Is there such a thing as a futbol hangover? After last night's game I am numb to today's matches. England-Ecuador looked positively boring and disorganized. Although red cards flew for Portugal and Holland I was unable or unwilling to engage. Both of us feel like we'd put in a full day in the corral. 120 minutes of agony and ecstasy. Well one nice thing about not giving much of a damn about today action was ignoring it in a little Palermo cafe with Cinta and Ian of the Good Airs blog. Wonderful people. Make sure you look in on their blog.
*That should give you some idea of the woman I married. I'm still catching my breath. Anybody that was there at Buller's Brewpub taking pictures is welcome to forward copies to me for publication. More later...
Eight men, brave and true. Including meself, a course. We all stuck our necks out and kept our wallets in (so as not to contravene applicable legislation passed in our various domains.) I was joined by the following: Steve Smith, joejoejoe, Steve Gilliard, kb, iceman, Tug, and Rafael ...in order of bravery.
Wonderfully surprising results! First, let's get to the method of scoring: 3pts were awarded for picking the 1st and 2nd place teams in order. 1pt was awarded if you got one of the advancing two teams in your prediction. That's it. Therefore, if you got both teams right but in the wrong order you got 2pts.
The Champ deserves first mention... especially since he whupped all of us and didn't even bother to make a pick for Group H! Rafael, who I assume is a fellow yankee because of his only one-pointer (ITA-USA), bested us with 18 points. His only other pick that didn't bullseye was 2pts for FRA-SWZ. In the interest of full disclosure, I came in last.
Among the picks of interest were: POR-MEX which everybody got right except me. This year's Corrigan Trophy goes to FRA-SWZ which half of us got backwards... including Rafael.
Interestingly, or not, the only goose eggs that appeared were in Group E for the United States and Czech Republic combos. I'm guessing a little patriotism may have clouded our judgement in that group.
They're here, my friends. Good burritos in BsAs.
I found word of this place on the webanets somewhere and decided to drop in one night. They are not yet open for evenings so I made a mental note to revisit for lunch sometime. Like most of my mental notes that one seemed to get shuffled into oblivion. Coming back from a meeting today I found myself hungry and a little jaded as to the normal fare on offer. It was then that I remembered the little joint at Lavalle 441. You know you're close when you hit that stretch of Lavalle between San Martin and Reconquista that's been under construction for God knows how long.
It would be a great place to watch some Copa if they had a TV. As of yet they are not open on weekends either...due to the continuing construction in the street.
It's a narrow and deep place decked out in pastels and blond wood with repros of old Pan-Am travel posters and some informative graphics intended no doubt to allay any trepidation among the locals as to these strange new vittles.
1:30pm is primetime lunchtime here, of course, and the place had a good crowd of locals and norteamericanos. I can't say that there was any actual confusion in the serving line, mostly because the taqueros behind the steam table were confident and knowledgeable. What's more the menu walks you through in 3 steps to your to your yummy destiny.
There's burritos and tacos and salads. I was disapointed that there were no corn tortillas but I must say that the flour tortillas were tender and tasty and huge. I went with the Fajita Burrito instead of the flagship California Burrito which is the same price, 10 pesos, because it boasted onions and sauted red and green sweet peppers. But I quickly discovered that it's a build your own situation with you being asked every ingredient you want. Lots of options for vegetarians.
Like I said, the tortilla is truly huge giving you the opportunity to have them build you one "as big as your head" in the true yanqui tradition with about every ingredient you've ever encountered before. I opted for some discretion this being my first time through and selected the roast pork, onions, sweet peppers, a slash of guacamole, a schmear of sour cream, and some kind of creamy meat sauce that is too new for the menu. All nicely generous and balanced. Zip zap zam, my little donkeycito got folded and wrapped in foil and dropped into a red plastic basket just like back home. Tack on a cold Negro Modelo and I'm only 16 pesos lighter. That's McDonalds territory...and with a cold one to boot.
I may have done an end-run around the drill in that I was expecting some salsa picante for the exterior of the shebang (is that a Chicago thing?) It might have been due to the fact that I had my eye on the Fuego sauce that they make on the premises and is displayed behind the counter in hot sauce bottles and is touted as the hottest on the list.
