South Africa 1-1 Mexico

Hi everybody! My name is Eric, and I’m friends with Matt from high school. For the first two weeks of the World Cup, I’ll be writing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I’m staying with my girlfriend and her family, who only have basic cable—no ESPN. In Wisconsin, football is played with your hands, and cheese is worn on the head.

Today I woke up 15 minutes into the first half of the opening game and scrambled to find it online on ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360). After 10 minutes nursing my 4-year-old laptop (80 in tech years) through the simple tasks of opening the internet browser and getting to the website, I was horrified to find that my girlfriend’s family’s internet service provider does not allow video to be streamed via ESPN360.

I gave myself a couple of minutes to hyperventilate—no World Cup for two weeks? What should I do? Would the fall from my second-story window be enough to end it all? I didn’t have a car to drive to any nearby bars, but even if I did, what kind of impression would it make on her family if I ran off from 6 AM to 3:30 PM every day to watch something besides the Packers? More importantly, where could I get a car, and was there a bar within walking distance?

As my panic subsided, my brain started to think. If I couldn’t watch the games on the internet, couldn’t I just watch the games on…the internet? Yes. Justin.tv. If you haven’t heard of it, hear of it now. It could very well save your life, or at least save you a couple of bruises and the embarrassment of having your girlfriend’s family peel you off their backyard lawn. Justin.tv is a website that posts links to illegal internet broadcasts of all kinds of wonderful gooey TV goodness, including the World Cup.

Once I had sifted through a couple broken links, I found a feed from China, or perhaps Japan. Somewhere probably not in Wisconsin, regardless. Only 40 minutes of the game had gone by—40 scoreless minutes. Sweet Pele was smiling down on me from in front of his TV somewhere in Brazil.

The game was a joy to watch, even if I couldn’t understand a word of the play-by-play. In fact, I rather enjoyed not having to listen to the commentary. It was soccer at its purest, seen and not heard. From what I could tell, the announcers became excited when the goals were scored, which seems natural when you think about it. Also, although Chinese characters are vastly different from English characters in design and mode of representation, the word “live” is written exactly the same in both languages.

Both teams played fast, open football. Tshabalala’s goal for South Africa at the 55^th minute was the stuff of legend. He ran full-speed onto a great feed from many yards behind and pegged the ball right across the keeper into the upper-right hand corner. South Africa goalkeeper Khune also impressed, flying to the near post to deflect a laser from Dos Santos just five minutes later.

Mexico’s goal in the 79^th reflected a lapse in the South African defense more than a quality offensive development. Khune never had a chance as an unmarked (unmarqued?) Marquez buried home from nearly point-blank range. Well played by both teams, though I would’ve tipped South Africa for the win if only based on number of impressive offensive opportunities (though Mexico certainly wasn’t lacking in this category).

Tomorrow I’ll be watching Argentina v Nigeria and USA v Uglyland, full games this time instead of just the second half. Go USA and Argentina!