Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa

I had trouble posting that from my iPhone (for some reason, 3G wasn't working too well at The Emirates), so I posted that last entry just now.

What a match. Arsenal played rather skittish in the first half -- spotty defense that looked like they were asleep, an inabilty to finish on good opportunities, passing the ball to people in the wrong colour jersey -- but once Cesc Fábregas entered the game shortly after the second half started, the Gunners gelled and they started to play some football.

Luckily, they did it all on my end. I was about 12 rows up from the goal that saw all three scores for Arsenal. Here's a little video I took in early game action:



I didn't take any other video, but I did get a few pictures, which I'll try to post.

Anyway, the Gunners won, 3-0, and we were all happy. Fábregas netted two of those three, but not without tweaking his hamstring.

Halftime at The Emirates

I tried this before and I don't think it worked. Maybe it'll be a double post.

Anyway, I'm at The Emirates watching Arsenal take on Aston Villa. Scoreless at the half. I should get the action on my end in second half.

Arsenal are controlling the game but can't seem to finish. They're a bit sloppy today.







-- Posted From My iPhone

A FGOC update

Arsenal Emirates Stadium
Originally uploaded by jam-sandwich

I know it’s been way too long since your Four Guys have blogged. I know. And there’s so much to break down — Australia’s matchups (which we’ll see), the U.S. games (especially the one against England) and all sort of other stuff, including venue information and the like.

We’ll get there. Right now, we’re all trying to figure out travel and accommodations. That’s the bitchy part. This weekend I plan to go on a long binge of research and potential bookings.

What I can say is that a week from Sunday I will be sitting at The Emirates in London, watching Arsenal go head to head with Aston Villa. This is shaping up to be a Reef of Death situation, since, as of today, the Gunners and the Lions are tied (effectively) with 32 points each in the Premier League table. Arsenal plays 16th-place Hull City and Villa plays 11th-place Stoke City tomorrow before taking a week off in the run up to the big game.

So giddy up. I will try to blog live from The Emirates as much as I can, but I’m there to watch some football and I’ll probably be pissed, so don’t count on me for your news.

Your World Cup Groups

Well, here they are:

Group A
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France’s hand

Group B
Argentina
Nigeria
Korea, Good
Greece

Group C
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Group D
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E
The DutchNetherHolland
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G
Brazil
Korea, Bad
Côte d’Ivoire
Portugal

Group H
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

So it looks like your Four Guys are going to:

Durban on 13 June to see Germany.
Rustenburg on 19 June to see Ghana
Nelspruit on 23 June to see Serbia.

And we’re sure as hell going to try to hit the England/USA match on Saturday, 12 June in Rustenburg. Although that will be one hot ticket.

Australia and USA

So far, the Aussies have been put in Group D with Germany. The Yanks are in Group C with England....

Draw day

One hour to the FIFA draw (I was mistaken earlier; I thought it was at noon Eastern U.S. time - silly me. The broadcast starts at noon; naturally, we have 45 minutes of wank time for the teevee commentators to bloviate, the obligatory South Africa tourism puff pieces, the doubly obligatory Nelson Mandela interviews ... -Ed.). Here are the “pots” from which groupings will be drawn:

Pot 1 (which consists of the host nation and the top seven teams)
Argentina
Brazil
England
Germany
Italy
The DutchNetherHolland
Spain
South Africa

Pot 2 (Asia, CONCACAF and Oceania)
Australia
Honduras
Japan
Korea, Bad
Korea, Good
Mexico
New Zealand
MUTHAFUCKIN U.S.A.!

Pot 3 (Africa and South America)
Algeria
Camerooooooooon
Chile
Côte d’Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Paraguay
Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe)
Denmark, Something’s Rotten In
France’s hands
Greece
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland, even the bigots

These pots were based solely on the October 2009 FIFA World Rankings. (N.B. USA is at #11, seven spots ahead of Mexico. So you’d think we’d get a better seed with that and the fact that we won our group; alas, we will be screwed by FIFA again.)

Fun facts about the draw: Brazil and Argentina may not be drawn with any remaining South African nations (Pot 3), and South Africa may not be drawn with any other African nation (Pot 3).

Here’s the fine print on the draw procedure, if you want a crash course in the next 65 minutes.

Y'all ready for this?

T minus three hours, 50 minutes until the FIFA 2010 World Cup Final Draw.

Drew will be up at an ungodly hour in Australia to watch. I'll be in my office at work, on a slight deadline but still paying attention ... because, well, it's football, gall-durnit. And because of the children. We must always think of the children.

Let's Make It Interesting

For those following FGOC leading up to the World Cup in June/July, I've set up a "Four Guys, One Cup" group for the ESPN Soccernet Bracket Predictor on ESPN.com.

Try to make it a little more interesting to pick which of the 32 teams might hoist that bizarre trophy after a month of soccer/football.

First select which two teams will advance out of each the eight groups. The order you select them - 1st or 2nd - determines where they are placed in the 16-team bracket. Then predict the winner of the 15 bracket matches throughout the Finals. All picks lock with the first kickoff on Friday, June 11, 2010.

Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/bpredictor/en/group?groupID=432

Group: Four Guys, One Cup
Password: yourmom

It'll have to sub until we have to peel Hoover and FST from the tables at Sun City.

Oh, and Daddy is getting ready to get up at 4 am Saturday morning to watch the draw. Then the real fun begins...

T minus three days

Well, it’s December, which means that here in Washington it’s getting cold and the sun is setting at 4 p.m. Down in the Antipodes, where Drew and Mike reside, it’s summertime, so those jackasses are hitting the beach, like, daily. Because they suck.

That also means we are three days away from the Final Draw. At 7 p.m. local time in Cape Town (noon in Washington, 2 a.m. Saturday in Seoul and 4 a.m. Saturday in Melbourne), FIFA will announce the group seeding for next year’s little football contest.

Indeed, every Draw throws up at least one fiercely competitive section, where several traditional powers have to fight for the right to progress. Who can forget Group C at Germany 2006, which comprised Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, Serbia and Montenegro and the Netherlands? Then there are the dark horses to contend with, quality teams which strive to spring a surprise and relish the opportunity to upset the game’s established heavyweights.

Yeah, and what they didn’t say is that the United States typically gets screwed in the draw, even if we win our region, as we did this year. You watch. They’ll seed Mexico higher, and we’ll get the shaft.

Speaking of shafts, here’s one more thing we’ll have to worry about next year: meteors.



Then again, perhaps celestial catastrophes could make for some game-saving diversions, allowing Thierry Henry to hand-ball another goal. You never know.