First off, have we realized that in every single World Cup, when knockout stages start, especially from quarter finals onwards, the competition is more of a hybrid of Copa America and Euro, except for the occasional anomalies in which teams from Africa and/or Asia are able to go through to the quarter finals. Thus, in the long run the World Cup is more of an Intercontinental Cup rather than a World Cup. It is a World Cup only in the Group Stage, that's all there is to it as far as living up to the name of the competition is concerned. Besides, from the first World Cup in 1930, the winner of the competition has either been from South America or Europe. Last night, Japan had the chance to at least try to break that tradition, joining Ghana in the quarter finals, and to keep the “World Cup” feeling alive as the quarters would have been represented by 4 continents. They also had the hopes of the whole of Asia since they were the only one remaining in the competition after South Korea had been knocked out by Uruguay. They, along with Paraguay for this one, were also trying to get into the quarter finals for the very first time in their history.
Prior to the match, everyone kept on calling Keisuke Honda as Japan's best player, the hope for Japan, no player in Japan is of more important than him. Actually, I have been arguing ever since their 1-0 victory against Cameroon that the real hero, or heroes I should say is Japan's backline, to be precise the three pillars of Tulio, Yuki Abe, and Nakazawa. For Tulio, the Brazilian born defender was actually Japan's best player throughout Japan's stint in this World Cup overall as he excels both up front as well as at the back. He has always been Japan's greatest attacking threat when he roams forward, and especially in this match against Paraguay in which he always galloped forward whenever he has a chance. In other words, he played as a libero, a position long gone since the glory days of Franz Beckenbauer in 1970s. When he's at the back, he's ever so sturdy, thwarting everything that the oppoennts threw at him alongside his partners Yuki Abe and Nakazawa throughout the match. Without them, Japan would not even dreamed of getting this far in the tournament and also for last night's match, they might not even had the chance to have the penalty shoot-out. As for Honda, he was too isolated up front with little support. Whenever he has the ball, he had to hold the ball up long enough for the rest of Japanese players to go up and support him properly. With his relatively small frame as well as Paraguay's style of always closing down swiftly, he had no luxury nor time to wait for his team mates to arrive up front and support him.
Japan was also very fortunate in the 67th minute when Tulio, my choice of Japan's best player in the tournament, collided violently with his own goalkeeper. The stretcher was brought on the pitch, but fortunately for Japan, he was able to continue on to play the rest of the game. It was a crucial moment for Japan, had he stretchered off and replaced by someone else, Japan's backline would become fragile and their notable attacking threat at the other end would be nullified with his departure from the field. Despite trying their very best to score, Paraguay were not able to, and despite their attacks being improved considerably when the livewire Nelson Haedo Valdez joined the fray, they still weren't able to break the solid and resolute Japanese defense. Another player of note from Japan would be Daisuke Matsui, a player who came close n this match of scoring a scorcher from distance, but hit the bar. He always gives 110% for his country in each match, always seen chasing for every ball just like Argentina's Carlos Tevez. His commitment and work rate can be seen when he's substituted, his hair is always a mess at that time, I am pretty sure he covers quite a distance throughout his involvement in a match.
Since both teams were not able to break one another down as it seemed that both teams were so resolute as not to let go of a chance to make history by going to the quarter finals for the very first time, and thus, the scoreline was still tied at 0-0 even after two halves of extra time. The match inevitably went into the nerve-wracking penalty shoot out.
In the dramatic penalty shoot out, Paraguay managed to score all 5 of their kicks while Japan missed their third penalty kick by Yunichi Komano. I had a feeling that when he stepped up he might miss and he indeed hit the bar, although to be fair to him, he had beaten the goalkeeper. It is true that usually, managers would assign their best penalty takers for the last kick, but I don't think it is a good idea to do that as evident in last night's match as when Komano missed, and Paraguay managed to score all 5 of their kicks, the last kicker, (presumably Tamada) did not get a chance to take a penalty. In my opinion, had Honda and Tamada were the 4th and 5th kickers respectively, Japan might have stayed at least a bit longer, but this is certainly not the time to as what if questions. As cruel as it might be, this is the knockout stages, and one of the two opposing teams have to get out no matter how evenly matched they are throughout the 120 minutes. When there's a winner, there has to be a loser, and Japan was unfortunate enough to hold the latter mantle.
Congratulations to Paraguay for clinching a date with Spain in the quarter finals, time to celebrate their historic achievements, and juts like the commentator said, even if Spain awaits them in quarter finals, they don't really care, for now they want to celebrate their first ever qualification to the quarter finals of the World Cup. As for Japan, despite the defeat, they really showed up in this tournament, and they really fight till the end. Even though the heart-wrenching sight of the Japanese players, especially the inconsolable Komano at the end, Japan will rise up again just like the rising sun and try to beat the big boys again, starting with the 2011 Asian Cup! Ganbatte Nippon!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Holland 2-1 Slovakia World Cup 2010 Last 16
A look at the firepower that Holland are blessed with, it was a shoe-in on paper that they would destroy the minnows Slovakia in which prior to the World Cup especially, an average fan would struggle to cite any member of their squad besides Marek Hamsik. On the other hand, a look at the front-line of Holland would make anybody shiver. Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben. These three, especially the last two, would bring fans to their club exploits last season in which both of them featured in the final of the Champions League after having such blistering runs in the competition as a whole. But, we have to remember that club form cannot be used as a yardstick, just like how many people mistakenly written off Argentina, as well as continuing to lament the exclusion of J. Zanetti and Cambiasso from Maradona's 23-man squad. Last night proved this as the whole witnessed a toothless Holland side taking on a determined Slovakian side.
To be frank, both goals from Holland were not scored with the exquisite passing and attacking movements just like what Germany were doing against England the day before in which I compared their movements just like the wicked maneuvers of UFOs in the sky. It is ironic to see that both rivals have swapped playing style with one another after all those days in history in which one has been criticizing the other for their respective playing style. Total Football vs Berlin Wall, that had been the case. Now, it's the other way round.
The first goal was scored only owing to Arjen Robben's flash of individual brilliance when an English style punt from a Dutch defender from the back was chased with his trademark lightning speed from the right flank, he then cut into the center of the pitch and launched a nice left footed strike from outside of the penalty area to give the Dutch the lead. Surely, together with the fact that they won all three of their group games, it further masked the fact that the Dutch attack has been toothless throughout the World Cup . As has been the case in this World Cup when one team takes the lead, they start to get bogged down right after the first goal has been scored. Perhaps it was the Dutch trying to “play safe” and just defend to the death, or perhaps it was Slovakia exhibiting some sort of sense of urgency, but nonetheless, the Dutch started to get pinned back and the Dutch were not able to string together nice passes, let alne emulating the German “UFO maneuvers”.
The second half was even worse with Slovakia continued to dominate the Dutch, with only Maarten Stekelenburg and a few last ditch tackles preventing the Slovaks, mainly through Robert Vittek from scoring an equalizer. However, the Dutch finally found the second goal, but again it was not through a masterful attacking move but it was due to an event bordering on the ridiculous. At around the 83rd minute, all Slovak defenders left their posts to surround the referee to protest a certain decision prior to that and while the Slovak were left without their defenders who were busy arguing, the play went on and the Dutch again sent a long ball from the back towards Dirk Kuyt who collected the ball, beat the onrushing and desperate goalkeeper, and sent a low cross towards the center for Wesley Sneijder to make it 2-0. Again the Dutch got lucky with their “kick and rush” style and again masked their inept attack. However, many people especially the Holland fans would argue that the introduction of the livewire Eljero Elia was the catalyst of the second goal, but still he replaced Robben not a defensive player and thus it could not be considered as a positive substitution.
The Slovaks were not interested to surrender meekly as they piled on strikers onto the pitch for te last few minutes of the game to at least get a consolation goal and perhaps to steal 2 goals to drag the match to extra time. However, they only managed to get one consolatory goal through Robert Vittek's penalty kick at the very last touch of the game. While it is true that the Dutch has progressed and no matter how the Dutch fans want to say that “winning is everything”, I am worrying over their prospects against Dunga's Brazilian anti-Samba Boys. They certainly are much stronger and much more efficient due to Dunga's aforementioned style, and they will certainly punish the Dutch's inept attack as well as a shaky defense. The Brazilians will certainly not leave it so late like the Slovaks to score a goal or two or even three.
To be frank, both goals from Holland were not scored with the exquisite passing and attacking movements just like what Germany were doing against England the day before in which I compared their movements just like the wicked maneuvers of UFOs in the sky. It is ironic to see that both rivals have swapped playing style with one another after all those days in history in which one has been criticizing the other for their respective playing style. Total Football vs Berlin Wall, that had been the case. Now, it's the other way round.
The first goal was scored only owing to Arjen Robben's flash of individual brilliance when an English style punt from a Dutch defender from the back was chased with his trademark lightning speed from the right flank, he then cut into the center of the pitch and launched a nice left footed strike from outside of the penalty area to give the Dutch the lead. Surely, together with the fact that they won all three of their group games, it further masked the fact that the Dutch attack has been toothless throughout the World Cup . As has been the case in this World Cup when one team takes the lead, they start to get bogged down right after the first goal has been scored. Perhaps it was the Dutch trying to “play safe” and just defend to the death, or perhaps it was Slovakia exhibiting some sort of sense of urgency, but nonetheless, the Dutch started to get pinned back and the Dutch were not able to string together nice passes, let alne emulating the German “UFO maneuvers”.
The second half was even worse with Slovakia continued to dominate the Dutch, with only Maarten Stekelenburg and a few last ditch tackles preventing the Slovaks, mainly through Robert Vittek from scoring an equalizer. However, the Dutch finally found the second goal, but again it was not through a masterful attacking move but it was due to an event bordering on the ridiculous. At around the 83rd minute, all Slovak defenders left their posts to surround the referee to protest a certain decision prior to that and while the Slovak were left without their defenders who were busy arguing, the play went on and the Dutch again sent a long ball from the back towards Dirk Kuyt who collected the ball, beat the onrushing and desperate goalkeeper, and sent a low cross towards the center for Wesley Sneijder to make it 2-0. Again the Dutch got lucky with their “kick and rush” style and again masked their inept attack. However, many people especially the Holland fans would argue that the introduction of the livewire Eljero Elia was the catalyst of the second goal, but still he replaced Robben not a defensive player and thus it could not be considered as a positive substitution.
The Slovaks were not interested to surrender meekly as they piled on strikers onto the pitch for te last few minutes of the game to at least get a consolation goal and perhaps to steal 2 goals to drag the match to extra time. However, they only managed to get one consolatory goal through Robert Vittek's penalty kick at the very last touch of the game. While it is true that the Dutch has progressed and no matter how the Dutch fans want to say that “winning is everything”, I am worrying over their prospects against Dunga's Brazilian anti-Samba Boys. They certainly are much stronger and much more efficient due to Dunga's aforementioned style, and they will certainly punish the Dutch's inept attack as well as a shaky defense. The Brazilians will certainly not leave it so late like the Slovaks to score a goal or two or even three.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Germany 4-1 England World Cup 2010 Last 16
Prior to the conclusion of this match, every section of football media around the world heavily used World War I and II (mainly the latter) puns and references. Even yours truly wasn't able to resist such temptations and went on to make a rather direct comparison between World Cup 2010 and World War II. Now, after that result, nobody dares to make one, I am sure. Any attempts to even try to ask a “what if” questions regarding if World War II had ended the way last night's match did or conjure up a scenario of what would happen to the world in an alternate universe, I would just dare to go as far as say that for one, German would have been the international language, and a certain swastika logo would have been everywhere, and for the Asians, they would be speaking in Japanese. Although the sight of pretty girls in sailor uniforms would be a sight to behold, I still shudder to think of such scenarios. Even the Germans and Japanese themselves would shiver thinking about that. So I shall go mainstream and just throw anything related to wars out of the window.
I would love to argue that Germany's comprehensive win against England was not because of the fact that Germany is an all conquering team which is ready to even face an extra terrestrial team had a team UFO landed on earth and challenge us earthlings to a “friendly” match of football. I would love to think that it's all due to the propaganda of the English dominated soccer media of the world. However, it would not be fair to the England team, and especially for Frank Lampard who has managed to control the Jabulani so perfectly and were denied a goal or two because of the crossbar as well as a huge refereeing error in which the time and space seemed to be distorted and overlapped with a certain event in 1966. All of us, especially England fans are entitled to argue that the controversy involving Lampard was the absolute defining point of the match.
At the beginning of the match, Germany were already the much better team and they were 2-0 up within 30 minutes from Klose and Podolski. In both occasions, Germany showed that their “Teamgeist” was certainly there as their passing and off the ball movements were truly mesmerizing and out of this world. The attacks were so swift that they resembled the wicked maneuvers of UFOs that witnesses usually report upon seeing one or a group of them in the sky. However, perhaps it's the natural instinct of any team to shift a gear or two down after they have taken a lead, let alone a comfortable 2-0 lead or perhaps it was simply a sense of urgency for England, they started to strike back and threaten the German goal. They managed to pull one back at the 37th minute when Mathew Upson scored a towering header. Even after that they continued to attack and attack and one minute later was when the a huge controversy occurred. Lampard had shown with his direct free kicks and long shots that he was able to control the much derided Jabulani ball so perfectly and he was only denied from scoring by the crossbar. However, he was to be denied in a spectacular fashion. On a regular England attack, Lampard launched a perfect shot towards goal. What happened was more or less a repeat of the incident in the 1966 World Cup Final between Germany and England in which the England player Geoff Hurst struck the bar, and the ball bounced onto the ground, and bounce out of the goal. The linesman (Tofik Bakhramov, still famous among England fans) and the referee awarded the goal in which grainy replay from that time shows that it did not cross the line. Lampard's shot went pretty much the same way, the only difference was that the ball had entered the goal, in fact it was halfway into the goal, but amazingly it bounced out again and into the safe hands of the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
To be frank, the ball had entered the net. It should have been a goal. Everyone knows it. For example, I have just seen a joke picture about that goal, and according to that pic (which must have been made by a German), it wasn't a goal because in that pic, the goal line bent so much that it was still behind the ball. But even the person who created that funny photo should know deep in his heart that it was a goal as he simply had to bend the goal line so much so that the ball was still in front of the goal line. It was as obvious as that, that the goal was already scored. This will certainly re-ignite the famous/infamous technology debate in football. However, it is likely that things would go nowhere as FIFA president Sepp Blatter has made it clear that it is such controversies and intense debates after the game that according to him conjures up more passion within the game and makes the game more interesting. But I think something has to be done as referees might receive death threats due to this kind of controversies and might even be forced to retire early sch as what had happened to Andres Frisk just to name one. The long term effects might be dire such as the sport might have too little referees as young potential referees might be too scared to become one due to the controversies and what happened to their predecessors.
Back to the match, despite the controversy, England was still attacking Germany but soon, half time came to Germany's rescue. But nevertheless, the damage had been done to England and the complexion of the match was arguably to be so different had the goal was acknowledged.
Even in the second half, England still dominate and Lampard even hit the bar one more time from his free kick. However, as the half wore on and England committed more and more bodies forward, they were prone to any counterattack. Germany launched an extremely swift, yet another extra terrestrial UFO maneuvers passing from flank to flank led by the tiny but fast Mesut Ozil. It culminated in the young Thomas Muller finishing it beautifully to make it 3-1 for Germany. Just over three minutes later, yet another counterattack initiated by Ozil, another UFO like maneuvers, and again finished by Muller who got to the end of Ozil's cross. 4-1 and certainly England were down and out.
After this goal, Germany simply took off their feet from the pedal and were simply happy to just pass the ball around among them to loud cheers from the Germany fans and that's about it. Since Argentina won 3-1 against Mexico, the next match at the end of this week will be between Argentina and Germany. Yet another big and explosive match, a rematch of the 1990 World Cup final for Maradona and a rematch of 2006 Quarter finals for the players in which they lost to the Germans in the penalty shootout thanks to Lehmann's famous piece of paper containing the shooting habits of the Argentine players.
