down in a hole

The game finished eleven hours ago, and I'm still mad about it. At least with the Bengals, or the Bearcats you can say to yourself "there's always next year." With this, what do you say? There's always... 2010? That's not good enough. Four years of buildup, of anticipation, for this? A tournament filled with poor performances from stars and terrible calls that determine the outcome of games. I think this may even top last year's Super Bowl for officiating blunders. What a horrible call to give Ghana a penalty shot. It happened right before half time, three minutes after the U.S. tied the score on a great play. The momentum they should have had going into the second half swung 180 degrees after that terrible call by the official gift-wrapped a goal for Ghana.

And Ghana, talk about a team I was disappointed by. Everyone wants to see an underdog make a good run in the tournament, and I loved their upset over the Czech Republic. But I don't think I've ever seen a team take more dives and feign more injuries to waste time than I did today. Calling their style cheap doesn't do it justice.

I take a small amount of comfort in Ronaldo getting back into form with a two-goal performance against Japan today. I look forward to watching Brazil destroy Ghana in the next round.

Oh well, here's to 2010. South Africa here we come. Hopefully...