2006 HWCI World Cup Pool "Clap! or Crap?" Newsletter (Sam Nishi)

Well, let’s have some fun this Sunday and muse about Africa (or USA) 2010 .. .. Remember – I said it first, here is our 2010 USA squad:

D: ALBRIGHT, ONYEWU, BOCANEGRA, Jonathan BORNSTEIN, CONRAD, Marvell WYNN, Jonathan SPECTOR, Cory GIBBS

M: DEMPSEY, DONOVAN, Lee NGUYEN, CONVEY, Benny FEILHABER, Michael BRADLEY, Jacob THOMAS, Freddie ADU

CLAP! or CRAP? TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT

[ SAVIOLA added 16Jun ]

GK: BORUC (POL)
D: CANNAVARO (ITA)-SANCHO (TRI)-LAHM (GER)
M: ROSICKY (CZE)-CAHILL (AUS)-TOTTI (ITA)-SCHWEINSTEIGER (GER)-ROBBEN (NED)
F: DELGADO (ECU)-SAVIOLA (ARG)

recently dropped: VILLA (ESP) 16 Jun
WANCHOPE (CRC) 15Jun

Match 28: JAPAN v. CROATIA

If it wasn’t Sunday, my vocab would be a bit more pointed >> Both sides actually tried not to score .. .. CRO had a PK saved and JPN had a wide open net but the JPN striker decided to tap it to the GK who was all the way over at the far post .. .. Miserable .. ..

Only the heroic EE. UU. effort last night kept me from throwing up my breakfast all over the TV .. .. CRO was far more dangerous with most of their shots coming in the box or just a bit outside while JPN was left to long bombs .. ..

Match 27: BRAZIL v. AUSTRALIA

BRA is entertaining, but even they were poor, except for some very few moments .. .. Today and in the tournament thus far .. .. Only won the match when AUS got stretched at the back .. ..

AUS tried hard but the last, killer ball was missing .. .. Manager HIDDINK had the right idea – Frustrate BRA with token high-pressure, clog the MF and everybody work on defense .. .. If they get beat on brilliance, so be it, but BRA is far from brilliant thus far and very, very mortal .. .. RONALDO? Este es uno burro!!

BRA MoM: #7 ADRIANO scored the winner on a simple well-placed shot .. .. The Serie A striker took a simple square-ball from ‘El Burro’ and left-footed his skimmer into the lower-right .. .. Simple, but efficient when you put it on goal, huh?!?!

Match 29: FRANCE v. SOUTH KOREA

CLAP only because the French coward-whiners get exactly what they deserve .. .. A belated exit from the WC for the second time in a row .. ..

Their only goal was lucky at that when WILTORD’s bomb got blocked and luckily trickled right into HENRY’s path .. .. If not for that block, FRA still would not have scored a goal in their last 5 WC matches .. ..

KOR ran hard but was poor in their attacking third .. .. But they got the cross in that counted when CHO headed the ball back to PARK for his touch-goal .. .. All of their hard running has to have rewards but would they be able to beat a quality side??

KOR MoM: #7 PARK JI-SUNG is quickly going to become a National Hero on three continents .. .. His goal v. POR in 2002 got KOR thru to the second round and kept USA in the tournament .. .. And, he is quickly becoming a fan favorite at Manchester United (ENG) where some fans feel he is as important as WAYNE ROONEY to the Old Trafford outfit .. .. Was in the right place at the right time today as he was in the box when CHO headed the ball to him and PARK was able to just chip it thru BARTEZ and into the net .. ..