Super Samba Sunday

cookies before futbol!
a HUGE shout out, thank you, gratzi hugs, danke, obregado, gracias, high fives, meri and exploding fist bumps to Jen Brown for baking us the best ever home made chocolate chip cookies!   and equal thanks to Merideth and company for  terrific trans-Atlantic Tupperware transportation.  Among all the new food here, it's wonderful to have a taste of home.

Once again, I was fortunate enough to be done with work at a most opportunistic time where I could walk 1/2 mile to Soccer City Stadium to catch Ivory Coast taking on Brazil.  Great game, despite obvious double handballs by Fabiano on his second goal and a ridiculous red card on Kaka for not doing anything.  At the game, we could not see the infraction.  I watched all the slo-mo replays this morning, it's clear that Keita was not looking where he was running, bumped into Kaka, then fell down holding his face.  That's cussin wrong! As Bob Ley says " Keita receives a minor blow to the chest and experiences grievous pain in his face".
regardless, it was still amazing to watch 5 time World Champion Brazil play their jogo bonita, score some great goals in front of more than 90,000 soccer nuts. Brazil advances to next round.  Wish my Bros were there with me!

also met up with Larett and Co again! check it-

http://seanl2010worldcup.blogspot.com/

Yesterday's surprise came from the Kiwi's with an upset tie vs the cheating Italians. DeRossi apparently ran into a mysterious invisible blockade, fell over, cried and got the penalty.  dude, that is lame.  a disgrace to soccer.  They got lucky, but New Zealand considers it win vs the reigning champs, each gaining 1 point.

Today has Portugal vs North Korea 4:30aPT ESPN  (ooops, it just started). Portugal’s Ronaldo: “Goals will come, today, tomorrow or in a few years” It's raining in Capetown. That combined with the Jubalani ball could create some interesting goals.

Chile/ Switzerland at 7a PT.  ESPN
Spain takes on Honduras at 11:30a PT on ESPN.

Trouble in the France camp.
After dispute on field, French team refuses to train: French players walked away from a training session today in a show of support of Nicolas Anelka, who was kicked off the team and sent home for insulting coach Raymond Domenech. The France coach read a statement by the players in which they explained they had decided not to train to protest the decision to send the striker home. The players, saying they were "unanimously against the French Football Federation’s decision to expel Nicolas Anelka". Video footage we air yesterday clearly showed arguments during training.
France fiasco also cautionary tale for England (New York Times):  Franck Ribery is leading an unofficial investigation to find out who spilled to the news media the details of Nicolas Anelka’s outburst at France Coach Raymond Domenech.

and the drama is not only for France:
ENGLAND TEAM MEETING: Capello refuses to let players speak (The Mirror): Fabio Capello stunned England’s reeling players by gagging them at what was supposed to be a clear-the-air meeting. He had been expected to allow his squad to have their say over Friday’s dismal performance against Algeria, which left a group of nine seeking widespread changes. But instead the England coach told players they could not voice their opinions on what was wrong. “Everyone had gone to the meeting expecting to be able to have a frank chat about what could be done to put things right,” said a source close to the team. “But Fabio made it plain straight away that was not going to happen. He stood up at the front of the room and made it clear to the players he would not tolerate any debate. He just stood there and said ‘nobody speak, nobody speak’.
oy! like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.

here's a taste of last night:

Queen Esther created our toll rate sheet in response to the crowd of people that seem to congregate in our room, while we are working.
so far we have made over 20 Rand!
We put a yellow line on the floor to indicate our boundary. Yesterday, it even stopped Jurgen Klinsman from entering our zone!