Uruguay vs Netherlands
A smashing game with smashing goals, and a bit of anxiety at the finish. Uruguay honestly never looked like they could win this game, especially as they had to take off the top scorer near the end, and was already missing their other top scorer. But the Dutch never dominated, and so on another day, it could have been a different story.
Due to my man-crush on the tireless Kuyt, I kept looking out for him, and I was intrigued to find him and Robben swapped sides constantly throughout the game, I hadn't noticed this before, and I don't know if it was new to this game, but it must have been hell for the Uruguayan full-backs to constantly adjust to the two coming and going. I couldn't actually catch them doing it, and to be honest, this made me realize how, when attacking, every Dutchman seemed to be switching at will, some kind of mini-total-football.
I double-checked Van Bronckhorst shooting statistics, and yes, the one and only time the man decides to unload, he hits the straightest rocket a Jabulani will ever see, and it went in true.
Probably the second best goal of the game was Uruguayan's second, I had a flashback of Argentina vs England in 1998, when Zanetti took the ball after hiding behind our wall, and hammered it in just before half time. This one had the same feel, though Pereira wasn't hiding, and had a harder shot to make with defenders in front of him. It made for a finish that was more exciting than one would have expected. Did anyone honestly predict five goals?
Spain vs Germany
Seemed like there's so little to comment on here. For all of its attacking glory, Germany fell short by a long way, only managing two shots on goal in the entire game (though Kroos had a very good chance) and the Spanish midfield just passed and pressed their way into such domination that it took Germany 30 minutes or more to even get a shot off. Wow. I honestly can say, even if the no-goal counted against Germany, and England beat them, and then saw off the Argentinians with confidence, we'd have lost this one.
I must say though, that Pedro really ticked me off. Torres came on with a fresh set of legs to help keep the pressure off at the end, and had a genuine chance to fulfil his purpose as a full-blooded goal scorer, and the little idiot just went for glory of his own. It made me almost wish that Germany had equalized, because he would have deserved some serious bad press for that, especially when such a good young forward needs the confidence boost before the final.
The End
Two plus years, over two hundred nations, 5 billion pounding hearts ago, I made a personal pledge to try and follow this cup as much as possible, and that meant the entire cup, and it seems like an eternity, fresh off Euro 2008, that I was checking the results of the small islands in CONCACAF and Oceania.
So it comes to this, two of the best teams to have never won the World Cup, get their chance on Sunday to finish all of this, in the last game. May the best team win.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The "Wait-this-is-a-semi?!" quarter-final review
Alright so I was lulled into a false sense of security before I realized it was Tuesday, somehow, I expected to have one more day before the semis, so my quarter-final reviews are somewhat late.
Brazil vs The Netherlands
Next time I meet a genuine Dutchman, I'm going to grin inanely and slap my forehead repeatedly. Seems to be some kind of greeting. Honestly, we all thought Brazil was going to run away with this, the ease with which Robinho strode through the orange lines and one-touched the ball past the 'keeper seemed to indicate that the Dutch were going down, yet again. In fact, seeing that Arjen was involved, my initial thought was how the team's "star" was caught being lazy. He wasn't an important factor in this game, other than being a diva.
What was nice to see Kuyt and Sneijder connecting again, I'm impressed with those two, that headed goal was undefendable too, how can you react to a knock-on like that, you can only watch.
But the joke was on Melo. I didn't know about his disclipinary record 'til I caught some post-match comments, but he really looks like a petulant idiot lunging for the ball like that, especially with Diva under him. The first Dutch goal wasn't his fault though, a 'keeper of Cesar's stature should be gathering these crosses easily, no matter who is in the way.
Uruguay vs Ghana
A game where nothing seemed to happen, bar two strikes, until the end of extra time. I'm not sure, given the 1-1 score, how Ghana got so much possession, Uruguay seems content to play out the draw, but there they all were, the ball pinging around, and Suarez getting his instinctive red card.
I agree with Graham Poll (too lazy for links, sorry) that if it was instinct, then give Ghana the goal, give Suarez the yellow, there's a world of a difference between denying a striker the chance to shoot, and actually keeping the ball out when it was going in.
I feel for Gyan, you could see it in the replay of his "miss" (is hitting the crossbar a miss?) he was looking to his upper-left, but struck the ball hard down the middle. His next penalty, in the shoot-out, which he scored, he hit the ball to the upper-left. My take is that he shot the penalty he intended to the first time, but the first time he tried it, he had second doubts about the direction with disastrous results. He must have been thinking that the 'keeper was reading him.
Argentina vs Germany
Now we can say Diego Maradona is an idiot. He may have a low center of gravity, a deft touch, a satanic hand, but the man cannot coach, and I never believed he would pull it off. The only thing that stayed my hand when I wanted to say Argentina would never make it, was star power. But this is the cup where stars fade, and so it was with Messi, Tevez and Mascherano, as the Germans showed them how to find time and space, and how to do pin-point crosses, let alone finish.
My favourite was Ozil's delicate chip for Klose, the man hardly had to adjust his position to strike the ball, the hallmark of quality. Germany are to be feared, if all the stories about their renaissance are to be taken seriously, for years to come.
Spain vs Paraguay
Noise has been generated over how much opportunity Spain generated when Torres came off, but the boy is a wonder, I've watched him terrorize defenses in the last couple of years, and he should start again.
I would have noted that this was the craziest two minutes of my short World Cup life if it wasn't for the end of the Uruguay-Ghana game, goodness, to concede two penalties, take three, actually not get penalized for another infraction (did anyone notice Paraguay's goalkeeper taking down a Spaniard going for the penalty rebound?) and the scoreline remained 0-0.
It seems all the more crazy that the sole goal was the result of three fortunate bounces of the woodwork and two separate shots. Villa once again benefited from a rebound, and Fabregas proved that he could grip a shirt if he wanted to.
I'd post predictions, but a semi has already been and gone. Tomorrow, Villa and Torres tries to get the German defense to cough, whilst hoping that their own isn't surgically cut apart.
Brazil vs The Netherlands
Next time I meet a genuine Dutchman, I'm going to grin inanely and slap my forehead repeatedly. Seems to be some kind of greeting. Honestly, we all thought Brazil was going to run away with this, the ease with which Robinho strode through the orange lines and one-touched the ball past the 'keeper seemed to indicate that the Dutch were going down, yet again. In fact, seeing that Arjen was involved, my initial thought was how the team's "star" was caught being lazy. He wasn't an important factor in this game, other than being a diva.
What was nice to see Kuyt and Sneijder connecting again, I'm impressed with those two, that headed goal was undefendable too, how can you react to a knock-on like that, you can only watch.
But the joke was on Melo. I didn't know about his disclipinary record 'til I caught some post-match comments, but he really looks like a petulant idiot lunging for the ball like that, especially with Diva under him. The first Dutch goal wasn't his fault though, a 'keeper of Cesar's stature should be gathering these crosses easily, no matter who is in the way.
Uruguay vs Ghana
A game where nothing seemed to happen, bar two strikes, until the end of extra time. I'm not sure, given the 1-1 score, how Ghana got so much possession, Uruguay seems content to play out the draw, but there they all were, the ball pinging around, and Suarez getting his instinctive red card.
I agree with Graham Poll (too lazy for links, sorry) that if it was instinct, then give Ghana the goal, give Suarez the yellow, there's a world of a difference between denying a striker the chance to shoot, and actually keeping the ball out when it was going in.
I feel for Gyan, you could see it in the replay of his "miss" (is hitting the crossbar a miss?) he was looking to his upper-left, but struck the ball hard down the middle. His next penalty, in the shoot-out, which he scored, he hit the ball to the upper-left. My take is that he shot the penalty he intended to the first time, but the first time he tried it, he had second doubts about the direction with disastrous results. He must have been thinking that the 'keeper was reading him.
Argentina vs Germany
Now we can say Diego Maradona is an idiot. He may have a low center of gravity, a deft touch, a satanic hand, but the man cannot coach, and I never believed he would pull it off. The only thing that stayed my hand when I wanted to say Argentina would never make it, was star power. But this is the cup where stars fade, and so it was with Messi, Tevez and Mascherano, as the Germans showed them how to find time and space, and how to do pin-point crosses, let alone finish.
My favourite was Ozil's delicate chip for Klose, the man hardly had to adjust his position to strike the ball, the hallmark of quality. Germany are to be feared, if all the stories about their renaissance are to be taken seriously, for years to come.
Spain vs Paraguay
Noise has been generated over how much opportunity Spain generated when Torres came off, but the boy is a wonder, I've watched him terrorize defenses in the last couple of years, and he should start again.
I would have noted that this was the craziest two minutes of my short World Cup life if it wasn't for the end of the Uruguay-Ghana game, goodness, to concede two penalties, take three, actually not get penalized for another infraction (did anyone notice Paraguay's goalkeeper taking down a Spaniard going for the penalty rebound?) and the scoreline remained 0-0.
It seems all the more crazy that the sole goal was the result of three fortunate bounces of the woodwork and two separate shots. Villa once again benefited from a rebound, and Fabregas proved that he could grip a shirt if he wanted to.
I'd post predictions, but a semi has already been and gone. Tomorrow, Villa and Torres tries to get the German defense to cough, whilst hoping that their own isn't surgically cut apart.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
And then there were eight
Brazil vs Chile
This was supposed to be a clash of offensive titans, the two top scoring teams from CONMEBOL, a game over-flowing with goals and attacking talent and what-not. Only, when I looked at the qualification results, I had a premonition. Brazil beat Chile 4-2 at home, and 3-0 away. High-scoring games, and not in Chile's favor, at all.
Once again, they met their match it seems. Every England fan quivers with the thought of playing Deutschland, and so it must be for the Chileans, burning voodoo dolls of Fabiano, Kaka et al., using canary yellow toilet paper, and anything else they can think of to shake the curse.
Zonal Marking made a great mention of the Chilean back, Javar, who was supposed to handle Robinho, how he got forward too far one time, and presto, a 3-on-3 with Fabiano, Kaka and Robinho breaks through. I feel like I need to schedule an online webinar with ZM because I'm learning stuff some cool stuff about these games.
Holland vs Slovakia
The Dutch welcome back Arjen Robben with open arms, and, his ambidextrous feet. I mentioned on a previous post how its useful to cut in and cross and shoot, but of course ZM beat me to it with the term "inverted wingers", and Robben, once again, showed why. It was a beauty too, threaded very nicely just inside the post.
