occasional posts by risa aratyr
After some weirdness in the Group stage — a close shave victory over the Black Stars and a surprising defeat to Serbia — Germany returned to the form they’d displayed against Australia and proceeded to clobber England and clobber Argentina. They expected to clobber Spain. A few days ago I posed the question, “How the … Read more WC Fields [semi] — Germany v Spain
Those who only follow the fortunes of the big-name teams miss some of the very best matches. The crowds show up for Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, USA, England. There were only 3 of us in the pub to see Uruguay-Holland. Lucky us. This one was riveting. With two star player suspended on reds and Lugano … Read more WC Fields [semi] — Uruguay v Holland
GERMANY v ARGENTINA On paper? A not-to-be-missed match, end-to-end, neck-and-neck. On the pitch… Argentina got creamed. Germany won by a resounding 4 – 0 margin. The one and only question I had at the end of the 90 minutes was, “How the hell is anybody going to beat these guys?” Argentina’s pride was crushed as … Read more WC Fields [1/4 finals] — Day #2
HOLLAND v BRAZIL Holland has what it takes to be real contenders. They’ve already shown their coordination, precision passing, attack mentality and individual skills. In this match they revealed a ruthless side to their game that sent a message to their opponents in the next round: if our beautiful football isn’t enough to win it, … Read more WC Fields [1/4 finals] — Day #1
In the States, the media ranks games in terms of expected audience size and national interest. All USA matches get massive coverage, followed by those involving Brazil, England, Germany and Italy. Some of these fixtures live up to their press. Some don’t. Some that slip under the American media radar are the hard fought, end-to-end … Read more WC Fields [k.o.] — Paraguay v Japan