Hey everyone....I am trying to learn how to do all the popular blogging so I can inform all of you of a women's side of the traveling through the World Cup!! I am sure it is going to be a little different!
So today we had the first ALL day world cup event at our place. It started at 8:00AM and finished around 4pm. It was exciting to have all the energy for the game of soccer in one place. Luckily England won so my husband is still happy!
This is my first entry so I will keep it short but I look forward to writing about all our travels and hearing from all of you! Hope you are all well and I will talk with you soon.
Sam speaking:
Y'all didn't think I was going to do all the talking right? Nothing like a little feminine perspective on all the beer and football, right?!? Well, well, its only saturday night, I've been a glutton I have, you should see the smile on my face!
I'd hardly been able to concentrate on work, I had a rehearsal for the presentation of my PhD proposal yesterday afternoon and I seriously couldn't get my mind on the task until my first fix! I didnt even sleep thursday night! So, come 11am yesterday, Erin, Luis and Luis's 5 3/4 (his words) yrs old son, Jordi, found ourselves in Nevins. The place was empty at 11am though people did start trickling in, leaving us with a good choice of seats. Typically for a country that hardly worships football, the build-up had much to be desired. I mean, for the opening ceremony, ESPN showed *NONE* of it. Fine, perhaps they'll use the 5 minutes before 11 to talk about starting line-ups, history of the opening game etc. Did they? no. Adverts. They did show a clip of Bono singing and some faces of stars, and I could feel the emotion building up. But then, more adverts. They cut to the game at the moment the kick-off started. Man...
Anyway, great opening game, 6 goals, Wanchope truly left the German backline in his dust, twice, well taken goals, but the Germans had their say with two fantastic long-range strikes that the 'keeper just couldn't reach. Germany 4, Costa Rica 2. Oh, and I recommend the lamb burger with cucumber and cilantor relish...mmm...
Ecuador beat Poland 2-0, people are talking about how this is a shock, I dont know why, perhaps because Poland is ranked higher or they are a European team. Still, if you play your qualifiers in your home continent, there's no reason you can make expectations about such a match-up between teams from different continents. It seems, latin flair won the day. But I didn't see the game, and from the reports, Poland controlled the game and should have scored. Poland 0, Ecuador 2.
So, this morning we had out little party, rearranging furniture so that everyone can see the tv, we were anticipating various people coming in and out throughout the day and got up at 7am to get the bacon and pancakes cooking. It was a good time, everybody seemed to enjoy themselves though the coffee (and later the beer) seemed to go fast. We found that a new local pizza place (no website) delivered good cheap pizza, so if you live in Rogers Park, call up Frankos.
First up was England. What a sorry affair, when the first goal went in, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, maybe we'd get four goals like the Germans did. You know, we had Paraguay in our hands, it almost seemed at times that if they had the ball, England was just waiting for them to lose posession. But as the game went on, it was obvious that we had no way to attack, there was hardly a shot on goal and the manager took Owen off at half time! England 1, Paraguay 0.
Anyway, we got our three points, and the next game, Sweden vs Trinidad & Tobago was far more exciting. The soca warriors held the Swedes ("they look like Ikea workers" said Rich) at bay despite losing a man and Shaka was the hero blocking Ibrahimovic, Allback, Larsson et al. It's good news for England as it means that if they do beat T & T next week, which they should, says the optimist in me, we'll go through to the next round despite the result against Sweden. But then again, the Swedes attacked T&T better than what we could muster against Paraguay, so we'll wait and see. Sweden 0, T&T 0.
The last game of the day I enjoyed the most, being a football purist. Now this was football. Both teams for once had many chances, and I was surprised at how comfortable the africans were on the ball. The scoreline makes Argentina sound like the better team but they were evenly matched I must say and outclassed at times too. Argentina 2, Ivory Coast 1.
After all that, man, I just collapsed. Had a major nap with plenty of weird dreams. I was even playing croquet in one, (housegroup would know why), but not even football....hmmm, maybe I need some more REM sleep for that to sink into my long-term memories. Im sure, come August, my dreams would be even weirder.
On another note, as per Emily's request, I allowed comments by unregistered users, so fire away y'all.
posted by SamErika @ 10:16 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you, Sam! I'm currently watching the Iran/Mexico game. (Mexico just made a very nice second goal!)
Yesterday was an excellent kick-off to my 2006 World Cup experience. I've decided to make it my summer obsession. (Mexico just got a spectacular THIRD GOAL!)
Have fun in Germany! I’ll be reading your blog frequently.
Post a Comment
<< Home