I did watch five soccer matches on this super soccer Saturday as planned. Starting with Euro Cup16, I missed first 20 minutes but watched to the end of the match Switzerland taking Albania. Both sides missed so many scoring opportunities and Swiss should feel pretty lucky by taking the advantages of Albanians' lack of experiences and critical shooting skills as well as their own keeper's extraordinary performances. As I shared before, last time I watched Albania National Team play was back in one of the years in early 70s when I was younger than 9 years old. My maternal uncle took me to an international friendly between Albania National Team and China National Team at Worker's Stadium Beijing. In those years, China as a country only had two friends: one is Albania, another is North Korea.
Staying in bed, I watched the second match between Wales led by Bale and Slovakia captained by Skrtel. The host of pre-match show reminded that Wales present on major International soccer stage the first time since 1958, which triggered me to recall the significant soccer tournament in that year must be World Cup being held in Sweden. I learned this the first time from Pele's autobiography in late 70s because the first couple of words in that book were: Place: Stockholm, Sweden. In early 90s, when I had chance to go to Sweden, I chatted with friends over there about Swedish soccer, they also mentioned that piece of history they were proud of. Actually, the final was held in Solna.
As far as I observed, Wales hadn't been a complete team, which might be the reason of being missed in major international tournament for so many years. Back to 80s and early 90s when I was young, they did own several great players, such as Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and another one less famous of whom I only remembered his last name Saunders. Giggs was very young then. These players were all strikers. To get a better result, they need to have better midfielders and defenders. Before the match, I hadn't expected knowing any players of Slovakia National Team but I recognized their captain whom I watched a lot at Liverpool's matches. A viewer of my broadcast on Periscope mentioned Hamsik as the star player in that team but I had never known. Googling him, I figured him the captain for Napoli. Since my TV package doesn't include Serie A, I haven't watched any Napoli's match for 20 years. However, Bale helped Wales lead the match by scoring a fantastic free kick. I fell into sleep in 2nd half but learned Wales winning the match at the end. It's a memorable victory for this country of United Kingdom.
Russian Thugs and English hooligans clashed in the streets of Marseille. As I read, some French hooligans from Paris were also involved. In recent years, Violence in soccer has been growing in Russia and Eastern Europe, which is a very bad trend. If Russian government can't deal with this, it will overshadow World Cup 2018. Of course, English hooligans have had obnoxious reputations for a half century, so they must be blamed as well. I wasn't sure if the clash influenced the match, England National Team dominated the match but couldn't score. The match was a draw at 1 to 1.
Figuring out the window would be wide enough between Euro Cup16 and Copa Centenario, I drove to the gym to work out a full routine. It had been cloudy but the sunshine popped out when I walked out of the gym. I hoped the weather would be nice in the next week because two matches would be played at Centurylink Field and I already bought the tickets for the one Argentina to play Bolivia.
Stopping at 7-11, I bought two big cans of beer and a bacon cheeseburger for my dinner. USA would play Paraguay in a crucial match for their advancement to quarterfinal, so I didn't plan to eat dinner my parents cooked. USA played a good match in the first half. Brooks made a smart tackle to save a 3 to 1 attack. He was voted as Man of the Match. Dempsey scored the only goal comfortably after receiving an accurate and timely pass from Zadres. Yedlin disappointed me with his emotional reaction after the doubtful 1st yellow yard was issued to him. He was sent off one minute later due to the second yellow card issued to him driven by his reckless tackle. He would regret very much because he would lose the opportunity to play in front of home supporters at Centurylink Field in Quarterfinal on next Thursday.
The next match wasn't televised on FSN1 but Univision. I followed it from the beginning to the end. It's a surprise that Costa Rica played such an aggressive match and won over presumed 1st placed Colombia in Group A. James Rodriguez was subbed in but wasn't able to do anything to save Colombia. USA snapped top rank in this group and will come to Seattle to play possibly Ecuador. Now, USA will have a big chance to advance to Semifinal. It's a bit dilemma to me because I had bought the tickets to the match between Argentina taking Bolivia on Tuesday night given the chance of USA coming to Seattle being so slim. Now, I have to think about if I can afford to buy two tickets for the match on Thursday night. It will cost me 400 bucks more. However, I am happy USA to get a better chance to advance even further and fans in Seattle will witness this historic moment.
After watching five matches in row, I fell into sleep subsequently and immediately.
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