World Cup Day Three

You always hear about the Dutch being a very technical team, "Total Football" and all that, but until you've actually seen the Clockwork Orange play, you can't even imagine just how astonishing it is to see them. I've never seen such a well-executed passing game in my life - ball after ball after ball went exactly where it was aimed at the exact speed necessary. They say "the best defense is a good offense" and that's never been more true than here; Serbia and Montenegro didn't have a lot of chances, mostly because they couldn't pry the ball away from the Dutch passing clinic. Arjen Robben's goal came off a great feed, and he had at least three more excellent chances; he was the man of the match in no uncertain terms. Van Nistelrooy did pretty much nothing, but then he never really had to. After seeing this game I'd say the Dutch are now the #4 team I'm pulling for, behind the US, England, and Australia. How can you not root for a style that gorgeous?

Mexico vs. Iran: I did not attend this concert. Drew and I started playing the US team in CONCACAF qualifying in the FIFA World Cup video game instead.

I was hoping Angola could pull a 2002 Senegal and stick it to their former colonial overlords, but no such luck, although Angola seemed to control a lot of the second half and might have at least gotten a point had they been a little more talented. As it was, Pauleta scored for Portugal in the fourth minute and that managed to hold up. Not as exciting a "watch the favorite hold a 1-0 lead" game as the Netherlands/Serbia game had been, sadly, but at least Angola threatened for a while. I'm not sure if the game says more about Portugal or Angola, though. You have to think that Group D is Mexico and Portugal at this point. Which is really what everyone has been predicting from minute one, because holy crap that's the easiest group out there and it annoys me to no end that Mexico got it when they didn't even deserve to be seeded.

Okay, I'm done. US-Czechs tomorrow - I plan on a long lunch.