http://onwardsoccer.com Ben Knight's Soccer Blog Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:56:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By Ben Knight   Hey, folks. I’m taking a short break to deal with a flurry of work and life matters. All is well.  I’ll be back in a week or two. Onward! >>> Follow OnwardSoccer on Twitter! http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2113 By Ben Knight As much as I despise cheating, the Luis Suarez last-second handball that saved Uruguay’s World Cup bacon against Ghana is a leopard of a very different spot. It was a moment of absolute blind panic – both ways. Ghana were desperate to cash in a goal, and ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2109 By Ben Knight Sometimes, something happens that just can’t happen on its own. You see it, your brain rejects it, and you leap up, point and shout “Aha!” (Or Yoiks!, Streuth!, Hands off the creampuffs, Molly!, or the ever-popular Gotcha!) No, I’m not talking about match-fixing. Haven’t even given that cursed subject ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2105 By Ben Knight   It’s insidious, it’s real – and as of noon Wednesday, Eastern daylight time, it’s entirely justified. In the wake of the America-Algeria climax, my pal Rudi Schuller Facebooked in from South Africa his puzzlement that he’d found himself cheering for Landon Donovan … again. I know how he feels – ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2099 By Ben Knight   On the morning of the opening of the third go-round of opening-round games, all five South American nations are leading their groups at World Cup 2010. Uruguay is up on goal-difference.  Paraguay and Brazil are up by two clear points.  Argentina and Chile up by three.  All five are ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2094 By Ben Knight   Into the second batch of World Cup matches, and random thoughts rule.  As the matches blur by, and every clearer pattern could turn out to be a murkier one by nightfall, here’s an early list of things I love – and don’t love – about whatever in the ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2089 By Ben Knight   Well, that turned into work in a hurry, didn’t it? I’m so lulled and dulled by most of the soccer I’ve seen over the past two days, I don’t even remember the circumstances of Slovenia’s winning goal against Algeria yesterday morning.  I was eating French toast in bed in ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2074 By Ben Knight   And so, for the first time since I fired England as the team I always cheer for in the World Cup, it was time to settle in and watch them play.  And of all the sides they could be opposing on this achingly overdue occasion, wouldn’t it just ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2062 By Ben Knight   Nothing much worth saying about that scoreless France-Uruguay tiff. The French sleep-farted their way through it, and the South Americans didn’t have enough game to call them out. Awful waste of everybody’s time and good intentions. So thank the stars for South Korea this morning. All-out heart and hustle ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2057 By Ben Knight For the longest time, World Cup South Africa has been a wild, approaching hypefest. Build the stadiums, sort the security, hire the bands and dancers. It’s been going on extra long, in fact, should you remember that South Africa had all but landed the 2006 World Cup, ... http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=2053