Danke, Deutchland

Yay Germany! Way to get back to your pretty, controlled, efficient football ways. I missed you to the last couple games. Keep it up.

(So long, England...)

Sigh

That's it. We're out. I'm depressed.

But you know--I hate to say it--I think the win went to the better team this time. Ghana really did play better soccer more minutes of the game, for all our American determination and scrappiness.

Now Germany had better beat England tomorrow. Seriously. No more fooling around.

An encounter

I was walking to the farmer's market this morning, and as I passed the art museum I heard a slight rustle above me. I looked up into the nearest tree, and one of these was looking down at me:

It's a red-tailed hawk, and in person, it's quite big. And claw-y. As it stared at me with its round, unblinking eyes, I was very glad to know they don't like to eat people.

Quite an imposing and beautiful bird.

(Unfortunately, I was not able to get a good picture of my hawk, so I had to steal this image from wikimedia.)

Drama

I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but we did it. What's with the American need for drama?

Bad First Day on the Job

Um, you'd think you know what you were getting into when you accepted the job-title "madator"...

Click here for YouTube clip (sorry, Blogger was having trouble embedding the video in this post)

But I do like the comment on the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me site (where I got the clip): "You say he's a bad bull-fighter. I say he's a good stayer-aliver."

Here's to staying alive.

Let's go, guys

Today's the big day. The U.S. needs to beat Algeria this morning (okay, they could tie and still squeak through to the elimination rounds, but only if the England-Slovenia game goes in certain ways...it will be much simpler if we just win). Once we know how that game goes, I can decide how I want the Group D games this afternoon to go. I really want Germany to beat Ghana--not least so I can gloat over my Ghanaian friend--but I also don't want the U.S. to face Germany in the first round of eliminations, because then one of my teams will immediately eliminate the other. Not cool. (I wish they weren't in adjacent groups like that. Sigh.) So, they need to work it out so they're either both first or both second in their respective groups. Come on, guys. You can do it. (And remember, U.S. guys: scoring before the other team is often helpful for winning...)

Whew

Okay, we're still okay. England tied Algeria 0-0, so if we beat Algeria on Wednesday then we're on to the death-or-glory rounds.

But you know, I have to say, everyone keeps going on about how terrible England was--and they were pretty terrible--but there's also the fact that Algeria did quite well. They legitimately held their own. We shouldn't underestimate them in the upcoming match (nor should we play like we did for the first half this morning...crimenently, guys, the whole coming-from-behind thing is dramatic and exciting when it works out, but let's try scoring first once in a while).

Better than losing

Okay, I'll take the 2-2 draw against Slovenia. But really, we won 3-2, because that last goal totally should have counted. And yes, I am blaming the ref for this loss. We were robbed.

But what is, is. At least we're still in it. Now England and Algeria just need to tie this afternoon, and we'll be in okay shape...