My hero of this game was Dirk Kuyt, not least because he plays for the Reds, and not least because the man is a machine, he must have titanium thigh-bones attached to a perpetual-machine-type set of cogs in his knees, because he just goes on and on and on to a ball from a fast free kick, but, I like him really, because he personifies team play. He had every chance to score in that moment, to cut back in around the keeper, to keep the ball and chip someone, but no, he took the easy option and set up Sneidjer. I say it's easy, but for someone with star-power, it's hard not to be the scorer, and Kuyt seems to have gotten that football is a team sport.
Paraguay vs Japan
As lack of excitement this game might have been, I found myself enjoying it because I knew anything, and absolutely anything would change the game. Both sides were able to find the ball in the opposing box, through set-pieces, bad passes or sheer luck, and, though there were very little chances on goal, it kept giving me this thrill that something might happen.
It's one of those games when you appreciate how a nation is behind each team passionately willing them on. Seeing those clips of the fans sets the tone, and you can feel the respective economies of the two countries teetering on some invisible cliff. I know I was depressed on Sunday, but somehow, being the first team to be in the quarter-finals, ever, for a country, and having a great chance to do so, would mean a greater depression if the chance was missed.
It wasn't even a miss too, smacking into the bar like that, just inches, mere inches. Unfortunately for Japan, they were the only ones hoping for that extra inch, and Paraguay become the last CONMEBOL team to go through.
Spain vs Portugal
I was hoping for another battle not unlike the one we saw between the Portugese and the Dutch in the last World cup. I was kind of expecting there to be some serious tackles and some trans-iberian bitterness pouring out, but, I have to admit, the Spanish and the Portugese don't really have much of a footballing rivalry, and in any case, there wasn't much of a game to watch too, thanks to the Spanish midfield.
I loved how Spain came out of the starting blocks firing away, all of their shots seemed like they could be saved, but still. Even though Portugal settled and took the game to the Spanish on occaison, they never seriously threatened, least of all through their star, the center-piece of the so called Nike advert. Nike has got to be firing people left and right now Villa and Messi, at the heart of the Adidas ad, are progressing through the tournament at will, and most of the Nike stars are out (even Federer, now that I think of it, Ha!).
It was disappointing see Torres come off, and the chance that his replacement had mere minutes later, Torres would have put that away, I'm sure of it. But he did seem like he couldn't do much. I'm not getting a good grip on the tactics, but more and more, it seems like that the people who go wide, and come in late, become the more likely goal-scorers, like Ramos and Villa, and the ones who are expected to play centrally need some serious imagination behind them. Unfortunately for Torres, it seems like that he didn't get the chance in 60 minutes.
Coming up
Epics:
Brazil vs Holland - a re-match of the semi-final of 1998!
Argentina vs Germany - a re-match of 2006, 1990, and 1986 ( can anyone guess which plump coke-sniffer played in the latter two games?)
First-Timers:
Ghana vs Uruguay - no CAF nation has made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup
One-sided goal fest:
Spain vs Paraguay - Anyone wants to bet against Villa scoring?
This was supposed to be a clash of offensive titans, the two top scoring teams from CONMEBOL, a game over-flowing with goals and attacking talent and what-not. Only, when I looked at the qualification results, I had a premonition. Brazil beat Chile 4-2 at home, and 3-0 away. High-scoring games, and not in Chile's favor, at all.
Once again, they met their match it seems. Every England fan quivers with the thought of playing Deutschland, and so it must be for the Chileans, burning voodoo dolls of Fabiano, Kaka et al., using canary yellow toilet paper, and anything else they can think of to shake the curse.
Zonal Marking made a great mention of the Chilean back, Javar, who was supposed to handle Robinho, how he got forward too far one time, and presto, a 3-on-3 with Fabiano, Kaka and Robinho breaks through. I feel like I need to schedule an online webinar with ZM because I'm learning stuff some cool stuff about these games.
Holland vs Slovakia
The Dutch welcome back Arjen Robben with open arms, and, his ambidextrous feet. I mentioned on a previous post how its useful to cut in and cross and shoot, but of course ZM beat me to it with the term "inverted wingers", and Robben, once again, showed why. It was a beauty too, threaded very nicely just inside the post.
My hero of this game was Dirk Kuyt, not least because he plays for the Reds, and not least because the man is a machine, he must have titanium thigh-bones attached to a perpetual-machine-type set of cogs in his knees, because he just goes on and on and on to a ball from a fast free kick, but, I like him really, because he personifies team play. He had every chance to score in that moment, to cut back in around the keeper, to keep the ball and chip someone, but no, he took the easy option and set up Sneidjer. I say it's easy, but for someone with star-power, it's hard not to be the scorer, and Kuyt seems to have gotten that football is a team sport.
Paraguay vs Japan
As lack of excitement this game might have been, I found myself enjoying it because I knew anything, and absolutely anything would change the game. Both sides were able to find the ball in the opposing box, through set-pieces, bad passes or sheer luck, and, though there were very little chances on goal, it kept giving me this thrill that something might happen.
It's one of those games when you appreciate how a nation is behind each team passionately willing them on. Seeing those clips of the fans sets the tone, and you can feel the respective economies of the two countries teetering on some invisible cliff. I know I was depressed on Sunday, but somehow, being the first team to be in the quarter-finals, ever, for a country, and having a great chance to do so, would mean a greater depression if the chance was missed.
It wasn't even a miss too, smacking into the bar like that, just inches, mere inches. Unfortunately for Japan, they were the only ones hoping for that extra inch, and Paraguay become the last CONMEBOL team to go through.
Spain vs Portugal
I was hoping for another battle not unlike the one we saw between the Portugese and the Dutch in the last World cup. I was kind of expecting there to be some serious tackles and some trans-iberian bitterness pouring out, but, I have to admit, the Spanish and the Portugese don't really have much of a footballing rivalry, and in any case, there wasn't much of a game to watch too, thanks to the Spanish midfield.
I loved how Spain came out of the starting blocks firing away, all of their shots seemed like they could be saved, but still. Even though Portugal settled and took the game to the Spanish on occaison, they never seriously threatened, least of all through their star, the center-piece of the so called Nike advert. Nike has got to be firing people left and right now Villa and Messi, at the heart of the Adidas ad, are progressing through the tournament at will, and most of the Nike stars are out (even Federer, now that I think of it, Ha!).
It was disappointing see Torres come off, and the chance that his replacement had mere minutes later, Torres would have put that away, I'm sure of it. But he did seem like he couldn't do much. I'm not getting a good grip on the tactics, but more and more, it seems like that the people who go wide, and come in late, become the more likely goal-scorers, like Ramos and Villa, and the ones who are expected to play centrally need some serious imagination behind them. Unfortunately for Torres, it seems like that he didn't get the chance in 60 minutes.
Coming up
Epics:
Brazil vs Holland - a re-match of the semi-final of 1998!
Argentina vs Germany - a re-match of 2006, 1990, and 1986 ( can anyone guess which plump coke-sniffer played in the latter two games?)
First-Timers:
Ghana vs Uruguay - no CAF nation has made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup
One-sided goal fest:
Spain vs Paraguay - Anyone wants to bet against Villa scoring?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Halfway to the quarter-finals: weeding out the suspect defences
Uruguay vs S. Korea
The Koreans had a better game, and by better, I mean they enjoyed more possession in the opponent's box, and created more and better chances. It's not that the Uruguayans sat back after their first goal, it's that, despite sitting back, they still were not good at dispossessing the Koreans. Fortunately for the Uruguayans, they were gifted their first goal, and Suarez, the opportunist-extraordinaire, curled in a rare chance.
S. Korea joins Japan as the Asian nations that show off their mastery of the Jabulani free-kick.
USA vs Ghana
This was a game that seems to swing back and forth on a pendulum, but the US was undone, it seems by a combination of Ghanian tenacity, and a lack of energy from their main forwards, even after their preferred XI started the second half.
Prince-Boateng hoodwinked Howard and the US defenders into thinking that he was going to pass the ball, before switching directions and taking a one-time shot. Howard had bitten, and didn't have time to adjust.
I must admit, I was impressed that several of the Ghanians chose to stay on their feet throughout the game, despite being given the opportunity to flop by Americans kicking their heels. Several have noted their antics towards the end of the game, but they were the equivalent of a time-out, the referee does stop his watch, and the defence takes the chance to reset. The Americans who don't like it should see what happens when you take time-outs away from their favourite sports.
The US dominated the second half, and were unfortunate not to get more chances, but cometh the hour, cometh the man, and it wasn't Donovan this time. Gyan stayed on his feet when he could have flopped, and, splitting the defence, hammered the ball home.
England vs Germany
Zonal Marking, perhaps my favourite read after every game, highlights England's problem with Ozil, and, sadly, their own formation. Watching the games, I was never convinced that England would struggle this much defensively, even against a wild card like Ozil, and I'm still convinced that the Germans would never have broken like that in the second half if England didn't push so for the equalizer. Truly, I don't think anyone in the England camp anticipated how fast the Germans could be, and how good their outlet passes could be. It's almost as if England, seeing themselves as World-Beaters, believed that other teams would have the same problems. As it happens, England is England, and they failed to see Germany for who they are in their current form.
People have addressed the short-comings of the England team as the players not being good enough, or simply not being "World class", which is utter bollocks for anyone who has followed the Premier League over the last decade. Many of the players on the team have a crucial role to play for the club team who employ them, and many clubs in Europe would fall over themselves to buy one of them if they had the money. The problem is that we cannot translate domestic success into international success, especially if they all come from different playing systems, and to me, it truly seemed like they could not adjust to the system Capello had in place, as a group of individuals, and so their movement and their passing suffered, and they failed to form a team.
What now? The "Golden Generation" was supposed to win Germany 2006, and as we look forward to Brazil 2014, many of the midfielders and defenders from this tournament will not be on that team. We have two years to rebuild and re-adjust for Euro 2012, and I can only hope that Capello changes his system in time.
Argentina vs Mexico
It seems like the Argentinians outclassed Mexico, but I'm disappointed, like in the England game, the first half score line was defined by a defensive mistake, and an erroneous call. Mexico chased the score admirably, and Hernandez's goal made me fear the Rooney-Hernandez partnership we'll see in the Premier League next year, woo, I think he's going to be my latest source of hatred. But, foreign players are hit and miss when it comes to the speed of the Premier League so we'll see.
Tevez's goal was hit so hard, I think that if we were to look at the frames 1/32 second by 1/32 second, there would actually be some frames where you couldn't see the ball.
Blatter
Are you watching?
