Day two of the World Cup has just commenced and we’ve already seen some sparkling matches. Given my love for the tiny Andean nation of Ecuador, I was delighted to see the boys from la mitad del mundo beat a favored Poland squad 2-0. And today, in the tournament’s most exciting match thus far, an Argentina squad that looks good enough to lift the trophy on July 9th beat the Ivory Coast 2-1. In other matches, Germany destroyed Costa Rica 4-2, Sweden and Trinidad & Tobago tied 0-0, and England beat Paraguay 1-0.
Some links for following the action:
— The New York Times has a good World Cup blog
— Soccernet is always a go-to resource
— The official FIFA World Cup 2006 site is amazingly comprehensive
— The complete World Cup TV schedule is good to have on hand (kickoff times are EST)
Other stuff:
— The World Bank has posted some interesting research regarding the World Cup and participating nations’ economies.
— There’s a great piece in the Guardian about the US national squad: “Get ready to dislike America…soon enough they’ll be boring world-beaters.” (Thanks to A for the link.)
And, finally, speaking of the US, they’re set to take on the Czech Republic on Monday at noon EST.