Today, I sat down and watched a couple of the soccer matches. The first one I saw was England vs. Paraguay. The obvious focus of the match was David Beckham. He is one of the great superstars of the soccer world. In addition, he has supermodel looks and is married to one of the members of the pop group called the 'Spice Girls'. So tabloids follow him everywhere. Below is a picture of he and his wife.
It was a so-so match, with the favored England winning the game 1-0. Near the end of the match, it was pretty cool to hear 60,000 English fans sing 'God Save the Queen' in unison in addition to all their other chants.
The second game I watched was Sweden vs. Trinidad and Tobago. Sweden is a soccer powerhouse. Trinidad and Tobago were playing their first ever World Cup game. Most experts said that if Trinidad and Tobago managed to lose each of their 3 first round games by 3 goals or less, they will have done well. The crowd shots were great at this game. In almost every situation, you would see a blonde Swedish fan wearing the yellow national jersey. Most of the time, you would also see a rasta man with dreadlocks sporting the red jersey of Trinidad and Tobago. It certainly made for quite a contrast. Unbelievably, the game ended in a 0-0 draw, prompting Swedish fans and players to stare in disbelief as Trinidad and Tobago fans chanted and jumped up and down. Trinidad and Tobago players ran across the field with their flag and hugged each other while crying. While Sweden will probably still advance to the next round despite failing to beat Trinidad and Tobago, the small nation of Trinidad and Tobago (population 1 million) will have a party tonight that no one will soon forget. I should take a flight down to join in the festivities. I'm sure it's going to be an awfully good party. The picture below of the players' reaction immediately after the final whistle says it all.
