Going into the Round of 16

Today was the final of the group stages and we have the Round of 16 participants, which kick off tomorrow.  Needless to say, I'm stoked for US v. Ghana.  Ghana plays a super-defensive game, but they've never scored more than 1 goal in a World Cup Match, so the first point is incredibly important for the US to score.  If we can score one, we can win.

That being said, I promised photos, and here they are:

Oh, soba noodles.  I do love you, especially with sesame dressing, fried tofu, cilantro and cucumbers.  What a delicious summertime meal.  Thank you, Japan, for soba.

For Japan's dessert, green tea mochi ice cream.  I've fallen in love with mochi, and I'm stoked that I can get it right down the street at Dong-A-Market.  The taro ones are delicious, but the green tea ones are beyond belief good.

Argentines are infamous carnivores, and chimichurri is probably the best way to dress up a good steak.  We'll see them pound the Mexicans on Sunday.

This is actually the remnants of Cliff's homage to Italy. That bottle of Sangiovese was wonderful with rigatoni and rich Italian sausage.  Consider this photo representative of Italy's current World Cup status: DONE.