Had Lampard's goal was counted at that time, it was arguable that the match could have gone on to extra time or even penalties, or considering how England dominated, England might even have pulled off an amazing comeback win after being 2-0 down. But at least, at least for the Germans, the intense and long winded and rather futile debate about the 1966 incident has finally, finally been exorcised with the Lampard incident. Also, it was such a delight to see a great team chemistry in the German team, and that they have more superstars to rise to become world beaters such as Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, and Thomas Muller (who was voted man of the match last night). In 2006, it was players such as Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Lahm and others, now they have yet another set of emerging superstars. A really amazing team with marvelous regenerating prospects. I shudder to think how the new superstars would be like in 2014 but at the moment, Germany will face Argentina, and it will be another explosive match between these two great football nations.
I would love to argue that Germany's comprehensive win against England was not because of the fact that Germany is an all conquering team which is ready to even face an extra terrestrial team had a team UFO landed on earth and challenge us earthlings to a “friendly” match of football. I would love to think that it's all due to the propaganda of the English dominated soccer media of the world. However, it would not be fair to the England team, and especially for Frank Lampard who has managed to control the Jabulani so perfectly and were denied a goal or two because of the crossbar as well as a huge refereeing error in which the time and space seemed to be distorted and overlapped with a certain event in 1966. All of us, especially England fans are entitled to argue that the controversy involving Lampard was the absolute defining point of the match.
At the beginning of the match, Germany were already the much better team and they were 2-0 up within 30 minutes from Klose and Podolski. In both occasions, Germany showed that their “Teamgeist” was certainly there as their passing and off the ball movements were truly mesmerizing and out of this world. The attacks were so swift that they resembled the wicked maneuvers of UFOs that witnesses usually report upon seeing one or a group of them in the sky. However, perhaps it's the natural instinct of any team to shift a gear or two down after they have taken a lead, let alone a comfortable 2-0 lead or perhaps it was simply a sense of urgency for England, they started to strike back and threaten the German goal. They managed to pull one back at the 37th minute when Mathew Upson scored a towering header. Even after that they continued to attack and attack and one minute later was when the a huge controversy occurred. Lampard had shown with his direct free kicks and long shots that he was able to control the much derided Jabulani ball so perfectly and he was only denied from scoring by the crossbar. However, he was to be denied in a spectacular fashion. On a regular England attack, Lampard launched a perfect shot towards goal. What happened was more or less a repeat of the incident in the 1966 World Cup Final between Germany and England in which the England player Geoff Hurst struck the bar, and the ball bounced onto the ground, and bounce out of the goal. The linesman (Tofik Bakhramov, still famous among England fans) and the referee awarded the goal in which grainy replay from that time shows that it did not cross the line. Lampard's shot went pretty much the same way, the only difference was that the ball had entered the goal, in fact it was halfway into the goal, but amazingly it bounced out again and into the safe hands of the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
To be frank, the ball had entered the net. It should have been a goal. Everyone knows it. For example, I have just seen a joke picture about that goal, and according to that pic (which must have been made by a German), it wasn't a goal because in that pic, the goal line bent so much that it was still behind the ball. But even the person who created that funny photo should know deep in his heart that it was a goal as he simply had to bend the goal line so much so that the ball was still in front of the goal line. It was as obvious as that, that the goal was already scored. This will certainly re-ignite the famous/infamous technology debate in football. However, it is likely that things would go nowhere as FIFA president Sepp Blatter has made it clear that it is such controversies and intense debates after the game that according to him conjures up more passion within the game and makes the game more interesting. But I think something has to be done as referees might receive death threats due to this kind of controversies and might even be forced to retire early sch as what had happened to Andres Frisk just to name one. The long term effects might be dire such as the sport might have too little referees as young potential referees might be too scared to become one due to the controversies and what happened to their predecessors.
Back to the match, despite the controversy, England was still attacking Germany but soon, half time came to Germany's rescue. But nevertheless, the damage had been done to England and the complexion of the match was arguably to be so different had the goal was acknowledged.
Even in the second half, England still dominate and Lampard even hit the bar one more time from his free kick. However, as the half wore on and England committed more and more bodies forward, they were prone to any counterattack. Germany launched an extremely swift, yet another extra terrestrial UFO maneuvers passing from flank to flank led by the tiny but fast Mesut Ozil. It culminated in the young Thomas Muller finishing it beautifully to make it 3-1 for Germany. Just over three minutes later, yet another counterattack initiated by Ozil, another UFO like maneuvers, and again finished by Muller who got to the end of Ozil's cross. 4-1 and certainly England were down and out.
After this goal, Germany simply took off their feet from the pedal and were simply happy to just pass the ball around among them to loud cheers from the Germany fans and that's about it. Since Argentina won 3-1 against Mexico, the next match at the end of this week will be between Argentina and Germany. Yet another big and explosive match, a rematch of the 1990 World Cup final for Maradona and a rematch of 2006 Quarter finals for the players in which they lost to the Germans in the penalty shootout thanks to Lehmann's famous piece of paper containing the shooting habits of the Argentine players.
Had Lampard's goal was counted at that time, it was arguable that the match could have gone on to extra time or even penalties, or considering how England dominated, England might even have pulled off an amazing comeback win after being 2-0 down. But at least, at least for the Germans, the intense and long winded and rather futile debate about the 1966 incident has finally, finally been exorcised with the Lampard incident. Also, it was such a delight to see a great team chemistry in the German team, and that they have more superstars to rise to become world beaters such as Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, and Thomas Muller (who was voted man of the match last night). In 2006, it was players such as Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Lahm and others, now they have yet another set of emerging superstars. A really amazing team with marvelous regenerating prospects. I shudder to think how the new superstars would be like in 2014 but at the moment, Germany will face Argentina, and it will be another explosive match between these two great football nations.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Uruguay vs South Korea World Cup 2010 Last-16
By now, many fans would certainly have asked, “what makes South Korea looks so damn good in football?”. Well, that question would generate a plethora of answers from ginseng, Korean people's hardworking ethos, taekwondo, and the list goes on and on and on. However, I have to move on from all those almost cliched answers to something simpler. They simply look really good because their opponents let them do become so. The recently concluded match was the substantiation of my analysis. During the last 10 minutes or so of this game, the commentator commented that South Korea was flirting with elimination as they trailed Uruguay 2-1 at that point of time. I think Uruguay should not have done what they did right after each time they take a lead against the Koreans.
Uruguay actually started in an attacking manner and they duly scored early, through a combination of movements from Edinson Cavani, Forlan, and for Luis Suarez to shoot at the empty goal as the South Korean goalkeeper was stranded due to Forlan's low cross prior to the goal. At this point of time, I had expected more goals from Uruguay. However, Uruguay surprisingly decided to sit back and defend. The only attacking move they made was futile long balls towards Diego Forlan up front. It was futile as the long balls were simply dealt with by the tall Korean defenders very easily and the fact that Uruguay concentrated on defending gave plenty of space and thus chances for the Koreans to start attacking their goals. Bad decision by Uruguay because of several reasons firstly, to beat the South Koreans, a team, especially a South American team which is generally known for their multi-barreled attacking options have to make use of this advantage and overwhelm the Koreans. Just like how Argentina managed to do against them from the moment Sergio Aguero entered the fray. The match ended 4-1 for Argentina. Secondly, South American teams are well known to be having their defense, especially their goalkeepers as their weak link. Trying to defend with a not so good defense but an overwhelming attacking threat is simply not a rational decision. Lastly, South Korea is a team full of confidence. They believe they are capable of beating anybody on earth or even outside of it. Thus, give them plenty of chances to make attacking moves like what Uruguay were doing, and it is only a matter of when, not if that they are going to score against your team.
It happened a the 67th minute when Lee Chung Yong scored to make it 1-1. Although it came from an indirect free kick, nevertheless their pressure throughout the match on Uruguay paid off really handsomely. Uruguay were shocked and started to alter their tactics again to an attacking mode. It was also raining very heavily by this point of time in the match. They continued to threaten to score and they did through a marvelous swerving, curling shot by Luis Suarez at the 80th minute when he launched a sweetly struck long shot that curled into the net beautifully. 2-1 for Uruguay. By this time, I thought Uruguay had learned their lessons and continued to attack throughout the game to really kill the game off, just like what Argentina were doing against South Korea in their Group B match. Turned out that Uruguay again switched to the defensive mode and also went as far as subbing the excellent and heroic Luis Suarez with 10 minutes left. Wrong move, South Korea, this time also augmented with a sense of urgency, duly attacked and 10 minutes were more than enough time for South Korea to even score 2 goals if Uruguay is to defend. They were really fortunate not to concede further and was able to hold on to book their ticket to the last 8 as well as sending the Koreans all the way home although South Koreans would argue that the referee blew his full time whistle when there were around 8 seconds left to play and when South Korea were attacking at full speed from the right flank, but that's it.
Despite many people being too occupied and overwhelmed with Suarez's heroics, it masks the fact that Uruguay were so close to being eliminated no thanks to their mistake not to utilize their superiority in the attacking department to overwhelm and choke their opponents to submission while masking their own frailties at the back, especially between the goalposts. Nevertheless, congratulations Uruguay, and credits to the South Koreans for their gallant efforts in the tournament!
Uruguay actually started in an attacking manner and they duly scored early, through a combination of movements from Edinson Cavani, Forlan, and for Luis Suarez to shoot at the empty goal as the South Korean goalkeeper was stranded due to Forlan's low cross prior to the goal. At this point of time, I had expected more goals from Uruguay. However, Uruguay surprisingly decided to sit back and defend. The only attacking move they made was futile long balls towards Diego Forlan up front. It was futile as the long balls were simply dealt with by the tall Korean defenders very easily and the fact that Uruguay concentrated on defending gave plenty of space and thus chances for the Koreans to start attacking their goals. Bad decision by Uruguay because of several reasons firstly, to beat the South Koreans, a team, especially a South American team which is generally known for their multi-barreled attacking options have to make use of this advantage and overwhelm the Koreans. Just like how Argentina managed to do against them from the moment Sergio Aguero entered the fray. The match ended 4-1 for Argentina. Secondly, South American teams are well known to be having their defense, especially their goalkeepers as their weak link. Trying to defend with a not so good defense but an overwhelming attacking threat is simply not a rational decision. Lastly, South Korea is a team full of confidence. They believe they are capable of beating anybody on earth or even outside of it. Thus, give them plenty of chances to make attacking moves like what Uruguay were doing, and it is only a matter of when, not if that they are going to score against your team.
It happened a the 67th minute when Lee Chung Yong scored to make it 1-1. Although it came from an indirect free kick, nevertheless their pressure throughout the match on Uruguay paid off really handsomely. Uruguay were shocked and started to alter their tactics again to an attacking mode. It was also raining very heavily by this point of time in the match. They continued to threaten to score and they did through a marvelous swerving, curling shot by Luis Suarez at the 80th minute when he launched a sweetly struck long shot that curled into the net beautifully. 2-1 for Uruguay. By this time, I thought Uruguay had learned their lessons and continued to attack throughout the game to really kill the game off, just like what Argentina were doing against South Korea in their Group B match. Turned out that Uruguay again switched to the defensive mode and also went as far as subbing the excellent and heroic Luis Suarez with 10 minutes left. Wrong move, South Korea, this time also augmented with a sense of urgency, duly attacked and 10 minutes were more than enough time for South Korea to even score 2 goals if Uruguay is to defend. They were really fortunate not to concede further and was able to hold on to book their ticket to the last 8 as well as sending the Koreans all the way home although South Koreans would argue that the referee blew his full time whistle when there were around 8 seconds left to play and when South Korea were attacking at full speed from the right flank, but that's it.
Despite many people being too occupied and overwhelmed with Suarez's heroics, it masks the fact that Uruguay were so close to being eliminated no thanks to their mistake not to utilize their superiority in the attacking department to overwhelm and choke their opponents to submission while masking their own frailties at the back, especially between the goalposts. Nevertheless, congratulations Uruguay, and credits to the South Koreans for their gallant efforts in the tournament!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Portugal 0-0 Brazil World Cup 2010 Group G
Portugal vs Brazil. A glance at that fixture would make any football fans drool in excitement. Fanciful predictions started to fly around. How about a repeat of the 6-2 thrashing of Portugal by Brazil in the friendly match? How about a thrilling, heart stopping 4-4 draw? How about Cristiano Ronaldo rescuing his country in a 3-2 win by scoring a hat-trick? Wow, it must be some sort of a game! Even more so if the match is in the World Cup 2010! How can it get any bigger than that! A huge match on the grandaddy of them all of football. It has to be a cracker! But then again, we as fans tend to be carried away a bit too far to say the least. I consider myself to be an alert football fan. When I looked at this fixture being the third match of Group G, in which Brazil has secure qualification, and the probability of Portugal being knocked out was just merely a mathematical probability, I knew that both teams might not go above the proverbial second gear at most. But nevertheless, I didn't want to miss this game. Too big of a fixture to miss, what a huge mistake!
From the onset all the way to the end of the match, it was such a drab match that I yawned, my first in World Cup 2010. It was arguably the most boring match ever so far in this competition. I had jokingly predicted the score would be a 4-4 thrilling draw, but I came close only in the accumulated yellow cards, 4-3 to Portugal, all accrued in the first half. In the first half, the players seemed to be carried away themselves as throughout the first half, tackles started to fly off wildly and both set of players started to accumulate yellow cards. Temper also flared, between Luis Fabiano and Pepe, as well as Felipe Melo who was clearly so uncomfortable and his temperament boiling, Dunga decided to pull him off to prevent any unnecessary events (read: red card)
However, it seemed that in both dressing rooms of Portugal and Brazil, both Carlos Queiroz and Dunga said the same thing to their respective set of players. Basically, what must have been said in the two dressing rooms was that, “Take it easy guys... Come on, we only need a draw to secure 100% qualification for both of us”
The second half started in a very drab manner. Throughout the second half, both teams were only happy to pass the ball around the field sideways, and hold up the ball so much, and when one team is with the ball and holding it up, the other did not close down the other team at all. When any of the players got somewhere near the penalty area, they just launched blind shots without taking specific aim and/or without trying to breach the opponents' defense further and score from a closer distance. When the fourth official signaled for the 5 minutes of injury time to be played, I really wished the match to end at that point of time. I wanted to switch my TV off in disgust but decided against it as sometimes things go against me and had I switched off the TV, there might have been 2-3 spectacular goals for all I care.
It was such a disappointing end to Group G, but to be expected. Even after the alteration of rules since that 1982 “Anchluss in Gijon” incident such that the third match of the group stages are played simultaneously, it could not be helped that the last matches are always anomolous. However, let's not dwell on the group stage, and start looking forward to the next match of both teams in the last 16. Brazil vs Chile, and also the derby of Iberian Peninsula between Spain and Portugal! Mouth watering matches to come!
From the onset all the way to the end of the match, it was such a drab match that I yawned, my first in World Cup 2010. It was arguably the most boring match ever so far in this competition. I had jokingly predicted the score would be a 4-4 thrilling draw, but I came close only in the accumulated yellow cards, 4-3 to Portugal, all accrued in the first half. In the first half, the players seemed to be carried away themselves as throughout the first half, tackles started to fly off wildly and both set of players started to accumulate yellow cards. Temper also flared, between Luis Fabiano and Pepe, as well as Felipe Melo who was clearly so uncomfortable and his temperament boiling, Dunga decided to pull him off to prevent any unnecessary events (read: red card)
However, it seemed that in both dressing rooms of Portugal and Brazil, both Carlos Queiroz and Dunga said the same thing to their respective set of players. Basically, what must have been said in the two dressing rooms was that, “Take it easy guys... Come on, we only need a draw to secure 100% qualification for both of us”
The second half started in a very drab manner. Throughout the second half, both teams were only happy to pass the ball around the field sideways, and hold up the ball so much, and when one team is with the ball and holding it up, the other did not close down the other team at all. When any of the players got somewhere near the penalty area, they just launched blind shots without taking specific aim and/or without trying to breach the opponents' defense further and score from a closer distance. When the fourth official signaled for the 5 minutes of injury time to be played, I really wished the match to end at that point of time. I wanted to switch my TV off in disgust but decided against it as sometimes things go against me and had I switched off the TV, there might have been 2-3 spectacular goals for all I care.
