so far, Poland is the only all-white team to lose to a non-white team (all-white Serbia and Montenegro loss to the all-white Netherlands is the only other white team to fall), but Sweden's draw with T and T is certainly a disappointment for their fans, as the Swedes were the much better squad.
i recall the white player for T and T from when they played the USA in a preliminary match. his name is Christopher Birchall, and he is the first, and only, white player to ever suit up for Trinidad and Tobago. the midfielder is a very solid player as an attacking goal scorer. he plays in England professionally.
Iron wrote:
What's surprised me most so far is how tactically adept the African teams are now.They are certainly much harder to beat than in previous competitions.
you will notice, i'm sure, that the African nations that are playing well do not have African coaching staffs. the coaches are all of European backgrounds, which accounts for the much higher level of discipline and teamwork than we've seen from the African teams in years past. however, it must still be noted, as it was by the announcers during the Italy-Ghana match, that the Africans still do not play well when they feel pressure. if they either don't score early, or even worse for them, get behind, they inevitably begin to crumble. i haven't seen them yelling and fighting with each other yet in this tourney, so maybe that's finally a thing of the past at least.
the USA was an
incredible disappointment today. the Czech Republic completely destroyed us. we looked slow, unskilled, and uninspired. we were outrun all over the field by the supposedly "old and slow" Czechs for the entire 90 minutes. and our black champion defender, oguchi onyewu, directly cost us 2 of the 3 goals.
as a team we were unbelievably dismal, and i can only hope that we bounce back strongly against France.
conversely, the Czech Republic was incredible. i picked them early on as a title contender, and they certainly looked it today. the only negative for them from the match was the injury to giant forward Jan Koller. if he's out of the tourney, that would be a devastating blow for their chances.
and no one has mentioned the all-white Socceroos from Australia. they played a full 90 minutes today and showed a perserverance that should make us all proud. down 1-0 for most of the match, they scored 3 goals in the last 6 minutes of the match to take a huge surprise win over Japan.
as of right now, 9 all-white teams have played, and 2 nearly all-white teams (England and Portugal). they have a combined record of 6-2-1.
with one loss coming to another white team. now then, if you count Iran as white, (which they certainly look it to me, but i'm certainly no expert on genetics) then their 3-1 loss to Mexico would add another notch to the loss column. pretty good tourney, so far!