Congratulations to Serena Williams for winning Wimbledon and to Roger Federer for making it to the final! While I am always happy to see an American win a major, whether it’s singles or doubles, I was disappointed that Novak Djokovic won rather than Roger Federer. I guess it was expected, but I have always been a Federer fan and always root for him no matter what. Anyways, I guess I should be glad that he was able to beat Andy Murray in the semifinals. However, one match that I found really excitng was the match between Stanislaus Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet. It was shocking to see Rafael Nadal lose so early, in the first week! Also, sucks that the Bryan brothers didn’t win the doubles titles, they are my favorite doubles team.
Finally got my driver’s license!
I know, it’s about time, after all, I am 24 already. But for some reason, I didn’t really care at first whether I had my license or not. But I started caring once I worked with a bunch of people who are younger than me and they all have their licenses. I took the test the first after my 24th bday back in January, but I failed bc I didn’t have enough driving experience. My grandpa was teaching me but it was too hard for me to learn in his car. Decided to take driving lessons. It was about $200 or so and my permit was going to expire a week after my driving test, so I had to pass. I practiced almost every day for two hours for a week and when Friday came, using was ready. Went to DMV, waited 40 minutes and took the test. Was very nervous, but I passed on the second try 🙂
Happy New Year’s
Can’t believe I haven’t written in here in about 6 months or so! Need to start writing more often. Will do that when I get home from school. So much happened in 2014, both good and bad.
On to the Final
Can you believe the World Cup is almost over? I can’t, it feels like it just started. The month flew by pretty fast! The final will be on Sunday between Germany and Argentina. Pretty sure most people expected Germany to be there, but not a lot of people expected Argentina. Not that Argentina is a bad team or anything, but based on how they’ve played most of their games during this world cup, they’ve been average. I, along with most people, expected Germany, Brazil, or Spain to be in the final. Spain shocked everyone by getting knocked out in the first round. Brazil lost a couple days (7-1!!!!) to Germany. How did the other teams do? Did they do better or worse than what was expected of them?
Better than Expected
1. USA
2. Mexico
3. Costa Rica
Worse than Expected
1. Spain
2. England
3. Italy
All 3 teams that did better than was expected of them are part of CONCACAF. USA and Costa Rica especially had really tough groups to get out of. Mexico was expected to have some trouble in their group too, but they weren’t in the group of death. The 3 teams that did worse than expected were all former World Cup champions.
Today the 3rd place match will take place. I’ll be rooting for Brazil because I really dislike Netherlands, mostly Robben and Van Persie. As for the final tomorrow, I would like to see Germany win. No I’m not a fan of them, but throughout this whole tournament, they’ve been one of the best teams. Also, I really don’t want Argentina to win.
Group of Death
One of the matches that a lot of people were looking forward to was the Germany-Portugal one. These are two of the teams in Group D aka the “Group of Death”. (The other two teams in this group are USA and Ghana). After all, Germany is one of the best national teams in the world (unfortunately, I am not exactly a fan of their team, honestly) and Portugal has the best player in the world (Cristiano Ronaldo, who helped Real Madrid win La Decima last month when they won the Champions League for the first time in 12 years). Well, it didn’t get of to a good start for Portugal. They gave away a penalty in the first 15 mins. Later on in the game, Pepe was sent off for headbutting Thomas Muller, which was a dumb move by Pepe. Germany was up 3-0 at HT. Portugal ended up losing two defenders to injury so Cristiano Ronaldo, who wasn’t 100% fit, ended up playing the whole 90 mins. It got worse for Portugal, Muller got his hat trick and Germany won 4-0. I know a lot of people will say that this proves Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t such a good player, but 1)he wasn’t completely fit and 2)his teammates weren’t exactly doing such a good job either, esp at defending. Next up for them is USA on Sunday. it’s just my bad luck that I will miss that match thanks to work *sigh*
The US also played today. They played against Ghana, who had beat them in both the 2010 World Cup and the 2006 World Cup. Over the last few weeks, leading up to the World Cup, people have been complaining about Jurgen Klinsmann’s decision to leave off Landon Donovan off the World Cup squad. Many wondered if the US had a chance without him. The US got off to a great start when Clint Dempsey scored within the 1st min. His goal was the fastest in US history and 6th fastest in a world cup. Unfortunately for the US, they ended up losing Jozy Altidore to injury, though they haven’t said how serious his injury is. The US was up 1-0 at half time. In the second half, both teams had more chances. Ghana brought on two very good players, Kevin Prince Boateng and Michael Essien. Ghana scored the equalizer with less than ten minutes to go and it looked like this match would end in a draw, much to the disappointment of USA fans. However, thanks to John Brooks, who was subbed on in the second half and playing in his first World Cup ever, who scored a header, the US finally beat Ghana. Game ended 2-1. Next up for the US is Portugal. Germany is at the top of the group, followed by the US, Ghana, then Portugal in 4th place.
Next match I will be watching is Brazil-Mexico. Looking forward to that. I hope the refs are fair this time and don’t favor Brazil. No, I’m not a Mexico fan, I’m just a football fan that wants to watch a good match.
