by J Hutcherson | June 9th, 2006
FINAL 2-0 Ecuador: Poland dominates in a lot of categoires, but look like the lesser team. Ecuador deserves the win, and Germany deserves to have them destory their silly trap. We’ve seen the first big surprise of the Cup. Ecuador’s defending tonight would’ve beaten most of the teams in this tournament.
Poland gets to play five minutes of utterly desparation soccer. They’ve come close twice. It’s a shame they can’t do what the Miami Heat did last night, down ten points and just let the clock run out. It’s easy to say given the scoreline, but this one was over at the hour mark.
2-0 Ecuador: Healy went with Ecuador ecstasy this time. A tap in after Poland pulled a Germany and blew a trap in the 80th minute. Delgado looked offsides. Let’s see some pictures of sad looking Polish supporters.
78th Minute: ESPN just showed the graphic for corners, 9-1 in favor of Poland. This is why that ‘decide the game by corners’ idea was stupid. Poland is getting totally out-played, but dominating corners. That and a dollar will buy you a soda.
75th Minute: Tommy Smyth is predicting this one is far from over. I disagree. Anything other than the 1-0 score we’ve already got would be a borderline shock. Poland doesn’t have the touch today, and Ecuador is getting a foot on everything. If Poland needs three touches, and Ecuador player will get that third touch. This is what it used to be like watching the US. Close, but not quote.
71st Minute Both teams are stepping into the passing lanes, basically killing anything of interest right when it starts. I’m slightly surprised the game has died down like it has. It’s not so much Ecuador eating time as Poland looking like they don’t have any sense they’re a goal down and Germany won earlier today.
While we’re waiting through an injury and subs, The Yellow Card Journalism crew in Germany is worth your time.
59th Minute: Ecuador shuts Poland down in the area. Smyth is all over the number of blocks Ecuador has managed, and it is impressive. Hard to get confident with your attack when everything is getting stopped a step before you can do anything with it. I under-rated Ecuador. Good lord, how I under-rated Ecuador.
56th Minute: It’s getting a little chippy out there. The entertainment factor is dropping like a rock.
49th Minute: Healy has moved on to Poland. Oddly enough, I wrote Poland’s preview for FIFA for the 2002 World Cup. I also wrote the ones for England, Russia, and the hosts. The hosts opted to have their own people do theirs, but my Poland and England got through. Yep, in a country full of soccer writers, a silly American wrote their preview. Somehow, the usual suspects continuing to show up on ESPN doesn’t seem so strange. It’s a small business, and a lot of it is who knows you or who you happen to be working for at the time.
And we’re back, with Healy giving us an impromptu talk on Ecuador as a nation. “They use the American dollar.” Terrific.
HALFTIME 1-0 Ecuador: The first half is over, and I’m just getting to the Ecuador keeper wearing his country’s flag underneath his eyes. Ecuador is hitting the swagger zone. This is already a better game than Germany-Costa Rica.
42nd Minute: We get the first look at the international face of didn’t get the call courtesy of Poland. Half sour apple, half, yes you did just hit my car. I wonder what that sounds like in German? Probably aggressive. Nicely aggressive.
40th Minute: Same score, and it’s gotten a little tedious. Adrian Healy has responded by taking us through the complete history of Ecuador playing European teams. It’s a short history, and not as mind-numbing as it sounds.
33rd Minute: Same score, but Ecuador is doing everything they can to not score a second goal. I’m not sure this says very much about Poland’s defense. Ecuador is solid.
1-0 Ecuador: Or as Healy just shouted like a sad British schoolboy, Score for Ecuador! 23rd minute and a nice header from Tenorio.
Poland just sent a freekick skyward, ala Germany in the early game. Since the announcers are talking about the ball, I remember the first time I kicked the match version of the old Puma MLS ball and it was like kicking a balloon compared to the older Kappa ball. There can be a substantial different. It’s not just a mindless talking point.
Not that they’re actually there, but credit Healy for actually explaining the locale without sounding like he’s reading it off a tourist brochure. I’m not expecting Lonely Planet, but it’s nice to have something a little deeper than “Costa Rica is in Central America.”
11 Minutes in and Ecuador isn’t exactly sweating Poland. They don’t seem to have much hesitation in dictacting this one. Unless something changes, this is a 0-0 or 1-0 game.
Kickoff in Germany. Not sure of the scouting report on this one. Smyth says Ecuador benefitted from home field in qualifying, and I have no choice but to believe him. The Poland-US friendly didn’t tell us much. Toss up.
It’s the N.O XPlode commercial, more entertaining than anything else I’ve seen in the last hour. Iih Ahm Enershie!
We get the Bristol monitor crew for this one, unless Tommy Smyth and his new running partner Adrian Healy got from the studio to Germany magically. Healy is horrible. Smug and horrible, but we’l get to that in a bit.
Julie Foudy is being held hostage and trying to communicate in some sort of code. Either that, or English isn’t her first language. For the love of Jack Edwards…. Favorite singer/musical group and he answers “Pat Metheny Group.” What? I don’t know whether to mock or respect such a ridiculously lame choice. We miss you Jack. Keep climbing that ladder.
And hey, if Foudy can make fun of Tommy Smyth’s accent on air I can make fun of her. Honestly.
One last O’Brien comment. Somebody pointed me
to this: There probably was a lot of surprise that a so-called baseball guy, which can be a dirty word among soccer purists, is calling the game,” he said. “But the World Cup is a sporting event that captivates the whole planet, and any broadcaster would want to be a part of it. I know I’m not a traditional soccer guy. I wasn’t raised in London or South America; I’m from Quincy.
Well touch you. I’m from Union County, North Carolina and I don’t think I could get ready to write the Fall college football page for ESPN if I started researching right now.