The Overlapping Run of World Cup Group Play

Today the first round of games concludes and leads right into the second round, an unbroken loop. Honduras versus Chile, Spain versus Switzerland, and then Group A returns with South Africa versus Uruguay.

HONDURAS VERSUS CHILE

ORIGINAL PREDICTION: CHILE 2-0

FANTASY PLAYER UPDATE: PABLO CONTRERAS IS NOT STARTING FOR CHILE.

There is something soothing about the sound of British accents discussing the game, but this is the second time the announcer has used the expression "circling the wagons" to refer to the team that is dominant and on the attack. Apparently he didn't quite understand the expression. Oh wait. That might have been John Harkes.

On second thought, I could certainly see how "circling the wagon" could be interpreted to refer to either the besieged or the besieger.

Speaking of attacking, Chile certainly attacked with flair and creativity, and Honduras was pinned back for large stretches of the game, although they did present a stronger threat in the second half.

Beausejour gets the expected first goal for Chile in the 35th minute as the end product of some elegant passing in close spaces that led to a slanted ball for a winger to break around the Honduras defense and center the ball back to the forward. It was excellent to watch, and Chile are more than a match for Honduras. It begins to look like my predicted scoreline might have been too conservative.

Chile has two really good young players, Matias Fernandez and Alexi Sanchez. I will definitely have to look into adding them to my fantasy team. The Honduran keeper, Noel Valladares, made a couple outstanding saves. Speaking of my fantasy team, Pablo Contreras entered the game as a substitute in the 81st minute.

Speaking of soccer fans, wouldn't the World Cup be a perfect chance to combine food and drink in obvious but delicious ways? For instance, I could drink Spanish wine with Swiss cheese for the Spain-Switzerland game, if I had Swiss cheese that is. For tomorrow's France-Mexico game, I could eat a burrito and buy some Guinness in honor of Ireland. For the US-England game, I could have eaten fish and chips with a bottle of Anchor Steam. Maybe I'll try to do this going forward. Not exactly original, but tasty.

Much like Chile's 1-0 win over Honduras. Not exactly original--the 1-0 scoreline, that is--but tasty, and full of attractive soccer.

SPAIN VERSUS SWITZERLAND

ORIGINAL PREDICTION: SPAIN WINS 3-0.

FANTASY NOTE: IKER CASILLAS STARTS IN GOAL FOR SPAIN.

FOOD NOTE: NO SWISS CHEESE. HENCE NO SPANISH WINE--SWISS CHEESE COMBO. INSTEAD, LEFTOVER INDIAN FOOD, PLUS BRANDY FOR DESSERT.

Woah. I just found out that Barcelona signed David Villa. My avoidance of sports news during the day has paid off with a sudden tidbit of soccer gossip during the World Cup watching. But now I want to go read more about the signing, but that would spoil the other two games for me. D'oh!

You would think that in the World Cup, teams would want to take the chance to poke holes in the stereotypes people hold about their country. Switzerland's approach in the first 28 minutes does nothing to make you think of them as other than neutral; they do not attack, but only try to slow down Spain's progress, like the Alps that surround their country. On the other hand, if one were to compare their defense to cheese, one would find few holes in the Swiss.

And speaking of holes, Spain gave up a sloppy goal to fall behind, and even worse, to lose the clean sheet for my fantasy team. And then they lost the game, 1-0. Few could have predicted that. Spain will be less than happy.

START OF THE SECOND ROUND OF GAMES

SOUTH AFRICA VERSUS URUGUAY

ORIGINAL PREDICTION: 1-1 DRAW

FANTASY NOTES: NO PLAYERS PLAYING. NICOLAS LODEIRO'S RED CARD AGAINST FRANCE MEANS HE IS SUSPENDED FOR THIS GAME, SO I TRADED HIM FOR MILAN JOVANOVIC OF SERBIA.

Diego Forlan scored one of the best goals I've seen so far, in terms of being well-struck and dramatic. And then he scored again, in the 80th minute, on the penalty kick incurred by South Africa's keeper when he took down Luis Suarez in the box and was ejected with a red card. That red card and penalty kick probably marks the end of South Africa's hopes for advancing out of the group.

Uruguay helps their own cause no end with a 3-0 win.