The New Republic

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Well, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to work after that.  But why mess with the morning's workless streak? (Actually I'm at a panel discussion, where chin-tugging will hopefully calm me down.) The most exciting match of the tournament by far. Add it to the growing pantheon of courageous U.S. ties.  (I await the day when my most precious memories of U.S. soccer aren't just spiritual triumphs.) READ MORE >>

The fate of attacking football in this tournament largely rests with Marcelo Bielsa’s Chile. Like so many other teams in these opening games, they should have probably run up a much higher score today. (A point-blank header into the arms of the goalkeeper didn’t help.) But it’s hard not to be enthusiastic about Chile’s contrarian methodology. READ MORE >>

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South Africa, I think, has actual reason for elation about the result. The Carlos Alberto Parriera system worked. His defense is barely good enough (and counterattacking capabilities sufficient) to keep them in any match in their opening group. South Africa will be more than content to retain their viability and hope that some gust of luck and homerism carries them through. Mexico, on the other hand, somewhat disappointed me. As a Barca fan, I’m pleased that Rafa Marquez scored his gimme goal. But you can see why Barca doesn’t use him regularly anymore. READ MORE >>

"Life is too short to miss any games to be played this summer in South Africa. A sad fact of human existence is that an average life seldom contains more than 20 World Cups—our games are tragically numbered." From Aleksandar Hemon's preview of the tournament in the current issue of TNR. READ MORE >>

YouTube is, in many ways, a tragically demystifying invention. One of the joys of watching a World Cup was encountering a great player from an obscure league for the first time. But now highlight reels abound. Still, there are players that I can’t wait to see in action--if only to gauge if they can live up to the moments edited together by some adoring fan. One such player is the Portugese full back, and dribbler extraordinaire, Fábio Coentrão. His skills remind me of Denilson, who could make dazzling runs, filled with step-overs and other circus moves. READ MORE >>

I am a big fan of the site Zonal Marking. The good folks over there have an excellent study of Chile. Now, I plan on rooting for Chile on feel-good humanitarian grounds. But I also intend to root for them because of their coach, Marcelo Bielsa. READ MORE >>

World Cup College predicts the headlines to emerge from the tournament: Hand of Drog Roo Beauty Chile Gone Barmy Let’s Go Foul a Kuyt New Zealand suffer half-Nelsen [Ryan Nelsen is sent off just before half-time] READ MORE >>

Alex has launched a wonderfully entertaining all-out assault on Brazil. I had planned on issuing a rebuttal and intend to return to the subject soon. In the meantime, I want to recommend this insightful (if somewhat meandering) post from the blogger santapelota. No country's game has been as sentimentalized as Brazil's--and santapelota does a nice job of parsing the reality of joga bonito from its hype.   READ MORE >>