It was such a disappointing end to Group G, but to be expected. Even after the alteration of rules since that 1982 “Anchluss in Gijon” incident such that the third match of the group stages are played simultaneously, it could not be helped that the last matches are always anomolous. However, let's not dwell on the group stage, and start looking forward to the next match of both teams in the last 16. Brazil vs Chile, and also the derby of Iberian Peninsula between Spain and Portugal! Mouth watering matches to come!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Intertwining of Football, History, and Reality
Last night's 3-2 victory of Slovakia over defending champions Italy should provide a lot of writing materials for any football writers around the world, let alone a passionate budding football writer like me. However, I faced some sort of the dreaded writer's block today and I simply couldn't muster any inspiration to write a good piece about yesterday's match. Despite that slight hindrance, finally I received some sort of salvation. It is well known throughout my social circle that besides football, I also have an intense passion in history, despite many people dismissing it as a dead subject, studying about some dead guys killing other dead guys in dead places and in dead eras. Nevertheless, now I am able to at least draw a certain parallel of football with history. The salvation came from someone I did not expect to give me such a huge inspiration (thanks Niwde! I appreciate it). This guy simply sent me one solid sentence about a certain parallel between the World Cup 2010 so far with the World War II. I think I really have many things to say about that as well as to expand that aforementioned solid sentence.
Let us first take a look at the European theater. We have France who have just been knocked out from the competition so meekly and shamefully. They also surrendered quite early to the Nazis during the World War II initially before USA's landing in Normandy, but that's for much much later as we will see when we get to that. We also have Italy who also surrendered tamely and also shamefully. In World War II, especially in the 1940s even before Hitler's fall, Mussolini's Italy was already in tatters, a series of mismanagement and internal strife culminated in Mussolini being ousted from the Prime Minister post as well as arrest and even with Hitler's assistance to bring him back by rescuing him from prison in the famous (or infamous) Operation Eiche, and also by establishing an Italian Nazi Puppet State in the name of Italian Social Republic, the puppet state soon collapsed as well. As for Holland who have just started the World Cup brilliantly by winning all of their three Group matches so far, it is just like the full glory of the Dutch domination with their array of colonies spanning from the West Indies (Suriname) to the East Indies (Indonesia).
Still in Europe, we also have Germany. In the World Cup, Germany started in a really convincing manner by beating Australia 4-0, but then suffered a setback against an Eastern European nation Serbia as they lost 1-0 and ended the match with 10 men. But then, they regained some footing by defeating Ghana 1-0. In World War II, we know that Germany also started in a blistering fashion as they annexed countries in Europe as such speed that people simply felt that the whole world might soon be a Nazi world. However, a very big mistake in Hitler's part by trying to invade Soviet Union by arriving there in a cold, harsh Eastern Europe winter. They simply lost a lot of men and simply failed big time, having to retreat shamefully. However, around the 1940s, Germany also launched an African campaign with their Afrika corps. We also have England, who are totally unconvincing so far and only with USA's sudden victory at the very last minute, that England managed to get some footing to go through to the last 16. In World War II, the UK simply could not fend off Germany alone and son they formed an alliance (Allies) with the likes of USA to fend off Germany's threat. How fitting that Germany and England are to meet in the last 16, just like in the World War II in which they traded blows such as when Germany launched their blitzkrieg campaigns against the UK, and the UK launching its own strategic bombings all over Germany later on.
Moving on to the North America. As I have mentioned so many times above, the USA only stood up and be counted at the last minute. In this World Cup, they simply drew 2 games, before winning against Algeria in the very last minute to win 1-0 and book their ticket to the last 16. In the World War II, the USA simply stayed neutral for most of the duration of the war, until Pearl Harbor was heavily bombed by the Japanese in 1941 then the USA decided to join the World War at the very last minute and they finally do so with a blazing trail at that.
Moving on to Asia, we have Japan who have just booked their ticket to the last 16 by beating Denmark. This is also quite parallel with the Japanese Empire in World War II when they really threatened to conquer the whole of Asia and was truly renowned as a world power at that time. As for Korea, their form in the World Cup 2010 is more parallel to the Korean War, which is in 1953, so I am not going to really delve into this in detail as I have to stick with World War II, and besides, the Korean issue is a sensitive issue at this time.
It is in Africa that the similarities with World War II really struck. During this time, Africa were only the Europeans' toys. They were simply colonies, partitioned in the way that the Europeans wanted to do and they were simply in chaos, under their European masters. Sadly, this is also the case in World War II. Just look at the six African team managers. Besides Algeria which is managed by Sabah Raadane, the rest are managed by European managers. Also, under their European managers, the African teams simply lose their footing so much that one by one dropped like flies when a lot is expected from them considering the resources that they have, especially Ivory Coast. For now, only Ghana managed to go through to the last 16 by the skin of their teeth. Even then they are not expected to go through further as USA lies in wait. This is the same as in reality. Africa is continuing to be pincered by poverty and chaos despite the obvious potential and the abundance of natural resources that they have.
The similarities of the World Cup and the real world is so uncanny that I am starting to shiver. Football is supposed to be so different, so separated with real life, with history and even more so politics. But it seems that it can't be helped that football is after all part of those reality however grim, and I could only say one thing, reality bites. OUCH!
Let us first take a look at the European theater. We have France who have just been knocked out from the competition so meekly and shamefully. They also surrendered quite early to the Nazis during the World War II initially before USA's landing in Normandy, but that's for much much later as we will see when we get to that. We also have Italy who also surrendered tamely and also shamefully. In World War II, especially in the 1940s even before Hitler's fall, Mussolini's Italy was already in tatters, a series of mismanagement and internal strife culminated in Mussolini being ousted from the Prime Minister post as well as arrest and even with Hitler's assistance to bring him back by rescuing him from prison in the famous (or infamous) Operation Eiche, and also by establishing an Italian Nazi Puppet State in the name of Italian Social Republic, the puppet state soon collapsed as well. As for Holland who have just started the World Cup brilliantly by winning all of their three Group matches so far, it is just like the full glory of the Dutch domination with their array of colonies spanning from the West Indies (Suriname) to the East Indies (Indonesia).
Still in Europe, we also have Germany. In the World Cup, Germany started in a really convincing manner by beating Australia 4-0, but then suffered a setback against an Eastern European nation Serbia as they lost 1-0 and ended the match with 10 men. But then, they regained some footing by defeating Ghana 1-0. In World War II, we know that Germany also started in a blistering fashion as they annexed countries in Europe as such speed that people simply felt that the whole world might soon be a Nazi world. However, a very big mistake in Hitler's part by trying to invade Soviet Union by arriving there in a cold, harsh Eastern Europe winter. They simply lost a lot of men and simply failed big time, having to retreat shamefully. However, around the 1940s, Germany also launched an African campaign with their Afrika corps. We also have England, who are totally unconvincing so far and only with USA's sudden victory at the very last minute, that England managed to get some footing to go through to the last 16. In World War II, the UK simply could not fend off Germany alone and son they formed an alliance (Allies) with the likes of USA to fend off Germany's threat. How fitting that Germany and England are to meet in the last 16, just like in the World War II in which they traded blows such as when Germany launched their blitzkrieg campaigns against the UK, and the UK launching its own strategic bombings all over Germany later on.
Moving on to the North America. As I have mentioned so many times above, the USA only stood up and be counted at the last minute. In this World Cup, they simply drew 2 games, before winning against Algeria in the very last minute to win 1-0 and book their ticket to the last 16. In the World War II, the USA simply stayed neutral for most of the duration of the war, until Pearl Harbor was heavily bombed by the Japanese in 1941 then the USA decided to join the World War at the very last minute and they finally do so with a blazing trail at that.
Moving on to Asia, we have Japan who have just booked their ticket to the last 16 by beating Denmark. This is also quite parallel with the Japanese Empire in World War II when they really threatened to conquer the whole of Asia and was truly renowned as a world power at that time. As for Korea, their form in the World Cup 2010 is more parallel to the Korean War, which is in 1953, so I am not going to really delve into this in detail as I have to stick with World War II, and besides, the Korean issue is a sensitive issue at this time.
It is in Africa that the similarities with World War II really struck. During this time, Africa were only the Europeans' toys. They were simply colonies, partitioned in the way that the Europeans wanted to do and they were simply in chaos, under their European masters. Sadly, this is also the case in World War II. Just look at the six African team managers. Besides Algeria which is managed by Sabah Raadane, the rest are managed by European managers. Also, under their European managers, the African teams simply lose their footing so much that one by one dropped like flies when a lot is expected from them considering the resources that they have, especially Ivory Coast. For now, only Ghana managed to go through to the last 16 by the skin of their teeth. Even then they are not expected to go through further as USA lies in wait. This is the same as in reality. Africa is continuing to be pincered by poverty and chaos despite the obvious potential and the abundance of natural resources that they have.
The similarities of the World Cup and the real world is so uncanny that I am starting to shiver. Football is supposed to be so different, so separated with real life, with history and even more so politics. But it seems that it can't be helped that football is after all part of those reality however grim, and I could only say one thing, reality bites. OUCH!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
England vs Germany. It has to happen, is it?
If fate is a person, he would be a very funny guy. I mean, picture this situation. You take a stroll around the neighborhood where you are living, then at one point, you meet someone that you know. I know people would classify such unplanned meetings as mere coincidences or pleasant surprise, but none would go as far as classifying it as fate. But picture this, it's quite funny how one could meet one another at that exact same point of time, and both of these guys were at the exact same location without any prior planning? I guess it's safe to say that fate plays a part, at least something resembling that. Well, I know blabbering about that is out of sync with the subject/title, and thus before psychiatrists out there or wannabes start diagnosing me with ADHD or anything of that sort, I'll delve into the topic at hand right away.
Yesterday was when the teams from Group C and Group D in World Cup 2010 were determined whether they continue on fighting in the last 16 of the competition, or simply have to prepare for an early flight back home. Amazingly, events clicked in such a way in the four matches between the two groups that the match between England and Germany was ensured. First up in Group C. With their newly acquired Italian Catenaccio skills, England managed to snatch a 1-0 win over Slovenia while the USA, amazingly scored a last minute goal against Algeria and also won 1-0. This put the USA on top of the group due to goal difference. England finished second in the group. The first part of the events has been fulfilled. In Group D, it was even more dramatic. Germany managed to yet snatch 1-0 win against a fighting Ghana side while in the other match, Serbia lost 2-1 to Australia with a very late equalizer chalked off for offside. This ensured Germany came on top while Ghana go through as the group's runners up. Thus, it means that Germany will meet England in the last 16. What a mouth watering prospect of a match, despite the fact that goals come at a premium in this World Cup. As for Ghana, again fate simply dictated that there have to be at least one African representative remaining past the Group Stages, and the dramatic 2-1 Australia vs Serbia match set that up nicely.
The animosity between England and Germany go a very long way, in football or outside of it. Those inclined in history would start picturing the intense and deadly trench warfare in World War I between the two sides, the “Christmas Truce” and all. Also, in World War II in which the Third Reich bombarded London in a Blitzkrieg campaign, as well as Britain and its Allies strike-back in their own strategic bombing campaigns against Germany. In football, many fans would evoke memories from 1966 when England won its first and so far only World Cup title on home soil by defeating the then West Germany in a very controversial nature especially due to Geoff Hurst's goal which did not cross the line. Fans from both sides are still debating about that goal. Moving forward, in 2002, English fans would keep on reminding their German counterparts about how they thrashed Germany 5-1 in Munich. Those events are basically those I could remember spontaneously at the moment, and there might well be even more animosity between these two nations.
No one had planned this meeting, at least not so early in the competition as most if not every fan had predicted England and Germany finishing top of their respective groups. Even if after two matches in these groups all 4 teams in the respective groups were still able to go through, after all that drama, there wasn't to be a twist of fate. England vs Germany, always a destiny to happen in this World Cup. Now, it's time for fans all over the world, not only English and German fans to start licking their lips over the prospects of this match which is sure to be as explosive as the trench warfare and the Blitzkrieg, but we are all confident that there will be the kind of fair play involved such as the “Christmas Truce” in the aforementioned trench warfare between these two great nations.
Yesterday was when the teams from Group C and Group D in World Cup 2010 were determined whether they continue on fighting in the last 16 of the competition, or simply have to prepare for an early flight back home. Amazingly, events clicked in such a way in the four matches between the two groups that the match between England and Germany was ensured. First up in Group C. With their newly acquired Italian Catenaccio skills, England managed to snatch a 1-0 win over Slovenia while the USA, amazingly scored a last minute goal against Algeria and also won 1-0. This put the USA on top of the group due to goal difference. England finished second in the group. The first part of the events has been fulfilled. In Group D, it was even more dramatic. Germany managed to yet snatch 1-0 win against a fighting Ghana side while in the other match, Serbia lost 2-1 to Australia with a very late equalizer chalked off for offside. This ensured Germany came on top while Ghana go through as the group's runners up. Thus, it means that Germany will meet England in the last 16. What a mouth watering prospect of a match, despite the fact that goals come at a premium in this World Cup. As for Ghana, again fate simply dictated that there have to be at least one African representative remaining past the Group Stages, and the dramatic 2-1 Australia vs Serbia match set that up nicely.
The animosity between England and Germany go a very long way, in football or outside of it. Those inclined in history would start picturing the intense and deadly trench warfare in World War I between the two sides, the “Christmas Truce” and all. Also, in World War II in which the Third Reich bombarded London in a Blitzkrieg campaign, as well as Britain and its Allies strike-back in their own strategic bombing campaigns against Germany. In football, many fans would evoke memories from 1966 when England won its first and so far only World Cup title on home soil by defeating the then West Germany in a very controversial nature especially due to Geoff Hurst's goal which did not cross the line. Fans from both sides are still debating about that goal. Moving forward, in 2002, English fans would keep on reminding their German counterparts about how they thrashed Germany 5-1 in Munich. Those events are basically those I could remember spontaneously at the moment, and there might well be even more animosity between these two nations.
No one had planned this meeting, at least not so early in the competition as most if not every fan had predicted England and Germany finishing top of their respective groups. Even if after two matches in these groups all 4 teams in the respective groups were still able to go through, after all that drama, there wasn't to be a twist of fate. England vs Germany, always a destiny to happen in this World Cup. Now, it's time for fans all over the world, not only English and German fans to start licking their lips over the prospects of this match which is sure to be as explosive as the trench warfare and the Blitzkrieg, but we are all confident that there will be the kind of fair play involved such as the “Christmas Truce” in the aforementioned trench warfare between these two great nations.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
South Africa 2-1 France World Cup 2010 Group A
After all those turmoils surrounding the beleaguered French team, finally they are put out of their misery by a gallant South African side, the host nation, who huffed and puffed their way trying to extract every single ounce of their energy in trying to, no matter how slim their chances are, to avoid the unwanted tag of the first host nation to be knocked out in the Group Stage. While the French, at least in the first half only wanted this match to be done and over with. However, both teams simply crashed out from the Group Stage despite showing some form of fighting spirit throughout the match.
For South Africa, they seemed to go on course to defeat France by at least 3 goals, the very result they need to maintain their hope, however small to advance to the last 16. They stormed to a 2 goal lead by the end of the first half, but subsequently, they were not able to make the most of the chances that the French generously gave them. Despite South Africa surely gathering lots of praises from all directions after their victory which clearly wasn't enough, I have to say that they are really not good enough as they were really profligate in front of the goal, with Mphela the main culprit. Had all of their chances resulted in goals, they would have probably thrashed France 5-0 at least and considering the 1-0 victory of Uruguay over Mexico, South Africa would have ousted the Mexicans and go through to the last 16. Too bad they didn't have what it takes to convert all those chances into goals. The way they wasted chances also gave the French a chance to make a comeback, despite having to play with 10 men most of the match. In any case, despite being a sad day for South Africa as they become the first nation to fail to qualify past the Group Stage, they at least gave their fans something to cheer about as they have defeated France, a world class team nonetheless despite being an embodiment of problems at the moment.
