| Spain |
v | Switzerland |
| Wednesday, June 16, 10:00 AM EDT, ESPN |
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|
SANGRIA |
v | DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON |
2 bottles red Spanish table wine 1 cup brandy 1/2 cup triple sec 1 cup orange juice 1 cup pomegranate juice 1/2 cup simple syrup, or more to taste Orange slices Apple slices Blackberries Pomegranate seeds Mix all ingredients together and let stand in a tightly sealed container or pitcher for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator before serving. |
a la Hemingway: "Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly." |
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| Matchup In The Glass | ||
There is an infinite number of ways to make sangria; any recipe should be considered merely a loose template. Want bananas in your sangria? Throw 'em in. The sangria police will not come knocking at your door. (In fact we just saw a recipe that calls for a cup of gin -- it sounds kinda wrong but something tells us a little trace of juniper might taste oh-so right.) Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon shares its name with his novel which, yes, was set in Spain -- a complete coincidence, we assure you. Absinthe was invented in Switzerland. We've lost our enthusiasm for all the lore and mumbojumbo that comes with the Green Fairy. Ok, whatever, it's an hallucinogen. We'll have a religious experience, tear off our clothes, howl at the moon and take up Impressionist painting. Fine, if you say so. But do we really have to burn the sugar cube and all that? Can't we just mix it into a cocktail? Yes you can, it's called a Death in the Afternoon. It was good enough for Papa, it's good enough for us. |
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| Matchup On The Pitch | ||
| It's the last of the opening matches, and finally -- finally -- we get to see Spain, the odds-on favorite to with this World Cup. They're a deserving favorite -- the Spanish soccer machine has lost just one game (to the U.S., actually) out of its past 48. They're on a 10-game winning streak. Spain has won eight straight group stage matches -- going back to the 1998 World Cup. Spain's attack is a thing of beauty, with Xavi distributing the ball to talented wingers and speedy strikers. The matchup with Switzerland -- which is a solid, consistent team -- will be interesting primarily because defense is a specialty for the Swiss (they did not concede a goal in the four games they played at the 2006 World Cup). You have to think, though, that this will be a case of an unstoppable force against a stubborn but not unmovable object. Spain will prevail, although Switzerland's chances to be the second team out of the group are very good. |
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