Jim R

I've heard this one before, but like you, can't place it. Szabo ? I was going to guess maybe Ron Eschete...? Almost sounds like a 7-string guitar near the end of the piece. The thing is, most of Eschete's recordings featured an electric 6-string bass (Todd Johnson). Joe Beck was another name that came to mind...

#1 is "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning"... not sure who's playing, though. #6 The tune is familiar to me, but the title escapes me at the moment. Guitarist has a really nice broad, rich tone. Hmmm...

Ralph Gleason Ralph Kramden Ralphs, Mick

Most, perhaps... but not this one. It's not the repetetive "Gooooooooollllllllll" thing that I'm responding to (that does get a little tiresome), it's his obvious emotion, even before the play is finished off. He's extremely excited (maybe moreso than I've ever heard from him, although I don't recall if I was listening when he called Maradona's wonder goal in the '86 WC, which is one of his legendary calls), and nearly in tears in the aftermath. Even during the "Gooooooooollllllllll" portion, there's one moment when he growls like I've never heard him do. As he's gotten older and his voice more fragile, he usually holds back, but he let loose on this one. The U.S. needs more reliable finishers, especially from longer range. I think that's probably our biggest flaw, and has been for quite awhile.

I can see both sides of this. Overall, I think there were too many games played too conservatively, and performances were generally less exciting or spectacular than they have been in some of the WC's of the past. On the other hand, I watched probably close to 60 matches, and I enjoyed almost every one of them. Why? Simply because it was the World Cup (the same reason I can enjoy watching performances of athletes I've never seen before during the olympics). I even enjoy listening to the national anthems that I almost never hear otherwise. I didn't bring many expectations to any game, especially in the earlier rounds (by the later rounds, it was more clear as to who was likely to do what). There is always going to be some kind of drama or interesting story underlying any game. One of my favorite moments from this tournament was something that I didn't even experience until after the tournament was over. Of course, the aforementioned Landon Donovan goal that won group C for the USA was one of my favorite moments, and I watched it live on ESPN with Ian Darke announcing. After the WC, I found a video of the great Andres Cantor making the call of that goal, from the Telemundo broadcast. Ian Darke's call was fun, but this was pretty special too... Donovan goal vs Algeria

Nice! Now what ever happened to that "Look-alikes" thread...? :rsmile: New Zealand!

Holland has only themselves to blame. Spain certainly had a few questionable moments themselves in terms of fair play, but it was just astounding to see Holland picking up that many unnecessary yellow cards. Not only that, but De Jong deserved a straight red for his karate kick on Xabi Alonso. Disgusting, especially for U.S. fans who haven't forgotten De Jong breaking Stuart Holden's leg in a friendly this Spring. Too bad that both teams had so much trouble finishing their chances. It would have made for a more entertaining match if each had put one or two away. Still, the deserving team won, and there was just enough drama to make it entertaining for me.

Congratulations to Germany, a wonderful performance. Much respect to Germany AND Argentina for playing the game the right way, with almost no cheating or diving, very few reckless challenges, and dignity in both winning and losing (and all the more so, considering the history between these two sides). It's a shame that Muller was carded for such a dubious hand ball (especially after an Argentine player had gotten away with no such punishment after an obvious and deliberate infraction earlier in the match), and will miss the semi-final.

I agree. I like upsets, but what a disappointing game. From the beginning, you knew that the ref would have to the keep the cards in his pocket in many situations where they probably should have come out. Robinho's goal was nothing special. Robben looked like a schoolboy, repeatedly trying to dribble through crowds and rarely finding teammates when Brazil swarmed him throughout the first half. Van Persie's free kicks were among the worst I've seen in the whole tournament. All of the theatrics on both sides... very little going unpunished. Felipe Melo and Julio Cesar making a mess of that cross. After falling behind, Brazil totally lost their composure, lobbing ball after ball forward, to nobody. They had numerous corners, and did nothing ingenious with them. After the score went level, the stage was set for a great, open game with more creativity and scoring chances. I didn't necessarily want Brazil to tie it, but I thought they would at least come close and provide some excitement. At 70 minutes, they looked out of ideas, and at 80, they looked almost completely defeated. Even playing with 10, I would have expected a lot more from them. Both teams are extremely talented, but it's difficult to respect either of them when they do so much diving, crying and bickering. I'm sure that old friends Argentina and Germany will refrain from that sort of thing tomorrow.

