Day 9. Tika Ticos!

Day 9. What happened today in Brazil. Costa bloody Rica happened. Wow. In my World Cup watching years I don't remember seeing a surprise team like this. Sure, South Korea beat Italy in 2002, Algeria beat W Germany in 1982, N. Ireland beat Spain in 1982, Senegal beat France in 2002, but this is a team that first qualified for a World Cup in 1990. And they qualify from the region which is hardly a hotbed of international football. St Kitts and Nevis and other such Caribbean islands are in their qualifying pool....and Canada!!! In 1990 they made it to the second round, but only because they were lucky enough to have Scotland in their group. There was something so wonderful about the way they played, and for once justice was served with their goal coming very soon after the referee decided to ignore the rules of the game and not give the Ticos a penalty after a blatant foul in the box. If it wasn't for goal line technology he might have got away with not giving them the goal when they actually scored. A 1-0 win against Italy. That is just incredible. That it means that the only team I have any biological, and emotional, tie to, England, have been eliminated is immaterial on seeing the joy of the Ticos. Later France walloped Switzerland 5-2. Since France usually have meltdowns in the first 1 or 2 games, unlike Holland who look like world beaters early on and then collapse, this could be ominous for the rest of the world. Funny thing happened at the end. French striker Benzema took a shot just as the referee blew the final whistle. It went in but it was disallowed. This doesn't happen much. Matches usually end when the ball is in the middle of the pitch and nothing is going to happen. So what some may say? Well, I'll tell you what. Switzerland have a goal difference of -2 now, not -3. In the last round of matches, if Switzerland lose to Honduras 1-0, Ecuador will not advance if they lose to France 3-0, whereas if that goal was allowed they could lose 3-0 and go through. Same, but opposite, scenario if they both win. And for poor Benzema at the end of the tournament that could be the goal that wins or loses the golden boot for him. In the third match today, Ecuador won 2-1 against Honduras to put themselves in the above position. It wasn't without referee controversy. At 1-1, Honduras had a goal disallowed after the ball came off the post, hit a Honduran player on the arm (according to the referee) and went in. Replays suggest mr referee was fooled by the fact that the Honduran player happens to have an arm that hangs on the side of his body. Honduras went ahead after a Luis Suarez type route 1 to the opposing team's goal, complete with Gerrard style terrible defending. it was 510 minutes since Honduras scored a goal at a World Cup. On a personal note, re my earlier comment about having no tie to any team left in, and since I am not inclined to pick a new team for the sake of it (no jumping on any bandwagons for me, to use North American speak), I just remembered that my great-grandmother was Algerian. And since I think one of the great injustices of the World Cup (1982) needs to be avenged I am now showing a little bit of interest in my new, very distantly related fellow countrymen.