As for France, they looked totally out by the end of the first half. When Yoann Gourcuff was sent off in the 27th minute, it seemed all over for the French. Their players were visibly dejected and looked lost. The second goal which they conceded even reminded me of one of the goals that Portugal scored against the mysteriously switched off DPRK side in the second half of that match. Only the aforementioned wastefulness of South African strikers gave them an impetus to strike back and they did through Florent Malouda. An interesting incident also happened at around 64th minute when Henry received a ball on the left flank, the ball hit his hand, and the ref spotted the handball. Interestingly, he was on the same flank during that fateful incident in the match against Republic of Ireland in the playoffs. Not sure if he deliberately did it, but if he really does, then he has no shame as the incident against Ireland really tarnished his reputation and he's under intense scrutiny. But nevertheless, France showed the will to comeback when Malouda scored their consolation goal at the 69th minute. However, no further goal was scored, and that's the final scoreline, 2-1 for the host nation.
It was such a case of “what ifs” for South Africa, as the Uruguay vs Mexico match did not end in a draw as expected, and had they been more prolific in their finishing, they would be in the second round now. But too bad, sometimes things don't go your way, and that's exactly what South Africa is experiencing now. In any case, it has been a commendable performances by the host nation, and their performance and experience over the three games and the hosting of this tournament itself will go a long way in shaping the future for the South African football. As for France, this is the end of an era full of turmoil. An era supposed to have ended long ago. But finally it has ended. Now, they only have to look forward to the upcoming Laurent Blanc era and simply just try to forget the forgettable reign of Raymond Domenech, the most hated man in France at the moment.
For South Africa, they seemed to go on course to defeat France by at least 3 goals, the very result they need to maintain their hope, however small to advance to the last 16. They stormed to a 2 goal lead by the end of the first half, but subsequently, they were not able to make the most of the chances that the French generously gave them. Despite South Africa surely gathering lots of praises from all directions after their victory which clearly wasn't enough, I have to say that they are really not good enough as they were really profligate in front of the goal, with Mphela the main culprit. Had all of their chances resulted in goals, they would have probably thrashed France 5-0 at least and considering the 1-0 victory of Uruguay over Mexico, South Africa would have ousted the Mexicans and go through to the last 16. Too bad they didn't have what it takes to convert all those chances into goals. The way they wasted chances also gave the French a chance to make a comeback, despite having to play with 10 men most of the match. In any case, despite being a sad day for South Africa as they become the first nation to fail to qualify past the Group Stage, they at least gave their fans something to cheer about as they have defeated France, a world class team nonetheless despite being an embodiment of problems at the moment.
As for France, they looked totally out by the end of the first half. When Yoann Gourcuff was sent off in the 27th minute, it seemed all over for the French. Their players were visibly dejected and looked lost. The second goal which they conceded even reminded me of one of the goals that Portugal scored against the mysteriously switched off DPRK side in the second half of that match. Only the aforementioned wastefulness of South African strikers gave them an impetus to strike back and they did through Florent Malouda. An interesting incident also happened at around 64th minute when Henry received a ball on the left flank, the ball hit his hand, and the ref spotted the handball. Interestingly, he was on the same flank during that fateful incident in the match against Republic of Ireland in the playoffs. Not sure if he deliberately did it, but if he really does, then he has no shame as the incident against Ireland really tarnished his reputation and he's under intense scrutiny. But nevertheless, France showed the will to comeback when Malouda scored their consolation goal at the 69th minute. However, no further goal was scored, and that's the final scoreline, 2-1 for the host nation.
It was such a case of “what ifs” for South Africa, as the Uruguay vs Mexico match did not end in a draw as expected, and had they been more prolific in their finishing, they would be in the second round now. But too bad, sometimes things don't go your way, and that's exactly what South Africa is experiencing now. In any case, it has been a commendable performances by the host nation, and their performance and experience over the three games and the hosting of this tournament itself will go a long way in shaping the future for the South African football. As for France, this is the end of an era full of turmoil. An era supposed to have ended long ago. But finally it has ended. Now, they only have to look forward to the upcoming Laurent Blanc era and simply just try to forget the forgettable reign of Raymond Domenech, the most hated man in France at the moment.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Chile 1-0 Suisse World Cup 2010 Group H
This match was a truly explosive match from the beginning all the way to the end. Plenty of talking points in this match such that I don't even know where to start. Simply amazing, adrenaline pumping match we have just been fortunate enough to witness. I'll start with the breakdown of the two teams fighting it out today at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. This match could be described as a match between a thesis and an anti-thesis. I would describe the Chilean team as the lighter version as the Arsenal team. Lighter at the back that is as this Chilean team doesn't have the kind of defense like what Arsene Wenger's boys are having with bulky guys at the back such as Gallas, Vermaelen, and Sagna. Chile also play in the same way as Arsenal in which they frustrate fans a lot. They dominate a match thoroughly, stringing a lot of beautiful and quick passes but there's one thing lacking from all those moves, goals. They are also very susceptible at the back. On the other hand, their opponents Suisse is a different kind of team altogether. Just look at the Suisse squad form Diego Benaglio, the goalkeeper, all the way to Blaise Nkufo the striker. Every single one of the Swiss player has one thing in common, that they are tall, big, bulky, an muscular. They are like a huge wall. They are extremely secure at the back, that's one thing for sure.
This match is a very crucial match in Group H, especially so for Chile. If they lose this match or being held to a draw, they will be in a real danger of not qualifying to the last 16 as the Swiss will be facing Honduras next while Chile will be facing Spain, who are poised to win their upcoming match against minnows Honduras. The match started in a really explosive fashion with Chile showing their hot and spicy brand of football with their extremely high octane style of play. The Swiss also kept up the tempo as they didn't want to be outdone by the South Americans. The first half an hour was a delight to watch and I dare say that it was even played in a faster tempo than the fabled high octane English Premier League games. However, the referee for this match was one who will not hesitate to blow his whistle and brandish plenty of cards and after players from both sides were booked for silly and simple reasons, The Swiss were outraged when Valon Behrami was sent off at the 30th minute when he elbowed two Chilean players in a row, even when it seemed that the Chilean players fell a bit too easily, but it happens all the time and even the Swiss resorted to this kind of dark arts of the game later on in the match. When the red card was brandished, many fans would have recalled the mighty collapse of Nigeria and Germany when one of their players was red carded. However, it was not to be as Suisse is a mighty defensive team and one player less in the team won't have a significant effect on their defensive wall play.
From this moment onwards, it was all Chilean attack, and that's when the way they play simply has the aura of Arsenal behind it. It was simply vintage Arsenal, a typical way of Arsenal playing the beautiful game. Graceful attacking football, but no finishing and thus no goal to show their dominance in the game, but it was largely thanks to the extreme solidity of the Swiss defense. The aforementioned incident about the Swiss employing some dark arts of the game happened at the 60th minute when there was an altercation between the two sets of players when the Swiss defender von Bergen showed his unprofessional side by falling theatrically onto the ground to get a Chilean player booked or even sent off. However, Chile was finally rewarded (with a slice of good fortune and a controversy) for their plentiful shots on goal when their substitute attacker Paredes was in an offside position to receive a through pass and then he crossed it for Mark Gonzalez to get a free header and head it past Diego Benaglio to finally bring the Swiss wall down. Firstly, Mark Gonzalez is not a player known for his heading ability. Secondly, the Swiss defense was non-existent as the CSKA Moscow player had a free header, and thirdly, the header bounced into the net instead of going over the bar.
However, the Swiss resembled Australia when they played against Ghana when Suisse managed to threaten the Chilean goal so many times at the closing minutes of the game, growing in confidence as Chile continued to miss chances after chances to make it 2-0 and totally kill off the game. However, they held on and Chile has won the game.
What's so interesting about Group H is that it's still pretty much very open. Assuming that Spain beat Honduras as expected in the upcoming match for today and the Swiss also beating Honduras in their penultimate game in the group, and then Chile lose to Spain in their penultimate game in the Group, then the three teams barring Honduras will be left with 6 points and goal difference will play a role in determining which team out of the three will have to fly back home early. Thus, despite two wins out of two, Marcelo Bielsa's boys still have an awful load of work to do when they face Spain. No matter what, they have to win. Things will get very complicated if Suisse and Spain manage to thrash Honduras heavily and all their efforts in winning their first two games in a row will all be wasted if Honduras loses all of their games, and Spain beat Chile in the last game. Basically, this Group turns out to be the most interesting group, even more open than the supposedly Group of Death of the tournament, Group G which has pretty much been concluded on which teams will be knocked out.
This match is a very crucial match in Group H, especially so for Chile. If they lose this match or being held to a draw, they will be in a real danger of not qualifying to the last 16 as the Swiss will be facing Honduras next while Chile will be facing Spain, who are poised to win their upcoming match against minnows Honduras. The match started in a really explosive fashion with Chile showing their hot and spicy brand of football with their extremely high octane style of play. The Swiss also kept up the tempo as they didn't want to be outdone by the South Americans. The first half an hour was a delight to watch and I dare say that it was even played in a faster tempo than the fabled high octane English Premier League games. However, the referee for this match was one who will not hesitate to blow his whistle and brandish plenty of cards and after players from both sides were booked for silly and simple reasons, The Swiss were outraged when Valon Behrami was sent off at the 30th minute when he elbowed two Chilean players in a row, even when it seemed that the Chilean players fell a bit too easily, but it happens all the time and even the Swiss resorted to this kind of dark arts of the game later on in the match. When the red card was brandished, many fans would have recalled the mighty collapse of Nigeria and Germany when one of their players was red carded. However, it was not to be as Suisse is a mighty defensive team and one player less in the team won't have a significant effect on their defensive wall play.
From this moment onwards, it was all Chilean attack, and that's when the way they play simply has the aura of Arsenal behind it. It was simply vintage Arsenal, a typical way of Arsenal playing the beautiful game. Graceful attacking football, but no finishing and thus no goal to show their dominance in the game, but it was largely thanks to the extreme solidity of the Swiss defense. The aforementioned incident about the Swiss employing some dark arts of the game happened at the 60th minute when there was an altercation between the two sets of players when the Swiss defender von Bergen showed his unprofessional side by falling theatrically onto the ground to get a Chilean player booked or even sent off. However, Chile was finally rewarded (with a slice of good fortune and a controversy) for their plentiful shots on goal when their substitute attacker Paredes was in an offside position to receive a through pass and then he crossed it for Mark Gonzalez to get a free header and head it past Diego Benaglio to finally bring the Swiss wall down. Firstly, Mark Gonzalez is not a player known for his heading ability. Secondly, the Swiss defense was non-existent as the CSKA Moscow player had a free header, and thirdly, the header bounced into the net instead of going over the bar.
However, the Swiss resembled Australia when they played against Ghana when Suisse managed to threaten the Chilean goal so many times at the closing minutes of the game, growing in confidence as Chile continued to miss chances after chances to make it 2-0 and totally kill off the game. However, they held on and Chile has won the game.
What's so interesting about Group H is that it's still pretty much very open. Assuming that Spain beat Honduras as expected in the upcoming match for today and the Swiss also beating Honduras in their penultimate game in the group, and then Chile lose to Spain in their penultimate game in the Group, then the three teams barring Honduras will be left with 6 points and goal difference will play a role in determining which team out of the three will have to fly back home early. Thus, despite two wins out of two, Marcelo Bielsa's boys still have an awful load of work to do when they face Spain. No matter what, they have to win. Things will get very complicated if Suisse and Spain manage to thrash Honduras heavily and all their efforts in winning their first two games in a row will all be wasted if Honduras loses all of their games, and Spain beat Chile in the last game. Basically, this Group turns out to be the most interesting group, even more open than the supposedly Group of Death of the tournament, Group G which has pretty much been concluded on which teams will be knocked out.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Portugal 7-0 DPR Korea World Cup 2010 Group G
It was simply a sickening second half of this match, simply abominable I almost shed some tears despite the fact that I am not a citizen of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Prior to the match, it was hoped and expected by neutrals as well as myself that this match would bring more surprises and drama especially after witnessing New Zealand's best ever football result ever against Italy yesterday, after Portugal's rather insipid 0-0 draw against Cote d'Ivoire after DPRK's gallant defeat against Brazil. It was simply too outrageous and too sad for the Asian side's brave and commendable journey in World Cup 2010. I, for one still could not fathom what really happened at half time in the DPRK dressing room. The Portuguese as well as everyone who supports them will staunchly argue that it was the sheer management expertize of Carlos Queiroz which inspired them to this massive victory which consigned the East Asian side to an early flight home. I am as sure as hell that something serious happened in the DPRK dressing room. But whether it was a similar case to what Tottenham's players experienced in the last match of 2005-06 season against West Ham, or whether it was because they received a stern telling off by the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il through video call or even a surprise appearance of the reclusive leader, we will not know, at least not now. One thing for sure, something abnormal was going on. The DPRK team that turned up at the start of the second half simply were not the same players as those playing in the first half.
To be fair to the Portuguese, they really played well by dominating the match. Let's not count the second half as the DPRK were simply not playing at all. They totally had no spirit at all throughout the second half and it was as good as a walkover for the Portugal as far as the second half is concerned. N the first half, Portugal really played well by dominating but the gallant Korean players simply held their line firmly, not letting their opponents to score against them. They even created quite a few chances at the other end but had no space nor time to execute a proper finish, not with their sole hope Jong Tae-Se totally shackled by Ricardo Carvalho, a huge rock in the Portugal defense. Actually, the first goal of the match was preceded by a controversial incident in which at the 27th minute, DPRK's Hong Yong-Jo was wrongly accused of offside when he was totally onside, and from the resulting free kick, Portugal scored the first goal, and arguably the killer goal of the match throught Raul Meireles. Even after the goal, all the way to the end of the first half, Portugal were not able to find the second goal, then it was half time. DPRK were still on with every chance to set up a remarkable comeback in the second half. However, the second half was truly horrible as mentioned at the beginning and I won't describe all the goals in detail as it is simply not worth it. Every goal was just like the Portuguese national team playing against an Under-12 side. It was that bad, and I am not even joking. The goals came from Miguel, Simao, H. Almeida and Tiago (from 50th to 59th minute) and from another spell of goals scored in quick succession by Liedson, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Tiago again from 80th to 87th minute.
This horrible defeat means that Portugal's last match against Brazil will be a cracker in determining which team finish at the top of the group or go through as runners-up although whether Portugal will try to win depends on Spain's performance in their two games against Honduras and Chile as both teams are likely to try their best to avoid Spain in the last 16. Basically, Portugal are 100% through to the last 16 as even if they lose against Brazil, with the massive goal difference separating Portugal and Ivory Coast, the Ivorians will need to win against DPRK by at least a whopping 9 goals. Even with the abominable performance in the second half, I am sure DPRK will want to save their faces, redeem themselves, and to go out from the World Cup with a bang by getting at least a point. Simply horrible, whatever happened at half time to the DPRK players must be serious and there's no joke at all.