I think you're supposed to ask for it as part of the construction process and they'll put in on the inside for you. No matter, in a laid back friendliness that evokes Sunny Cal, they just handed me a bottle that I hauled back to my seat among the happy laptoppers enjoying the free Wi-Fi (there may be some Live Bloggin' in my future!)
Bueno. I built a good one. I was a little afraid that with the giant tortilla and not too many ingredients that my concoction might be overpowered by the flour. Not to worry. Although flour tortillas are always my second choice...probably 'cause I've had so many that reminded me of toasted wet newsprint...this tortilla was good enough to eat by itself. Somebody knows what they're doin', fans.
Great flavors, everything tremendously fresh, cold black Mexican ale with a wedge of lime, and a fine homemade hot sauce. The Fuego salsa looks like a Belizean habanera but is slightly less firery than Tabasco. Really flavorful, though, and just as fresh tasting as everything else.
A course, you gotta consider your faithful source here: a very hungry yanqui, bored with the usual-usual, whose hot sauce chops have withered a bit over the 3 years in La Reina de la Plata, and who tells people that the only things he misses about the EEUU is snow and Mexican food.
But I don't think it was terribly subjective experience. It really was good, I'm looking forward to going back, and I'll be sure to have them make my burrito even bigger next time!
Ok. Just to recap my "Day 1" story from el mundial here in the argentine metropolis:As I commented on Steve's blog in response to his post that you won't be able to conduct business in Europe and Asia this month, "Hey! Just try it in South America!" I told the story of my having scheduled a business meeting at the same hour of the first game of the cup. We blew off the meeting...and tried to order empanadas to eat while watching TV. We were told it would be a 90 minute wait. First day, first game, no bidness, no empanadas cookin' in Buenos Aires!!!Steve sagely counseled me, "yanqui mike,
It's the time differential. A lot of business with London takes place between 8-9 here. Which is when matches kick off.
Get the fixtures, and plan for 9 Am meetings"
So...here my story from today: my wife and I scheduled a doctor's visit for today. We were GIVEN the appointment for 11am. I know, I know, even I thought it was a little strange... but it coincided with half-time so I'm thinkin', "Way to go, Doc! Workin' a little efficiency in during the game with Serbia!" That and it gave me a chance to see the second half in Cafe Torquato downstairs.Very eerie. Did you see it? No traffic, no cars, no buses downtown at 10:30am.Well I get there and the good Doc has bailed-out on the day (he tried to call me but he had my old number.) My wife had better luck getting a vaccine... sorta kinda....While I'm cheering my ass off for goals 4, 5 & 6... my wife's ass is bent over with her drawers down while an octogenarian pharmacist is about to administer the needle when Messi boots goal six past the post! She could hear him cheering and jumping up and down. Needless to say, my little darlin' bailed-out of that situation until the pandamonium subsided... at least a bit.In conclusion, I still maintain that at least this part of S.A. puts them all to shame for World Cup Shutdown!
This is short notice...but I'm up for it.Is anyone going to watch this in a bar somewhere?Maybe we should commandeer El 'tannico?
Of course, you'd imagine that the "beeb" would have some cool futbol stuff. This "predictor" is especially impressive.
