Saturday, July 01, 2006

the art of war by zizou

32 has whittled down to 4 and the World Cup semifinal lineup has quite a dismaying look to it.

Brazil's lukewarm exit has somewhat soothed my frayed nerves after agonisinly watching Jose Pekerman commit hari kiri and inadvertandly incite a brilliant Argentine squad into mass brawling.

Of all the teams that won't be busy kicking around with Teamgeist in Germany, perhaps Argentina was the most unluckiest. It certainly looked like the most talented bunch and with due respect to the 'Magic Quartet' et al, the Albiceleste had maybe too many crazysexycool players to drive us absolutely wild with delirium.

Germany v Italy; Portugal v France. Looks like the bookmakers are laughing all the way to the bank. Three of them have triumphed before but except for Italy, none of them were supposed to last this long. Maybe they dumped Gatorade in favour of Energizers. Who knows!

The 2006 edition kicked off in predictable fashion but the knockout stages have thrown up some real surprises. However, the football has been pedestrian most of the time and the wait for the perfect World Cup continues...

In a tournament billed as the platform where the Messis, Rooneys and Ronaldinhos were expected to bloom in style, guess who's having all the fun!?! Zizou!

theguardian's very own Amy Lawrence had an insightful take on it and i was nodding my head in appreciation when i read it. But alas, the drive of youth still is no match for the grandmaster.

2010 just can't come any sooner. South Africa, i'll be there.