by Ethan Johnson
June 20, 2006

As Stage 1 winds down, there are lots of games being played concurrently, which means I am switching to a "roundup" format rather than comment on individual matches. Of course, I will return to the single match format for Stage 2, or sooner if a particular match has me gushing with material.

This morning, Despierta America spent some time talking about two very important subjects: German men, and German women. What do they like? Could Latin Americans find love in Alemania? Maybe, but it sounds like it would be with other Latin Americans who lived there. Here are the two observations about German men as told by DA:

• They like to support social and environmental causes.
• They don't like to hug.

What say you, German men? Does this sound accurate, or is DA spreading false information?

I didn't get to find out about German women as I had to turn the TV off and go to work.

Germany vs Ecuador: Germany owned Ecuador throughout the first half. I had to check the stats to confirm that Ecuador was 2-0 going in to this match. Right around the 3rd goal by Germany, I figured that Ecuador decided that going through to the next stage was good enough, and they weren't going to kill themselves over gaining "pole position". That's certainly a risk going in to this final wave of games, as some teams may not exert the effort that we should be seeing in Stage 2 (or earlier in Stage 1).

On a side note, I have been commenting privately that Univision "knows what side their tortilla is buttered on" on any given day. When the US plays, they decorate the set with US flags. Mexico gets the royal treatment, as does Argentina and Brazil. When Spain played the other day, the on-site reporter was wearing a Spain jersey. Today he was wearing an Ecuador jersey. I figure that cognitive dissonance is going to be an issue when Mexico plays Portugal. Or not; the smart money is on Mexico for the decorations committee. Anyway, talk about knowing your audience!

England vs Sweden: Wow, this game ended much differently than I was expecting. I was kinda "meh" about this game going into it, and I only got to watch the first half live. In the van, I listened to part of the second half on a Spanish radio station. Following soccer (futbol) in a foreign language is tough indeed, but not impossible. Most of the announcing concerns who has the ball and what this person is doing with it. To wit:

[England player] spanishspanishspanish [Name] spanishspanishspanish [Name] spanishspanishspanish [Name] spanishspanishspanish OHHHHHHHH! spanishspanishspanish

That last "oh" was someone missing a shot on goal.

There are certain words I am listening for (besides gol), such as esquina (corner). 9 times out of 10, this means that someone is about to try a corner kick. Or, it means that the goalie is standing in the corner of the penalty zone and is about to kick the ball away. But an "ohhhhh" followed closely by esquina usually means a corner kick is forthcoming.

England's first goal was pretty amazing. Sweden captured the 2000th goal honor.

Paraguay vs Trinidad/Tobago: WTF happened to Shaka Hislop? He was the only reason why I recorded this match, and then he wasn't playing anyway. I suppose that it matters not, as neither team is advancing to Stage 2. Perhaps T&T wanted to give their other goalie some World Cup experience? On the flip side, this was T&T's first ever World Cup. Might as well make the most of it.

Tomorrow: There is officially more soccer than I can shake a TV remote at. And it's all good, playa: Mexico/Portugal (¡Sí, Se Puede!), Argentina/Netherlands (heck yes), Angola/Iran (Joao Ricardo!). 2 out of the 4 games have Stage 2 implications, I'm excited about the Angola/Iran game, and don't have the bandwidth for Serbia/Ivory Coast. Meet you back here! <EM>