by J Hutcherson | June 10th, 2006
FINAL 0-0 Shaka Hislop looks like a world beater. Leo Beenhakker reminds Europe he’s a soccer coach. Great, great game.
90th Minute: Larsson shown yellow for a tackle from behind right at the T&T area. Yes, he was attacking. Yes, he lost the ball.
84th Minute: Another Sweden corner comes up nothing. Same with the rebound. Yet another corner. Cut out by T&T.
82nd Minute: The ball takes a trip in front of the T&T goal, Trinidad & Tobago have no issues tackling hard in their own box. Still 0-0.
80th Minute: 1 on 1 for Hislop and guess who wins? We’re watching a legendary game. Still 0-0.
78th Minute: Two subs for Sweden - Kallstrom in for Linderoth and Jonson in for Wilhelmsson.
77th Minute: I don’t want to get all Jim McKay or anything, but Trinidad & Tobago are playing fearless soccer right now. Sweden has no excuse.
76th Minute: Hislop again, and we’ve lost the audio from Germany. It’s back now.
73rd Minute: Another T&T stop. They might be playing over their head, but they look confident and are risking the wrath of the referee with their tackles. Good on them. Best game of the Cup so far.
69th Minute: Latest save of the game for Trinidad & Tobago. Hislop stopped it enough for it to get cleared in front of his line.
66th Minute: Sub T&T -Whitley in for Theobald.
62nd Minute: Sub for Sweden, currently looking a lot like an English second division team. Hoof it up the field son, and hope for the best. ‘Not likely,’ said the Hislop.
60th Minute: We hit the hour mark with Trinidad & Tobago looking solid on defense and Sweden looking annoyed that they can’t score a man up.
59th Minute: Woodwork Cornell Glen. Yes, T&T almost scored.
54th Minute: I’ve been alerted that LA-DC is tomorrow night. Red-eye it Alexi. Your super club needs you.
53rd Minute: Cornell Glen in for Samuel. They’ve been trying to get the sub in for three minutes. T&T looks like they want to push. Goal differential aside, go for it.
46th Minute: Avery John shown his second yellow, ballgame Sweden. Stupid call. I’m in dire need of a reversed multi-water bottle fanny pack like the Sweden trainer.
SECOND HALF: No changes.
I’m enjoying the basketball, but Game Two isn’t until Sunday? I’m supposed to miss seeing the season starts for Deadwood and Entourage at the earliest possible opportunity? Not likely.
Here’s my own closet conspiracy for the involvement of one Brent Musburger. I think he thought it would be like The Olympics, six weeks lounging at the site. In other words, European Vacation Musburger style. Instead, he’s stuck in Bristol with the rest of them.
Doesn’t Alexi have better things to do than studio commentary on the other side of the country? Like buying his super club a win. I know I’ve forgotten that MLS is playing during the Cup (The Galaxy play DC in LA tonight at 8pm EST), but I don’t run an MLS team. Is it six losses in a row at this point, last in the West?
HALFTIME 0-0: Trinidad & Tobago forced the attack late in the half, and at this point they should expect the best from Hislop. They’re in this game. Bring on The Musburger.
43rd Minute: Stern John with the attempt. This game is becoming interesting.
42nd Minute: Ibrahimovich sends a cool looking shot directly at Shaka, with the expected result. Hislop can stand on his head when needed.
39th Minute: Wilhelmsson for Sweden… not so much.
38th Minute: Larsson again, but misses the frame.
36th Minute: They just said the magic word. Musburger at halftime. Live from an event that nobody cares about since Barbaro went down in Baltimore. That reads dirty. I feel bad for the horsey. I wuv you Barbaro. Get well soon… from the fracture. Good lord get a goal. Anybody.
33rd Minute: Any team in CONCACAF, the last guy I would want my team facing in goal is Shaka Hislop. I know he’s old and supposedly past it, but he’s in the conversation with Friedel and Keller for best CONCACAF keeper of the last few years. Oswaldo Sanchez isn’t as good right now. Better defenders though.
28th Minute: You know what would help me out right now? Something happening. Honestly, it’s better than the morning edition but needs to pick up. I’ll go ahead and congratulate JP for leaving his suitcase full of research at home and actually calling the game we’re watching. Staggering how much better this is than what’s his name.
22nd Minute: Larsson does everything but score.
I have an email I would like to share.
I’m following your minute by minute blog and also the one from the Guardian, and while not mentioned by name, people are complaining about Dave O’Brien over there as well. Imagine it…less than two matches into his World Cup announcing career, and he is being bashed on an international level. Not an easy task.
Tom
You know, I like to think I’m fair, equal opportunity, etc. But… it was obvious several friendlies ago that O’Brien in the lead role wasn’t exactly working. Unfortunately, ESPN doesn’t have to judge their choice. The anouncer isn’t going to change the ratings, so whatever they end up being is irrelevant. I liked his calls during the World Baseball Classic. He’s a good baseball announcer. That’s meaningless here, as it should be for anybody jumping sports this quickly.
16th Minute: Ok Sweden, you’ve felt T&T up like a lonely boy who bought a prom date. Now finish.
11th Minute: Per the commentary (and Marc’s blog elsewhere on this very site) if Trinidad & Tobago are such a joke, it might suggest CONCACAF has too many qualifying places. Then again, I get the feeling that CONCACAF would continue to add places until T&T got in.
5th Minute: Henrik Larsson sets up a freekick all of a foot outside the area and sends it wide. I still consider Larsson the best pure striker in Europe, on a level with the great strikers. So what he chose to spend too many years at Celtic?
3rd Minute: I’m slow, so it just dawned on me that the research for the John Harkes/JP announce team for this game is courtesy of our own Marc Connolly. So criticizing them would be criticizing Marc? Something to think about. Fortunately, JP should be the lead announcer and Harkes is good enough on the DC United broadcasts.
I’m a big Dwight Yorke fan. Well, the Dwight Yorke circa the Villa years. Yes, that is the second Villa reference this morning. Sex tapes found in dumpsters, cocaine abusing keeper friends in drag, and yet he basically smiled his way out of any lasting trouble. Beautiful.
Game On: I’ll say this about the cartoons. What are we raising when the Saturday morning cartoons are done by hipsters and really geared for adults? A generation of ironic cultural referencing arses? Likely, and sad. Some things should be for children, and not grown-ups living like they’re fifteen. Just saying.
Let’s start with this from The San Francisco Chronicle. It’s like The Onion, but serious. We got cartoons between games here, but I downed another omelet just in case there was a soccer show in between in some markets. I’m just taking it for granted that each time we get sent back to the studio, they expect us to be imbiggened by Jim McKay waxing sappy on THE WORLD’S GAME AND WHAT A GAME IT IS. Looks stupid in all caps? Sounds even stupider spoken. Maybe the reason some Americans don’t like soccer is the pompous marketing that rides along with it. The existing fans shrug it off, the never will be fans take it personally. I’m looking at myself reflected in your stylish sunglasses Bono.