1st phase of group play concludes on Wednesday

Wednesday, June 16th we’ll have the last two games of the first phase of group play, with Group H; Honduras v. Chile and then Spain v. Switzerland.

So far, the strong teams are Germany, Argentina, The Netherlands, and Brazil—and Spain is expected to shine.

One of the most notable aspects of the group play, so far, has been less the strong winners (predictable) and more the tie games, which (contrary to my earlier post) are actually quite exciting. Ties have kept me on the edge of my seat as Paraguay neutralized Italy, the South African team held its ground against Mexico, Ivory Coast forced Portugal into a shutout, and New Zealand equalized Slovakia in the 93rd minute.

Six out of the 14 games so far have ended in ties, which keeps the tournament wide open.

Wednesday PM we move into the second round of group play: The first team in each group plays the 3rd, the 2nd plays the 4th. So South Africa faces Uruguay, and then (Thursday) Mexico plays France. Remember—the top two teams from each group advance to the next round of 16 teams. That’s when we get to elimination play. Until June 26th, a loss isn’t an automatic out.

Other interesting news associated with the tournament:

*Somali militants have threatened World Cup fans. The BBC reported that a spokesman for the group, Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros, said Somalians should respect the ban on the World Cup: "We are warning all the youth of Somalia not to dare watch these World Cup matches. It is a waste of money and time and they will not benefit anything or get any experience by watching mad men jumping up and down."

I admit that I've been wasting a lot of time watching these mad men jump up and down.

*South African riot police in Durban fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of World Cup security stewards protesting over alleged pay cuts. (The article failed to mention the precise role of ‘stewards.’) The clash took place after the Australia/Germany game. The stewards said they were being paid only 190 rand ($25) a day, although they had been promised more.

More to say about this and other labor disputes associated with Fifa 2010.

*36 Dutch supporters were ejected from Monday’s game (against Denmark) because they were wearing orange dresses---? Apparently the disturbed party was Budweiser, the ‘official’ (gag) beer of Fifa 2010. Budweiser claimed that the Dutch ladies were advertising for Bavaria.

Get a life Budweiser!

*A South Korean television network accused North Korea of illegally showing matches from South Africa to its isolated populace. Apparently, “North Korea’s state-run Central Television has shown replays of four World Cup games, including the opening match between South Africa and Mexico, and a Saturday match in which South Korea defeated Greece 2-0……the replay of the South Korea-Greece game was shown on Monday evening, with occasionally favorable commentary on the skills of South Korean players.” South Korean TV is upset because they paid for the rights to show the games throughout the peninsula.

So now they have copyright issues along with that sunken sub to argue about.

*Hundreds of complaints have been made about the sound of vuvuzela horns. The French team complained that the horns were waking them up in their hotel.

Shucks.

Summing up so far:

The winners (3 points each):

South Korea
Argentina
Slovenia
Germany
Ghana
The Netherlands
Japan
Brazil

The ties (1 point each, and, more importantly, blocked their opponents from earning 3):

South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France
England
USA
Italy
Paraguay
Slovakia
New Zealand
Portugal
Ivory Coast

The losers:

Greece
Nigeria
Algeria
Australia
Serbia
Denmark
Cameroon
North Korea