World Cup Diary: Day Five Reviews and French-Kissing

First the United States gets crushed in its opening World Cup game. Then this: “The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case on Monday advised Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, that he would not be charged with any wrongdoing, effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation that had at times focused intensely on Mr. Rove.” So the United States is really behind as we go into day five, showing the world that they have no game on the field and no case off of it: if they’re not running around in double-armored Humvees, they’re as naked as Napoleon in his whoremonging bath. They played as poorly as any one side did through 11 games. If it wasn’t for the Czechs’ first-half performance, the match would have ranked as the most boring of the tournament (that honor so far goes to the England-Paraguay match). The Americans showed why FIFA’s world rankings are so idiotic. They’re not ranked fifth in the world, and on Monday they played as if they were ranked somewhere in the area of the Azores islands. Worst of all, they were dull, uninspired, a bunch of have-beens until Eddie Johnson was put in, in the second half, much too late to make the difference if Bruce Arena, the coach, had put him in to start the game. Let’s not dwell: the day had some wonderful football, beginning with the Australia-Japan match that the Australians pulled off in what seemed like a monsoon of goals in the last six seconds of the game after the Japanese had held them off and even outplayed them for the other 89.7 minutes. That’s what redeeming football is about: Until that monsoon, and Tim Cahill’s eruption, the Australians had deserved their loss; they walked off the field deserving heroes. The Italy-Ghana game was also a joy to watch—and a worry to the United States, who share the group. Ghana was far more energetic than the US, if not quite the inventive side it needed to be to pierce the Italian defense. But Ghana had a plan, and it almost worked: don’t even try to pierce the defense. Shoot long distance. And with 40 million dollar man Michael Essien doing the shooting, they almost pulled it off. FIFA’s portly pope Joe Blatter called it “the best soccer of the tournament so far,” as quoted in an Associated Press dispatch (did he really call it soccer?), and it might have been, but the Sweden-Trinidad game, despite its 0-0 tie, ranks up there as well. Read the rest...