World Cup: Cross Pole Obstructs Germany

75 minutes in, the Germany vs. Poland match was a draw -- then Poland's Sobolewski, in a snit after being beaten to the ball, tripped up Germany's Klose. Two yellow cards made a red, and Sobolewski was sent off to leave his team short-handed for the remaining 15 minutes.

Poland sucked it up -- goalie Boruc made some fantastic saves -- and Germany misfired. At 90 minutes, just before stoppage time, Klose made a header that ricocheted off the cross bar, and then his teammate Ballack, apparently angered by the cross bar's resistance, smacked it with the ball again.

But at 91 minutes, Germany's Odonkor finally made the perfect cross he'd been practicing for all game, and sub Oliver! Neuville slid into the ball at speed to fire it into the net to win, Germany 1-0.

We caught the last half's action in the bar downstairs at Fox Sports Grill, between Niketown and Old Navy. The bar is littered with flat-panel TVs, so it has that going for it. Though we arrived after the lunch rush had subsided, we still waited 10 minutes for an iced tea (which had become a lemonade when it arrived), another 10 minutes for a menu, and another ten minutes to place our order. Our sandwich showed up just after the half ended.

So there are pluses and minuses. If you don't want to order anything and just want to watch the game for free, we recommend Fox Sports Grill -- don't make the mistake of tripping a waiter, and they'll never notice you're there.

Seattlest Dan watched at Fado where it was difficult but not impossible to find a seat at noon:

Fado has a soundsystem that allows you to hear enough to know that announcers are there, but not so much that you can understand a word. Maybe they were speaking Irish. And check out the Seattlest World Cup Challenge where a lot of people seem to be very good guessers.