Terrific save from Neuer.
And that’s it. Die Mannschaft impresses. Portugal, not so much.
This Germany looks like a tournament winner - right now, they’re the team to beat.
They would’ve destroyed Portugal even without the red.
If Portugal plays this horribly not only can the US win, they should. The question is, if and when they play better, how much better of a side than the US are they? Personally I think Portugal just isn’t at that level that they’re out of reach. They’re not Spain.
While I would never write them off, I don’t think Portugal have such great mental fortitude that one can entirely count on them to pull it together for the next match, either.
That much is clear. I also feel that France looked very good, and Italy were solid against England (unfortunately). Netherlands’ having destroyed the defending champs opened many eyes as well, mine included. But Germany were just so polished and confident. I know saying so risks racepug coming back in here to call me a “d*cklicker” again, even though I didn’t cheer for a single German goal, but I call it as I see it. Hardly controversial sentiment, anyway.
Better than the Netherlands?
I genuinely think Germany would have achieved a comparable result, and their brand of football is a lot more attractive to watch than the Dutch. I don’t particularly want to see either side in the final, but surely one of them is likely to be there.
Anybody have luck with ESPN3 streaming online? I couldn’t get it to work, and am wondering if the live games are blacked out. I was able to watch on over-the-air Univision anyway; they carry every game. My Spanish is lousy, so I had the Guardian’s liveblog on too so I could get another perspective in English.
I’ve seen live matches with ESPN3 streaming - I think it was Uruguay/Costa Rica? Anyways, it was smooth to me.
I’ve watched four or five on ESPN3. It’s been pretty much crystal-clear for me. The PiP feature, allowing a replay in a new screen, has been hit or miss, but worked yesterday just fine.
I think so, in control for the whole game and playing fresh football. The Netherlands didn’t start that convincing. I don’t think either team will get to the final… attacking and fluent play usually don’t get rewarded.
Yep, I’ve watched every game (almost) over the Intertoobs on Watch ESPN.
Well, I’ve graduated from “error code 302” to getting a login screen for my cable provider ID. Of course, I don’t have a cable provider. And that’s after disabling NoScript, AdBlock, and Ghostery.
I can successfully watch the tape from the previous game’s post-game presser, though, on ESPN3.
At least the Univision announcers are more excitable.
Wow, I’m impressed. I was a bit concerned about our defence, but they did a very solid job and took Ronaldo out of the game. And Müller is always a force to be reckoned with. Nice start.
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by that. As soon as I saw Howedes at LB on the lineup I thought “Oh no” but I had no issue with how either fullback played. And Thomas Mueller picked right up where he left off in South Africa. Overall a good effort from everyone.
Pepe’s red card was. . .just appallingly stupid. I know he has a long and sordid reputation, but you don’t even make it to halftime of the first group stage match before pulling something like that? Mueller did make a bit of a meal out of the initial contact (he was legit hit in the face, but not THAT hard), but to headbutt a guy who’s on the ground is really low-class. And the referee was RIGHT THERE. Good riddance.
Germany looked very good, but I can’t tell how much of that was absolute quality and how much of it was Portugal being a right mess. CR7 hitting a free kick into a one-man wall consisting of the smallest player on the pitch kind of encapsulated their day.
The camera in the Iran-Nigeria game is getting terrible lens flare. It’s driving me insane!
Bringing the incisive comments, I know.
Well done Germany. They were my pick as winners before the tournament (…go on, check my posts!) and I will be continuing to pick them until such time as they get knocked out and I will then shamelessly disown them and pretend I never thought they were up to much.
Ronaldo was anonymous to say the least and Pepe brainless. Surely they can’t play that badly again?
Yeah, that was a real howler.
Well there’s you’re problem, ESPN3 is for people with cable subscriptions.
The WatchESPN app on my iPhone works most of the time… sometimes the video lags seriously behind the video and the only way I’ve found to fix that is to stop and restart the stream.
Or, ESPN3 is for those who have their internet through a cable provider (ie, I get it since I have internet through Comcast).
WatchESPN and ESPN3 are sort of the same on my computer (at least by the URL; they both end up at espn.go.com/watchespn. If I go in through ESPN3 I can at least get the player to give me the error message or the cable login screen. Going in through WatchESPN I get the splash screen with the big start triangle that doesn’t respond to a click at all, nor do any other of the light blue “watch live” links on the right.
AHA! I’ve got it! Going through the ESPN3 page, the dropdown menu that says Event Schedule at the top of the player leads to links that seem identical to the ones on the right side of the page. But instead of leading to a dead end, clicking on the game this time, it immediately began to play the game in progress.
I apologize for this tedium, but I figure somebody else out there has gone through the same frustration and this might help.