Alright. It's Time! This is where the Yanq's throwin' down this year.(Updated with corrections! Many thanks to all.)Like it says in the Good Book, "...and the blind shall lead the blind..." It says that in there, right? Anyway, if you're a Futbol Idiot like me, you'll be lookin' cool 'cause you'll know who's playin' and when and where...and YOU'LL HAVE AN OPINION! First, let's have a little primer in case you know less about futbol than me (thanks, wiki!):The World Cup is the biggest thing in sports...period...and every country on the planet gets a pretty decent shot at playing because of the selection process. This championship has been played every 4 years since 1930 except for during world war II when 2 World Cups were cancelled.There are 32 (this number has increased dramatically in recent years) nations playing: The host nation automatically gets in no matter how bad they suck. (from Magnum: "hosts (or co-hosts; as in South Korea and Japan last time) do get automatic entry but they still have to be decent footballing powers to get picked in the first place so it's not like it's a freebie") The same goes for whatever nation won last time (Correction: as of this year, the defending champion no longer qualifies automatically. Brazil had to slog through the double-round robin of South American qualifying and finish in at least the top 4 to make it.) Plus the best 8 teams in the world according to their rankings. Then they fill up the rest of the spots with a random drawing.These 32 teams are then broken up into 8 groups. The top eight teams in the FIFA rankings are NOT the eight seeded teams in the groups. The seeded teams for the groups are based on a formula taking into account the FIFA rankings, AND the last two World Cups. Because Europe is such a powerhouse (Iceman and Magnum weigh in on this) there is a rule now that says no group can have more than 2 European teams and no group can have more than one of any team from any one of the other 5 conferations (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, and Oceania.)Those rules plus the randomness sometimes makes for some very easy groups like this year's Group A for Germany and Group G for France. But usually there is always one group among the eight referred to as "The Group of Death". This year that would be Argentina's draw, Group C, in which they are matched against Holland and Serbia.Within each of these 8 grupos are 4 teams. Everybody plays everybody else...resulting in a total of 6 games out of each grupo. If a team wins, it gets 3 points. If a team ties, it gets 1 point. If a team loses, it gets 0 points.At the end of the 6 games the team with the most points goes on to the next stage...and the team with the second-most points goes on to the next stage too.The next stage is called the "Round of 16" or Octavos: two teams from each of the eight groups. Inside this stage each team only plays one game, resulting in 8 games for this stage: The winner from A plays the 2nd place team from B The winner from C plays the 2nd place team from D The winner from B plays the 2nd place team from A The winner from D plays the 2nd place team from C The winner from E plays the 2nd place team from F The winner from G plays the 2nd place team from H The winner from F plays the 2nd place team from E The winner from H plays the 2nd place team from GThen you get the Quarter Finals:The winner of the first (above) game plays the winner of the second game.The winner of the third game plays the winner of the fourth game.The winner of the fifth game plays the winner of the sixth game.The winner of the seventh game plays the winner of the eighth game.Now it's time for the Semifinales:Winner of the first (above) game plays winner of the third.Winner of the second plays the winner of the fourth.Then...in Berlin...on Sunday, July 9th...at 3 o'clock in the afternoon Buenos Aires time, 30 days after it all started... ARGENTINA BEATS BRAZIL... and I collect enough money to buy that cute little A-frame down in Bariloche.So here's my picks, concocted at the bar in Florida Garden back in April when I knew even less about soccer than I do now (all the above I cribbed from wikipedia moments ago!) The schedule is too big to reproduce here...so go to FIFA to figure out the days and times that you'll need to hide in your basement.Group A1st Place Germany, 2nd Place PolandGroup B1st Place England, 2nd Place ParaguayGroup C1st Place Argentina, 2nd Place HollandGroup D1st Place Mexico, 2nd Place AngolaGroup E1st Place Italy, 2nd Place U.S.Group F1st Place Brazil, 2nd Place JapanGroup G1st Place France, 2nd Place KoreaGroup H1st Place Spain, 2nd Place TunisiaLos Octavos:1. Germany2. Argentina3. England4. Mexico5. Italia6. France7. Brazil8. SpainLos CuartosA. ArgentinaB. ItalyC. InglaterraD. BrazilAfter doing some research later, I'm pretty happy with my picks...all done in the blind by a yanqui that knows even less about soccer than his average countryman. I leaned toward the famous futbol playing nations, threw in my fondness for Korean toughness, something I read about Japan being good this year, and a suspicion that an African nation is going to do well.If I had to rethink it, I'd adjust for England because of injuries, the apparently good squad that Sweden is fielding, and The Ukraine which I didn't know was so good.Gimme your picks!
This is probably too self-referencial but maybe we're all bloggers now!The wonderful Miss Tango in her Eyes had suggested to me before that I get a sitemeter. I had visions, though, of a "counter"...a la the ol' geocities days and I wasn't too interested in knowing how many (or few!) visitors I was getting.But sitemeter is kinda cool. It has a lot more features than counting page views. I especially like the way it displays the origin of you guys that drop in from time to time.Hello to all...and say hello to yourselves, why doncha, in the comments!
Is there such a thing as a futbol hangover? After last night's game I am numb to today's matches. England-Ecuador looked positively boring and disorganized. Although red cards flew for Portugal and Holland I was unable or unwilling to engage. Both of us feel like we'd put in a full day in the corral.
