World Cup vs. the G20

Uruguay is the first team through to the World Cup quarterfinals, with a brilliant 2-1 victory over a valiant South Korea in the pouring rain in Port Elizabeth. Striker Luis Suarez is the hero of the match, scoring both goals for Uruguay, including a brilliant late bend into the right side of South Korea's net that took the momentum out of the opposing team just as they had started to dictate play during the second half.

The level of play was certainly much better than what we'd witnessed in the round-robin group matches. All I can say is that the ignominy of France's and Italy's exits after they'd reached the final in 2006 was well-deserved. Both teams played extremely poorly, and the behavior of Les Bleus, in particular, was shameful. Only in Europe, where they take their football extremely seriously, would all of this become a national incident.

Here's a thought: what if the leaders of the G20 were sent home as their national football teams exited the World Cup? That would get rid of Berlusconi and Sarkozy right away. And pretty soon it would be either David Cameron or Angela Merkel packing his or her bags. Maybe even Obama in the next few hours if Ghana can come out on top of the United States (as I'm hoping they'll shortly do). Likely we'd be left with Brazil's Lula and Argentina's Cristina Fernandez when all the dust had settled.

I kind of like that scenario.

P.