It's fun to follow the world cup with Ted Leo. He's sad because he's supposed to soundcheck during the third place match...I'm going to be stuck in syracuse, ny in some library class during the final. Hopefully my battery/wireless connection will hold out for some espn360 or something.

The games this past week were enjoyable. I think my biggest takeaway from this World Cup may be a respect for the professionalism and quality of the Italian side. Only one goal given up. A stupid red card, to be sure, in the U.S. game, but they stayed out of trouble with the cards otherwise. (unlike, say, Louis Saha, of France who was on for how many minutes against Portugal and will miss the final.) I watched the conclusion of France-Portugal with relief...I thought Scolari and C. Ronaldo (whose Wikipedia page now merits protection against vandalism) could have taken that game. Nice to see Zidane in another final.

I'm going to predict that Italy figures out how to win. Barthez would make me nervous if I was supporting France.