World Cup Soccer: Countries big and small

Raśl Escalante is disgusted: "The Korean referee's call was disgusting, particularly in the face of the Turkish side's performance; the foul was at least a meter outside the box. By the way, how did the Chinese take their defeat to Costa Rica? The irony in that game was that the least populous country in the Cup faced off against the most populous one".

As for China versus Costa Rica, we depend on Paul Simon, but he shamelessly reports: "The PRC is going crazy for the world cup. My staff are obsessed and have a betting pool. When I made them stop chatting about the matches and start work yesterday, they looked at me like the Mao that stole freedom. Last night my wife and I went to our neighborhood Sichuan restaurant (of which there are only about 500 in a two mile radius, but then, this IS Sichuan). Dinner was hastily slopped before us by un attentive staff who rushed to the blaring corner TV where they could watch World Cup Competition on CCTV. Someone please either wake me when more happens in a match than can be seen in 15 seconds of sports-news highlights, or let me sleep till the games are over..........." Wake up, Paul and answer Raśl's question.

When I started work this morning at 3 a.m., I turned on Mexican TV, and the US was beating Portugal by 3 to 1. While I was naturally proud that we are wining in yet another field of endeavor, a soccer field, I could not help admiring the Portuguese David fighting Goliath. But, I've forgotten. How did the referee behave in that biblical battle? Was he Korean? My own explanation is that Goliath was used to playing American football, in which hulks like him are champions.

Ronald Hilton - 6/5/02