To be fair to the Portuguese, they really played well by dominating the match. Let's not count the second half as the DPRK were simply not playing at all. They totally had no spirit at all throughout the second half and it was as good as a walkover for the Portugal as far as the second half is concerned. N the first half, Portugal really played well by dominating but the gallant Korean players simply held their line firmly, not letting their opponents to score against them. They even created quite a few chances at the other end but had no space nor time to execute a proper finish, not with their sole hope Jong Tae-Se totally shackled by Ricardo Carvalho, a huge rock in the Portugal defense. Actually, the first goal of the match was preceded by a controversial incident in which at the 27th minute, DPRK's Hong Yong-Jo was wrongly accused of offside when he was totally onside, and from the resulting free kick, Portugal scored the first goal, and arguably the killer goal of the match throught Raul Meireles. Even after the goal, all the way to the end of the first half, Portugal were not able to find the second goal, then it was half time. DPRK were still on with every chance to set up a remarkable comeback in the second half. However, the second half was truly horrible as mentioned at the beginning and I won't describe all the goals in detail as it is simply not worth it. Every goal was just like the Portuguese national team playing against an Under-12 side. It was that bad, and I am not even joking. The goals came from Miguel, Simao, H. Almeida and Tiago (from 50th to 59th minute) and from another spell of goals scored in quick succession by Liedson, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Tiago again from 80th to 87th minute.
This horrible defeat means that Portugal's last match against Brazil will be a cracker in determining which team finish at the top of the group or go through as runners-up although whether Portugal will try to win depends on Spain's performance in their two games against Honduras and Chile as both teams are likely to try their best to avoid Spain in the last 16. Basically, Portugal are 100% through to the last 16 as even if they lose against Brazil, with the massive goal difference separating Portugal and Ivory Coast, the Ivorians will need to win against DPRK by at least a whopping 9 goals. Even with the abominable performance in the second half, I am sure DPRK will want to save their faces, redeem themselves, and to go out from the World Cup with a bang by getting at least a point. Simply horrible, whatever happened at half time to the DPRK players must be serious and there's no joke at all.
Italy 1-1 New Zealand World Cup 2010 Group F
Moving on from the previous match which had little or no controversy and drama if there was any, now it's time for the ultimate David vs Goliath match so far. Alright, not many people support Italy (even some Italian guys that I know of support countries such as Spain). To be frank, I am also not a fan of Italy, no, not the food, not the country, not the team, but the selection policy of Marcelo Lippi. Alright, he has contributed a hell lot for Italian football, culminating in his World Cup victory in 2006. However, I am not a big fan of the way he has been selecting the players for gli Azzuri. Besides preferring to choose players who are 30 and older, he also chooses players on a like and dislike basis at a very personal level such that he refuses to call up absolutely able players such as Antonio Cassano and Fabrizio Miccoli just to name two just because he does not like them. But nevertheless, Italy is a very big name in the footballing universe, the defending champions in this World Cup, and thus they are the Goliath. Meanwhile, New Zealand is much more known for the All Blacks than the All Whites who are in the World Cup finals arguably because of Australia decided that the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) is a greener pasture for them. This is their first appearance in World Cup finals since their maiden appearance in 1982 and they have just collected their first point, along with the first goal in the previous match against Slovakia. To cut the long story short, they are the David.
On paper, this match was a shoe-in for Italy's obvious victory. Prior to the match, I was able to see many people dishing out bold predictions to the tune of 5-0 to Italy, which also happened prior to the match between Germany vs Serbia not so long ago, and we know how that match turned out. Thus, I wasn't drawn into that false image of a football game seemingly being concluded on paper and I knew something great is going to happen. Besides, just smarting from the lack of drama and controversy from the Slovakia vs Paraguay match, I was longing for more drama, more surprises, more controversy. Besides, I won't be ashamed to admit that I am pretty much an underdog guy, so yeah. Basically, I got everything that I wished for prior to the match, and the match turned out to be one hell of a complete package of whatever I had wished for as mentioned.
The match started with a surprise, the first thing that I wished for. New Zealand scored after only 6 minutes through their best attacking player Shane Smeltz, albeit a controversial one as he was in an offside position when he latched on to a lobbing free kick. Italy, who had started the match like someone who is jarred from a very deep REM sleep, suddenly felt a sense of urgency and started to dominate the match. However, another controversy as from here on (although the second half is not as bad as the first), the Italian players seem to fall down rather “very very easily” with the slightest of nudges bringing them down onto the pitch. Even if they have fouled an NZ player, they would just tumble down themselves to give the illusion that it was not a foul, but a crashing incident. At the 27th minute, Italy got what they want after Daniele de Rossi fell down quite easily in the penalty area, taking advantage of the fact that his shirt was grabbed moments earlier and V. Iaquinta equalized from the resulting penalty shot.
Besides both goals of the match, the first half also saw some incidents relating to the debates that have been raging about the Jabulani match ball. The first incident was when during Riccardo Montolivo's completely missed long range shot, the ball suddenly swerved wickedly mid flight and managed to clip the post, nearly entering the net. Another one was at the 45th minute, when de Rossi's long shot changed direction wickedly in mid air, and the NZ goalkeeper Mark Paston spilled it when he tried to parry it.
The second half also had its fair share of drama especially in the latter part of the game. Throughout this half, Italy also continued to dominate the game and threatened the New Zealand goal but they were not able to find a way through to score the winning goal mainly because of the great performance by the Kiwis' goalkeeper Mark Paston who made marvelous saves to deny Italy. He's my personal choice for the man of the match for this game. New Zealand also gathered confidence little by little as time passed and they even came close through substitute C. Wood at the 82nd minute, which would be a historical day for New Zealand as a whole if that goal had gone in! As an underdog guy, the last 10 minutes of the game (ie. From 85th minute all the way to the end of the 4 minutes injury time) seemed to have been an eternity and also a passionate period of time such that just like during the first NZ game against Slovakia, I felt like what a New Zealander would have felt during the aforementioned 10 minutes period. Ultimately, New Zealand held on despite memories from a certain Man Utd 4-3 Man City match last season started to haunt me but ultimately, that kind of silly capitulation didn't happen to the Kiwis despite the referee prolonged the injury time for a bit at the end of the 94th minute. Truly a historical day for the Kiwis as they managed to hold the defending champions of the World Cup 1-1 and they managed to match the Italians in all departments as they even came close to winning this one to boot!
New Zealand could etch even more history and spring even more surprises by qualifying to the last 16 by defeating Paraguay, as unlikely as it sounds, but don't write off the Kiwis just yet before the final whistle of that match has been blown. As for Italy, this draw is not as fatal as it seems (as far as their World Cup chances is concerned) as they only need to win against Slovakia in their final game in Group F regardless of what happens in the New Zealand match. In any case, just for this night at least, the All Whites of New Zealand have stolen the good spotlights from their more illustrious All Blacks rugby team counterpart!
On paper, this match was a shoe-in for Italy's obvious victory. Prior to the match, I was able to see many people dishing out bold predictions to the tune of 5-0 to Italy, which also happened prior to the match between Germany vs Serbia not so long ago, and we know how that match turned out. Thus, I wasn't drawn into that false image of a football game seemingly being concluded on paper and I knew something great is going to happen. Besides, just smarting from the lack of drama and controversy from the Slovakia vs Paraguay match, I was longing for more drama, more surprises, more controversy. Besides, I won't be ashamed to admit that I am pretty much an underdog guy, so yeah. Basically, I got everything that I wished for prior to the match, and the match turned out to be one hell of a complete package of whatever I had wished for as mentioned.
The match started with a surprise, the first thing that I wished for. New Zealand scored after only 6 minutes through their best attacking player Shane Smeltz, albeit a controversial one as he was in an offside position when he latched on to a lobbing free kick. Italy, who had started the match like someone who is jarred from a very deep REM sleep, suddenly felt a sense of urgency and started to dominate the match. However, another controversy as from here on (although the second half is not as bad as the first), the Italian players seem to fall down rather “very very easily” with the slightest of nudges bringing them down onto the pitch. Even if they have fouled an NZ player, they would just tumble down themselves to give the illusion that it was not a foul, but a crashing incident. At the 27th minute, Italy got what they want after Daniele de Rossi fell down quite easily in the penalty area, taking advantage of the fact that his shirt was grabbed moments earlier and V. Iaquinta equalized from the resulting penalty shot.
Besides both goals of the match, the first half also saw some incidents relating to the debates that have been raging about the Jabulani match ball. The first incident was when during Riccardo Montolivo's completely missed long range shot, the ball suddenly swerved wickedly mid flight and managed to clip the post, nearly entering the net. Another one was at the 45th minute, when de Rossi's long shot changed direction wickedly in mid air, and the NZ goalkeeper Mark Paston spilled it when he tried to parry it.
The second half also had its fair share of drama especially in the latter part of the game. Throughout this half, Italy also continued to dominate the game and threatened the New Zealand goal but they were not able to find a way through to score the winning goal mainly because of the great performance by the Kiwis' goalkeeper Mark Paston who made marvelous saves to deny Italy. He's my personal choice for the man of the match for this game. New Zealand also gathered confidence little by little as time passed and they even came close through substitute C. Wood at the 82nd minute, which would be a historical day for New Zealand as a whole if that goal had gone in! As an underdog guy, the last 10 minutes of the game (ie. From 85th minute all the way to the end of the 4 minutes injury time) seemed to have been an eternity and also a passionate period of time such that just like during the first NZ game against Slovakia, I felt like what a New Zealander would have felt during the aforementioned 10 minutes period. Ultimately, New Zealand held on despite memories from a certain Man Utd 4-3 Man City match last season started to haunt me but ultimately, that kind of silly capitulation didn't happen to the Kiwis despite the referee prolonged the injury time for a bit at the end of the 94th minute. Truly a historical day for the Kiwis as they managed to hold the defending champions of the World Cup 1-1 and they managed to match the Italians in all departments as they even came close to winning this one to boot!
New Zealand could etch even more history and spring even more surprises by qualifying to the last 16 by defeating Paraguay, as unlikely as it sounds, but don't write off the Kiwis just yet before the final whistle of that match has been blown. As for Italy, this draw is not as fatal as it seems (as far as their World Cup chances is concerned) as they only need to win against Slovakia in their final game in Group F regardless of what happens in the New Zealand match. In any case, just for this night at least, the All Whites of New Zealand have stolen the good spotlights from their more illustrious All Blacks rugby team counterpart!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Slovakia 0-2 Paraguay World Cup 2010 Group F
On paper, Paraguay have just secured their qualification to the last 16 with this rather one sided victory over the hapless Slovakia in the sparsely filled Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein who is also, on paper, edging ever closer to an early flight home. Why on paper? It is because although there is still one match to go in Group F, Paraguay's next match will be against minnows New Zealand while Slovakia's next match will be against the defending champions Italy. Again, while these matches are seemingly to have been concluded on paper, football matches are not won on paper and there could still be more surprises in store for all of us on the last match-day of Group F. To be frank, this match was devoid of all the drama, the goal flood, the excitement that have been evident in the past few days. To emphasize on the lack of exciting points to take note of, this match was even devoid of any debates to be raised pertaining to the much maligned Jabulani match ball.
From the onset, this match was thoroughly dominated by Paraguay to prove the gulf of class between the Eastern European side and the Latin American flavor brought all the way from South America to this match. It seems that the reason why Slovakia looked half decent in the match against New Zealand (at least before the last minute Kiwi goal) was because of the fact that their opponents were the All Whites, that's all. The dominance shown in ust 27 minutes when Paraguay took the lead through H. Vera with a nice shot lobbed into the net when he was closed down by two Slovakian defenders. Even though just like any teams in this World Cup that is a goal down, Slovakia started to show some sense of urgency and started to attack Paraguay but none of those attacks was incisive and their attacking spells were only up to the end of the first half.
The second half started when the commentator reminded us that the stadium floodlights were switched on despite the fact that the sky was very bright. I am not sure myself on what's the deal with the switched on floodlights. Was it to dispel any myths about Africa being short on uninterrupted electrical supply? Or was it simply the standard operating procedure? Or was it perhaps because of a precautionary measure in anticipation of an unpredictable weather in this era of Global Warming? Who knows?
What's interesting about the way the Paraguayans play is that when the Slovaks were in possession, the Paraguay players simply closed them down no matter where they are and even the Slovak goalkeeper was not spared as we were able to see a Tevez like closing down on the Slovak goalkeeper Mucha. Basically, the Slovaks were not allowed to be with the ball for more than 2-3 seconds at most before being dispossessed by the extremely strong Paraguayan players as this style of play, especially throughout the match as this style requires a very strong stamina.
In a game devoid of any notable points, Paraguay finally managed to have something to take note of as they scored the second and arguably the proverbial killer goal at the 85th minute which put the result of the game beyond doubt. Although Slovakia managed to test the Paraguayan goalkeeper for the first and only time in the match in the very last minute of the stoppage time when Robert Vittek had his long range shot saved.
As mentioned at the beginning in the first paragraph, Paraguay will face New Zealand next which they are expected to defeat to secure their spot in the last 16, while Slovakia will be facing a very tough test against Italy, still a top team despite being much criticized for their average age and great players criminally excluded from the squad. However, don't think Group F has been settled, as I am pretty damn sure that there will be more surprises, starting from the upcoming match between Italy and New Zealand.
From the onset, this match was thoroughly dominated by Paraguay to prove the gulf of class between the Eastern European side and the Latin American flavor brought all the way from South America to this match. It seems that the reason why Slovakia looked half decent in the match against New Zealand (at least before the last minute Kiwi goal) was because of the fact that their opponents were the All Whites, that's all. The dominance shown in ust 27 minutes when Paraguay took the lead through H. Vera with a nice shot lobbed into the net when he was closed down by two Slovakian defenders. Even though just like any teams in this World Cup that is a goal down, Slovakia started to show some sense of urgency and started to attack Paraguay but none of those attacks was incisive and their attacking spells were only up to the end of the first half.
The second half started when the commentator reminded us that the stadium floodlights were switched on despite the fact that the sky was very bright. I am not sure myself on what's the deal with the switched on floodlights. Was it to dispel any myths about Africa being short on uninterrupted electrical supply? Or was it simply the standard operating procedure? Or was it perhaps because of a precautionary measure in anticipation of an unpredictable weather in this era of Global Warming? Who knows?
What's interesting about the way the Paraguayans play is that when the Slovaks were in possession, the Paraguay players simply closed them down no matter where they are and even the Slovak goalkeeper was not spared as we were able to see a Tevez like closing down on the Slovak goalkeeper Mucha. Basically, the Slovaks were not allowed to be with the ball for more than 2-3 seconds at most before being dispossessed by the extremely strong Paraguayan players as this style of play, especially throughout the match as this style requires a very strong stamina.
In a game devoid of any notable points, Paraguay finally managed to have something to take note of as they scored the second and arguably the proverbial killer goal at the 85th minute which put the result of the game beyond doubt. Although Slovakia managed to test the Paraguayan goalkeeper for the first and only time in the match in the very last minute of the stoppage time when Robert Vittek had his long range shot saved.
As mentioned at the beginning in the first paragraph, Paraguay will face New Zealand next which they are expected to defeat to secure their spot in the last 16, while Slovakia will be facing a very tough test against Italy, still a top team despite being much criticized for their average age and great players criminally excluded from the squad. However, don't think Group F has been settled, as I am pretty damn sure that there will be more surprises, starting from the upcoming match between Italy and New Zealand.
Ghana 1-1 Australia World Cup 2010 Group D
Prior to this entertaining match, I have to admit that I was too carried away by Ghana's 1-0 victory against Serbia in their first match as well as Australia's 4-0 collapse against Germany in which I should not have been like that at all. This culminated when a family member (who is not well versed in football at all) asked me, “What's so good about Ghana? Ghana is bad!”. Well, I strongly felt that Ghana is a strong team, due to the aforementioned illusion from the first games, as well as a fond memory of Ghana gloriously defeating Czech Republic back in 2006 World Cup in which I still remember what Stephen Appiah had said in his interview after that victory. So there was a conflict between the “I and me” in my mind as I wanted to answer him that Ghana is very strong while my subconscious football instinct whispered me otherwise. Thus, I settled by answering him that “At the very least, Ghana is much stronger than a certain country” (sorry but I don't wish to name that country, but that answer will create a definite impression to anyone let alone that family member of mine that Ghana is a strong team). I should have known better that Ghana is after all not that great, especially so in attack.
