Sapporo Braces Itself for Match. Sapporo is host to the most eagerly awaited and feared match of the World Cup: England versus Argentina. By Ken Belson. [New York Times: International]
Hopefully there will be no trouble either during or after this game. The spirit of the World Cup has been so good so far that it would a terrible shame if it were spoiled.
With regard to Ireland's progress, it's been knife-edge stuff so far. My friends and I failed to keep to our stay-up-all-night plan. We played a board game for a few hours, then one by one the souls departed to sleepyland, leaving just myself to turn to the Apocalypse Now DVD to pass the time till kickoff. I let myself down, nodding off at some stage and having to rely on an alarm clock to waken in time for the match. Cameroon scored about halfway through the first half against a lack-lustre Irish team, but then coach Mick McCarthy must have come up with inspired words during the interval, because the lads came out with a totally different attitude, played wonderfully well and fully deserved the equaliser which gave us the final draw.
And then yesterday's match against Germany left the Irish supporters in a desperate state! Once again we went behind halfway through the first half, but then the German team backed off and apparently decided to defend their lead for the rest of the match and rely on whatever opportunities came their way to switch to the attack. Meanwhile the Irish players kept on persevering, had several near misses, but were still one down after the normal 90 nminutes. Three minutes of extra time were announced, and it was during the second one that we finally got a reward for our persistence, with Robbie Keane scoring a dramatic equaliser.
Now, today, Cameroon have just beaten Saudi Arabia 1-0, which means that the Irish need to beat the Saudis on Tuesday by a greater margin if they are to progress to the next stage of the tournament. I think we need a different game plan then!
3:45:20 PM 
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