Whose World? What Cup? (Day 18)

Tonight we watch the Netherlands, a strong outsider (well, ranked in the Top Five) for the Cup, meet Slovakia. They are likely to do well, European team on European team. It's hard to call though. That Vladimir Weiss vs Arjen Robben duel will be interesting.

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It was as I was typing that that Robben scored in the 18th minute. Ho ho. Der Fliegende Holländer.

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It took an hour of the most boring football seen at this round so far, before the Dutch scored again via Sneijder. It looked as if the Slovak defence were trying to mark the long-substituted van Persie, and were confused because they couldn't figure out where he was. 2-0 to the Oranje. What on earth is Skrtel doing?

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And a last-minute soft penalty, converted by Vittek, makes it a 2-1 scoreline. Terribly boring. Leaden.

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.

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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."

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

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

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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.