Whew! Some background. I was born and lived in England for the first 30 years of my life. Watched all the World Cups over the years. Used to stay up late or get up early when young and when I started work, I used to take vacation time or suddenly become sick for a couple of weeks to watch all the games. I moved to the U.S. 19 years ago and became a U.S. citizen 10 years ago. So I obviously still support England, even when they play the U.S. But the U.S. get my support in every case except when they are up against England.
So, this morning (games started at 8 am here in Colorado..vacation) was somewhat gut wrenching. I had a bad feeling about England, but they somehow managed to pull through. I was watching the England game downstairs, occasionally flicking over to catch a few seconds of the U.S. game. My wife was upstairs watching the U.S. game.
It's unbelievable how things can change within the blink of an eye. England were winning 1-0, the U.S. were tied 0-0 with less than 5 minutes left in each game. At this point, England were through and the U.S. were out. Then Slovenia, almost, and could have scored. That would have put England out and the Slovenia and the U.S. through. Of course they didn't score and the game ended a couple of minutes later. At the very second, the game ended, England were through and the U.S. were out. But one second later...literally one second, the U.S. scored and now they are through and Slovenia are out.
Don't you just love the World Cup?
I was already thinking of a blog to post about how the U.S. got screwed...again, with another disallowed goal that should have stood, when everything changed.
So now, we have to look forward to the round of 16. I think the U.S. will get the better of the draw, and they deserve it. They won the group and were better than England over the three group games. My guess is that Germany will win their game over Ghana and Serbia will win their game. This should put Germany as the winners of that group with Serbia second.
So the U.S. could get Serbia and if they play well, there is no reason they can't win. England, judging on their recent performances and recent history over Germany, will lose to them...probably on penalty kicks.
But then again, anything could happen this afternoon and Ghana could be in the mix. That's what I love about the World Cup.
