World Cup Thoughts on the Quarters and Beyond:

World Cup Thoughts on the Quarters and Beyond:

1). Just one team, Germany, left that is European and has won a World Cup before. Europe traditionally does lousy at World Cups away from their continent, and Germany is the main hope. They play Argentina, and if they get knocked out, there are just two left.

2). Yay South America!

3). I would love to see the Group of 7 winners get increased by one this year. Best chances are Spain and the Dutch. I'd prefer the Dutch, but they have to go through Brazil to do it.

4). I would love to see 3.some million people strong Uruguay do very well, since they've won the Cup twice before in its early days in 1930 and 1950. They used to be a major power, with two Olympics wins before the Cup began. I would love to see a Uruguay resurgence, but the best team from South America not named Argentina and Brazil was probably Chile. Chile looked hot in qualifiers and finished in second place, ahead of Argentina, and yet they are the first one out, leaving Paraguay and Uruguay as the non-power nations left from Conmebol.

5). I would dearly love to see Ghana advance, but they are playing Uruguay and I want to see Uruguay advance as well.

6). Spain has an easy Paraguay to advance through. The Euro champs are looking good for the Semis.

7). Argentina vs Germany is the obvious match of the quarters, but if the Dutch can play well, that could be a real stunner. Brazil aren't indestructible, they've good great. Holland is playing top class football right now.

8). I think your final four are Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, which would give you three South America teams and a Spain team for a real Iberian peninsula feel to the final four. Everybody would speak Portugese or Spanish, and hispanic is the name of the day.

9). I would like the final four to be Uruguay, Argentina, Netherlands, Paraguay. I doubt that happens though.

10) An Argentina vs Spain semi would be epic. An Argentina vs Brazil final would be doubly epic. They haven't played each other in a World Cup in a long time.

11). Europe has three good teams left, and the other two teams that qualified that were uneasy (Slovakia, Switzerland) did not win in the Round of 16. Portugal is strong, but Spain had enough to see them off

12). I just don;t see Spain hoisting their first Cup after a match against the winner of Germany/Argentina. They both are playing top quality football and Spain is looking lethargic.

13). I think Brazil beats Uruguay (sad), and Argentina takes out Spain and we have an duel between the powers of the lower America for the cup.

14). If the Dutch can manage to take out the 800 pound gorilla - then either they or the winner of Ghana/Uruguay are in teh finals, and that is very tantalizing.

Who I root for in International Football (aka Soccer)

I love me some football! International nal football is my favorite though.


How to determine who Abe roots for in international soccer, these are in priority, so if #1 and #2 are playing, I root for #1, for example.



1). If it's the US, Abe roots for it.
2). If its Mexico, Abe roots for it.
3). If it's any African side vs. a non-African side, Abe roots for it
4). If it's Canada, Abe roots for it
5). If it's any South American team not named Argentina or Brazil, vs them, or a non-South American team, Abe roots for it.
6). If its Greece vs any other Europe team, Abe roots for it (after that Euro win a few years ago, Greece gets my acclaim, just wow).
7). If its Azerbaijan, Abe roots for it
8). If its a Indonesian or Malaysian team, Abe roots for it (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, etc).
9). If it's Brazil, Abe roots for it, because they know how to play football


Otherwise, I may pick a team because its the underdog, or their uniforms, or a player on it I like, etc.

International Spy Museum

Just got back from vacation and I got to say that the International Spy Museum was hot and a ton of fun with hands on experience and cover identities you have to remember and so forth.

If you travel DC way, check it out.


http://www.spymuseum.org/

Race in Fantasy

I was reading through the Duchy of Karameikos Gazetteer and I realized how rarely we take about human races in fantasy. Tolkein did, and Gygax did, but a lot of people came by later and just assumed humans as not identifying with different cultures and races. That's pretty crazy, so I think some people, like myself, who have not detailed this much in their fantasy worlds need to get cracking.