I Dislike Your Favorite Team

Game 1: Germany 4, Costa Rica 2

I would have never thought this game would be a high scoring affair. But that's why they play the games, as Mit Lether would say. I thought this would be a grueling hard fought affair, and mainly in the midfield. It was shockingly up and down, and man, the Costa Ricans need to learn about defense. Not for this cup, they are done for this cup. But for next time around, they need to learn defense.

The Germans really can't be serious about the 40 yard offsides trap, can they? That kind of sort of worked against Costa Rica (it worked in that Germany scored 4 goals and could afford to give up two to Paulo Wanchope) but that won't work, in theory against Poland, or Ecuador. Which brings me to my other horrible prediction.

Game 2: Poland 0, Ecuador 2.

Wow, did Poland ever look out of sorts in this game. They had the run of play for the entire game, but never tested Mora, the Ecuadorian keeper. They just never shot, or they fired shots right at him. I've never seen a team dance so much in the opposing 18. I was rooting for Poland, mainly so I could be right about one game in my predictions, after failing so poorly in Game 1.

But Poland looked spastic around the Ecuadorian net, and pretty slow on defense, particularly in the first half. This was not the Poland that qualified for the tournament. If this is the Poland that is going to show up in the next two games, they are going home, embarassed. They are already on their way to going home, but they can still somewhat redeem themselves.

They didn't really put the screws to Ecuador's defense until very late in the game, and then they managed to hit woodwork (neophytes--"woodwork" is the goal crossbar or posts) twice in the last 5 minutes. They were very close to pulling off a miracle comeback, but they were just a few inches away.

Poland was at the beginning of the tournament a buzz team to win this group, and I believe I know a little something about the scoring and the tie breaks and such. Poland is after two games, at the very bottom of this group. 0 points. -2 goal differential, 0 goals scored.

Ecuador looked good, but not great. Poland looked shaky. I'll give it up for the Ecuador defense, though. They sacrificed their bodies, blocked shots, were first to loose balls. Espoinoza and Hurtado were incredible back there. They deserve the win just for their defense. The goals from the offense were a nice bonus.

Hopefully, my Day 2 predictions will hold up better.