In this match, the Jabulani debate once again rears its ugly head once again. After a few days of relative quiet about this, Jabulani simply refuses to let go of the microscopic attention as well as the massive spotlights on it. It seems that it is trying its best to obtain the World Cup 2010 golden ball and even more ambitiously, it seems intent on winning this year's TIME Person of the Year. Australia started the match with technically no striker at all since the one leading their attack was Harry Kewell whose natural position is not a striker, let alone a targetman. Joachim Low, the Germany manager was also seen in the stands seemingly to scout on Ghana, their next opponents. Australia started attacking aggressively, seemingly desperate to banish all those criticisms and condemnations directed to them no thanks to their heavy 4-0 defeat against Germany. The aforementioned Jabulani debate erupted again when the Aussies scored after only ten minutes of play. The Ghanaian keeper Richard Kingson becomes the next goalkeeper to spill a long range shot, this time from Mark Bresciano's direct free kick and Brett Holman was only too happy to pounce onto the rebound and score to give Australia the 1-0 lead. As mentioned previously, Jabulani seems not ready to give up the spotlight, isn't it? A ball who has plenty of balls. Good pun, no?
Sense of urgency for Ghana, but they did not seem to be incisive in their attacks against the Aussies. (A chronic illness in this Ghanaian squad which I realized only much much later in the game). However, first major drama in the game as well as a major controversy in this match. At the 23rd minute, Ghana launched a long shot from outside of the penalty area which was destined to be into the net, but Harry Kewell was at the right hand post and he simply used his chest to keep the ball out. However, the ball simply bounced along his body and hit his right arm in the process before going out. The Italian referee Roberto Rosetti simply treated it as a deliberate handball to prevent a clear goalscoring opportunity and he promptly dished out a red card for Kewell and thus Australia have 2 sending offs in a row, and Ghana was awarded a penalty kick due to handball, just like the previous match against Serbia. Also, just like that match, Asamoah Gyan sent Mark Schwarzer the wrong way to score with his ice cool nerves from the spot. 2 out of 2 for Gyan from the spot. 1-1. So far, Nigeria and Germany have collapsed due to a sending off, and had that happened to Australia and had they lost heavily to Australia, it would have served the Aussies nothing more than intensifying their Italophobia as World Cup 2006 is still fresh in their minds.
The second half of the match simply saw the increasing intensity of the attacks of both teams, especially Australia. Surprise surprise. Despite having one less man than the Ghanaians, the Australians didn't show any signs of hindrance to their game let alone the potential collapse. In fact, the Australians were trying to gun down a victory, basically trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as they brought on two strikers from their bench on the 65th and 67th minute and they are Scott Chipperfield and Josh “Jesus” Kennedy. The nickname comes from his beards and long hairdo that he sports by the way, but he didn't manage to live up to that nickname by becoming the Aussie's messiah tonight. Despite the see-sawing of attacking moves between the two teams, Australia was the team that looked like scoring at anytime and clinch a victory compared to Ghana who statistically dominated the game (with about 20 shots throughout the game) but they are so impotent in front of goal that those shots count for nothing. Their impotence in front of goal is simply what I was trying to point out about the “chronic sickness” that this Ghanaian team is unfortunate enough to have. At the 84th minute, the Australians brought on even more attacker by bringing in the Ukrainian born Nikita Rukavytsya. While the Ghanaians brought on Quincy Owusu Abeyle, Sulley Ali Muntari at the 56th and 76th minute respectively and also bringing in Matthew Amoah at the 87th minute, but still, it did not cure their impotence.
Although in the end, none of the teams managed to score more goals for the match, amazingly, the Australians ended up having no less than three strikers on the pitch with ten men when they started the match without any striker as mentioned earlier. The match, however, ended rather unceremoniously ith the sight of John Pantsil being stretchered off with his white shirt heavily stained red with blood due to a collision with Josh Kennedy in an aerial duel.
In the end, Ghana failed to clinch a victory and progress to the last 16 while the Australians would be happy with their performance with 10 men in the game and the fact that they are pretty much still alive in the competition. They play Serbia next and it is of course a must win game now for them to have any hopes of progressing but they will not be with the sent off Kewell and solid veteran defender Craig Moore who collected his second yellow card of the tournament, although Tim Cahill will be back to boost their chances.
While for Ghana, they are up against Germany next. On paper, it is no contest, as Germany have too much class to lose against Ghana. However, football matches are not won on paper, but still, judging from how impotent Ghana is besides from the penalty spot (and how many times could they rely on that?) and how Germany must be fired up now to win the remaining game as to progress into the last 16 and to forever bury the embarrassment they suffered in their recent defeat against Serbia once and for all. Ghana is in a tight spot, unless they are able to cure their impotence in front of goal, I am afraid to say that they have little chance of getting anything from the last game against Germany let alone a victory against Joachim Low's boys.
In this match, the Jabulani debate once again rears its ugly head once again. After a few days of relative quiet about this, Jabulani simply refuses to let go of the microscopic attention as well as the massive spotlights on it. It seems that it is trying its best to obtain the World Cup 2010 golden ball and even more ambitiously, it seems intent on winning this year's TIME Person of the Year. Australia started the match with technically no striker at all since the one leading their attack was Harry Kewell whose natural position is not a striker, let alone a targetman. Joachim Low, the Germany manager was also seen in the stands seemingly to scout on Ghana, their next opponents. Australia started attacking aggressively, seemingly desperate to banish all those criticisms and condemnations directed to them no thanks to their heavy 4-0 defeat against Germany. The aforementioned Jabulani debate erupted again when the Aussies scored after only ten minutes of play. The Ghanaian keeper Richard Kingson becomes the next goalkeeper to spill a long range shot, this time from Mark Bresciano's direct free kick and Brett Holman was only too happy to pounce onto the rebound and score to give Australia the 1-0 lead. As mentioned previously, Jabulani seems not ready to give up the spotlight, isn't it? A ball who has plenty of balls. Good pun, no?
Sense of urgency for Ghana, but they did not seem to be incisive in their attacks against the Aussies. (A chronic illness in this Ghanaian squad which I realized only much much later in the game). However, first major drama in the game as well as a major controversy in this match. At the 23rd minute, Ghana launched a long shot from outside of the penalty area which was destined to be into the net, but Harry Kewell was at the right hand post and he simply used his chest to keep the ball out. However, the ball simply bounced along his body and hit his right arm in the process before going out. The Italian referee Roberto Rosetti simply treated it as a deliberate handball to prevent a clear goalscoring opportunity and he promptly dished out a red card for Kewell and thus Australia have 2 sending offs in a row, and Ghana was awarded a penalty kick due to handball, just like the previous match against Serbia. Also, just like that match, Asamoah Gyan sent Mark Schwarzer the wrong way to score with his ice cool nerves from the spot. 2 out of 2 for Gyan from the spot. 1-1. So far, Nigeria and Germany have collapsed due to a sending off, and had that happened to Australia and had they lost heavily to Australia, it would have served the Aussies nothing more than intensifying their Italophobia as World Cup 2006 is still fresh in their minds.
The second half of the match simply saw the increasing intensity of the attacks of both teams, especially Australia. Surprise surprise. Despite having one less man than the Ghanaians, the Australians didn't show any signs of hindrance to their game let alone the potential collapse. In fact, the Australians were trying to gun down a victory, basically trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as they brought on two strikers from their bench on the 65th and 67th minute and they are Scott Chipperfield and Josh “Jesus” Kennedy. The nickname comes from his beards and long hairdo that he sports by the way, but he didn't manage to live up to that nickname by becoming the Aussie's messiah tonight. Despite the see-sawing of attacking moves between the two teams, Australia was the team that looked like scoring at anytime and clinch a victory compared to Ghana who statistically dominated the game (with about 20 shots throughout the game) but they are so impotent in front of goal that those shots count for nothing. Their impotence in front of goal is simply what I was trying to point out about the “chronic sickness” that this Ghanaian team is unfortunate enough to have. At the 84th minute, the Australians brought on even more attacker by bringing in the Ukrainian born Nikita Rukavytsya. While the Ghanaians brought on Quincy Owusu Abeyle, Sulley Ali Muntari at the 56th and 76th minute respectively and also bringing in Matthew Amoah at the 87th minute, but still, it did not cure their impotence.
Although in the end, none of the teams managed to score more goals for the match, amazingly, the Australians ended up having no less than three strikers on the pitch with ten men when they started the match without any striker as mentioned earlier. The match, however, ended rather unceremoniously ith the sight of John Pantsil being stretchered off with his white shirt heavily stained red with blood due to a collision with Josh Kennedy in an aerial duel.
In the end, Ghana failed to clinch a victory and progress to the last 16 while the Australians would be happy with their performance with 10 men in the game and the fact that they are pretty much still alive in the competition. They play Serbia next and it is of course a must win game now for them to have any hopes of progressing but they will not be with the sent off Kewell and solid veteran defender Craig Moore who collected his second yellow card of the tournament, although Tim Cahill will be back to boost their chances.
While for Ghana, they are up against Germany next. On paper, it is no contest, as Germany have too much class to lose against Ghana. However, football matches are not won on paper, but still, judging from how impotent Ghana is besides from the penalty spot (and how many times could they rely on that?) and how Germany must be fired up now to win the remaining game as to progress into the last 16 and to forever bury the embarrassment they suffered in their recent defeat against Serbia once and for all. Ghana is in a tight spot, unless they are able to cure their impotence in front of goal, I am afraid to say that they have little chance of getting anything from the last game against Germany let alone a victory against Joachim Low's boys.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Holland 1-0 Japan World Cup 2010 Group E
First off, congratulations for Holland as they have just become the second country after Argentina to successfully qualify to the last 16 of World Cup 2010 with the narrow 1-0 victory over Japan in Durban. OK, one personal note about Durban before I continue on with the match. When I was younger and “stupidier”, upon seeing the word “Durban”, the first and only thing that comes into my mind was male underwear. Before anyone starts to doubt my sexual orientation, it's because I saw that brand of the briefs quite frequently but as I grow up, I got to know that Durban is actually one of the big cities in South Africa. Continuing on with the match, the scoreline seemed so unflattering after fans have expected a continuation of the goal flood from the last few days in the tournament. Nevertheless, this match had its fair share of excitement as well as some interesting talking points.
Looking at both teams, starting off from Holland, in my opinion the most crucial player for the Oranje (the commentator pronounced it as Oran-gee, but I am not sure myself, so I might have to clarify with a Dutchman (or girl)) is Nigel de Jong and not Sneijder and Robben, who was on the bench and served more as Holland's insurance policy of sorts if they find themselves in a tough spot. This is not to take anything away from the Holland no. 10 and 11 (especially the former, the scorer of the winning goal in this match), but it can be argued that the Dutch team would not be so compact, organized, and at ease if de Jong is not present in the “Makelele” role. Perhaps this opinion of mine was formed from the fateful (I am a Madridista) memory about Real Madrid's catastrophic collapse when they unceremoniously sold Makelele to Chelsea in 2004 but still, I believe this Dutch team will not be the same without the Manchester City man. Another point to take note of for this Dutch team is that Robin van Persie seems to be unfit and out of sorts in this match as well as in the Denmark match. It's likely that his injury ravaged season with Arsenal has taken its toll.
As for the Japanese team, their main man is actually not Keisuke Hondas as many fans would be fiercely arguing especially with him scoring the winning goal against Cameroon in their first match in the competition but their indispensable key man was undoubtedly defender Tulio as the Brazilian born was an absolute tower in the Japanese defense thwarting waves after waves of the attack from the Dutch in this match and also Japan's biggest attacking threat through set pieces as well as when Tulio moved up front in the last 10 minutes to become a makeshift striker. Also, he's my personal choice for the man of the match in this match.
The first half started with a possible controversy when at 8th minute Robin van Persie seemed to kick out at Japan's Komano until the Japanese was stretchered off and received some treatments and at 25th minute when van Persie flailed his elbow on Nakazawa. It's difficult to ascertain whether those were intentional, but I'll just include those fr the record in case this debate surfaces tomorrow in the papers.
Holland generally dominated the match with the possession as much as 75% in Oranje's favor, but they were not able to score. In fact, the most precise shot in the first half was Keisuke Honda's free kick in which the ball managed to hit the camera behind the goal.
The second half as usual was eventful and also where the goal was. The Jabulani debate set to be re-ignited again after it has settled in the past few days as at the 52nd minute, Sneijder launched a blistering long range shot to score a super goal in which the Japanese goalkeeper didn't manage to keep out. Replay suggested that the Japanese keeper had anticipated the flight of the ball but the bal might have changed its flight abruptly in flight. In any case, 1-0 for Holland.
Right after the goal, sense of urgency crept into the Japanese side as they tried to be more attacking., and also bringing in Shunsuke Nakamura hoping to exploit his dead ball specialty to score. They also brought on two more strikers Okazaki and Tamada and for the last 10 minutes even employed defnder Tulio as a makeshift striker as mentioned above, but they didn't manage to threat Maarten Stekelenburg's goal at all.
As for the Dutch, their substitutions proved to be interesting with the introductions of Eljero Elia, Klaas jan Huntelaar, and Ibrahim Afellay. Afellay almost made instant impact twice as he almost scored in two occasions. Eljero Elia also further showed why fans have increasingly demanding Bert van Marwijk to play Elia right from the start. Huntelaar also proved one more time that indifferent club performance might not be a reliable yardstick as he almost set up Afellay in one of his two close calls. Huntelaar certainly made more impact than the aforementioned unfit and out of sorts van Persie did throughout the match.
As mentioned, Holland has managed to qualify to the last 16 with 2 wins out of 2 while Japan will now have to win against Denmark if they want to qualify to the last 16 as well and keep Takeshi Okada's brave target of semi-finals alive. How easy or hard Japan's task would depend on the result of the match between Denmark and Cameroon. In any case, all over the Netherlands is sure to be painted orange in celebration of Holland's achievement!
Looking at both teams, starting off from Holland, in my opinion the most crucial player for the Oranje (the commentator pronounced it as Oran-gee, but I am not sure myself, so I might have to clarify with a Dutchman (or girl)) is Nigel de Jong and not Sneijder and Robben, who was on the bench and served more as Holland's insurance policy of sorts if they find themselves in a tough spot. This is not to take anything away from the Holland no. 10 and 11 (especially the former, the scorer of the winning goal in this match), but it can be argued that the Dutch team would not be so compact, organized, and at ease if de Jong is not present in the “Makelele” role. Perhaps this opinion of mine was formed from the fateful (I am a Madridista) memory about Real Madrid's catastrophic collapse when they unceremoniously sold Makelele to Chelsea in 2004 but still, I believe this Dutch team will not be the same without the Manchester City man. Another point to take note of for this Dutch team is that Robin van Persie seems to be unfit and out of sorts in this match as well as in the Denmark match. It's likely that his injury ravaged season with Arsenal has taken its toll.
As for the Japanese team, their main man is actually not Keisuke Hondas as many fans would be fiercely arguing especially with him scoring the winning goal against Cameroon in their first match in the competition but their indispensable key man was undoubtedly defender Tulio as the Brazilian born was an absolute tower in the Japanese defense thwarting waves after waves of the attack from the Dutch in this match and also Japan's biggest attacking threat through set pieces as well as when Tulio moved up front in the last 10 minutes to become a makeshift striker. Also, he's my personal choice for the man of the match in this match.
The first half started with a possible controversy when at 8th minute Robin van Persie seemed to kick out at Japan's Komano until the Japanese was stretchered off and received some treatments and at 25th minute when van Persie flailed his elbow on Nakazawa. It's difficult to ascertain whether those were intentional, but I'll just include those fr the record in case this debate surfaces tomorrow in the papers.
Holland generally dominated the match with the possession as much as 75% in Oranje's favor, but they were not able to score. In fact, the most precise shot in the first half was Keisuke Honda's free kick in which the ball managed to hit the camera behind the goal.
