After all the hype about the flood of goals in this match, we are back to yet another 1-0 victory in this World Cup 2010 which is criticized for its lack of goals. Prior to the match, 19 out of 20 (and the other one was just joking in a silly way) predicted a demolition of Serbia by Germany. Some said 4-0, some 5-0, and some even dared to predict a repeat of the 8-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia in World Cup 2002. The stage was set, the script was set, everything was set for Germany to win big against Serbia and become the second country after Argentina to go through to the last 16 and for Serbia's World Cup run to end abruptly. However, World Cup being World Cup, football being football, it has another script and huge surprise in store for us. This match also had its fair share of a few deja-vus from the recent matches of this World Cup. A player who caught my eye in this match would be Serbia's Milos Krasic who has just recently moved to Juventus. Besides his decent performance on the right wing in this match, his appearance also has a resemblance to the legendary Czech winger Pavel Nedved complete with the flowing whitish blonde hair locks. Since Krasic is also a Juventus player now, is he the new Nedved?
The match didn't start as expected as Germany was surprisingly lackluster in the match right from the start. Also, the referee seemed to be so card happy in this match especially against Germany in which the first 30 minutes resulted in 3 yellow for Germany and 2 for the Serbians. The thing about the German yellow cards is that they resulted from the Serbian players tumbling down onto the pitch despite minimal contact if there was any. A few controversial points if I am being asked. At the 36th minute, Miroslav Klose received his marching orders as he received his second yellow card from the game despite seemingly only lightly touching the Serbian player he fouled. This red card early in the game certainly had a dejavu feeling to yesterday's Greece vs Nigeria game. This sending off certainly robbed Germany of its main and perhaps sole source of goals in this match as well as his height to win headers as the rest of the German attackers such as Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, and Lukas Podolski are all not the tallest players around and it's not likely that they can win tussles whether in the air or on the ground against burly, big, and strong Serbian defenders such as Nemanja Vidic and Neven Subotic. The Greece vs Nigeria dejavu didn't end there as one minute later, Serbia scored through Milan Jovanovic from Milos Krasic's cross which was flicked on by the tall Nikola Zigic. 1-0 for Serbia and Jovanovic was seen celebrating with the Serbian fans in front of the stands. At this point of time, Ballack's figure as a “pseudo-manager” was needed most (just like what I have mentioned in my previous post titled the “Effects of Ballack's Absence on Germany”) to prevent any catastrophic collapse just like what Nigeria experienced last night. Nevertheless, Sami Khedira almost equalized but he hit the post. Had he equalized it would have helped Germany's morale and belief immensely.
In the second half, another dejavu at the 59th minute when Serbia's Vidic did a weird ballet dance and handled the ball in the penalty area, just like how Kusmanovic handled the ball in the penalty area in Serbia's defeat against Ghana in their first match. I know Eastern Europe is renowned for their ballet dancers, but I certainly can't imagine how Vidic would look like in a ballet dress. Jokes aside, Germany got a great chance to equalize but perhaps because Podolski was totally overwhelmed by his new role as Germany's source of goal, he missed the penalty (after missing several chances to score prior to this).
Germany tried to restore some height and some muscleup front by replacing Mesut Ozil with the burly and strong Cacau and also bringing on Marin (a winger) for the tired Muller. At this time, Serbia was still doing what they had been doing throughout the match, falling like flies exposed to insecticide every tme a German player come near them. More yellow cards for German players because of this. At the 76th minute with Germany still trailing, Joachim Low refused to give up and he played his last card by bringing in Mario Gomez for Badstuber, but still to no avail as they were nowhere near threatening the Serbian goal, not with their man deficit and shattered confidence. At the very last minutes, even defender Per Mertesacker was up front helping out the attack to add even more muscle and height in a desperate attempt to equalize but it was not to be and Serbia has made history by inflicting a defeat to Germany which they have not suffered in World Cup Group Stages since 1986. Now, since Germany failed to become the second nation after Argentina to go to the last 16, the Group is now as open as it could be, and it would go down all the way to the last match and all the teams in Group D have everything to play for. Great surprise once again from this World Cup, totally the opposite of what everyone had predicted. What's next in store for all of us from this intriguing but entertaining World Cup!
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