Author Archives: olneyce

A New England – Billy Bragg The New World is dominating this tournament.  Teams from the Americas have now won 10 games, drawn 2, and lost 3. The two draws were Brazil and Mexico playing each other. And one of the … Continue reading →

Well, I can’t say that I expected Spain to be the first team eliminated from the tournament.  But it’s a funny old game, so here we are. Australia 2 – 3 Netherlands This was, surprisingly, one of the best games … Continue reading →

This was probably the worst day of the tournament so far, because only one of the games was superb. The others were merely solid. And there was a stretch of about two and half hours where not a single goal … Continue reading →

Because I’m a huge nerd, I went back and re-watched the first half on the ESPN tactical cam.  It basically shows you the whole pitch from way up behind one of the goals.  Very interesting way to experience the game. … Continue reading →

Two more great games today. One featured beautiful and flowing football from the Germans. The other featured scrappy, mediocre football from the German-Americans. And the less said about the third game the better. Germany 4 – 0 Portugal In some … Continue reading →

I did a much better job predicting results today. Got Argentina exactly right, predicted an easy France victory, and had the third exactly right until literally the final kick of the game. I’m still underestimating the number of goals, though. … Continue reading →

Four more very exciting games. This has been one heck of a tournament so far. No draws in eight games, tons of goals pouring in, some great skill on display, upsets, great goals, and what is almost certainly the worst … Continue reading →

Tons of goals so far. This is shaping up to be a great, attacking-oriented tournament. Hope it sticks! The big game obviously was the Dutch demolition of Spain, but both of the other games had a lot to hold your … Continue reading →

Brazil 3 – 1 Croatia Croatia has every right to feel extremely hard done-by here. They were excellent and deserved at least one point. In fact, I think you could make the argument that they were the better team over … Continue reading →

Some rambling thoughts, interspersed with some cool World Cup facts that I’ve discovered in the past few days. * Brazil is responsible for 11% of all victories in World Cup history. They’ve won 67 times.  Meanwhile, the 47 least-winning teams in … Continue reading →