the big early match today at noon is uruguay v. italy. italy advances with a tie or a win as each team has three points but they lead in goal differential. england plays costa rica in the other early match. costa rica would like to maintain top position in their group so they still have something to play for.
group c leading columbia who have already advanced play japan while greece and ivory coast face off in the other late afternoon match. a number of permutations exist for the final spot but the only certainty is that ivory coast advance with a victory as they have three points while japan and greece only have one.
Have you ever seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night?
final matches of the group stage begin today. all teams in each group play simultaneously to avoid any advantage. in group b at noon spain and austrailia play for pride while netherlands and chile face off for the top spot in group. the winner avoids playing the top team in their opposing group in the next round, in this case group a. brasil with a win against cameroon will take the top slot in group a unless mexico score an inordinate amount of goals while defeating croatia. mexico can also advance with a tie while croatia need an outright win to knock mexico out. those games begin at 4pm.
noooooooooooooooo!
Challengers emerge to replace divisive Maliki. As I started reading I couldn't help but joke to myself that Chalabi should be one. Lo and behold:
The names floated so far — Adel Abdul Mahdi, Ahmed Chalabi and Bayan Jaber — are from the Shiite blocs, which have the largest share of the total seats in the Parliament.
Unbelievable. It's like there's no difference between actual world news and the Onion.
fallen off the pace a bit though ive watched parts of every match. had a bad feeling going into the spain game and for whatever reason they just did not completely show up. just really sloppy passing for a team that needs to control the ball in order to wear their opponents down and score the precious few goals that come their way. and the goalie has probably seen the end of his reign as captain come euro 2016, the next big international tournament.
i was impressed with columbia after their initial match and they did not disappoint except for their excessive injury time wasting in an effort to hold out against a very good ivory coast team. outside of that mexico played very well against brasil but continue to have trouble finding the goal. brasil play cameroon in their final match so they should have no trouble advancing which leaves mexico and croatia fighting it out for the final spot in their group. mexico only need a tie to advance.
lastly, the belgians who are everyones dark horse needed to overcome a goal they ceded early to algeria. not completely sold on them but their group is really soft and one they will want to win outright to avoid germany in the next round.
nyc italian goes gf.
with all the other goings on i almost forgot that lebron & co face elimination tonight in san antonio. he had 17 in the first quarter so maybe he can will them back to miami for a game six by himself.
i just realized that it is an almost certainty that i was out last night with a pair of mismatched black adidas sneakers, one with black soles and one white. the germans must have thought i was representing their team. i was not.
Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates has a ton of detailed information on what's going on in Iraq. Like any source you have to be critical of course (the parent organization, The Institute for the Study of War, is led by Dr. Kimberly Kagan, wife of Fred Kagan,) but I haven't been able to find in depth reporting like this anywhere else.