Spain deserved to win, but I couldn't help noticing how many close calls went their way (including Villa not being called offside on the goal sequence). Even Ronaldo was victimized at least once by a bad non-call (not that I feel sorry for him). Japan - Paraguay... I can't believe I watched the whole thing...

Slovakia waited too long to attack the middle of the Dutch defense. They were generally outclassed throughout, however, and deserved to lose. News flash: (too late for the Slovakian defense, apparently)... Arjen Robben likes to take the ball on the right flank, cut toward the middle of the field, and shoot with his left foot. The late penalty was indeed a bad call (one of many by this ref, who had ruined a match in the group stage). That said, after Robben scored, Holland were the ones doing too much diving during this match. The tv commentators were making jokes about "gusts of wind".

Italy appeared to be coasting for over an hour. Very strange. Once they began to form an attack, with Pirlo showing them how to keep the ball, they provided an exciting finish. Ironically, it was their defense that let them down in the end.

I'm still speechless (and exhausted) after what the U.S. did today. Rather than talk about that, I just wanted to congratulate Kenny Weir on the way Australia finished things out their tournament. For awhile there, it looked like a very good possibility that Germany would get a second goal, Serbia would go scoreless, and the U.S. would have played Australia instead of Ghana. After the way the tournament began for the Aussies, it was quite an achievement to come that close.

Sigh... the referees had been pretty good until today. The ref in the Germany-Serbia match must have thought it was 2006 again, with all those kneejerk yellows. The clown who did the U.S.-Slovenia match was in over his head. People will talk about the disallowed goal, but there were plenty of other blown calls (not carding Dempsey for the stupid elbow in the opening moments; giving Findley a yellow for playing the ball with his head; etc etc). Slovenia and Algeria look to be the most polished, composed, competent teams in Group C, which makes all the "experts" look very foolish. Algeria deserve a lot of credit for the way they embarrassed the english today, just as Mexico deserved to be praised for the way they embarrassed France. I can't see the U.S. beating Algeria, especially if they begin yet another game half-asleep. Slovenia may very well send England home, too. Question of the day... what is it with Serbia's defenders insisting on reaching out and playing the ball with their hands in open space, in front of 1,000,000,000 viewers? Poor Podolski... talk about a nightmare of a game.

I still can't believe that Spain didn't score. It was very similar to their loss against the U.S. in last year's Confed Cup semifinal. On behalf of the Western Hemisphere, I'd like to apologize to anyone who wasted their time watching Honduras trying to attack Chile's penalty area (notice I didn't say Chile's goal). Pathetic. I thought Forlan's goal was pretty lucky, what with the deflection. It was hit straight toward the center of the goal... not sure why the S.A. keeper couldn't have tipped it over the bar.

Same to you, Pete! What a nice surprise. Are you watching the Cup?

All true, except that I thought he played okay considering how little space he was given by Ivory Coast. His shot off the post was a "wow" moment, even though he didn't score. But I agree, I can't stand the diving and the attitude. The North Koreans sure look like they belonged on the same field with Brazil in the first half. I have a feeling that might change in the second half.

I think Paraguay wasted a great opportunity to steal a win. They were too casual, giving the ball away in midfield repeatedly, and failing to create more shots when they got forward. Their keeper made a mess of the play where Italy scored. But I agree, a fair result, thanks to Italy's persistence.

Elia helped to liven up the match for the Netherlands. Denmark looked uninspired, even after falling behind via the own goal. Disappointing, as they are usually a high-energy team. Too many dives from Italy in the first 10 to 20 minutes. Paraguay looked disorganized and sloppy, but made the most of one of their few opportunities. Time to watch the second half...

