Incredible! England and Algeria tied yesterday in their group World Soccer game. [For those of you expecting serious Orthodox postings on days of important World Soccer games, uhm, you might be disappointed.]
This means that the USA is actually in second place in their group with Slovenia being in first place. It also means that they have a rough job coming up for them. In order to advance, they need to beat or tie Algeria and hope that Slovenia beats England. Or they need to beat Algeria by more than England beats Slovenia. Or they need to score more points than England if both of them tie their games. Complicated is it not? But what it means is that the USA has a quite legitimate opportunity to make it to the next round in the World Cup. Of course, right now England’s credibility is essentially gone.
The myth of this new England now seems well and cooked after witnessing a dismal affair which wasn’t pretty on the eyes of the neutral, and probably wasn’t particularly aesthetic for anyone not waving their flag behind the Algerian line. Neither side were particularly close to scoring and the whole thing had that drab inevitability of a nil-nil draw into the second half.
The result obviously favors Algeria, as without it their World Cup was over. Now it sets up a four-way horse race on the final day with the group structured like so:
I think my head is starting to hurt from mulling over every possible scenario for the remaining two Group C matches. Frankly I’d be much happier if the US was in a more comfortable position than they are, but I kind of like the tension. Call me weird, but I actually *enjoy* all the possibilities and uncertainties of group play. Besides, the US is doing much better than they did back in ’98 (three losses and only one goal if my memory serves me correctly).