Bye Bye England and Brazil

It was a VERYYYY exciting game today. The first one was even more exciting.Like our usual routine, we headed to "Phoenix landing". The game started at 11:00 and our target was to get to the place at 10:30. We got there at 10: 15 just to find out that the club was over its capacity and they did not allow anyone inside. There were long lines of people, mostly ENGLISH fans of course, with their T-shirts (Beckham and Rooney) still waiting and talking with the security guard to let them in. There was no hope for us. There was another pub nearby the area but the place was not as appealing as the “Phoenix Landing.”

We only had 15 min left and whatever we did, we had to decide quickly. Prasanna suggested making a quick drive towards “New Orleans,” the sports bar in Davis Square. We were also kind of prepared for the worst-case scenario. In case that did not work out, we would just go to the North end, the Italian town and watch it in a café. Bit disappointed and anxious, we both quickly made the move.Driving by Harvard Square we saw quite a crowd at “Graffton Café” and decided to make that our Football venue for next 2 hours. That place was packed with the English fans.

England has always been in the limelight and that was one of the reasons why I did not want to root for that team. And then there was the “ BECKHAM” craze. Trust me, I have nothing against England. My sister is studying in England and I love London but I just was not the biggest fan of the English team so I decided to root for FIGO and Ronaldoo!!!! Prasanna and I, we were the only two excited fans rooting for Portugal in that whole Café. My throat still hurts.....Go FFFigoooooooo!

One English chap also shook our hand saying "Good luck" in his thick English accent. Never was I so tensed in any of the games like I was in the ENGLAND VS PORTUGAL game. When Portugal missed the second Penalty, I thought we lost and that was it but when English missed another one and then another one, I was very confident that Portugal was going to win and that was it!!!

Yes! you guessed it right! I along with other fellow Portuguese fans were whooping, jumping up and clapping my hands about England getting dumped out of The World Cup. AGAIN!Please Keep in mind that I absolutely love England!

England really dealt a blow when David Beckham went out with an apparent knee injury and Rooney left with a red card. Portugal sealed the victory with the final penalty pick from Manchester United's Ronaldo. Portugal beating England was a welcome change and I loved that match. Somehow, I always have a thing about siding with the underdogs - for the simple reason that the passion to succeed is greater than the drive to defend.

For the second game, we decided to go back to “Phoenix landing”. The place was already packed with the Brazilians and the French fans. I was quite confident that Brazil was going to win. Regardless of knowing that, I still picked to root for France. We sat in the middle of French fans and rooted for HENRRYYYYY singing “Allez Les Bleus”“Allez Les Bleus!!!!!

What a shocking game it was!

Brazil vs. France match epitomized the ‘adage’ to the fullest. Brazil, the world champions for five consecutive years, could not make it to the semi-finals, and were brutally dominated by France throughout the quarterfinal match. France had the perfect strategy up their sleeve - being a strongly defending team; they scored an early and then kept Brazil at bay for the rest of the match. Brazil lost 1-0.

The super cool french with their fancy flicks, solid tackling and razor sharp attacks just blew the famous Brazil side away. It was the best of the times ………… Henry, Patrick Vieira, Franck Ribery were a pleasure to watch … Zidane’s superb touches and virtuosi control.What happened to RONALDO? To me, it seemed like he was already satisfied with the fact that he broke the world record by making the 15 goals, and cared less about winning the W. cup.

France's 3-0 Final win in 1998 had already given than slight historical edge over the five-times champions going into this latest match. However, the Overconfident and Arrogant Brazil lost!! I can't believe it - Brazil got knocked out of the world cup even before reaching the Semi-Finals!

This will be the first time since 1982 that will be an all-European final in the 2006 World Cup Soccer. The home team advantage still favors Germany as the eventual winner.

My prediction- I think that we will probably see a final between the hosts Germany and the comeback kings of France. Looks like this year is the year for the Germans.