I expected much more from Serbia. I hadn't seen them play recently, but I had heard that they might be strong enough to win their group. Too many missed chances, and that hand ball was just inexplicably stupid. Germany looked very sharp. Australia (the "hard tacklers", who must remember to tackle the ball), lived up to my expectations, the way they fouled recklessly (Moore, Neill, Cahill). The reason that Germany's Cacau was carded (unfairly) was because the Mexican ref thought he was diving, when in reality he was simply jumping (wisely, imo) to avoid one of those late tackles. He didn't want to be injured- especially with the match being in the 91st minute. Bad call against him. I think the straight red on Cahill was questionable, and probably should have been a yellow, but that's a judgement call that I wouldn't be inclined to argue against strongly. Thus far, the referees have generally been very, very good. After what we witnessed in the group stages in 2006, I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by this (but it's early yet...). I haven't even watched the Algeria-Slovenia match yet, and from what I've read here, I may not bother.

Out here, the early games start at 4:30 am! :eye: If I want to see one of those (like tomorrow's Algeria-Slovenia match), I record it at watch it later. I didn't bother to record the South Korea-Greece match this morning. I was surprised at how vulnerable Argentina looked today. They dominated the game of course, but they're fortunate that none of those near-misses by Nigeria went in. A draw would have been an embarrassment for Maradona and his side. That Nigerian keeper was impressive, though.

For me, the big story was England squandering so many good chances. I thought Howard was very good, but a number of his saves were on shots hit right at him. I feel very badly for Green, poor guy... he's going to have to live with that for the rest of his life (not that it will necessarily turn out to be all that meaningful, but that's still a living nightmare for a young keeper on such a big stage). I wish Bradley had brought on Buddle for Findley sooner than he did. I think Buddle would have done better at holding up the ball, and would have been more dangerous in terms of shooting. As it was, we got a few corners toward the end, and I thought the U.S. might just get one more shot past Green and steal two more points. Now that would have been a story. Looking forward to the early match tomorrow, and seeing our other group opponents group facing off.

No. The email is sent by Facebook's system, not the random person who initiated it. They don't have any way of telling that you opened this email any more than you can tell that your aunt opened the email when you use a newspaper's "share this article with a friend" button to email her an article. They also have no control over how that link is built, just as you have no control over how the link is built in the newspaper article you emailed to your aunt. Thanks BW. I followed the link and opted out of further e-mails. Hopefully it works.

Thanks, BW. This message really didn't seem to originate from an individual, based on the address. Also, another thing I didn't mention is that they addressed me as "Jim" in the body of the message. Not sure I can make sense of that, if they only harvested my e-mail address from other members. If it happens again, I'll be more careful about saving more details. So, I got one of these myself for the first time just now. My best guess is that the person who is sending these things through Facebook is either just sending out a huge number of requests through lots of bogus profiles and is randomly guessing emails, or is nabbing them from people's compromised email accounts. They could be vacuuming up email addresses off the Web too, but my email address isn't too many places on the Web (doesn't appear to be indexed by Google) so that seems a little less likely. This email definitely confirms what I was told: Facebook's system is putting together that "other people you may know on Facebook" gallery in the email from the address books of people who have your email address. Jim Alfredson was in that gallery of the email I got, but Jim isn't connected to me on Facebook and the email address of mine that Jim (and the spammer) have isn't even the same email address associated with my existing Facebook account. So the only way Facebook could have connected me to the people in the gallery was through all of their address books. Just got another one. This time, no "gallery", only photos/links for two people (both old high school friends) who have invited us to join in the past. The e-mail is from a facebook address (update+2sskkrsn@facebookmail.com), and they created a phony character ("Mood Booster") as the person inviting me, complete with a thumbnail photo of an attractive young brunette. She's pretty foxy, actually... I'm still trying to decide if it's worth clicking on the link to see if I can find a larger photo of her. Maybe this is a dumb question, but is there any risk in clicking on that unsubscribe link? Might they be able to detect that I opened the e-mail that way, and zero in on me even more? At any rate, for now I'm just going to go to our mail server and label this as spam.