Whose World? What Cup? (Day 14)

The order of the world is turning upside down as I watch Italy, the incumbent champions, 1-0 down against Slovakia. The Italian defence is like spaghetti; confusing, entangled, and porous. Meanwhile Paraguay are being held by the resolute All Blacks (normally in white, but not today).

I am happy when established orders are overturned. I hate conformity to the systems and patterns of the world.

Why? Is this some sort of post-adolescent rebellion? No. I think that to conform is to fail to assert one's God-given free will. If one chooses to surrender to the Divine, that is a deliberate choice. To allow oneself to succumb to whatever the world does is an accidental choice, a default of the will. One should resist. In fact, one should have debates even with God: Abraham and Moses did, as did many others. How else would one learn about the Divine?

And here, we watch Italy act as if the order of the world is pre-eminent above the active will of individual Slovaks fighting for qualification into the World Cup round of 16. Tsk tsk.

=====

I am happy to report at full-time that my dreams have come true. Italy has lost to Slovakia after the scoreline went 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2. New Zealand has drawn 0-0 with Paraguay. These results leave Paraguay and Slovakia as the qualifiers from Group F. I am so glad to see both France and Italy out.

Whose World? What Cup? (Day 10)

Paraguay, inventive and fluid, beats Slovakia 2-0. Why should things be any different? In all the talks of dogs and underdogs during any World Cup, it's never easy to say who a clear favourite might be except on the basis of form and depth — are the team always doing well against other teams of all kinds? And if the entire team were to be replaced by reserves, would that reserve team also do well?

The other factors are just too nebulous. Tonight we'll also see Italy play New Zealand. Italy have good depth, and fair form. New Zealand are relative unknowns who drew Slovakia 1-1 earlier. Logic would say Italy 2, NZ 0. This would be the result most of the time.

We live for the remaining chances, the slim shreds of possibility that say NZ will pull off an upset. But Italy are hard to defeat, although drawing is not such a difficult result to obtain. We'll see.

What's truly delectable is the match-up even later this evening, when Brazil (ex-Portuguese colony) meet Côte d'Ivoire (ex-French colony). Looking at the World Cup's interesting geography, one is struck by the thought, "Be careful when you build an empire; some day, the empire strikes back."

=====

Ho ho... NZ just scored against Italy. 1-0 to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

=====

And that De Rossi has just got himself a penalty for Italy. Iaquinta converts it! 1-1.

=====

Afternote: 1-1 at the death. This just feels like a moral defeat for Italy, though. World Cup champions eh? Ha. And NZ keeper Paston should be the man of the match.

Whose World? What Cup? (Day 05)

Having dealt with Slovenia and Slovakia in an earlier post, I found myself at a loss for clever commentary on the first match tonight: New Zealand meets Slovakia. Then I realised one thing: most people know about New Zealand, but few people realise that it is one of the most isolated places on Earth. The nearest continent to New Zealand is also the nearest major piece of land — Australia. The next nearest is Antarctica.

If you sailed eastward from New Zealand, you'd end up in Chile after a long stretch of empty sea in which you would cross the International Date Line. That's an interesting fact, considering that the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is still New Zealand's Head of State. The sun still hardly sets on the British Empire, it seems.

New Zealand gets its name from one of the Dutch provinces, Zeeland. Those Dutch were everywhere in the bad old days — even New York used to be called New Amsterdam. Its Maori name is Aotearoa, 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'.

Also playing tonight are Côte d'Ivoire (officially) and Portugal. The Ivory Coast is so named for a long-gone ivory trade; since then, coffee and cocoa have dominated exports. Civilisation in the region has long flourished; evocative names like the Muslim Empire of Kong and the Agni Kingdom of Sanwi were trading with Timbuktu and other Sudanic powers even up to the late 19th and early 20th century.

Portugal, on the other hand, is the only remaining state in the Iberian Peninsula that hasn't become part of Spain (much to the envy of Catalans, Basques and other formerly independent peoples). The Portuguese retain their own language, approximately shared with their largest former colony, Brazil. It seems a long time since the Treaty of Tordesillas in which Portugal and Spain divided the entire globe between them.

Speaking of Brazil, they play against the Hermit Kingdom (or is that a Hermit Crab?) in the last match of the day. Sounds like fun.

=====

Well, two very entertaining draws there. New Zealand must be happy to have their 1-1 against Slovakia; I'm not sure who is happier between Côte d'Ivoire and Portugal at their 0-0 'blockbuster'. Probably Portugal: towards the end, the Ivorians looked really dangerous, compared to the rather soft-looking Portuguese.

=====

Hmmm. The Hermitage scored a consolation goal as the Samba netted twice. But the Hermitage was impressive. Generally stingy and very hardworking.