The most exciting group in the 2006 World Cup so far is not the so-called Group of Death which many have identified as Group C (tag). In my opinion, rather, it is Group E instead. Ghana and the United States this morning managed to throw their group wide open after both embarrassing the Czech Republic and Italy respectively.
The Czech-Ghanaian was fast. Almost ice hockey-like. For me, I definitely didn’t expect the Czech to lose the match. Previous before the World Cup in Germany started earlier this month, the Dutch had the misfortune to meet the Czech and with that qualifying group, the Czech was the Dutch biggest fear. Even in Euro 2004, the Dutch lost to the Czech Republic in the most disappointing way – Oranje was leading 2-0 only to lose the game 3-2. Given that reputation, I see the Czech with high regards. And since I’m familiar with Galasek (former Ajacied) and Grygera (current) – and then there are Milan Baros, Poborsky, Petr Cech – it’s hard to chew the fact that Ghana won 2-0. For this reason, I salute the African.
Roughly an hour after the Ghanaian victory, there was the US-Italy match. For those that know me, I have no love for the Italian team. They would bore me to death with their “defend, defend and defend” mentality. Defense is an important aspect of the game but overdoing it is another story.
And as I’ve blogged last week, due to diplomatic reasoning (you guys can blame Bush Jr. for that), I have no appetite to see the United States progresses beyond group stage. This is one of those matches that I would rather see both lost. And really got what I wanted! Two red cards for the Americans and another one for the Italian. But whatever it was, United States is the one laughing all the way to the changing room. The US, despite drawing, managed to humble the Italian, almost as how the American did to the Portuguese four years back. The score line was one all despite the fact that the United States was playing with nine men.
Hah! I bet the Italians were even defending when they were at risk of facing a major embarassment.
At the end of the day, this means anybody could qualify to the next round. Since I don’t want to see both the Italian and the American to progress to the next stage, I’m naturally rooting for the Czech Republic and Ghana.
p/s – alright. I’m confusing myself with the plural Dutch, Czech, etc with the singular versions.
