And so Belgium’s World Cup ambitions end with a 2-0 loss against Brazil, despite an early Belgian goal that was disallowed by a blind referee and some great game play that made the Brazlians look decidedly un-stellar. Of the 4 teams I’ve been rooting for (in order of allegiance: Belgium, Sweden, England, US) England and the US have made it to the quarter-finals. Looking more and more possible: an England – Germany final rematch.

[Tue, Jun 18 2002 – 05:03] yiarof (email) Inga-Lund!!!!!

[Tue, Jun 18 2002 – 17:08] Matthew (email) in-ger-lunch

[Wed, Jun 19 2002 – 18:21] John Gaffney (email) Stefan,

I too was rooting for Belgium, remembering back when I lived in Brussels in 86 and saw “de rood duivels” beat the USSR to get to the (was it?) quarterfinals? I remember sticking my head out of my apartment window in the Rue Royale in Schaerbaek and listining to all the horns honking after that game, and then, shockingly, seeing cars driving around with real Belgian flags waving — an unusual sight in a country where many people usually identified themselves first as Flemings or Walloons. Anyway, this time around, I thought they played very well until quite late in the game. Brazil has turned out to be somewhat of a surprise, as the team was dogged by scandal and low morale and lots of people back home did not think they would do well.

I’m getting the impression that the European teams are tired (look at the Italians the other day against Korea) because they came right from league play to a tournament that is being played earlier than usual to avoid the Asian monsoons.