The Koreans had a better game, and by better, I mean they enjoyed more possession in the opponent's box, and created more and better chances. It's not that the Uruguayans sat back after their first goal, it's that, despite sitting back, they still were not good at dispossessing the Koreans. Fortunately for the Uruguayans, they were gifted their first goal, and Suarez, the opportunist-extraordinaire, curled in a rare chance.
S. Korea joins Japan as the Asian nations that show off their mastery of the Jabulani free-kick.
USA vs Ghana
This was a game that seems to swing back and forth on a pendulum, but the US was undone, it seems by a combination of Ghanian tenacity, and a lack of energy from their main forwards, even after their preferred XI started the second half.
Prince-Boateng hoodwinked Howard and the US defenders into thinking that he was going to pass the ball, before switching directions and taking a one-time shot. Howard had bitten, and didn't have time to adjust.
I must admit, I was impressed that several of the Ghanians chose to stay on their feet throughout the game, despite being given the opportunity to flop by Americans kicking their heels. Several have noted their antics towards the end of the game, but they were the equivalent of a time-out, the referee does stop his watch, and the defence takes the chance to reset. The Americans who don't like it should see what happens when you take time-outs away from their favourite sports.
The US dominated the second half, and were unfortunate not to get more chances, but cometh the hour, cometh the man, and it wasn't Donovan this time. Gyan stayed on his feet when he could have flopped, and, splitting the defence, hammered the ball home.
England vs Germany
Zonal Marking, perhaps my favourite read after every game, highlights England's problem with Ozil, and, sadly, their own formation. Watching the games, I was never convinced that England would struggle this much defensively, even against a wild card like Ozil, and I'm still convinced that the Germans would never have broken like that in the second half if England didn't push so for the equalizer. Truly, I don't think anyone in the England camp anticipated how fast the Germans could be, and how good their outlet passes could be. It's almost as if England, seeing themselves as World-Beaters, believed that other teams would have the same problems. As it happens, England is England, and they failed to see Germany for who they are in their current form.
People have addressed the short-comings of the England team as the players not being good enough, or simply not being "World class", which is utter bollocks for anyone who has followed the Premier League over the last decade. Many of the players on the team have a crucial role to play for the club team who employ them, and many clubs in Europe would fall over themselves to buy one of them if they had the money. The problem is that we cannot translate domestic success into international success, especially if they all come from different playing systems, and to me, it truly seemed like they could not adjust to the system Capello had in place, as a group of individuals, and so their movement and their passing suffered, and they failed to form a team.
What now? The "Golden Generation" was supposed to win Germany 2006, and as we look forward to Brazil 2014, many of the midfielders and defenders from this tournament will not be on that team. We have two years to rebuild and re-adjust for Euro 2012, and I can only hope that Capello changes his system in time.
Argentina vs Mexico
It seems like the Argentinians outclassed Mexico, but I'm disappointed, like in the England game, the first half score line was defined by a defensive mistake, and an erroneous call. Mexico chased the score admirably, and Hernandez's goal made me fear the Rooney-Hernandez partnership we'll see in the Premier League next year, woo, I think he's going to be my latest source of hatred. But, foreign players are hit and miss when it comes to the speed of the Premier League so we'll see.
Tevez's goal was hit so hard, I think that if we were to look at the frames 1/32 second by 1/32 second, there would actually be some frames where you couldn't see the ball.
Blatter
Are you watching?
Friday, June 25, 2010
Prediction for Round of 16 and thereafter
Uruguay vs Korea Republic
Uruguay surprised me with their defense, they didn't concede a goal. The Koreans played better than I thought they would, but probably should have lost to Nigeria.
Prediction: Uruguay 2 Korea Republic 1
USA vs Ghana
Donovan's exploits were not unexpected given his drive and maturity, just a little late, just not too late. It's exciting to be in the US for this. Ghana barely scraped through, two gifts from Serbia in the form of a penalty and a loss, coupled with a 1-1 draw against 10 Aussies. Won't be a recap of 2006.
Prediction: USA 2 Ghana 0
Germany vs England
England seemed to control all three games in their group, but only managed to get their offensive act together for the last game. Germany struggled to score against Serbia. Wild card: Ozil
Prediction: England 1 Germany 0
Argentina vs Mexico
For all of La Celeste's firepower, they were vulnerable at the back, Nigeria and Korea Republic had the best of chances before succumbing. Mexico underperformed in my opinion, especially since they decided their 1-0 loss to Uruguay wasn't going to affect their chance of promotion.
Prediction: Argentina 2 Mexico 2
Argentina wins penalty shoot-out.
Netherlands vs Slovakia
Dutch got a little luck, assisted by the post, and then Robben came back. Slovakia hung their heads after NZ and Paraguay took chances, and then displayed some intuitive team-work, technical skill and some balls against Italy.
Prediction: Netherlands 2 Slovakia 1
Brazil vs Chile
The two best CONMEBOL teams with the most offense went into their third games almost assured of going through, Chile less so. The Chileans were undone by a red card, so we never got to see how they could have attacked the Spanish. Brazil were allowed to pass by Portugal, but struggled to find any rhythm in the second half. Dunga needs to sit Dani Alves down and explain the concept of striking the ball underneath at whilst taking corners, and not whilst taking shots.
Prediction: Brazil 2 Chile 2
Brazil wins penalty shootout.
Paraguay vs Japan
Japan were one of my favorite teams on the ball, literally, they seemed like they figured the Jabulani with a sweet cross assisting the goal against Nigeria, and two fine free kicks that beat Sorenson, a seasoned Premier League goalie. Paraguay beat the Slovaks, but didn't seem to do much of note.
Prediction Japan 1 Paraguay 0
Spain vs Portugal
Spain seems to be on the up after losing to Switzerland, Torres still has to find form given his recent injury, but you can't fault their passing and movement with Cesc and Xavi at the heart. Portugal has one big result and two no-score draws, and you can fault Ronaldo with his dirt-kissing and long range field goal attempts.
Prediction: Spain 1 Portugal 0
Quarter-Finals
USA 2 Uruguay 1
Brazil 2 Netherlands 1
England 1 Argentina 0
Spain 4 Japan 0
Semi-Finals
England 1 Spain 0
Brazil 2 USA 0
Final
England 2 Brazil 1
Now you know me, I can't be trusted to make predictions objectively.
Uruguay surprised me with their defense, they didn't concede a goal. The Koreans played better than I thought they would, but probably should have lost to Nigeria.
Prediction: Uruguay 2 Korea Republic 1
USA vs Ghana
Donovan's exploits were not unexpected given his drive and maturity, just a little late, just not too late. It's exciting to be in the US for this. Ghana barely scraped through, two gifts from Serbia in the form of a penalty and a loss, coupled with a 1-1 draw against 10 Aussies. Won't be a recap of 2006.
Prediction: USA 2 Ghana 0
Germany vs England
England seemed to control all three games in their group, but only managed to get their offensive act together for the last game. Germany struggled to score against Serbia. Wild card: Ozil
Prediction: England 1 Germany 0
Argentina vs Mexico
For all of La Celeste's firepower, they were vulnerable at the back, Nigeria and Korea Republic had the best of chances before succumbing. Mexico underperformed in my opinion, especially since they decided their 1-0 loss to Uruguay wasn't going to affect their chance of promotion.
Prediction: Argentina 2 Mexico 2
Argentina wins penalty shoot-out.
Netherlands vs Slovakia
Dutch got a little luck, assisted by the post, and then Robben came back. Slovakia hung their heads after NZ and Paraguay took chances, and then displayed some intuitive team-work, technical skill and some balls against Italy.
Prediction: Netherlands 2 Slovakia 1
Brazil vs Chile
The two best CONMEBOL teams with the most offense went into their third games almost assured of going through, Chile less so. The Chileans were undone by a red card, so we never got to see how they could have attacked the Spanish. Brazil were allowed to pass by Portugal, but struggled to find any rhythm in the second half. Dunga needs to sit Dani Alves down and explain the concept of striking the ball underneath at whilst taking corners, and not whilst taking shots.
Prediction: Brazil 2 Chile 2
Brazil wins penalty shootout.
Paraguay vs Japan
Japan were one of my favorite teams on the ball, literally, they seemed like they figured the Jabulani with a sweet cross assisting the goal against Nigeria, and two fine free kicks that beat Sorenson, a seasoned Premier League goalie. Paraguay beat the Slovaks, but didn't seem to do much of note.
Prediction Japan 1 Paraguay 0
Spain vs Portugal
Spain seems to be on the up after losing to Switzerland, Torres still has to find form given his recent injury, but you can't fault their passing and movement with Cesc and Xavi at the heart. Portugal has one big result and two no-score draws, and you can fault Ronaldo with his dirt-kissing and long range field goal attempts.
Prediction: Spain 1 Portugal 0
Quarter-Finals
USA 2 Uruguay 1
Brazil 2 Netherlands 1
England 1 Argentina 0
Spain 4 Japan 0
Semi-Finals
England 1 Spain 0
Brazil 2 USA 0
Final
England 2 Brazil 1
Now you know me, I can't be trusted to make predictions objectively.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Review of Days 5-11
So I'm a bit late in reviewing my take on all the action so far, as it happens I started traveling on Day 5 (I was watching NZ vs Slovakia on the Chicago 'L') and since then, haven't been able to watch a full game without some form of distraction until I got home last night. Regardless, thanks to ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN3.com, I calculate that I caught about 80% of the action.
I'm going to keep this short and sweet, if I can, as I'm already behind. I plan to review the action every day once we get to the round of 16.
Comparison of Regions
As it stands, UEFA and CONMEBOL dominate the list of teams that have either qualified or have a good chance of advancing, along with perhaps one or two Asian and CONCACAF teams. CAF is the singular biggest disappointment in this tournament, though, I would have given Ivory Coast a chance if Portugal didn't just go and hammer the North Koreans. This actually may have an impact on the number of delegates FIFA may allow to compete in the next few World Cups, and I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps CAF's fifth team will have to go to a playoff next time, whilst CONMEBOL's fifth may be spared.
Crosses and Free-kicks
My favorite two crosses that I've seen so far in this tournament, were the one that led to Japan's goal against Cameroon, and the one that led to New Zealand's equalizer against Slovakia. Both of them could only be defended if the target was closely marked. What I mean by that is that they were the type of cross that neither goalie or defender could react to. The New Zealand cross in particular is a big reason for being ambidextrous when it comes to crossing as well as dribbling and shooting.
As for free-kicks, I think today, S. Korea scored the only intentionally direct free kick so far this tournament, which says a lot about how hard it is to keep the ball down. In fact, the Korean kept it deliberately so far down it bounced before it went in, which, in retrospect, is the best thing you could do considering.
