Well, it's that time again, my favorite month of sports--the World Cup.

This'll be the fourth one I've watched--I first got hooked when it was played in the U.S., when I was living below that Brazilian family in '94. I watched part of the '98 tourny in France from a couch in Mississippi. I still remember seeing the tough German defense fall before Brazil in '02, and now this. I'll be spending an entirely unreasonable amount of time following matches over the next month until the final on July 9.

Here are my thoughts on a few highlights from the first weekend of play.

Germany 4, Costa Rica 2
Of all the teams I've seen this weekend, Germany's impressed me the most. Perhaps stung by their loss to super-offensive Brazil in the last Cup, this new team was all aggressive offense, moving fast and pushing the ball hard. While they don't have the individual ball-handling skills of a South American team, collectively they're very effective, working cooperatively to create a lot of great angles and set up strikes.

Costa Rica didn't look so good, and the fact that they scored two goals shows the potential weakness of this German team--a sometimes-loose defensive back line. Their new keeper didn't distinguish himself, and a dangerous offense-based team like Brazil or Argentina could pull their new game style apart if the German midfield would have to pull back to help defend. How strongly they handle Poland later this week will be telling.

Argentina 2, Ivory Coast 1
This was a really interesting match--two very colorful teams who are both quite dangerous. I was very impressed by Ivory Coast--they displayed some of the best movement I've seen yet, pushing the ball across the field and creating some great scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, that's where they broke down--their shots on goal were haphazard, off-target, and generally unfocused and uncoordinated. Time and again they'd push right through the Argentines and then send a shot harmlessly wide.

Argentina, on the other hand, played almost stereotypical South American soccer--a style of play that almost seems lazy or passive, but which strikes like lightning at surprise moments. They seemed sluggish compared to Ivory Coast for a lot of the match, and had the ball for a lot less of the time, but their setup kicks and goal shots were scarily hard, fast, and on-target. They displayed some overall and defensive weakness in this match, but their offense will make them a real threat against anyone.

Mexico 3, Iran 1
Another interesting, dynamic match. These two teams seem to have a pretty similar style of play--tough, scrappy, physical, fighting for the ball and keeping each other on the run. In this case, Mexico was simply more aggressive and better organized near the goal, setting up some great goal shots. They seemed to have some problems effectively clearing out the ball after Iranian goal shots, and this could cause trouble if they don't tighten it up a bit. Iran looked workmanlike and not much more, but Mexico looked intense enough to be a potential threat into the later stages of the tournament.

The rest of this week should provide some terrific matches, including the debuts of the U.S., Brazil, Australia, France, and Italy--all potentially tough teams who I'll be intrigued to see.

Labels: Sport