The Accidental Patriot

I really had my heart set on Slovenia and Algeria spanking the super-powers. Shucks.

But I'm compelled to confess that I cheered for the USA today (at least in the second half). I left the house this morning for the first time to watch a game in a public venue. (The Globe in downtown Athens is a terrific place generally and a superb World Cup viewing venue--thanks Randy and Terry). It felt creepy when the 150-ish persons started chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" after the whoops and hollers that followed the goal, but I was happy that the team had won. Both sides played really well.

The 'Armchair Pundit' at eruosport.yahoo.com has the best (funniest) report on the significance of the events in Group C today. The USA's dramatic goal in the 91st minutes shoved England into 2nd place, and up against Germany (Group D 1st place) on Sunday. England's path only gets worse;

"Just how tough is it for England? Well, it couldn't be any tougher. If they manage to make it past Germany, they will most likely face Argentina in the quarter-finals. Then Spain. Then Brazil......

"It's the team that always beats us, followed by the best team in the competition, followed by the pre-tournament favourites, followed by the country that has won more World Cups than anyone else. Nice.

".....In fact, no team has ever won the World Cup after negotiating such an arduous fixture list.

"We might beat Germany. We might even beat Germany and Argentina. But we're highly unlikely to beat Germany and Argentina and Spain. And we'll never beat Germany and Argentina and Spain and Brazil. It's just too hard.....

England were knocked out of the World Cup this afternoon."

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The Schedule for Thursday:

As far as I can tell Group 'F' plays at 10 AM and 'E' at 2:30PM, ET.

ITA v. SVK (Italy and Slovakia)
PAR v. NZL (Paraguay and New Zealand)

and then:

DEN v. JPN (Denmark and Japan)
CMR v. NED (Cameroon and The Netherlands)

Notice that group 'F' is wide-open, but the only real thing to be decided in Group E is whether Denmark or Japan advance.

The Permutations (from espn.com)

GROUP E

Netherlands has advanced. Netherlands wins the group with:
(a) Win or a tie versus Cameroon
(b) Loss AND a Denmark-Japan tie
(c) Loss IF the Denmark-Japan winner does not make up tiebreakers

Japan advances with:
(a) Win or tie versus Denmark

Japan wins group with:
(a) Win AND a Netherlands loss AND by making up tiebreakers on Netherlands

Denmark advances with:
(a) Win versus Japan

Denmark wins group with:
(a) Win AND a Netherlands loss AND by making up tiebreakers on Netherlands

Cameroon has been eliminated.

GROUP F

Paraguay advances with:
(a) Win/tie versus New Zealand
(b) Loss AND Italy tie verus Slovakia
(c) Loss and Slovakia win as long as Slovakia doesn't make up tiebreakers

Italy advances with:
(a) Win versus Slovakia
(b) Tie and New Zealand loss
(c) Tie AND Paraguay-New Zealand tie IF Italy outscores New Zealand

New Zealand advances with:
(a) Win versus Paraguay
(b) Tie AND Italy-Slovakia tie IF New Zealand outscores Italy

Slovakia advances with:
(a) Win versus Italy AND Paraguay win/tie versus New Zealand
(b) Win versus Italy AND Paraguay loss versus New Zealand AND make up tiebreakers versus Paraguay