Where did the rest of the world go?
I wrote that Brazil looked eminently beatable, and so they were. (And Emmanuel wrote that Brazil was overrated.) France has just gotten better and better after scraping through the group round.
Anyone think we’ll find out how far Franco-German reconciliation has come on July 9?

Yesterday’s teaser for one of our local tabloids sent a chill, particularly on a bright and sunny day–
WM-Durst

Bier wird knapp!
Which is to say
World Cup Thirst

Beer shortages coming!
Let’s hope not…

Soccer cliches in general, actually, but edifying on this off day.
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One famous cliché [...]

News from Berlin these days tends to come from the enormous parties in front of the Brandenburger Tor or in the Tiergarten. But spare a thought for a moment from whether Ghana will beat the eminently beatable Brazilian team and glance over to the Reichstag building, home of Germany’s parliament.
Today, more or less as I [...]

Can the Italians win a game without a significant boost from the referees?

So, Franz Beckenbauer, the president of the organizing comittee of the World Cup, got married yesterday with his long-time partner Heidi Burmester.
Nothing especially interesting here, except for the shocking fact that the Kaiser did not even bother to let his coworkers know beforehand about his wedding. World Cup spokesman Jens Grittner has this amazing [...]

“Berlin! Berlin! We’re going to Berlin!”
That was the big chant among the crowds at the three or four different venues where I watched parts of Germany’s victory over Sweden today. And, you know, they might well be.
Downtown Munich is one big party zone right now. I’ll be back, er, later.
(Sorry, David.)

As David said, “Cool when underdogs win. Just not against us.”
(I know this happened 24 hours ago. It just took time to face up to putting it into a blog post.)

I don’t know if these are also soccer cliches in English, but they are widely repeated bits of wisdom in German.
First, for our friends from Japan: “The game lasts 90 minutes.” Das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten. Bayern Munich learned this most famously in 1999, when the game lasted a little bit longer.
Second, for les [...]

We’ll get the first one out of the way early: Twenty-two men played. In the end, Germany won.
(Over Costa Rica, 4-2 just for the record and so anyone who pulls this post out of the archives years from now will have the context at hand.)
Predictions for Poland vs Ecuador?