The second half as usual was eventful and also where the goal was. The Jabulani debate set to be re-ignited again after it has settled in the past few days as at the 52nd minute, Sneijder launched a blistering long range shot to score a super goal in which the Japanese goalkeeper didn't manage to keep out. Replay suggested that the Japanese keeper had anticipated the flight of the ball but the bal might have changed its flight abruptly in flight. In any case, 1-0 for Holland.
Right after the goal, sense of urgency crept into the Japanese side as they tried to be more attacking., and also bringing in Shunsuke Nakamura hoping to exploit his dead ball specialty to score. They also brought on two more strikers Okazaki and Tamada and for the last 10 minutes even employed defnder Tulio as a makeshift striker as mentioned above, but they didn't manage to threat Maarten Stekelenburg's goal at all.
As for the Dutch, their substitutions proved to be interesting with the introductions of Eljero Elia, Klaas jan Huntelaar, and Ibrahim Afellay. Afellay almost made instant impact twice as he almost scored in two occasions. Eljero Elia also further showed why fans have increasingly demanding Bert van Marwijk to play Elia right from the start. Huntelaar also proved one more time that indifferent club performance might not be a reliable yardstick as he almost set up Afellay in one of his two close calls. Huntelaar certainly made more impact than the aforementioned unfit and out of sorts van Persie did throughout the match.
As mentioned, Holland has managed to qualify to the last 16 with 2 wins out of 2 while Japan will now have to win against Denmark if they want to qualify to the last 16 as well and keep Takeshi Okada's brave target of semi-finals alive. How easy or hard Japan's task would depend on the result of the match between Denmark and Cameroon. In any case, all over the Netherlands is sure to be painted orange in celebration of Holland's achievement!
Slovenia 2-2 USA World Cup 2010 Group C
I am still stunned, absolutely stunned. What a soccer drama it was. (To English people out there, I am so sorry, this is USA's night). What a game of soccer I had the privilege to watch all the way from the start to finish. Throughout this World Cup so far, not a single day has passed without records being broken, history being set, basically there's no day without a memorable World Cup moment. From how Slovenia recorded their first ever victory in the World Cup finals, as well as the Greeks winning and scoring for the first time, the South Koreans winning for the first time outside of Asia, and so on and so on and so on. In this soccer match, history was about to happen, as Slovenia was on the brink of their first ever qualification from the Group Stage in the World Cup, but just like the previous match between Germany and Serbia, football has another surprise in store for all of us. Many people including myself were quite skeptical prior to this match, thinking that this match would have been a boring match which is likely to end 1-0 or even 0-0. My gosh how we were totally wrong. We thought this match was about to be consigned to only lurk beneath the shadow of the previous match today and totally forgotten. But this match totally eclipsed the Germany match. It was full of wonderful goals, controversies throughout the match, pure entertainment, heart-stopping moments, basically full of World Cup moments to remember. A family member commented, “It's strange how soccer could make people go crazy...” Well, I didn't answer his question solidly back then, but it's because of matches like this we as soccer fans totally go crazy and let all hell break loose.
As mentioned, this match is simply crucial for both teams. For the Slovenians, a win would make them the second country after Argentina to qualify to the last 16 of the competition, while for the USA, a victory for them will keep their World Cup hopes alive. Slovenia almost made history but in the end they were pegged back and even almost defeated but for a huge controversy while the USA would be regretting how their defense was so porous in the first half.
The first ten minutes of the match turned out to be quite boring as I was about to switch off for a moment when I was suddenly awaken, violently but pleasantly when the Slovenian number 10 V. Birsa scored with a thunderous long range shot. This is history in itself as this was the first long range shot that actually got into the goal perfectly. It seems that Jabulani has been conquered after all those controversy about this “crazy little soccer ball”. 1-0 for Slovenia. The very first controversial referee decision was at the 39th minute when R. Findley of USA was wrongly booked for handball and he will miss the next crucial match against Algeria. The US defense continued to be porous and they conceded one more goal at the 41st minute through Zlatan Ljublianjik from a great defense splitting through ball. 2-0 for Slovenia and interestingly, both of the goals celebration by Slovenian players slightly resembled the Balinese traditional kecak dance.
By half time, it looked like Slovenia was set to follow right behind Argentina to qualify for the last 16 of the competition, but then again, it would take a fool to jump into that conclusion before the final whistle has been blown, let alone at half time. The second half started with a bang at 47th minute when Landon Donovan, US' best and most well known player scored a wonder goal from a tight angle to peg one back for USA and give them a glimmer of hope to get something out of this match or even launching a remarkable comeback from 2 goals down. This match also had its own crazy moments, WWE moments to be precise, maybe it's USA playing, that's why. At 59th minute, Clint Dempsey was seen executing a DDT on a Slovenia defender that left the player on the ground for a while. At the 62nd minute, it was Jozy Altidore's turn to execute an arm bar takedown on Suler but he was countered by the Slovenian defender.
Another controversial moment came at 69th minute when Jozy Altidore burst through the Slovenian penalty box and he was pulled back by Suler. Suler was only given a yellow card when he should have sent off as he was the last man and he prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity. USA tried to attack by substituting defender Oguchi Onyewu for striker Herculez Gomez. Prior to the sub, a few more controversial decisions against the USA by the referee but Slovenian players also started collecting yellow cards. One minute after that at the 81st minute Michael Bradley, the son of the US manager Bob Bradley heroically and dramatically clinched a great equalizer shooting with power from an Altidore flick on. This shook the stadium and stunned Slovenia who thought they have won this match. This also justified Bob Bradley's inclusion of his son when he was heavily criticized for a nepotism selection. The biggest controversy among all the controversies so far was at the 85th minute when the USA got a free kick near the penalty area near the corner flag and Maurice Edu scored for what supposed to be a marvelous winning goal but the Malian referee Coulibaly strangely chalked that totally legitimate goal off. From the replays, it could be seen that there was no foul, nor offside, nor any other infringements, and yet the goal was chalked off. What a moment that sent even me jumping in the air for that goal. But the referee got a decision correct when at the last minute, he didn't give Clint Dempsey a free kick as he simply slipped on the ground.
From this dramatic result, Slovenia didn't manage to become the second country after Argentina to qualify for the last 16 despite being ever so close to that achievement and that USA is still pretty much in the World Cup. Now, the USA have to win against Algeria to ensure their qualifications while for the rest of the possible permutations and combinations, it would totally depend on the result of the upcoming match between England and Algeria and since I don't like mathematics, and mathematics does not like me, I shall leave the mathematics to those who are well versed in the subject. In any case, it was truly a classic match with a complete entertainment package. Congratulations to both teams for this marvelous match!
As mentioned, this match is simply crucial for both teams. For the Slovenians, a win would make them the second country after Argentina to qualify to the last 16 of the competition, while for the USA, a victory for them will keep their World Cup hopes alive. Slovenia almost made history but in the end they were pegged back and even almost defeated but for a huge controversy while the USA would be regretting how their defense was so porous in the first half.
The first ten minutes of the match turned out to be quite boring as I was about to switch off for a moment when I was suddenly awaken, violently but pleasantly when the Slovenian number 10 V. Birsa scored with a thunderous long range shot. This is history in itself as this was the first long range shot that actually got into the goal perfectly. It seems that Jabulani has been conquered after all those controversy about this “crazy little soccer ball”. 1-0 for Slovenia. The very first controversial referee decision was at the 39th minute when R. Findley of USA was wrongly booked for handball and he will miss the next crucial match against Algeria. The US defense continued to be porous and they conceded one more goal at the 41st minute through Zlatan Ljublianjik from a great defense splitting through ball. 2-0 for Slovenia and interestingly, both of the goals celebration by Slovenian players slightly resembled the Balinese traditional kecak dance.
By half time, it looked like Slovenia was set to follow right behind Argentina to qualify for the last 16 of the competition, but then again, it would take a fool to jump into that conclusion before the final whistle has been blown, let alone at half time. The second half started with a bang at 47th minute when Landon Donovan, US' best and most well known player scored a wonder goal from a tight angle to peg one back for USA and give them a glimmer of hope to get something out of this match or even launching a remarkable comeback from 2 goals down. This match also had its own crazy moments, WWE moments to be precise, maybe it's USA playing, that's why. At 59th minute, Clint Dempsey was seen executing a DDT on a Slovenia defender that left the player on the ground for a while. At the 62nd minute, it was Jozy Altidore's turn to execute an arm bar takedown on Suler but he was countered by the Slovenian defender.
Another controversial moment came at 69th minute when Jozy Altidore burst through the Slovenian penalty box and he was pulled back by Suler. Suler was only given a yellow card when he should have sent off as he was the last man and he prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity. USA tried to attack by substituting defender Oguchi Onyewu for striker Herculez Gomez. Prior to the sub, a few more controversial decisions against the USA by the referee but Slovenian players also started collecting yellow cards. One minute after that at the 81st minute Michael Bradley, the son of the US manager Bob Bradley heroically and dramatically clinched a great equalizer shooting with power from an Altidore flick on. This shook the stadium and stunned Slovenia who thought they have won this match. This also justified Bob Bradley's inclusion of his son when he was heavily criticized for a nepotism selection. The biggest controversy among all the controversies so far was at the 85th minute when the USA got a free kick near the penalty area near the corner flag and Maurice Edu scored for what supposed to be a marvelous winning goal but the Malian referee Coulibaly strangely chalked that totally legitimate goal off. From the replays, it could be seen that there was no foul, nor offside, nor any other infringements, and yet the goal was chalked off. What a moment that sent even me jumping in the air for that goal. But the referee got a decision correct when at the last minute, he didn't give Clint Dempsey a free kick as he simply slipped on the ground.
From this dramatic result, Slovenia didn't manage to become the second country after Argentina to qualify for the last 16 despite being ever so close to that achievement and that USA is still pretty much in the World Cup. Now, the USA have to win against Algeria to ensure their qualifications while for the rest of the possible permutations and combinations, it would totally depend on the result of the upcoming match between England and Algeria and since I don't like mathematics, and mathematics does not like me, I shall leave the mathematics to those who are well versed in the subject. In any case, it was truly a classic match with a complete entertainment package. Congratulations to both teams for this marvelous match!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Germany 0-1 Serbia World Cup 2010 Group D
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!
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!
Greece 2-1 Nigeria World Cup 2010 Group B
In the white-collar world especially, when someone blurts out the word “Nigeria”, the first and perhaps the only thing that comes into most of the people who hear it is the Advance-Fee Fraud (Nigerian 419 scam). For those laypersons out there, it is the infamous scam through e-mail in which it is not the correct occasion for me to explain fully but one thing for sure, it is something really negative about Nigeria. In this match against Greece, it was such a crucial match for Nigeria. Firstly, by beating Greece, they would have condemned Greece to go home early from World Cup 2010 and puts them in a extreme play-off against the recently beaten South Korea to decide who gets into the last 16 of the competition. This is also crucial to shed the country's bad images such as the one mentioned above and thus to project a positive image about the country to the whole world. There's nothing better to convey such message as in a global event as big as the World Cup. As for Greece, they were a side condemned by all corners to be knocked out soon and severely beaten by Nigeria in this match, but fate has another say...
At the start of the match, Nigeria showed the world just that as they simply dominated over Greece thoroughly and Nigeria took the lead in just 15 minutes through Kalu Uche's not so wonderful but effective free kick. They continued to dominate Greece to such an extent that it looked like it would be a massive thrashing in store for Greece. However, just like most of the Greek mythology stories out there, everything which seems glorious and powerful, will only face a really tragic and sadistic end (unless we read the kids version of the mythology, that is). At 32nd minute, for whatever reason it was, the Nigerian player S. Kaita suddenly kicked out a Greek player lightly on the touchline prior to a throw in. The Greek player was only too happy and fall down as if his thigh was shot by a magnum and the ref promptly sent Kaita off so shamefully. In my opinion, it wasn't necessary at all for Kaita to do that no matter what. Never touch an opponent unnecessarily in a football match or you will pay a heavy price and let your team down. Furthermore, it's not as if Nigeria was trailing in frustration, they were thoroughly dominated the match and they were a goal up, and on course to getting more goals scored and of course getting themselves on course to qualify to the last 16.
Greece's manager Otto Rehhagel was too experienced not to let this opportunity to pass by and immediately put Georgios Samaras into the fray in an extremely attacking substitution and it worked wonders. The pathetic Greek team from the first match against South Korea as well as during the first 32 minutes of this match suddenly turned into a group of titans from Olympus. From this moment all the way to the end of the match, all they did was attack attack and attack. Although Vincent Enyeama, the Nigerian goalkeeper was heroic throughout the match, there's only so much to do for one man to carry a whole nation alone, and he duly conceded at the 43rd minute and that's the end of the half.
The second half got Nigeria even worse. In this half, anything that could go wrong, simply go wrong for Nigeria and it started at 53rd minute when one of their strongest defenders Taye Taiwo needed to be substituted as he was injured while Enyeama continued to rescue Nigeria time after time with stunning saves. But he again conceded a goal at the 70th minute. It was such an emotional sight. I really felt for Enyeama. I think he deserves so much more than such a humiliation like this. After this fateful goal, the other 9 players on the pitch seemed to had thrown in the towel and they simply hoped for the match to end sooner or later. To his credit Vincent Enyeama continued to have massive spirits in this game. He continued to have that sense of urgency, the belief that Nigeria could still rescue this game. This was shown when he eagerly requested for the ball from the ballboy so that he could promptly pass the ball for his team mates to score and rescue Nigeria's World Cup campaign. The Greeks were attacking like Barcelona now, such that when Samaras dribbled past a few Nigerian players in Nigeria's penalty box, I thought he was Messi who suddenly grows tall.
It was such a humiliating day for Nigeria now that they are 95% knocked out from the competition unless a mathematical miracle happens in which just like how the commentator put it, I won't go into the details of the complex permutations and combinations, but Nigeria has very little hope of progressing, so little that they are as good as getting knocked out. No matter what, Vincent Enyeama is my choice for the man of the match award! Very well done Enyeama! See you in the UEFA Champions League, you deserve a big move now after two stunning performances against Argentina and now the Titan infused Greece.
As for Greece, congratulations for their first ever win in the World Cup finals, and unlike Nigeria, they might even go through from Group B if things turn out in their favor. If Nigeria and South Korea play out to a draw, and they beat an Argentina side which would surely put out a non full strength side as they have qualified to the last 16, they would turn from a World Cup no hopers to joining Argentina to qualify to the last 16 of the competition. It was such a memorable match... For Vincent Enyeama and for Greece. If I am a Nigerian editor, the headline which I would put up tomorrow would be “1 Stupid Eagle, 9 Ordinary Eagles and 1 Extraordinarily Super Eagle Vincent Enyeama!”
At the start of the match, Nigeria showed the world just that as they simply dominated over Greece thoroughly and Nigeria took the lead in just 15 minutes through Kalu Uche's not so wonderful but effective free kick. They continued to dominate Greece to such an extent that it looked like it would be a massive thrashing in store for Greece. However, just like most of the Greek mythology stories out there, everything which seems glorious and powerful, will only face a really tragic and sadistic end (unless we read the kids version of the mythology, that is). At 32nd minute, for whatever reason it was, the Nigerian player S. Kaita suddenly kicked out a Greek player lightly on the touchline prior to a throw in. The Greek player was only too happy and fall down as if his thigh was shot by a magnum and the ref promptly sent Kaita off so shamefully. In my opinion, it wasn't necessary at all for Kaita to do that no matter what. Never touch an opponent unnecessarily in a football match or you will pay a heavy price and let your team down. Furthermore, it's not as if Nigeria was trailing in frustration, they were thoroughly dominated the match and they were a goal up, and on course to getting more goals scored and of course getting themselves on course to qualify to the last 16.
Greece's manager Otto Rehhagel was too experienced not to let this opportunity to pass by and immediately put Georgios Samaras into the fray in an extremely attacking substitution and it worked wonders. The pathetic Greek team from the first match against South Korea as well as during the first 32 minutes of this match suddenly turned into a group of titans from Olympus. From this moment all the way to the end of the match, all they did was attack attack and attack. Although Vincent Enyeama, the Nigerian goalkeeper was heroic throughout the match, there's only so much to do for one man to carry a whole nation alone, and he duly conceded at the 43rd minute and that's the end of the half.
