Final Games of Qualifying

Each team of the World Cup has played their first two games of the group stage. What that means is that some teams have already mathematically advanced and other teams are going to have to play with all their heart and soul and do some scoreboard watching. I'll do a rundown of the teams that made it to the next round and the games that you need to watch this upcoming week.

Tuesday:
10 am - Ecuador and Germany have already advanced. The Costa Rica and Poland game is not worth watching. The Ecuador and Germany game will be good because Ecuador has yet to let up a goal and Germany will want that first place rank in the standings.
3 PM - England has already advanced, but a win or a tie will give them first place in the group which will do a lot to appease their very demanding fans. And also look for Wayne Rooney to play in this match. If Trinidad wins and Sweden loses Trinidad has a shot at making it to the next round depending on how the goal differential ends up. So make sure you cheer for an England blowout and a Trinidad win.

Wednesday:
10 am - Argentina and Netherlands have already advanced, but they play eachother so the game should be good to see two good teams match up and try to get the top spot of the group. Ivory Coast vs Serbia Montenegro may be fun to watch if like Ivory Coast. They should win just because it appears Serbia has given up and already gone home. It would be nice to see Ivory Coast win.
3 PM - Portugal has already advanced. Mexico needs to tie or beat Portugal though to guarentee advancement and Portugal is unlikely to just give up and wait for the next round.
Angola has a chance to advance if they blow out Iran and Portugal blows out Mexico, both possible so watch these games if either of those pieces end up playing out.

Thursday:
10 am - Italy vs Czech and US. vs Ghana. If you care about how the US team is doing at all both these games are important to watch. If the Czech's start blowing out the Italians though it all doesn't matter and start preparing your complaints for Bruce Arena. If all goes perfectly for the US, they could end up with a second round match against Australia/Croatia next Tuesday.
3 PM - Brazil has advanced. They could very easily play a lazy game, but they haven't guarenteed themselves the top spot so dont look for them to be pushovers. Brazil should be able to destroy Japan though with their eyes closed. Australia vs Croatia will be exciting though. A win or a tie and Australia advances, but a Croatia win means they advance. That's a lot to play for.

Friday:
10 am - Togo will not be advancing, but don't think that they wont be playing hard against France, everyone likes to beat the French, especially when a victory means the French don't make it to the next round. Switzerland and Korea will both advance if France loses, but if not both teams could be in danger. Both teams still got everything to play for and a lot to prove.
3 PM - Spain is amazing, but they have already advanced basically insured themselves the top spot. So they may take it easy against Saudi Arabia. There are a lot of complicated possibilities for these last two games so I won't go into it all. I'll just say that Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and Tunisia will all be playing their hearts and Spain is just damn good. So watch either of these games and you should see some good soccer.

And that wraps up the group stage of the world cup.
Go US.
and go phillies.
hope you enjoyed this post because i did it instead of studying for chemistry or getting some extra sleep.