Go wide
It's no secret that playing wide can reap benefits, finding space for your team, but nothing beat Rommedahl on how to create simple goals coming in from the outside. Johan Cruyff said that "Simple football is the most beautiful" and the Danes showed the world what that can be, though it wasn't the "Total football" Cruyff was referring to.
On that note, probably the most beautiful no-goal, if it actually went in, was a passing movement by the Swiss against Chile, right before the death. I can't find the video, especially as it didn't result in a goal. The Swiss also had a player who, against Spain, walked his way through the entire defence, it seemed, only to hit the post. Dammit, that would have been my best no-goal, if it wasn't for Chris Wood.
Chris Wood
Waiting on the sidelines, he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. Playing, he didn't seem to have a big impact, he was, after all, playing for NZ against Italy. But he had a chance that went wide of the post, a chance, that, if it went in, would have permanently engraved his name in every history book and every encyclopedia in New Zealand. For, like Michael at the time, he is only a teenager.
I'll put my money on Wood starting the next game, as NZ has to beat Paraguay to advance. Will they be 2010's Australia?
Speaking of which, it hasn't really worked for Australia to have so few strikers on the squad, especially when two front men got sent off in two games in succession. They'll probably field a more attacking formation for their last chance, which won't include, at their loss, Harry.
Harry
Harry Kewell actually represents two times in my life, in the late 1990's, when Leeds United were the reincarnation of the 'crazy gang', a young but daring team taking on all comers, and even shocking some giants in the Champions League. I hated and loved them, and was sorry to see them fall apart like that (financial reasons) and to be scattered. For some reason, I always remember that Howard Wilkinson called Lee Bowyer an animal. The second time was when he played for Liverpool of course.
Have you noticed how I have a lot to say about former colonies? Oh well.
Referees
The Malian has to go, enough said. There's been a few other ridiculous decisions, but none that beat US's disallowed goal, which is a damn shame seeing it would have been a helluva comeback. Did the ref have an agenda? We can only speculate.
Let's Go!
And so we come to the start of the knockouts, as the third round is literally that, you win, you might not go home...though, in the case of England and the US, its certain: En-Ger-Laaand!!!
I'm going to keep this short and sweet, if I can, as I'm already behind. I plan to review the action every day once we get to the round of 16.
Comparison of Regions
As it stands, UEFA and CONMEBOL dominate the list of teams that have either qualified or have a good chance of advancing, along with perhaps one or two Asian and CONCACAF teams. CAF is the singular biggest disappointment in this tournament, though, I would have given Ivory Coast a chance if Portugal didn't just go and hammer the North Koreans. This actually may have an impact on the number of delegates FIFA may allow to compete in the next few World Cups, and I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps CAF's fifth team will have to go to a playoff next time, whilst CONMEBOL's fifth may be spared.
Crosses and Free-kicks
My favorite two crosses that I've seen so far in this tournament, were the one that led to Japan's goal against Cameroon, and the one that led to New Zealand's equalizer against Slovakia. Both of them could only be defended if the target was closely marked. What I mean by that is that they were the type of cross that neither goalie or defender could react to. The New Zealand cross in particular is a big reason for being ambidextrous when it comes to crossing as well as dribbling and shooting.
As for free-kicks, I think today, S. Korea scored the only intentionally direct free kick so far this tournament, which says a lot about how hard it is to keep the ball down. In fact, the Korean kept it deliberately so far down it bounced before it went in, which, in retrospect, is the best thing you could do considering.
Go wide
It's no secret that playing wide can reap benefits, finding space for your team, but nothing beat Rommedahl on how to create simple goals coming in from the outside. Johan Cruyff said that "Simple football is the most beautiful" and the Danes showed the world what that can be, though it wasn't the "Total football" Cruyff was referring to.
On that note, probably the most beautiful no-goal, if it actually went in, was a passing movement by the Swiss against Chile, right before the death. I can't find the video, especially as it didn't result in a goal. The Swiss also had a player who, against Spain, walked his way through the entire defence, it seemed, only to hit the post. Dammit, that would have been my best no-goal, if it wasn't for Chris Wood.
Chris Wood
Waiting on the sidelines, he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. Playing, he didn't seem to have a big impact, he was, after all, playing for NZ against Italy. But he had a chance that went wide of the post, a chance, that, if it went in, would have permanently engraved his name in every history book and every encyclopedia in New Zealand. For, like Michael at the time, he is only a teenager.
I'll put my money on Wood starting the next game, as NZ has to beat Paraguay to advance. Will they be 2010's Australia?
Speaking of which, it hasn't really worked for Australia to have so few strikers on the squad, especially when two front men got sent off in two games in succession. They'll probably field a more attacking formation for their last chance, which won't include, at their loss, Harry.
Harry
Harry Kewell actually represents two times in my life, in the late 1990's, when Leeds United were the reincarnation of the 'crazy gang', a young but daring team taking on all comers, and even shocking some giants in the Champions League. I hated and loved them, and was sorry to see them fall apart like that (financial reasons) and to be scattered. For some reason, I always remember that Howard Wilkinson called Lee Bowyer an animal. The second time was when he played for Liverpool of course.
Have you noticed how I have a lot to say about former colonies? Oh well.
Referees
The Malian has to go, enough said. There's been a few other ridiculous decisions, but none that beat US's disallowed goal, which is a damn shame seeing it would have been a helluva comeback. Did the ref have an agenda? We can only speculate.
Let's Go!
And so we come to the start of the knockouts, as the third round is literally that, you win, you might not go home...though, in the case of England and the US, its certain: En-Ger-Laaand!!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Days 1-4 in Review
Jabulani
If you hadn't already noticed by now, that ball moves and bounces beyond the expectations of the players. It has some comical results, seeing it bounce over some players, and also past some goalkeepers. The downside to it is that there seemed to have been less shots on target, especially from free kicks (has anyone seen a free kick on target yet?). But admist all the discussion of the ball's flight, the Japanese showed us how to cross it in their goal against Cameroon. Maybe being more light-weight as a person would give you an edge in ball control?
The goalkeeping has been up and down, Nigeria and Denmark seem to have produced the most consistent displays, Sorenson even actually held onto a shot swinging away from him, see people, they wear gloves for a reason! He was equally unfortunate that his same gloves gave the ball the spin that led to the second goal.
Referees
There has been little debate about the referees, I've only seen a few mistakes, and probably the undeserved red card against Cahill was the one bad decision that affected a group than any other. But let me congratulate the Uzbek referees, goodness, I thought they would screw up the first game, and I thought they got every offside call wrong in the first game, and every time the replay showed me they got it right. The linesmen must have been intent on being in the right place, because they got the close calls right too.
But on another level, I thought some games might be a bit of a flopalooza, particularly with the Mexicans, but the referees seem to be on top of any simulation, more so than before, there was a good example where a German was yellow-carded for his flop yesterday, and he went on to stay on his feet for the rest of the game.
Predictions
I've been trying to make predictions for the games, and I've gotten very few results right, but there's been considerably less goals than I originally thought, to be fair, there seems to be quite a few missed chances, and maybe as the group stage progresses, and people get to grips with their environment and the ball (right, Green?!) we'll see more goals.
Surprises for me so far are:
South Africa (for their passing and movement)
Japan (for winning outside their home country, and their ball control)
Ghana (in general, I didn't think they had much else other than Essein, I was wrong)
Denmark (Their well-organized defence against the Dutch was good news for them, the goals were flukes)
Non-surprises:
South Korea (seriously, Greece had it coming)
Nigeria (or rather, the holes in the Argentinian defence, Nigeria was wasteful)
England vs USA
There was some noise about two particular things, the lack of a holding midfielder in Barry's absence, and the US counter-attack. Neither were issues. People seem to forget that Gerrard covers the entire field, and tackles like a demon, he was first a holding midfielder noted for his tackles rather than his passing and his goals early on his career. Secondly, the one time I think the US genuinely tried to counter, Donovan didn't have the support. To counter, you need to do so as a team, and the only player I know who could run and pass with Donovan whilst progressing down the field at high speed was Charlie Davis.
If you hadn't already noticed by now, that ball moves and bounces beyond the expectations of the players. It has some comical results, seeing it bounce over some players, and also past some goalkeepers. The downside to it is that there seemed to have been less shots on target, especially from free kicks (has anyone seen a free kick on target yet?). But admist all the discussion of the ball's flight, the Japanese showed us how to cross it in their goal against Cameroon. Maybe being more light-weight as a person would give you an edge in ball control?
The goalkeeping has been up and down, Nigeria and Denmark seem to have produced the most consistent displays, Sorenson even actually held onto a shot swinging away from him, see people, they wear gloves for a reason! He was equally unfortunate that his same gloves gave the ball the spin that led to the second goal.
Referees
There has been little debate about the referees, I've only seen a few mistakes, and probably the undeserved red card against Cahill was the one bad decision that affected a group than any other. But let me congratulate the Uzbek referees, goodness, I thought they would screw up the first game, and I thought they got every offside call wrong in the first game, and every time the replay showed me they got it right. The linesmen must have been intent on being in the right place, because they got the close calls right too.
But on another level, I thought some games might be a bit of a flopalooza, particularly with the Mexicans, but the referees seem to be on top of any simulation, more so than before, there was a good example where a German was yellow-carded for his flop yesterday, and he went on to stay on his feet for the rest of the game.
Predictions
I've been trying to make predictions for the games, and I've gotten very few results right, but there's been considerably less goals than I originally thought, to be fair, there seems to be quite a few missed chances, and maybe as the group stage progresses, and people get to grips with their environment and the ball (right, Green?!) we'll see more goals.
Surprises for me so far are:
South Africa (for their passing and movement)
Japan (for winning outside their home country, and their ball control)
Ghana (in general, I didn't think they had much else other than Essein, I was wrong)
Denmark (Their well-organized defence against the Dutch was good news for them, the goals were flukes)
Non-surprises:
South Korea (seriously, Greece had it coming)
Nigeria (or rather, the holes in the Argentinian defence, Nigeria was wasteful)
England vs USA
There was some noise about two particular things, the lack of a holding midfielder in Barry's absence, and the US counter-attack. Neither were issues. People seem to forget that Gerrard covers the entire field, and tackles like a demon, he was first a holding midfielder noted for his tackles rather than his passing and his goals early on his career. Secondly, the one time I think the US genuinely tried to counter, Donovan didn't have the support. To counter, you need to do so as a team, and the only player I know who could run and pass with Donovan whilst progressing down the field at high speed was Charlie Davis.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
49 Hours and Counting!
I can't stand it, I was talking with a friend about the low that I'm going to get after games, I'm so excited about this damn tournament I'm already thinking about how deflated I'm going to be when all is said and done, boo!!
