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!
Showing posts with label Serbia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serbia. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Serbia 0-1 Ghana World CUp 2010 Group D
This match is the first match in which my prediction was totally spot-on in which I had predicted a 1-0 victory for Ghana against Serbia and turned out that it was really the case. Based on what I have observed in the match itself, this was a match between thesis and anti-thesis. Ghana have extreme pace and great strength as well as being more mobile on the pitch while Serbia was totally a rigid and solid wall at the back with systematic and solid attacking moves when they are attacking.
In the first half, Ghana's goalkeeper was the busier of the two as both teams attack each other in trying to break the deadlock. However, the aforementioned fact of this match being a battle between thesis and anti-thesis inadvertently cancel out each other and thus each team simply absorbs the others' attack. Thus, it was 0-0 at half-time.
The second half saw both teams becoming more intent with Ghana being denied a clear and legitimate penalty call as their player K. Asamoah was fouled quite heavily by two Serbian defenders. In this half, Ghana was the better attacking team as they continued to bombard Serbia's goal but they continued to fail to convert those chances into goals. Both teams tried to inspire changes by making substitutions but still, the deadlock was not to be broken.
The turning point of the match came at around the 73rd minute when the Serbian defender A. Lukovic was sent off as he received his second yellow card of the match. It seemed that the match was to become a carbon copy of the Group C match between Algeria and Slovenia earlier on the day. However, the Serbian manager in my opinion initiated a masterstroke substitution by introducing a defender, Nenad Subotic to replace the sent off defender by sacrificing Milan Jovanovic, an attacker. Thus, their formation became something like a 4-4-1 or 4-3-2 variant instead of trying to keep on attacking with a disoriented 3-4-2 formation for example. Thus, it could be seen that with the sending off, Serbia seemingly was not really affected. In fact, they attacked more and more valiantly and intensely.
At the 82nd minute, Ghana earned a penalty as the Serbian substitute Kusmanovic handled the ball deliberately to break a Ghanaian attack. Asamoah Gyan who had missed many chances in the game finally able to make the score 1-0 as the striker sent the Serbian keeper V. Stojkovic to the wrong way.
The slender 1-0 lead by Ghana proved to be quite precarious as in the last few minutes of the game, especially during the four minutes injury time of the game, Serbia was attacking in a very intense manner and just like how we have seen Liverpool FC when trailing in club football, there was signs of Serbia about to equalize at anytime by then. However, at the very last moments of the game, Asamoah Gyan managed to hit the post at the other end before being substituted with Quincy Owusu-Abeyle to earn his standing ovation from the Ghana fans as well as to run the clock down. Finally, Ghana managed to hold on to their slender lead and becomes the first African team to taste victory in World Cup 2010 and staking their claims to the knockout stages of the competition. While Serbia now needs to regroup swiftly as they tackler Germany next in which if they lose again, they will all be knocked out from the competition.
In the first half, Ghana's goalkeeper was the busier of the two as both teams attack each other in trying to break the deadlock. However, the aforementioned fact of this match being a battle between thesis and anti-thesis inadvertently cancel out each other and thus each team simply absorbs the others' attack. Thus, it was 0-0 at half-time.
The second half saw both teams becoming more intent with Ghana being denied a clear and legitimate penalty call as their player K. Asamoah was fouled quite heavily by two Serbian defenders. In this half, Ghana was the better attacking team as they continued to bombard Serbia's goal but they continued to fail to convert those chances into goals. Both teams tried to inspire changes by making substitutions but still, the deadlock was not to be broken.
The turning point of the match came at around the 73rd minute when the Serbian defender A. Lukovic was sent off as he received his second yellow card of the match. It seemed that the match was to become a carbon copy of the Group C match between Algeria and Slovenia earlier on the day. However, the Serbian manager in my opinion initiated a masterstroke substitution by introducing a defender, Nenad Subotic to replace the sent off defender by sacrificing Milan Jovanovic, an attacker. Thus, their formation became something like a 4-4-1 or 4-3-2 variant instead of trying to keep on attacking with a disoriented 3-4-2 formation for example. Thus, it could be seen that with the sending off, Serbia seemingly was not really affected. In fact, they attacked more and more valiantly and intensely.
At the 82nd minute, Ghana earned a penalty as the Serbian substitute Kusmanovic handled the ball deliberately to break a Ghanaian attack. Asamoah Gyan who had missed many chances in the game finally able to make the score 1-0 as the striker sent the Serbian keeper V. Stojkovic to the wrong way.
The slender 1-0 lead by Ghana proved to be quite precarious as in the last few minutes of the game, especially during the four minutes injury time of the game, Serbia was attacking in a very intense manner and just like how we have seen Liverpool FC when trailing in club football, there was signs of Serbia about to equalize at anytime by then. However, at the very last moments of the game, Asamoah Gyan managed to hit the post at the other end before being substituted with Quincy Owusu-Abeyle to earn his standing ovation from the Ghana fans as well as to run the clock down. Finally, Ghana managed to hold on to their slender lead and becomes the first African team to taste victory in World Cup 2010 and staking their claims to the knockout stages of the competition. While Serbia now needs to regroup swiftly as they tackler Germany next in which if they lose again, they will all be knocked out from the competition.
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