THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE BIRD TOILET: John Oliver spent thirteen minutes of his show last night talking about FIFA, and Dave Zirin's not too happy about the organization either:
Finally, the world is seeing FIFA for what it is: a stateless conglomerate that takes bribes while acting as a battering ram for world leaders who want to use the majesty of the World Cup to push through their development agendas at great human cost.
People don’t have to be displaced and workers don’t need to die for soccer.(Feel free to start offering predictions, hopes, allegiances, etc.)
It's interesting that HBO is being so willing to upload large chunks of this show to YouTube as a promotional tool. (And the Right Said Fred bit was also amusing.)
ReplyDeleteEngland go out on penalties in the quarter finals. What, too easy? Quarterfinalists: Brazil, Argentina, England, Belgium, Bosnia, Chile, Spain, France.
ReplyDeleteUSA -- beats Ghana, loses to Portugal, draw with Germany. Misses next round on goal differential.
My hope is that England uses a 4-1-2-1-2 similar to LFC's late season lineup, with Gerrard deep and Henderson on the right of the diamond. They need to platoon Rooney and Sterling as the front midfileder in the diamond, letting one sub for the other after 60 minutes or so. I really don't think Wayne has 90 minutes of lungs in this heat. And either one of them coming on fresh for the last 30 has to scare the other teams. This group will be the most fun with England/ Italy /Uruguay (if Suarez recovers) and Costa Rica as potential spoiler.
ReplyDeleteBenner pretty much has it right on the USA chances, we need a 3-0 against Ghana and either Portugal or Germany to drop 2 points to Ghana. Five points (win/tie/tie) will probably get your through. USA could be blanked out completely or they could snag seven points. You never know.
SI's Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch on Twitter) has been a great resource for WC-related media info - including the list of the first week's broadcast assignments in his media column today. I'm also happy that the Guardian's World Cup Daily podcast has finally gotten underway.
ReplyDeleteUSA can beat Ghana. USA can beat Portugal. The USA could play its brains out and, maybe, just maybe, tie Germany. That's enough of a chance to be worth watching with great interest.
ReplyDelete