The local art cinema theater is playing selected games on the big screen--with free entry no less. So for the first time in the 2010 World Cup I did the trek to Cary. I was surprised by the turnout--it looked like there were maybe 100 people in the theater...mostly pro-German crowd. Of course, it was a weekend game. It will be interesting to see what the crowds are like during the week.
There was some talk before the tournament that Germany might be in a down year...did I mention Grant Wahl picked Serbia to win the group? Not so fast. Then again, I saw Australia play a warm up against the U.S. and they gave up three goals to the Yanks, so I knew this game would be trouble for them. In fact, I had predicted a 3-0 Germany win in the Yahoo! pool, so I was bummed when the meaningless 4th goal went in.
The big story was that Paul Cahill got a questionable red call, resulting in the Aussies having to play with 10 players for most of the second half and also his being banned for the next two games. (I thought it was a one game suspension, but apparently if you get a straight red, it is two.) I really thought the Aussies should feel at half that even if they lost to Germany, they could play for goal differentials and basically say they can still get through with effort against a suddenly suspect Serbia team and Ghana. They could even beat Ghana and tie Serbia and essentially get through assuming other results. So I was surprised they didn't put up a better defensive effort.
Despite not being very close, this game had my favorite moment so far--two German yellow cards for "diving." I love those calls, and I hope the trend of giving cards for dives continues.
(Credit where credit is due: Photo is from Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
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