v. 
, 
v. 
, 
v. 
Today’s World Cup action:
v. The US was lucky to draw to Korea this morning. I taped the game and watched it as I was getting ready for work, and there wasn’t much to talk about, The U.S. was outplayed from the beginning, but Clint Mathis, sporting an embarrassing Travis Bickle mohawk, was lucky to score a breakaway goal early on. Our good friend Jeff Agoos almost blew it when he gave up a penalty kick just before the half, but Man-of-the-Match Brad Friedel came to the rescue and stopped it, not his first or last feat of heroism. The US managed to look a little better in the second half, but stuck mostly to defense, and in the 78th minute, Ahn Jung-hwan headed in a well-deserved equalizer, and celebrated by making fun of Apolo Ohno. Both sides were happy with the result, but a U.S. win would have meant an almost-certain second round. Things still look good, and are no doubt much better than expected. A win against Poland will get us in, a draw will do the trick if Korea wins or draws against Portugal. Oh, the drama.
v. Tunisia and Belgium drew 1-1, leaving Belgium with a chance to proceed if they can beat Russia on Friday. That should be a good match.
v. Pauleta’s hat trick led the way to Portugal’s 4-0 rout of Poland, eliminating Poland from the next round. Let’s hope Poland doesn’t take out their aggression on the U.S. on Friday.