Celebrate Good Times!

I spent the evening watching the amazing celebrations in Chile (www.cnnchile.com/deportes/2010/06/16/chilenos-madrugaron-para-ver-la-roja/), wishing I could have been a part of it and also thinking, "That would never happen in the United States for any sporting event." Which is fine, but it's also too bad. I mean, Chile completely shut down. The entire country watched the game, and the excitement watching the people celebrate Jean Beausejour's goal that gave La Roja a 1-0 win over Honduras was exhilirating. It was exciting in our house (as exciting as things get at 5 in the morning) but the electricity in Santiago and the rest of the country was amazing and inspiring. The country put televisions up everywhere - and I meaen everywhere. On buses, in the middle of cities, in store windows, even a huge screen on the Presidential Palace (can you imagine the Super Bowl being broadcast onto a huge screen on the White House?). There were celebrations everywhere, including in small indian communities, in the Antarctic, on Easter Island. The entire country was going nuts. That doesn't happen here. People get very excited, but it's only if your city team is doing well. A city might go nuts over a Super Bowl win, but you'll never see the country go nuts like Chile did, and that's kind of sad. I know, this is a huge country and it's hard to get that many people connected to one thing, but wouldn't it be awesome if it did? Wouldn't it be amazing if we all got together to watch the United States against Slovenia? How much fun would that be?
Anyway, it was really fun to watch, definitely added to the excitement of a game that Chile dominated in a way few teams have so far in this odd tournament. Honduras was lucky the score didn't get out of hand, as Chile attacked beautifully, led by the spectacular Alexis Sanchez, who was clearly the best player on the field. Chile was fast, creative, better defensively than I expected and just really looked good. I can't wait to see how they do in their next two games.
Speaking of, wow! I figured Switzerland was better than people gave it credit for, but I never anticipated it beating Spain. ...and you didn't either, so don't lie. Spain looked good, but wow what a performance by the Swiss defense. It was also fun to watch future Sounder Blaise Nkufo, who looks like he'll help the Seattle offense. So now, shockingly, there's Chile and Switzerland meeting on Monday for the right to lead the group, with Spain now needing a pair of wins - probably - to move on. I say again, Wow!
The third game of the day was Uruguay's 3-0 win over South Africa. I'm happy for Uruguay as I always like to see South American teams do well, and I really like star striker Diego Forlan. But I feel bad for South Africa. It's going to be the first host country to not advance out of group play, and is the first host to lose by three goals. The country is putting on a great show and it would be nice to see it rewarded with a better showing from its team.
Thursdays games are big, especially the Group A game between Mexico and France. If France loses, it's probably done, which is bad news for me (I picked it to reach the championship game). And it could well lose, as Mexico is good, and it should be a fun game.
Argentina opens by playing South Korea in what should be a really interesting game between the top two teams in the group. I'll be curious to see if South Korea can repeat its performance from its first game, a resounding win over Greece. Speaking of Greece, it looked horrible against South Korea and if it can't be significantly better against a desperate Nigeria team, it could get ugly.