Anyway, I won't be doing match previews until after the group stages, but I'll be writing reviews of the matches I see. Yes, work and family won't stop for the WC (I should consider moving to Brazil in time for the next World Cup), though I'll do my damnedest best, I'll be trying to get to Newark two hours earlier than needed just so that I can catch the England-Algeria game in an airport bar next Friday.
However, I'll try and make predictions of the score for every game on twitter, and may even comment in real-time if I remember: http://www.twitter.com/samseaver
I linked this on twitter, but this has got to be the best WC calendar!
Anyway, I won't be doing match previews until after the group stages, but I'll be writing reviews of the matches I see. Yes, work and family won't stop for the WC (I should consider moving to Brazil in time for the next World Cup), though I'll do my damnedest best, I'll be trying to get to Newark two hours earlier than needed just so that I can catch the England-Algeria game in an airport bar next Friday.
However, I'll try and make predictions of the score for every game on twitter, and may even comment in real-time if I remember: http://www.twitter.com/samseaver
I linked this on twitter, but this has got to be the best WC calendar!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Groups Review: E-H
As a reminder, I'm merely predicting a team's chances of getting beyond the group stages.
Group E:
The Netherlands, no doubt.
Denmark has a strong squad, when I look at it, I'm surprised to recognize so many Scandinavian names from the Premiership and elsewhere, Rommedahl is getting on a bit, but Bendtner must be raring to go, I see them having decisive victories over Cameroon and Japan.
I picked Cameroon to finish above Japan on the basis that they have a few defenders who play at the top level, as well as Eto'o, but I don't know much else about the team, they had a relatively easy group in qualifying, so we'll see.
I don't think we'll see much of Japan this time round, but to be honest, I don't know the team at all.
Prediction:
Netherlands
Denmark
Cameroon
Japan
Group F:
The Italians have a lot of established names, and even more established hairstyles, Camoranesi's ponytail and Gattuso's beard to name a few, they're the defending champions who only conceded two goals in the last World Cup, but "last" is the key here. Americans might be interested in Daniele De Rossi, who was born in the US, and even scored against them in the Confederations Cup last year.
Paraguay and Slovakia are stalemates for me, both doing good in their respective regions, and I might be more inclined towards Slovakia, but the Paraguayans have Santa-Cruz. I predict their match-up will be a no-score draw, and their chances of going through depends on how many goals they unload unto New Zealand.
New Zealand do have a bright spot for this tournament, they have their own Golden Boy who they're hoping will cause some upsets, 18 year old Chris Wood. It doesn't look as if he'll be starting games, but neither did Michael in 1998.
Prediction:
Italy
Paraguay*
Slovakia*
New Zealand
Group G:
Brazil, easy peasy lemon squeezy. I don't expect any high-scoring games, but they've got the defense that won Inter three trophies this year, which makes Brazil very scary in my book.
Portugal will lose against the Ivory Coast in the deciding match of the group. I don't like them, and I don't see Ronaldo making a difference except against DPR.
I see the Ivory Coast as being one of the more physical African teams, and thats saying something. Even Brazil might have a job whilst being manhandled. If Brazil's defense stays well positioned, they shouldn't have to worry about it. Portugal on the other hand.
Korea DPR: Oh Dear.
Prediction:
Brazil
Ivory Coast
Portugal
Korea DPR
Group H:
Spain will proceed at a gentle trot.
I'm having trouble with the rest of this group, I could put an asterix against all three of the other teams, and be OK with it. I'm naturally inclined towards a European defence, especially one that features Senderos who did well enough at Euro 2006 to get picked up by Arsenal, so I would think maybe Switzerland scrapes through here. I honestly do not know enough about Chile and Honduras, though I give the Chileans better credit in being a CONMEBOL team.
Prediction:
Spain
Switzerland
Chile
Honduras
If my predictions hold, we'll see these match-ups:
The Netherlands vs Paraguay
Italy vs Denmark
Spain vs Ivory Coast
Brazil vs Switzerland
Group E:
The Netherlands, no doubt.
Denmark has a strong squad, when I look at it, I'm surprised to recognize so many Scandinavian names from the Premiership and elsewhere, Rommedahl is getting on a bit, but Bendtner must be raring to go, I see them having decisive victories over Cameroon and Japan.
I picked Cameroon to finish above Japan on the basis that they have a few defenders who play at the top level, as well as Eto'o, but I don't know much else about the team, they had a relatively easy group in qualifying, so we'll see.
I don't think we'll see much of Japan this time round, but to be honest, I don't know the team at all.
Prediction:
Netherlands
Denmark
Cameroon
Japan
Group F:
The Italians have a lot of established names, and even more established hairstyles, Camoranesi's ponytail and Gattuso's beard to name a few, they're the defending champions who only conceded two goals in the last World Cup, but "last" is the key here. Americans might be interested in Daniele De Rossi, who was born in the US, and even scored against them in the Confederations Cup last year.
Paraguay and Slovakia are stalemates for me, both doing good in their respective regions, and I might be more inclined towards Slovakia, but the Paraguayans have Santa-Cruz. I predict their match-up will be a no-score draw, and their chances of going through depends on how many goals they unload unto New Zealand.
New Zealand do have a bright spot for this tournament, they have their own Golden Boy who they're hoping will cause some upsets, 18 year old Chris Wood. It doesn't look as if he'll be starting games, but neither did Michael in 1998.
Prediction:
Italy
Paraguay*
Slovakia*
New Zealand
Group G:
Brazil, easy peasy lemon squeezy. I don't expect any high-scoring games, but they've got the defense that won Inter three trophies this year, which makes Brazil very scary in my book.
Portugal will lose against the Ivory Coast in the deciding match of the group. I don't like them, and I don't see Ronaldo making a difference except against DPR.
I see the Ivory Coast as being one of the more physical African teams, and thats saying something. Even Brazil might have a job whilst being manhandled. If Brazil's defense stays well positioned, they shouldn't have to worry about it. Portugal on the other hand.
Korea DPR: Oh Dear.
Prediction:
Brazil
Ivory Coast
Portugal
Korea DPR
Group H:
Spain will proceed at a gentle trot.
I'm having trouble with the rest of this group, I could put an asterix against all three of the other teams, and be OK with it. I'm naturally inclined towards a European defence, especially one that features Senderos who did well enough at Euro 2006 to get picked up by Arsenal, so I would think maybe Switzerland scrapes through here. I honestly do not know enough about Chile and Honduras, though I give the Chileans better credit in being a CONMEBOL team.
Prediction:
Spain
Switzerland
Chile
Honduras
If my predictions hold, we'll see these match-ups:
The Netherlands vs Paraguay
Italy vs Denmark
Spain vs Ivory Coast
Brazil vs Switzerland
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Celebrations
A couple more memories that came back to me in all this World Cup fever were: Robert Earle's Salute, when he tied for Jamaica in their first game against Croatia. Robert Earle was the last of the 'Crazy Gang' who terrorized the Premier League, another famous member being Vinnie Jones. Earle had a chance to play for England, but he never did and ended up playing for the "Reggaez Boyz".
He was one of the veterans on the team, and their chances didn't look so good being in the same group as Croatia and Argentina, but there was a growing sense of support in England, given colonial connection, and I remember Earle's goal, because it came out of nowhere, and being the first group game, all of a sudden there was this sense of potential. Earle's celebratory salute sticks in my mind (4:50, the video isn't really worth watching in its entirety)
The second celebration that sticks to my mind was actually in a lot of the early ESPN WC adverts. If I were a defender for my country, in a locked semi-final against the host country, and I happened to receive the pass at the end of extra-time, that would lead to my scoring the game-winning goal, I most certainly would run down the sidelines shaking my head like Fabio Grosso:
I'm positive if any sound was coming out of his mouth, all he could manage was a breathless squeal as if Timberlake walked into a sweet 16 party.
He was one of the veterans on the team, and their chances didn't look so good being in the same group as Croatia and Argentina, but there was a growing sense of support in England, given colonial connection, and I remember Earle's goal, because it came out of nowhere, and being the first group game, all of a sudden there was this sense of potential. Earle's celebratory salute sticks in my mind (4:50, the video isn't really worth watching in its entirety)
The second celebration that sticks to my mind was actually in a lot of the early ESPN WC adverts. If I were a defender for my country, in a locked semi-final against the host country, and I happened to receive the pass at the end of extra-time, that would lead to my scoring the game-winning goal, I most certainly would run down the sidelines shaking my head like Fabio Grosso:
I'm positive if any sound was coming out of his mouth, all he could manage was a breathless squeal as if Timberlake walked into a sweet 16 party.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Groups Review: A-D
I'm going spend some of my last posts before the actual event reviewing the groups, and making my predictions about who will make it to the next round. I'm not brave enough to predict who will win it all, especially as many of the top teams are strong contenders to make it all the way. I'll leave an asterix next to second and third place teams to say I think it could go either way (you might think I'm being chicken about the predictions, but I don't think you could say that to my face). Also, I will not be considering the recent friendlies, they are experimental.
A:
Many would think that France are an automatic choice, but looking over their roster, they don't seem to have the midfield, especially without Nasri. They also struggled to qualify, needing a last minute handball from Thierry Henry in the playoffs. Their best two strikers are now getting on a bit too.
Uruguay finished fifth in CONMEBOL and also had to win a playoff against Costa Rica, which in itself is not an easy feat. They are dangerous because of Forlan's form, he scored the game-winning goals of both the semi-final against Liverpool and the final against Fulham in the Europa cup, but I don't know much about the rest of the team.
I'd say that Mexico is the most likely to win the group, as they had the best form towards the end of the qualifiers, winning 5 of their last 6 games, after replacing Eriksson as their coach. Dos Santos was a player who started playing better under the new coach and is one to watch. Javier Hernandez was signed by Man Utd, and so will probably be my new foci of hatred, especially if Mexico ends up meeting England in the quarters.
Finally, South Africa are the host nation, and though I suspect they would finish last in their group, I wouldn't be surprised to see them pull off a win, especially against France (shades of '02 anyone?) Every host country in the World Cup has made it out of the first round, even USA in '94.
Prediction:
Mexico
Uruguay*
France*
South Africa
B:
When I see Argentina, I think group winners, and then I think, wait, they barely made it, and then I was watching the Champions League Final thinking "Gosh, Milito!" and then I was reminding myself who the coach is. I think Argentina will make it to the next round, but they'll struggle to do so, particularly against Korea.
