We are without our resident World Cup expert for the US team’s final play-in game versus Algeria. I’ll do my best to keep up. A win for the US gets them into the knockout round. A tie makes things complicated for advancement, and no one wants to see another of those anyway.

Check out other World Cup coverage on My Latest Distraction before the game.

LIVE coverage begins here:

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As we wrap up our coverage of last weekend’s Philadelphia Comic Con, we shift the focus to some final words on the fans, the vendors and the guests in attendance. Since I wasn’t feeling qualified to judge the show fairly, it seemed like a good idea to ask the people we met what they thought. Below are some of the highlights of our conversations along with some editorial comments of my own.

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It must be something about the Lehigh Valley. I ended up in the same shopping center where I first heard this story over a month ago and finally got to find out how it ends as soon as I walked into a store. It turns out she’s with the skater boy and she’ll be backstage after the show. She’ll also be in the studio singing the song he wrote about the girl he used to know. Which is strange because she’s actually singing a song she wrote about the boy she used to know. Sometimes she sends me spam comments.

Also, I’ll never understand the interpersonal dynamics of women like those I witnessed where I heard this song today. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but women often don’t like each other for seemingly no reason.

Long, exhausting soccer day yesterday.  It exemplified everything that is wrong with the sport.  In the first game, Germany lost to Serbia. The referee took control of the game with 9 yellow cards and 1 red card. There was no reason for nearly all of them. The ref, effectively, decided GROUP D through his officiating.  It was nauseating.  In USA versus Slovenia, the ref disallowed a goal in the 84^th minute.  This stuff should not happen at the World Cup.  Also, the US team is now down a player for their final game against Algeria because the ref gave a yellow card to US striker Robbie Findley.   The ref thought the ball hit him in the arm, but it actually struck his face. Will the mistake be overturned? Doubtful. The England versus Algeria game was one of the better-officiated games in the tournament, for what its worth. FIFA will take 1-for-3 in terms of upholding the integrity of the sport.  FIFA would actually be proud of that.

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So maybe this has been the worst World Cup ever. How many ties can there be before people just stop caring?  Well, that depends. I do not know if anyone cares at this point. I guess people will pay attention to the US game on Friday against Slovenia, but nobody will actually watch it. Friday at 10am is not the best time for a soccer game.

To the games:

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