Mercy Please! - Yours Truly happened to try to watch the World Cup on the Internet the other day, which didn't offer the clearest of pictures. But that couldn't deny the fact that the North Koreans were clearly overwhelmed by Portugal in their humiliating 0-7 defeat.
To make matters worse, it was reportedly the first international soccer match broadcasted live in North Korea. With all sorts of rumours regarding what would happen to the players if they didn't play well (being sent to the coal mines, etc.), Yours Truly couldn't help but feel sorry for them.
And it was probably the first time Yours Truly shouted "Stop scoring" and "Enough is enough" at his innocent TV.
French Revolution - Despite the turmoil surrounding the French camp, where players were clearly unhappy with the coach and top striker Nicolas Anelka being sent packing, Yours Truly somehow would say that they would surprise everyone by beating the host South Africa in their final group match and advance deeper into the second round than anyone would expect.
It's the World Cup, which is predictably unpredictable.
Striker Matters - Yours Truly has a very simple rule of thumb in predicting which team will do well in the tournament. If a team has more than one regular strikers scoring goals, they would do really well. In 2006, Italy's Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alberto Gilardino, Filippo Inzaghi and Luca Toni were all on the scoresheets on route to their victory. In 2002, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho were all among the scorers for Brazil in their fifth victory. And in 1998, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Christophe Dugarry all scored for France in securing their first victory.
In this year's tournament so far, only Germany (Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Cacau) and Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo and Liedson) have more than one regular strikers finding the back of the net. Since Ronaldo and Liedson scored their goals when the North Koreans were truly down and out, we can pretty much rule out Portugal.
So that means Germany is now the favourite to lift the World Cup trophy.
Very boring indeed.
World Cup is Just the Undercard - The referee couldn't have picked a worse game to make an awful call.
It is clear that Malian referee Koman Coulibaly had made a wrong call in ruling out USA's third goal against Slovenia. The problem lies in the fact that FIFA does not require their referees to make public the rationale behind calls like that.
Everyone makes mistakes. But not requiring the referee to tell us why he made the call is simply mind-boggling and annoying. And with the recent blown call costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game in Major League Baseball still very much in everyone's mind, there will definitely be outcry in the States arguing that TV replays should be introduced in the game.
And FIFA vs USA would be an exciting match-up.