I don't know many of the names on the Korea team, apart from the ones who play in England, but I understand that they have a work ethic that would frustrate teams more inclined to be spontaneous (see above).
Nigeria probably wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for a remarkable result between Tunisia and Mozambique. Nigeria actually succeeded in tying Tunisia in both group games, and I believe that's a good indicator of what's going to happen here, a lot of score draws.
Greece is not the team it was, one of the oldest in the field, still holding onto the fading glory of Euro 2004, but they boast the top scorer in the UEFA region (who'da thunk it?!) Theofanis Gekas, so things may be interesting.
Prediction:
Argentina
Korea*
Nigeria*
Greece
C:
England is the number one choice to win this group. I'm being objective too.
USA won the CONCACAF region, and had a fantastic run in the Confederations Cup last year, but between the first two games, and the rest of the cup, they were like Jekyll and Hyde, and Charlie Davis was the reason. His running opened up space and created goals, he was involved in almost all the goals the US scored, even Altidore's goal against Spain. I became a big fan of his after that cup, and was sorry to see him go down like that. The USA will not be the same team without him, and despite the attention they're giving to the England-USA match up, they should be focused on the game against Slovenia.
Algeria are the least likely to qualify, but cannot be discounted for the fact that they beat Egypt to get here. Egypt is the two-times defending CAF champion, and the highest ranked African team not in the World Cup, and so Algeria deserve some respect. How much, I cannot tell.
Slovenia pulled off a bigger upset than anyone might consider, seeing they beat Guus Hiddink, holding at home in the second leg-off of the playoff against Russia. If they can keep their defence organized like that, they can do well. However, they finished second to Slovakia in a rather underwhelming group, so I don't know if they'll perform at the next level.
Prediction:
England
USA
Slovenia
Algeria
D:
Germany is the de facto choice here, even without Ballack, and any of the other injuries they've been having.
Australia is a favourite of mine, as you might have garnered from my review of Germany '06, but I think it's going to be really close between three teams, and I read that Australia only have three true forwards, of which one is fully fit, so they may be expecting to force a few no-score draws, and consequently, would miss out.
Ghana would have given Germany a run for their money, but they're missing Essein now, a game-changer, and will be hoping to get at least one win over Australia or Serbia, which is likely, but may not be enough.
Serbia won their group, which included France, Romania and Austria, by a game to spare, with an impressive strike rate of 22 goals in 10 games, unexpected from a small nation, and this makes them the wild card here, they seem capable of beating everyone in this group.
Prediction:
Serbia
Germany
Ghana
Australia
If my predictions hold, then the next round would have these match-ups:
Mexico vs Korea
Uruguay vs Argentina
England vs Germany
Serbia vs USA
A:
Many would think that France are an automatic choice, but looking over their roster, they don't seem to have the midfield, especially without Nasri. They also struggled to qualify, needing a last minute handball from Thierry Henry in the playoffs. Their best two strikers are now getting on a bit too.
Uruguay finished fifth in CONMEBOL and also had to win a playoff against Costa Rica, which in itself is not an easy feat. They are dangerous because of Forlan's form, he scored the game-winning goals of both the semi-final against Liverpool and the final against Fulham in the Europa cup, but I don't know much about the rest of the team.
I'd say that Mexico is the most likely to win the group, as they had the best form towards the end of the qualifiers, winning 5 of their last 6 games, after replacing Eriksson as their coach. Dos Santos was a player who started playing better under the new coach and is one to watch. Javier Hernandez was signed by Man Utd, and so will probably be my new foci of hatred, especially if Mexico ends up meeting England in the quarters.
Finally, South Africa are the host nation, and though I suspect they would finish last in their group, I wouldn't be surprised to see them pull off a win, especially against France (shades of '02 anyone?) Every host country in the World Cup has made it out of the first round, even USA in '94.
Prediction:
Mexico
Uruguay*
France*
South Africa
B:
When I see Argentina, I think group winners, and then I think, wait, they barely made it, and then I was watching the Champions League Final thinking "Gosh, Milito!" and then I was reminding myself who the coach is. I think Argentina will make it to the next round, but they'll struggle to do so, particularly against Korea.
I don't know many of the names on the Korea team, apart from the ones who play in England, but I understand that they have a work ethic that would frustrate teams more inclined to be spontaneous (see above).
Nigeria probably wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for a remarkable result between Tunisia and Mozambique. Nigeria actually succeeded in tying Tunisia in both group games, and I believe that's a good indicator of what's going to happen here, a lot of score draws.
Greece is not the team it was, one of the oldest in the field, still holding onto the fading glory of Euro 2004, but they boast the top scorer in the UEFA region (who'da thunk it?!) Theofanis Gekas, so things may be interesting.
Prediction:
Argentina
Korea*
Nigeria*
Greece
C:
England is the number one choice to win this group. I'm being objective too.
USA won the CONCACAF region, and had a fantastic run in the Confederations Cup last year, but between the first two games, and the rest of the cup, they were like Jekyll and Hyde, and Charlie Davis was the reason. His running opened up space and created goals, he was involved in almost all the goals the US scored, even Altidore's goal against Spain. I became a big fan of his after that cup, and was sorry to see him go down like that. The USA will not be the same team without him, and despite the attention they're giving to the England-USA match up, they should be focused on the game against Slovenia.
Algeria are the least likely to qualify, but cannot be discounted for the fact that they beat Egypt to get here. Egypt is the two-times defending CAF champion, and the highest ranked African team not in the World Cup, and so Algeria deserve some respect. How much, I cannot tell.
Slovenia pulled off a bigger upset than anyone might consider, seeing they beat Guus Hiddink, holding at home in the second leg-off of the playoff against Russia. If they can keep their defence organized like that, they can do well. However, they finished second to Slovakia in a rather underwhelming group, so I don't know if they'll perform at the next level.
Prediction:
England
USA
Slovenia
Algeria
D:
Germany is the de facto choice here, even without Ballack, and any of the other injuries they've been having.
Australia is a favourite of mine, as you might have garnered from my review of Germany '06, but I think it's going to be really close between three teams, and I read that Australia only have three true forwards, of which one is fully fit, so they may be expecting to force a few no-score draws, and consequently, would miss out.
Ghana would have given Germany a run for their money, but they're missing Essein now, a game-changer, and will be hoping to get at least one win over Australia or Serbia, which is likely, but may not be enough.
Serbia won their group, which included France, Romania and Austria, by a game to spare, with an impressive strike rate of 22 goals in 10 games, unexpected from a small nation, and this makes them the wild card here, they seem capable of beating everyone in this group.
Prediction:
Serbia
Germany
Ghana
Australia
If my predictions hold, then the next round would have these match-ups:
Mexico vs Korea
Uruguay vs Argentina
England vs Germany
Serbia vs USA
Friday, May 28, 2010
The "Real" World Cup
They call this tournament, the "World" Cup, and there's no doubt about its international pedigree, even the final 32 teams cover every corner of the globe, from New Zealand to Honduras, Paraguay to Japan, and South Africa to Denmark.
But, if you look closely, the international flavor starts to lose its salt. Out of the possible 72 semi-finalists in all 18 of the previous World Cup, only 4 teams were not European, Brazil, Argentina, or Uruguay. Read that again, FOUR, and I'm being generous because I'm counting the Soviet Union. Yawn, YAWN, Bloody Yawn!
2002: Korea
1966: Soviet Union
1962: Chile
1930: USA
There may be reasons why you might expect this empirically, such as the fact that UEFA sends the most teams to the tournament every time, and gets to do so because most of their teams are just great (the losers of the playoff qualifiers have the potential to make the semis alone). But the fact remains, its not as much of a "World" Cup as one might like. Many fans only plan for the group stages, because the expect their team to be going home early.
So, I started to think about a second World Cup, a "Real" World cup, one where there may be more equality in the results between teams from across the globe, one where you'd get more unpredictable games in the group stages, and one where you'd get more diverse semi-finals at least. If such a World Cup were to happen, and it had 32 teams, it would be inviting the losers, the non-qualifiers, the second best from all the regions.
First, I checked out the rankings, here is the ranking of the top 32 teams to not make it to the World Cup this year:
Here's how many teams that would be from each region:
OK, that's not going to work, so I'll go back to the format that the organizers use, where they restrict the number of entrants from UEFA. But with a few new rules of my own. In the following list, for each region, I'll detail the number of entrants, and why.
UEFA: 9
The original number of 13 is too much for my liking, and I decided to free up four spaces for the other regions. In addition to taking the 9 second-best UEFA teams, I will not include the ones that lost in the playoffs, simply because they're too good anyway, so Russia, Ukraine, and Republic of Ireland are out (Henry handball notwithstanding). Bosnia stays in because I like them for even making the playoffs, so there. My rules.
The 9 UEFA teams would be (with rankings):
Africa: 6
I award Africa one of the spots taken from UEFA:
Asia: 6
I award Asia one of the spots taken from UEFA, and I also give them an extra half a spot, because they lost their inter-continental playoff qualifier against New Zealand.
CONCACAF: 5
I award CONCACAF one of the spots taken from UEFA, and I also give them an extra half a spot, because they lost their inter-continental playoff qualifier against Uruguay.
CONMEBOL: 5
I award CONMEBOL one of the spots taken from UEFA, and I also take away the half a spot, because of Uruguay. Take note, this is literally the rest of the teams in the entire region.
Oceania: 1*
I would deduct half a spot because of New Zealand, but that means that the Pacific Islands would have no contenders. As it happens, there is one spot left, but how could I justify offering it to the lowliest of teams...I know, I'd make them the host nation:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you New Caledonia 2010, the "Real" World Cup!
View Larger Map
At first glance, this seems like a fantastic mixture of teams, but sadly, ranking-wise, UEFA would dominate again. It looks like at least the African teams, particularly Egypt would make the Semis, and they'd be the first African team do do so.
But, if you look closely, the international flavor starts to lose its salt. Out of the possible 72 semi-finalists in all 18 of the previous World Cup, only 4 teams were not European, Brazil, Argentina, or Uruguay. Read that again, FOUR, and I'm being generous because I'm counting the Soviet Union. Yawn, YAWN, Bloody Yawn!
2002: Korea
1966: Soviet Union
1962: Chile
1930: USA
There may be reasons why you might expect this empirically, such as the fact that UEFA sends the most teams to the tournament every time, and gets to do so because most of their teams are just great (the losers of the playoff qualifiers have the potential to make the semis alone). But the fact remains, its not as much of a "World" Cup as one might like. Many fans only plan for the group stages, because the expect their team to be going home early.