The second half got Nigeria even worse. In this half, anything that could go wrong, simply go wrong for Nigeria and it started at 53rd minute when one of their strongest defenders Taye Taiwo needed to be substituted as he was injured while Enyeama continued to rescue Nigeria time after time with stunning saves. But he again conceded a goal at the 70th minute. It was such an emotional sight. I really felt for Enyeama. I think he deserves so much more than such a humiliation like this. After this fateful goal, the other 9 players on the pitch seemed to had thrown in the towel and they simply hoped for the match to end sooner or later. To his credit Vincent Enyeama continued to have massive spirits in this game. He continued to have that sense of urgency, the belief that Nigeria could still rescue this game. This was shown when he eagerly requested for the ball from the ballboy so that he could promptly pass the ball for his team mates to score and rescue Nigeria's World Cup campaign. The Greeks were attacking like Barcelona now, such that when Samaras dribbled past a few Nigerian players in Nigeria's penalty box, I thought he was Messi who suddenly grows tall.
It was such a humiliating day for Nigeria now that they are 95% knocked out from the competition unless a mathematical miracle happens in which just like how the commentator put it, I won't go into the details of the complex permutations and combinations, but Nigeria has very little hope of progressing, so little that they are as good as getting knocked out. No matter what, Vincent Enyeama is my choice for the man of the match award! Very well done Enyeama! See you in the UEFA Champions League, you deserve a big move now after two stunning performances against Argentina and now the Titan infused Greece.
As for Greece, congratulations for their first ever win in the World Cup finals, and unlike Nigeria, they might even go through from Group B if things turn out in their favor. If Nigeria and South Korea play out to a draw, and they beat an Argentina side which would surely put out a non full strength side as they have qualified to the last 16, they would turn from a World Cup no hopers to joining Argentina to qualify to the last 16 of the competition. It was such a memorable match... For Vincent Enyeama and for Greece. If I am a Nigerian editor, the headline which I would put up tomorrow would be “1 Stupid Eagle, 9 Ordinary Eagles and 1 Extraordinarily Super Eagle Vincent Enyeama!”
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Argentina 4-1 South Korea World Cup 2010 Group B
Vamos! Argentina have just become the first country to go through from the Group Stage of the World Cup 2010 thanks to the impressive victory against the unsurprisingly resolute and hard working South Koreans! This victory was down to the sheer genius of Diego Maradona, the Argentina manager who initiated a match defining, masterstroke substitution to kill off any remaining challenge from the South Koreans! To be fair to the South Koreans, they were resolute and looked like equalizing or even overturning the Argentine until the aforementioned genius masterstroke decision from the legend himself! Maradona is also the first manager who deviated from the cowardice 4-5-1 formation to play the brave and attacking 4-4-2 Diamond formation, which is my personal favorite formation of all. Despite this crushing defeat, the South Koreans is pretty much in he competition and likely to join Argentina to go through from Group B. But how hard it would be depends on the match between Nigeria and Greece very soon from the time of writing.
The first half was utterly dominated by Argentina with plenty of pace from Angel di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Jonas Gutierrez, the free role Leo Messi, as well as the hard-working machine like Carlos Tevez who chased for practically for every ball no matter what. Argentina started the match all the way to the highest gear and they really dominated the match, playing the fabled Barcelonaesque football with plenty of pacey and swift dazzling passes on the pitch. Argentina, with their brave formation and attacking style were rewarded soon at the 16th minute when a Messi cross was turned to his own goal by South Korean striker Park Chu-Young. It was a perfect strike from the AS Monaco man, but he scored to the wrong goal. 1-0 to Argentina. At the 20th minute, Walter Samuel needed to be replaced with N. Burdisso, reminiscence to how Philippe Senderos of Suisse needed to be substituted early in the match against Spain. The extent of his injury is not known yet. Argentina domination continued when Higuain scored with a very nice header, the first of many for the night. However, Argentina was totally stunned when a terrible mistake by Martin Demichelis allowed Lee Chung Yong to pull one back right before half time. 2-1.
In the second half, the complexion of the match changed and Argentina were pinned back by South Koreans and the Koreans looked like scoring at anytime as Argentina stuttered, frustrated and started collecting yellow cards for silly reasons. This is despite the commentator stating in the first half that there will be no way back for S. Korea if Argentina is 2-0 up. It was bad as Jonas will also miss the potentially crucial next match against Greece due to a second yellow card in the tournament (if the Koreans managed to hold or defeat Argentina which at that time was a huge possibility). South Korea's goalkeeper Jung Sung Ryong also looked like he won't concede another goal.
However, Maradona showed the world why he's a genius manager when he decided at the 74th minute to replace the out of steam and larely anonymous Tevez in the second half for Sergio Aguero. This is what separates an ordinary manager with a genius manager. An ordinary manager would have brought on Diego Milito in desperation based on his exploits for his club. But, club and country football are two very different things and the fact that Aguero didn't have a good season with Atletico Madrid is irrelevant. One minute later, Aguero made a great run and was greatly involved in the attacking move involving Messi as well with Higuain tapping in after Messi had hit the post. 3-1 for Argentina. At the 80th minute, Aguero was at it again when he assisted Higuain to complete his marvelous hat-trick and utterly destroyed South Korea 4-1. With this, Argentina dominated again and at right after the goal, Higuain came off to be replaced by M. Bolatti the hero against Uruguay in the qualifiers which secured Argentina's qualification into the World Cup for Higuain's well deserved standing ovation. Aguero even managed to almost obtained a well deserved Argentina's 5th goal at the very last minute.
Amazing victory for Argentina, and they have qualified to the last 16 and are on course to even go all the way in the tournament. Now, the aforementioned ban of Jonas Gutierrez is no longer relevant and it is just like he's rested for the now dead rubber match against the Greeks in which Maradona is likely to experiment with his second team with the likes of Martin Palermo for example. For South Korea, this defeat doesn't mean that they won't go through as from their performance between the 45-74th minute, they are more than capable of beating Nigeria and join Argentina to the last 16. Again, how easy it would be for South Korea to go through depends on the upcoming match between Nigeria and Greece. Enjoy!
The first half was utterly dominated by Argentina with plenty of pace from Angel di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Jonas Gutierrez, the free role Leo Messi, as well as the hard-working machine like Carlos Tevez who chased for practically for every ball no matter what. Argentina started the match all the way to the highest gear and they really dominated the match, playing the fabled Barcelonaesque football with plenty of pacey and swift dazzling passes on the pitch. Argentina, with their brave formation and attacking style were rewarded soon at the 16th minute when a Messi cross was turned to his own goal by South Korean striker Park Chu-Young. It was a perfect strike from the AS Monaco man, but he scored to the wrong goal. 1-0 to Argentina. At the 20th minute, Walter Samuel needed to be replaced with N. Burdisso, reminiscence to how Philippe Senderos of Suisse needed to be substituted early in the match against Spain. The extent of his injury is not known yet. Argentina domination continued when Higuain scored with a very nice header, the first of many for the night. However, Argentina was totally stunned when a terrible mistake by Martin Demichelis allowed Lee Chung Yong to pull one back right before half time. 2-1.
In the second half, the complexion of the match changed and Argentina were pinned back by South Koreans and the Koreans looked like scoring at anytime as Argentina stuttered, frustrated and started collecting yellow cards for silly reasons. This is despite the commentator stating in the first half that there will be no way back for S. Korea if Argentina is 2-0 up. It was bad as Jonas will also miss the potentially crucial next match against Greece due to a second yellow card in the tournament (if the Koreans managed to hold or defeat Argentina which at that time was a huge possibility). South Korea's goalkeeper Jung Sung Ryong also looked like he won't concede another goal.
However, Maradona showed the world why he's a genius manager when he decided at the 74th minute to replace the out of steam and larely anonymous Tevez in the second half for Sergio Aguero. This is what separates an ordinary manager with a genius manager. An ordinary manager would have brought on Diego Milito in desperation based on his exploits for his club. But, club and country football are two very different things and the fact that Aguero didn't have a good season with Atletico Madrid is irrelevant. One minute later, Aguero made a great run and was greatly involved in the attacking move involving Messi as well with Higuain tapping in after Messi had hit the post. 3-1 for Argentina. At the 80th minute, Aguero was at it again when he assisted Higuain to complete his marvelous hat-trick and utterly destroyed South Korea 4-1. With this, Argentina dominated again and at right after the goal, Higuain came off to be replaced by M. Bolatti the hero against Uruguay in the qualifiers which secured Argentina's qualification into the World Cup for Higuain's well deserved standing ovation. Aguero even managed to almost obtained a well deserved Argentina's 5th goal at the very last minute.
Amazing victory for Argentina, and they have qualified to the last 16 and are on course to even go all the way in the tournament. Now, the aforementioned ban of Jonas Gutierrez is no longer relevant and it is just like he's rested for the now dead rubber match against the Greeks in which Maradona is likely to experiment with his second team with the likes of Martin Palermo for example. For South Korea, this defeat doesn't mean that they won't go through as from their performance between the 45-74th minute, they are more than capable of beating Nigeria and join Argentina to the last 16. Again, how easy it would be for South Korea to go through depends on the upcoming match between Nigeria and Greece. Enjoy!
Spain 0-1 Suisse World Cup 2010 Group H
It was another 1-0 in World Cup 2010. However, it was such a scintillating and a thrilling match. No, not because I am a Swiss, but because I have to admit that I am some sort of an underdog guy. Spain was totally the overwhelming in this competition such that 19 out of 20 people I asked said that they support Spain and the other one supports Brazil. Congratulations to Switzerland for their first ever win against Spain, and to do it in the World Cup finals game, and not in a meaningless friendly, certainly a great achievement and satisfaction to everyone associated with Switzerland. The Spanish team was actually such a great and extraordinary team on paper. I realized this upon glancing at their squad list prior to kick-off. Picture this, a coalition team of players (although only the Spanish players but yeah) from Real Madrid, Barcelona, and bits and pieces here and there from Valencia, Liverpool and a few other clubs. A totally world beating team on paper. The supposedly red hot Spanish knives were looking forward to slice through and totally melt the Swiss chocolate on display. However, little did they know that the Swiss chocolate in front of them is one which is frozen solid and a frozen chocolate not only difficult to be bitten and eaten, but also can be used as a weapon to throw at someone or beat them up using the chocolate (Don't try these at home, just trying to illustrate the Swiss team for tonight using a chocolate analogy).
The 1-0 scoreline again might baffle anyone who did not watch the match. Spain utterly and totally dominated the match and the Swiss team all the way from the first whistle to the final whistle. Their possession at one time amounted to a whopping 77%, surely one of the highest ever in a World Cup or any competitive match ever. However, biting into a frozen solid chocolate is not an easy task. Blame the Jabulani Ball, blame the altitude, blame the heroic Diego Benaglio, the Swiss keeper, blame anything. But Switzerland amazingly held on to the Spanish onslaught. Switzerland scored the winning goal at the 51st minute through Gelson Fernandes capitalizing from a heap of Spanish bodies of Iker Casillas, Puyol, and Pique strewn all over the penalty area. Just like most of the other matches on this World Cup, one goal is all it takes to win a match and this match turned out to be no exception. Spain then made two attacking substitutions by introducing Fernando Torres and Jesus Navas. The former to add some attacking dimension and also some height in the Spanish attakc and squad in general, while Navas was introduced to reinvent the Spanish midfield as the man he replaced, David Silva seemed to have run out of ideas to break the frozen solid and resolute Swiss chocolate. Nobody would have thought of this as somewhere in the first half when Philipe Senderos had to be substituted as he suffered an injury, he walked off so slowly but to be fair to him he was dejected, but nevertheless, it seemed to be a signal from the Swiss that they were more than happy to hold Spain to a goalless draw. If Switzerland had faced Honduras perhaps, Senderos would have walked off at least a bit faster than that.
As time passed, Spain grew ever more frustrated and at the last 5 minutes of the game, they were so dominating and so frustrated and so overwhelmed with sense of urgency by then that every single Spanish player except for Puyol (which he was about to join the attack soon) and goalkeeper Casillas. Still, the frozen Swiss chocolate won't crack. The 5 minutes of injury time was a bit controversial and when it was announced my mind flew back all the way to when Manchester City was defeated by Manchester United back in the Fall in 2009 due to a crazily lengthy of injury time at Old Trafford as well as the FIFA Seeding system for the World Cup play-off in which there was a conspiracy theory brewing about how FIFA is desperate to see the best teams win and be featured in the World Cup all the way to the latter stages. But, Switzerland held firmly despite the fact that during the 5 minutes, every single player barring Casillas was in the Swiss half of the pitch. It was amazing how the Swiss held on mainly thanks to Diego Benaglio's heroic, in which I am a fan of this player since 2009 and I believe he is the man of the match for this one. Congratulations Switzerland for the major upset in this World Cup. To be fair to Spain, this is just the first match, and they should be able to overcome Honduras and Chile to go through to the last 16. Also, history suggests that teams that start slow in the World Cup tend to do well in the competition. Thus, for all Spain's fans including the aforementioned glory hunters, there's still hope for Spain!
The 1-0 scoreline again might baffle anyone who did not watch the match. Spain utterly and totally dominated the match and the Swiss team all the way from the first whistle to the final whistle. Their possession at one time amounted to a whopping 77%, surely one of the highest ever in a World Cup or any competitive match ever. However, biting into a frozen solid chocolate is not an easy task. Blame the Jabulani Ball, blame the altitude, blame the heroic Diego Benaglio, the Swiss keeper, blame anything. But Switzerland amazingly held on to the Spanish onslaught. Switzerland scored the winning goal at the 51st minute through Gelson Fernandes capitalizing from a heap of Spanish bodies of Iker Casillas, Puyol, and Pique strewn all over the penalty area. Just like most of the other matches on this World Cup, one goal is all it takes to win a match and this match turned out to be no exception. Spain then made two attacking substitutions by introducing Fernando Torres and Jesus Navas. The former to add some attacking dimension and also some height in the Spanish attakc and squad in general, while Navas was introduced to reinvent the Spanish midfield as the man he replaced, David Silva seemed to have run out of ideas to break the frozen solid and resolute Swiss chocolate. Nobody would have thought of this as somewhere in the first half when Philipe Senderos had to be substituted as he suffered an injury, he walked off so slowly but to be fair to him he was dejected, but nevertheless, it seemed to be a signal from the Swiss that they were more than happy to hold Spain to a goalless draw. If Switzerland had faced Honduras perhaps, Senderos would have walked off at least a bit faster than that.
As time passed, Spain grew ever more frustrated and at the last 5 minutes of the game, they were so dominating and so frustrated and so overwhelmed with sense of urgency by then that every single Spanish player except for Puyol (which he was about to join the attack soon) and goalkeeper Casillas. Still, the frozen Swiss chocolate won't crack. The 5 minutes of injury time was a bit controversial and when it was announced my mind flew back all the way to when Manchester City was defeated by Manchester United back in the Fall in 2009 due to a crazily lengthy of injury time at Old Trafford as well as the FIFA Seeding system for the World Cup play-off in which there was a conspiracy theory brewing about how FIFA is desperate to see the best teams win and be featured in the World Cup all the way to the latter stages. But, Switzerland held firmly despite the fact that during the 5 minutes, every single player barring Casillas was in the Swiss half of the pitch. It was amazing how the Swiss held on mainly thanks to Diego Benaglio's heroic, in which I am a fan of this player since 2009 and I believe he is the man of the match for this one. Congratulations Switzerland for the major upset in this World Cup. To be fair to Spain, this is just the first match, and they should be able to overcome Honduras and Chile to go through to the last 16. Also, history suggests that teams that start slow in the World Cup tend to do well in the competition. Thus, for all Spain's fans including the aforementioned glory hunters, there's still hope for Spain!
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