Argentina 0-0 Netherlands

I don't have much to say about this game, except that I expected a much more intense game. Seth (Paynter) found the game quite awful and boring. Argentina had some flares of good play and the Netherlands defended, well, let's just say that they like to foul. I almost wished Café Agora had switched to the Ivory Coast-Serbia & Montenegro game, but I don't think I could have stood the awfully ignorant and inane commentary by Balboa and Smythe.

Once again, the commentators talked about the USA-Ghana game for five minutes, thus distracting us from one of the good chunks of the game. And please stop the filler talk! I agree that most of the refereeing was awful for this World Cup (one exception being the Sweden-England game), but you don't need to talk about Zinedine Zidane not being able to play in France's game against Togo for five minutes (I think at one point, Togo was referred to as "Ghana." Wrong group.) Granted, I found that decision unfair too, but the referee was actually competent and even for this game.

For some reason, I was fascinated by the advertisement boards on the sides of the field. I am not sure if anyone noticed, but some of them looked quite vibrant compared to the rest of the screen. At one point, Messi (Argentina) was running after a ball by the goal line and a T-Mobile advertisement was temporarily replaced by a DeutscheBahn one (the German equivalent of Amtrak). Yup. Digital advertizement. The technology is not new. It's been around for about the last 15 years. But this shows you how basically ESPN (and probably Univision) are recouping the losses in advertizing because of the continuous play.

Which brings me back to a conversation I had with Jesse Cooper yesterday (Jesse is a sports agent). Jesse argued that American football (well, American soccer, to avoid confusing with your boring game known as "American football") would grow soon as more investment is poured into MLS teams. Sure, more money will make MLS games more exciting, but the import of foreign players will not necessarily make American players better (see Youri Djorkaeff's role with the New York Red Bulls). For all that matters, most of the better national teams playing this World Cup actually export their players to foreign clubs (with the exception of Germany, Italy and, well, Saudi Arabia). Ahn Jung-Hwan (Korea) plays for FC Metz (France), Ronaldo and Ronaldinho both play for Real Madrid, Thierry Henry (France) plays for Arsenal (UK) and so on. Chris Waddle (UK) used to play for the Olympique de Marseille.

What is often forgotten about foreign players in the States is that most of them have been farmed since an early age. In France, for example, most football players attended what is called the sports-études program, where they were culled into when they entered middle school. This program is one of those non-elite programs in France (like the European program, which I attended) where entrance is determined by examination. Sports-études students have basically the same schedule as regular students, but have to stay an extra two hours for training. On top of the sports-études program, most of those students also enroll in club-sponsored teams where they train for an additional four hours a week and play against regional teams. Some of those clubs actually lead to the professional team. For example, Illkirch-Graffenstaden (the suburb of Strasbourg where I spent my childhood) was home to the FAIG (I elected to enroll in the SIG, the basketball team) ...

... and I forgot what point I was trying to make.