So, I started to think about a second World Cup, a "Real" World cup, one where there may be more equality in the results between teams from across the globe, one where you'd get more unpredictable games in the group stages, and one where you'd get more diverse semi-finals at least. If such a World Cup were to happen, and it had 32 teams, it would be inviting the losers, the non-qualifiers, the second best from all the regions.
First, I checked out the rankings, here is the ranking of the top 32 teams to not make it to the World Cup this year:
| Ranking | Country | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Croatia | UEFA |
| 11 | Russia | UEFA |
| 13 | Egypt | CAF |
| 22 | Norway | UEFA |
| 24 | Israel | UEFA |
| 25 | Ukraine | UEFA |
| 28 | Romania | UEFA |
| 29 | Czech Republic | UEFA |
| 33 | Turkey | UEFA |
| 34 | Colombia | CONMEBOL |
| 36 | Ecuador | CONMEBOL |
| 37 | Sweden | UEFA |
| 39 | Bulgaria | UEFA |
| 41 | Gabon | CAF |
| 42 | Costa Rica | CONCACAF |
| 43 | EIRE | UEFA |
| 44 | Scotland | UEFA |
| 46 | Latvia | UEFA |
| 48 | Lithuania | UEFA |
| 49 | Venezuela | CONMEBOL |
| 49 | Finland | UEFA |
| 51 | Bosnia | UEFA |
| 52 | Burkina Faso | CAF |
| 53 | Peru | CONMEBOL |
| 54 | Mali | CAF |
| 55 | Tunisia | CAF |
| 56 | Hungary | UEFA |
| 57 | N. Ireland | UEFA |
| 58 | Poland | UEFA |
| 59 | Benin | CAF |
| 60 | Iran | AFC |
| 60 | FYR Macedonia | UEFA |
Here's how many teams that would be from each region:
| Region | Number |
|---|---|
| UEFA | 20 |
| CAF | 6 |
| CONMEBOL | 4 |
| CONCACAF | 1 |
| AFC | 1 |
| OFC | 0 |
OK, that's not going to work, so I'll go back to the format that the organizers use, where they restrict the number of entrants from UEFA. But with a few new rules of my own. In the following list, for each region, I'll detail the number of entrants, and why.
UEFA: 9
The original number of 13 is too much for my liking, and I decided to free up four spaces for the other regions. In addition to taking the 9 second-best UEFA teams, I will not include the ones that lost in the playoffs, simply because they're too good anyway, so Russia, Ukraine, and Republic of Ireland are out (Henry handball notwithstanding). Bosnia stays in because I like them for even making the playoffs, so there. My rules.
The 9 UEFA teams would be (with rankings):
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 9 | Croatia |
| 24 | Israel |
| 29 | Bosnia-Herzegovina |
| 29 | Czech Republic |
| 37 | Sweden |
| 46 | Latvia |
| 49 | Finland |
| 56 | Hungary |
| 57 | Northern Ireland |
Africa: 6
I award Africa one of the spots taken from UEFA:
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 13 | Egypt |
| 41 | Gabon |
| 52 | Burkina Faso |
| 54 | Mali |
| 55 | Tunisia |
| 59 | Benin |
Asia: 6
I award Asia one of the spots taken from UEFA, and I also give them an extra half a spot, because they lost their inter-continental playoff qualifier against New Zealand.
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 60 | Iran |
| 66 | Saudi Arabia |
| 69 | Bahrain |
| 94 | Uzbekistan |
| 95 | Qatar |
| 100 | United Arab Emirates |
CONCACAF: 5
I award CONCACAF one of the spots taken from UEFA, and I also give them an extra half a spot, because they lost their inter-continental playoff qualifier against Uruguay.
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 42 | Costa Rica |
| 71 | El Salvador |
| 79 | Jamaica |
| 91 | Trinidad and Tobago |
| 115 | Guatemala |
CONMEBOL: 5
I award CONMEBOL one of the spots taken from UEFA, and I also take away the half a spot, because of Uruguay. Take note, this is literally the rest of the teams in the entire region.
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 36 | Ecuador |
| 34 | Columbia |
| 49 | Venezuela |
| 53 | Peru |
| 67 | Bolivia |
Oceania: 1*
I would deduct half a spot because of New Zealand, but that means that the Pacific Islands would have no contenders. As it happens, there is one spot left, but how could I justify offering it to the lowliest of teams...I know, I'd make them the host nation:
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 146 | New Caledonia |
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you New Caledonia 2010, the "Real" World Cup!
View Larger Map
At first glance, this seems like a fantastic mixture of teams, but sadly, ranking-wise, UEFA would dominate again. It looks like at least the African teams, particularly Egypt would make the Semis, and they'd be the first African team do do so.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
World Cup Memories: Germany '06
Germany '06
Erika and I were in Europe in the latter part of the tournament. I had actually scored two tickets for a game through the lottery: Ukraine vs Tunisia. Yea, I know, whoop-de-doo, but the whole experience was very educating. Here's what it taught us: If you're going to a World Cup game, plan on arriving at the stadium a good three hours before kick-off time. I kid you not.
We were on the train into Berlin the same day, and when we got off, we looked at the clock, and judged that we had a few hours to find our hostel and to get in the seats before the national anthems. Oh, boy. We were wondering around south Berlin trying to find the bloody hostel in the first place, and by the time we checked in, and legged it back onto the subway, we were sweating like pigs. But that wasn't the end of it, we actually arrived at the Berlin Stadium with time to spare, but found that we had to run two miles around the stadium to get our tickets, and would have had to run two miles back to the gates just to get in when some nice security guards let us in the media entrance. By then, the anthems were done and the game had started, but we did managed to catch most of it.
The Ukraine had to win or tie to be sure of progress, we were in nose-bleed seats, next to a nervous young Ukranian who kept chewing nails, and kindly pointed out Shevchenko for us as I couldn't make out numbers.
This is us in Berlin Stadium, looking pretty jaded from all that running
Being in Germany for this World Cup, we were hosted by the German/Irish family of an exchange student we knew, and the atmosphere was amazing, the Germans were so pumped up, as any nation would be, at one point, making our way through central Berlin, we were swept up in a stream of fans singing their hearts out, on their way to watch a game on the big screen in the city's heart, it was awesome. Our hosts were telling us, this was the first time since the second world war, that the German people dared to be so patriotic, once again they were unfurling their flags and singing their songs about Klinsmann et al. It seemed like a really good time to experience Germany, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Anyway....I'm sorry to say, we were on a train in the Czech Republic at the same time that England lost to Portugal, so that dulled the pain somewhat. Cristiano Ronaldo, my latest source of hatred due to his starring role scoring goals and diving for Manchester United, became the national focus of enmity after this dual provocation (note the wink at 1:26):
The devil incarnate is now featured in the latest Nike commercial, and I sure hope he finds the same form he did in Germany '06. What, you didn't notice how few goals he scored? 1 goals in 6 games, and it was a penalty against Iran *snicker*. UPDATE: Looks like he's having trouble once again.
My mate Palfie was at the game, and he was kind enough to re-live the penalties with me, as he made a video on his camera. We both sat there in the pub with our beers, compatriots in misery. Though Jamie missed his second penalty (he was asked to retake it), I'm still excited he might be back in the squad, because he was the best penalty-taker at the time.
The two best games of the group stages were the first one, where Germany beat Costa-Rica in a six-goal thriller:
It wasn't really over until Frings scored one of the best goals in the tournament. I wonder where Wanchope is now, you could pick out his gangly stride from a mile away.
The second was when Australia beat Japan in a 3-1 comeback. Tim Cahill was substituted on with ten minutes to go, and scored the two goals for Australia to seal it in an exciting finish:
I was rooting for Australia because of Harry Kewell, I should do a "Where are they now?" segment for all these ex-Premier-league footballers I keep seeing in these videos.
The world was introduced to the neanderthal charms of Carlos Hirsute Tevez in this tournament, and I spent much of my time deriding his appearance: "He must handball a lot if he's dragging his knuckles like that?!"
I remember the Portugal-Holland game, notably for the combination of atrocious refereeing, letting the game get out of control, and the sniping by both sides, which led to then Barcelona club team-mates, Deco and van Bronckhorst, sharing a step after both having been sent off. It was an amusing sight of a friendship between supposed enemies in the midst of the game, you can see it right at the end of this video:
Technically, I think they were supposed to go back to the dressing room, but given the environment, they just thought "screw it" and sat there.
Erika and I were in a pub near the hostel for the Mexico-Argentina game. There were two Mexicans who'd made the long trip for their team, and everyone was rooting for Mexico with them, it seemed wonderful when Mexico had a fast start, but they couldn't hold on, and it just made us hate Argentina all the more when Rodriguez looped his goal in. The Mexicans were humble about it, seeming to say, "Ah well, it was Argentina after all" and they went on to sing a song for the entire pub, a kind of hispanic ballad of loss, and the Germans loved them and bought them lots of beer. Note to self: sing something when your team loses.
Australia threatened to be the surprise, taking Italy almost all the way in the round of 16, and the irony would have been so sweet, why? Check out the Australian coach. Yup, Guus Hiddink, architect of the Italian downfall at the hands of the Koreans, was at it again.
And so, we come to the final, and Zidane's header. No, I don't mean the headbutt, I mean the header. It seemed strange to me that nobody nowhere in all I read would connect an open header that Zidane missed, with his response to being provoked by Materazzi, they were only 6 minutes apart, check it out at the 1:18 mark. I remember seeing the replay of Zidane's response to that miss, he was furious, he just stood there and shouted. In my mind, Zidane, in his last ever game for France, and rueing such a great chance with 15 minutes left of extra time, was replaying the header in his head when Materazzi spoke up.
Erika and I were in Europe in the latter part of the tournament. I had actually scored two tickets for a game through the lottery: Ukraine vs Tunisia. Yea, I know, whoop-de-doo, but the whole experience was very educating. Here's what it taught us: If you're going to a World Cup game, plan on arriving at the stadium a good three hours before kick-off time. I kid you not.
We were on the train into Berlin the same day, and when we got off, we looked at the clock, and judged that we had a few hours to find our hostel and to get in the seats before the national anthems. Oh, boy. We were wondering around south Berlin trying to find the bloody hostel in the first place, and by the time we checked in, and legged it back onto the subway, we were sweating like pigs. But that wasn't the end of it, we actually arrived at the Berlin Stadium with time to spare, but found that we had to run two miles around the stadium to get our tickets, and would have had to run two miles back to the gates just to get in when some nice security guards let us in the media entrance. By then, the anthems were done and the game had started, but we did managed to catch most of it.
