Penalty kicks. I guess it’s a known issue, but still what a terribly unsatisfying way to determine the champion of the world’s most popular sport.
It’s a shame Zinedane wraps up his World Cup career with a head butt. Not that egregious fouls by Italians are unknown in World Cup competition, either.
Here’s hoping that 2010 will see a winner crowned on the field.
Bleh.
Where did the rest of the world go?
I wrote that Brazil looked eminently beatable, and so they were. (And Emmanuel wrote that Brazil was overrated.) France has just gotten better and better after scraping through the group round.
Anyone think we’ll find out how far Franco-German reconciliation has come on July 9?
You can get away with this sort of thing while everyone is glued to their TV sets, watching 22 men chase a round thing, but eventually someone outside the country is likely to notice…
For four weeks now Lithuania has been without a government, ever since President Valdas Adamkus dismissed the ministers of the populist Labour Party Darbo partija, putting an end to the coalition formed by Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas. Valdas Vasiliauskas doubts whether the attempts to elect a successor will be successful. “This week Lithuania hopes to find a new candidate for the post of prime minister. This way it would know what the path out of the crisis looks like after the first path led to a dead-end. There are many options, but they all have one problem: they’re not capable of obtaining a majority. New elections would be the best solution, but this proposal probably won’t get enough votes either.”
From the estimable folks at Eurotopics.
Yesterday’s teaser for one of our local tabloids sent a chill, particularly on a bright and sunny day–
WM-Durst
Bier wird knapp!
Which is to say
World Cup Thirst
Beer shortages coming!
Let’s hope not…
Soccer cliches in general, actually, but edifying on this off day.
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News from Berlin these days tends to come from the enormous parties in front of the Brandenburger Tor or in the Tiergarten. But spare a thought for a moment from whether Ghana will beat the eminently beatable Brazilian team and glance over to the Reichstag building, home of Germany’s parliament.
Today, more or less as I write, Joschka Fischer is taking part in his final session as a German parliamentarian. He leaves behind a long list of firsts, significant achievements and all of the right enemies. Member of the first Green delegation in the Bundestag, first parliamentary leader of that delegation, first Green minister in a state government, member of the first Red-Green cabinet at the national level — and thus first Green vice-chancellor and first Green foreign minister.
He’ll be teaching for a year at Princeton, but nobody in the German press believes we have heard the last of Joschka Fischer. I don’t believe it either. He’s too big a talent to fade away.
Can the Italians win a game without a significant boost from the referees?
“Berlin! Berlin! We’re going to Berlin!”
That was the big chant among the crowds at the three or four different venues where I watched parts of Germany’s victory over Sweden today. And, you know, they might well be.
Downtown Munich is one big party zone right now. I’ll be back, er, later.
(Sorry, David.)
As David said, “Cool when underdogs win. Just not against us.”
(I know this happened 24 hours ago. It just took time to face up to putting it into a blog post.)