in serbia & montenegro who gave up as many goals in this game (1) as they did in the entire qualification stage. marco van basten’s holland squad looked like they could not only win this group, but make a play at the whole thing.
finally, in group D, mexico showed why el tri is ranked so high in the fifa world rankings, with a resounding, albeit late 3-1 win over a competitive iran side, sparked by creative play by substitute zinha. portugal came out of the gate firing, but cooled quickly after pauleta opened his world cup account in the 4th minute. mexico looks to be the early favorite in this group, but portugal should look much more impressive with deco in the lineup alongside a brilliant luis figo, and a better performance from young star ronaldo.
if the first eight games are to be any guide, it looks like we are in for a competitive cup with a surprisingly level playing field. the new seamless ball appears to favor more goals, with an average of 2.25 goals scored per game to this point. tomorrow’s 9 am (pdt) game will be the united states’ first of the cup, facing a czech side with a nebulous injured list. i fully expect you all to be missing work/school/religious services/personal obligations to watch the game. LETS GO USA!!!!!!!
i had to make a post because the countdown on the site is under 24 hours, although it is based on the viewer’s time zone as opposed to one standard clock, so the first game is actually on in under 15 hours. billions of football fans worldwide have been waiting for this for 4 years. 9 am (pdt) tomorrow is the kick off game featuring germany v. costa rica, followed by poland v. ecuador. look to favorites brazil but keep an eye on a few others: france, trying to shed the image of 2002’s cup when they failed to advance through the group stage; the netherlands, who have a cast of great players and will be well supported in their neighboring country, although they drew tough fixtures against giants argentina, rising african power cote d’ivoire, and defensive stalwarts serbia & montenegro; definitely watch the us team in group E, as i believe the qualifiers from that group will have played some great football and carry that momentum into the elimination stages (and quite possibly into a match versus brazil in the round of 16); and finally, you must like the chances of host nation germany. to players and fans worldwide i toast to a great world cup. in the next month i will be keeping you posted on the action from germany and hopefully sharing about some of my travels. lets go usa!
