Day Two of The World Cup Experience

Day two is over, and it’s been a long day. More than 126 miles in the car, tooling around South Florida watching World Cup matches in different locales rather than at home. Here are some of my experiences and observations.

For the England versus Paraguay match, I made the 40 mile trip to The Kings Head Pub in Sunrise, Florida. With a plateful of fried sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, chips (and more) on my plate and a pint of Strongbow cider in hand, my five mates and I were eager to see what England were made of.

Like many of you, I was disappointed with the performance. The first five minutes couldn’t have gone better with an own goal and the Paraguay goalkeeper being substituted. But after that, the English team lacked the killer instinct to finish off the game. The second half performance was dour. England seemed to play more like the defensive Italy of old, and conjured up a lacklustre one-nil win.

Next up was a search for a Trinidadian pub in the Lauderhill region of South Florida, which turned up empty. So my mate and I ended up at Tootsies Cabaret in Miami Gardens. The Sweden versus Trinidad and Tobago match was equally uneventful. The TNT defense doing a remarkable job of holding off the Swedish team.

For the Argentina versus Ivory Coast, I watched the match at a friend’s party near downtown Miami. With the humidity reaching high levels, it seemed like the perfect place to watch the South American team. The Argentines looked extremely impressive and the day ended with a scintillating match as opposed to the earlier games. Argentina’s defense looks shakey, but they should cruise through to the second round buoyed by that win.

By the time I returned home, 12 hours after I left this morning, I was knackered but on a high.

How did you experience the World Cup matches, and what were your thoughts on what you saw? Do tell.