Don't Cry For Me Argentina...

Quite a weekend I had. Friday began with meeting up with friends—from Columbia and from Beijing—to celebrate Charlie McAeeter’s birthday. We ended up at a Xinjiang restaurant right across from the Workers Stadium (the Gongren Tiyu Chang). The food was excellent and alcohol flowed like the river Isen once it was un-dammed by the Ents. In particular, some of us decided to make the night a close encounter with local Chinese liquor, or Baijiu, as it is called. At 56% it is stronger than most hard liquor and burns your gullet on its way to damaging your kidneys. It comes in tiny 150 ml bottles and by the time we called an end to dinner, the four of us actually drinking the stuff must have shared a good 7 or 8 bottles of this most acerbic of beverages.

From the restaurant our large group, it had grown to almost 15 people, splintered. Some wanted to go dancing, others wanted to catch the Germany-Argentina QF.

Braving thunderstorms, and balancing all the food and alcohol in our bellies, Jonathan, Janet, Jen, Jeff and I (wow, I just realized I was with J-Crew for much of Friday evening) landed up at a bar in the Sanlitun area. We missed much of the first half but caught the rest of an absolutely absorbing game. Ayala scored a good goal from a well-delivered Riquelme corner. The Germans fought back superbly, and the equalizer, via a Ballack, Borowski and Klose combination, was really quite emphatic. Pekerman did make some odd substitutions in hindsight, and Lehmann was brilliant in goal to send the Argies back. Can’t say the Argentines did themselves any favors in the second half. Definitely wasn’t impressed with all the diving and time wasting the Albiceleste partook in. Still not entirely convinced with Abbondanzieri and his now I am injured and now I am not antics either. And then the melee at the end was really quite ridiculous. I am definitely not crying for Argentina.

What can one say about England? They finally played a match with some spunk and spirit, only to be destroyed by that most enduring of bugbears—a penalty shoot out. Ricardo was quite outstanding for the Portuguese, but to see Lampard and Gerrard hit such weak shots was really disappointing. If there is one lesson to be drawn from all this, it is that people should stop hyping the EPL and its players. As my Newcastle United supporting British friend Rob put it, the EPL might be amongst the most entertaining leagues around, but it is far from the best. And finally, can we please stop elevating Becks to the rarefied fields of soccer greatness—where not only does he not belong, he cannot even pretend to belong. Ironically, the one Pommy who was outstanding throughout the WC plays not in the EPL but in the Bundesliga.

Italy cruised past Ukraine, as expected. Their match-up with Germany now promises to be interesting, though I think the Germans should be able to send them home as well.

And finally, Brazil are on their way home. What an inspired 90 minutes from Zidane! Suddenly a team that looked old and beaten at the start of the tournament can almost taste a second WC win in 8 years! Fat bwoy (as I am now wont to call Ronaldo) looked lost for most the match, and grew increasingly petulant as the buzzer approached. His dives, and there were quite a few, were rather ridiculous. What was amazing about the French performance was how they shutout the Brazilian midfield. Maybe having Ronaldinho playing forward wasn’t the brightest of ideas to begin with. Oh well, cannot complain. I wanted Brazil sent home, and the Les Bleus obliged.

Four teams and a total of four matches left to play. Who will win this all European of tussles?