More Important Stuff

This is what I am calling for the World Cup. Although I am posting this after the first two games, this is what I had written out before the games. I must admit that the German display of soccer over Sweden (albeit a very slow, lazy, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot Sweden) and the slow, predictable offense of Argentina (until Tevez and Messi play) makes wonder about my call in the Argentina-Germany match.

ROUND OF 16:
Germany over Sweden.
Argentina over Mexico.
Italy over Australia.
Switzerland over Ukraine.
England over Ecuador.
Netherlands over Portugal.
Brazil over Ghana.
Spain over France.

QUARTERFINALS:
Argentina over Germany.
Italy over Switzerland.
Netherlands over England.
Spain over Brazil.

SEMIFINALS:
Argentina over Italy.
Spain over Netherlands.

FINALS:
Argentina over Spain

Safety and Important Stuff

Since the last time I posted we have travelled over 3,250 miles in our van. We drove from Monterrey to Greenville, SC. After a quick trip to NBBC for a class, we then visited my grandmother in Abingdon, VA, and Susan's grandmother near Nitro, WV. On Wednesday we were at Twin City Bible Church in Nitro. On Sunday we were at Pine Island Bible Church in Warwick, PA. Today we made it up to Burlington, VT, to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We praise God for safety and for good services.

Now on to the "important stuff": the WORLD CUP. Things are going differently for the three teams I am following. The US is suffering and probably not making it out of group stage (something I fully expected). Mexico is doing OK and should make it out of the group stage. They should be playing better. But most importantly, SPAIN is playing well and has moved on to the knock-out stage. I thoroughly enjoyed the first game. In that game everything went perfectly for Spain. However, I think that I enjoyed today's game (a 3-1 win against Tunisia) more than the first game. There are several reasons for this. 1) I watched it with my brother, another avid Spain fan. 2) This was a character win that shows what the team is made of. Spain was losing the game by the 8th minute. In earlier years, they would have lost that game or tied (if they got lucky). They would have quickly fallen into desperation. This time Spain stayed strong (no desperation), and, even though it took them until the 71st minute, they scored, then scored again (five minutes later) to take the lead. Another goal was scored off a penalty kick in the last minute.

I don't know if Spain will win it all, but not only are they playing well, but they seem to be showing much more character this time around. Maybe, just maybe...