The Ukraine had to win or tie to be sure of progress, we were in nose-bleed seats, next to a nervous young Ukranian who kept chewing nails, and kindly pointed out Shevchenko for us as I couldn't make out numbers.
This is us in Berlin Stadium, looking pretty jaded from all that running
Being in Germany for this World Cup, we were hosted by the German/Irish family of an exchange student we knew, and the atmosphere was amazing, the Germans were so pumped up, as any nation would be, at one point, making our way through central Berlin, we were swept up in a stream of fans singing their hearts out, on their way to watch a game on the big screen in the city's heart, it was awesome. Our hosts were telling us, this was the first time since the second world war, that the German people dared to be so patriotic, once again they were unfurling their flags and singing their songs about Klinsmann et al. It seemed like a really good time to experience Germany, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Anyway....I'm sorry to say, we were on a train in the Czech Republic at the same time that England lost to Portugal, so that dulled the pain somewhat. Cristiano Ronaldo, my latest source of hatred due to his starring role scoring goals and diving for Manchester United, became the national focus of enmity after this dual provocation (note the wink at 1:26):
The devil incarnate is now featured in the latest Nike commercial, and I sure hope he finds the same form he did in Germany '06. What, you didn't notice how few goals he scored? 1 goals in 6 games, and it was a penalty against Iran *snicker*. UPDATE: Looks like he's having trouble once again.
My mate Palfie was at the game, and he was kind enough to re-live the penalties with me, as he made a video on his camera. We both sat there in the pub with our beers, compatriots in misery. Though Jamie missed his second penalty (he was asked to retake it), I'm still excited he might be back in the squad, because he was the best penalty-taker at the time.
The two best games of the group stages were the first one, where Germany beat Costa-Rica in a six-goal thriller:
It wasn't really over until Frings scored one of the best goals in the tournament. I wonder where Wanchope is now, you could pick out his gangly stride from a mile away.
The second was when Australia beat Japan in a 3-1 comeback. Tim Cahill was substituted on with ten minutes to go, and scored the two goals for Australia to seal it in an exciting finish:
I was rooting for Australia because of Harry Kewell, I should do a "Where are they now?" segment for all these ex-Premier-league footballers I keep seeing in these videos.
The world was introduced to the neanderthal charms of Carlos Hirsute Tevez in this tournament, and I spent much of my time deriding his appearance: "He must handball a lot if he's dragging his knuckles like that?!"
I remember the Portugal-Holland game, notably for the combination of atrocious refereeing, letting the game get out of control, and the sniping by both sides, which led to then Barcelona club team-mates, Deco and van Bronckhorst, sharing a step after both having been sent off. It was an amusing sight of a friendship between supposed enemies in the midst of the game, you can see it right at the end of this video:
Technically, I think they were supposed to go back to the dressing room, but given the environment, they just thought "screw it" and sat there.
Erika and I were in a pub near the hostel for the Mexico-Argentina game. There were two Mexicans who'd made the long trip for their team, and everyone was rooting for Mexico with them, it seemed wonderful when Mexico had a fast start, but they couldn't hold on, and it just made us hate Argentina all the more when Rodriguez looped his goal in. The Mexicans were humble about it, seeming to say, "Ah well, it was Argentina after all" and they went on to sing a song for the entire pub, a kind of hispanic ballad of loss, and the Germans loved them and bought them lots of beer. Note to self: sing something when your team loses.
Australia threatened to be the surprise, taking Italy almost all the way in the round of 16, and the irony would have been so sweet, why? Check out the Australian coach. Yup, Guus Hiddink, architect of the Italian downfall at the hands of the Koreans, was at it again.
And so, we come to the final, and Zidane's header. No, I don't mean the headbutt, I mean the header. It seemed strange to me that nobody nowhere in all I read would connect an open header that Zidane missed, with his response to being provoked by Materazzi, they were only 6 minutes apart, check it out at the 1:18 mark. I remember seeing the replay of Zidane's response to that miss, he was furious, he just stood there and shouted. In my mind, Zidane, in his last ever game for France, and rueing such a great chance with 15 minutes left of extra time, was replaying the header in his head when Materazzi spoke up.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
My first World Cup game
The first World Cup game I went to, which was actually a qualifier, but still my first one, was in Lima, Peru, of all places, and I didn't even know it was happening.
Here's my ticket, proud I am of it.
As the story goes, I was backpacking in Peru, summer of 2000, way before Korea/Japan 2002, Euro 2000 was over, the French victorious again, and the European qualifiers weren't going to start until September, I think. So here I was in Lima, I was shacking up in some hostel, and walked over to the local supermarket to get some goods.
The supermarket had this long line of Peruvians waiting to get in, it ran around the block almost, and at the front entrance, there was this metal fence, with a gap that the line ran through. A couple of people did pass through this gap, but they looked as if they were pushing in front. I had no idea what was going on, but the last thing I wanted to do was to piss off a lot of chain-smoking Peruvian men by acting like a superior white guy, so I went to the back of the line and waited.
I don't know how long I waited for, time was my friend, and I just watched people around me chat animatedly, as the line slowly moved along, and I was thinking, things must be bad around here if they have to line up to get their milk, but I didn't think that was the case. I was convinced that I could just be able to walk through the store, but I'm sorry to say I was just too chicken to do it.
Eventually, I found myself near the front of the line, and I realized, that really, I could just walk in the store, other people were doing it, and I was just about to do so, thinking to myself, "what on earth was this line for?" when I happened to glance at the store windows right in front of me, screaming "Arriba, Peru!", and it hit me!
I was in line to buy tickets for a game! I was like, "Yes! One please! Huh? I don't care what you're saying, here's your fifty, just give me that piece of paper!"
The game itself was a very intimidating atmosphere, everyone was wearing the national strip (white with a red diagonal, note to self: get it), and I was a little nervous perched on the end of a wooden bench hearing everyone chanting "Peerrr-Hu! Peerrr-Hu!" It actually got fun until I started thinking, "they're not going to be happy with a draw here", and I was saying to myself, "I'm going to be out of here at the 80 minute mark", but the Peruvianstied won it, and I got lost in the bouncing crowd and had to stop to ask for directions of a family cleaning out their tiny restaurant, which took me about 30 minutes just to enunciate my objective correctly.
But there you have it, I pride that ticket.
Here's my ticket, proud I am of it.
As the story goes, I was backpacking in Peru, summer of 2000, way before Korea/Japan 2002, Euro 2000 was over, the French victorious again, and the European qualifiers weren't going to start until September, I think. So here I was in Lima, I was shacking up in some hostel, and walked over to the local supermarket to get some goods.
The supermarket had this long line of Peruvians waiting to get in, it ran around the block almost, and at the front entrance, there was this metal fence, with a gap that the line ran through. A couple of people did pass through this gap, but they looked as if they were pushing in front. I had no idea what was going on, but the last thing I wanted to do was to piss off a lot of chain-smoking Peruvian men by acting like a superior white guy, so I went to the back of the line and waited.
I don't know how long I waited for, time was my friend, and I just watched people around me chat animatedly, as the line slowly moved along, and I was thinking, things must be bad around here if they have to line up to get their milk, but I didn't think that was the case. I was convinced that I could just be able to walk through the store, but I'm sorry to say I was just too chicken to do it.
Eventually, I found myself near the front of the line, and I realized, that really, I could just walk in the store, other people were doing it, and I was just about to do so, thinking to myself, "what on earth was this line for?" when I happened to glance at the store windows right in front of me, screaming "Arriba, Peru!", and it hit me!
I was in line to buy tickets for a game! I was like, "Yes! One please! Huh? I don't care what you're saying, here's your fifty, just give me that piece of paper!"
The game itself was a very intimidating atmosphere, everyone was wearing the national strip (white with a red diagonal, note to self: get it), and I was a little nervous perched on the end of a wooden bench hearing everyone chanting "Peerrr-Hu! Peerrr-Hu!" It actually got fun until I started thinking, "they're not going to be happy with a draw here", and I was saying to myself, "I'm going to be out of here at the 80 minute mark", but the Peruvians
But there you have it, I pride that ticket.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
ESPN hits WC Overdrive
I remember when I first moved here, apart from MLS and following the national team, ESPN didn't seem to care much about soccer. Over the years, I've witnessed a slow growth in coverage, leading from when they would bother themselves to announce the Champions League Final result in the "BottomLine", to actually purchasing rights to show some Premiership and Champions League games this year, live(!).
During Euro 2008, I walked into an Italian pizzeria (I was doing my summer internship elsewhere in Chicago) and the nice old proprietor actually had no idea what channel the soccer would be on, I had to go back to work, with his cable company information, and figure it out for him.
Well, this year, ESPN owns all the rights to the World Cup for domestic viewing here in the US (correct me if I'm wrong), and they are not letting you forget it. They started showing their first adverts during the Vancouver Olympics in January (they bought ad time on NBC to do so, if you hadn't thought of that) and are now blasting us whenever they can.
It's getting a bit overboard, albeit entertaining, as they are using their own advertising time to show 30 second reviews of the 32 teams that will be playing in the tournament. You can see the forty (at time of press) different adverts on their youtube page.
I liked the "power of 10" ad, which discusses the best players to have worn that number, but I'd honestly like it if they did a "power of n" advert because there has been so many great players.
On a related note, I had always detested the commentating done in previous tournaments, and would turn the captions off. Tonight, ESPN had someone on to briefly discuss the Dutch's defense and teamwork, and they subscripted the discussion with his "Resume", to tell me that his work in soccer had basically consisted of being on their international commentary team for the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Euro 2008 and Japan/S. Korea 2006 and....that's IT. His so-called "Resume" did not include any managerial experience or playing experience...in fact, he looked all the world like someone who had barely touched a ball, and ESPN was going out of their way to tell me that(!) All I could think of was, "Oh, so it was you that I'd been tuning out?".
Euro 2008 was better, including Andy Gray, and I was pleased to see Andy, but he got into an argument on the air with a fellow American analyst who was obviously pissing Andy off, and I didn't see him review games again after that (he did continue to commentate). I was disappointed, and I am hoping that ESPN has invested heavily, in fact as much as they did on the adverts, on their commentating team, because it makes such a difference (an infinite difference, some might suggest) when you have people who actually know what they're talking about.
I just had a look, here's the line up. I don't follow commentators, so I don't know these names *crosses fingers*.
Finally, ESPN took a little time to review the FA Cup Final tonight, and by review, I don't mean they showed Kalou's miss, or the number of times Chelsea hit the woodwork, I mean they showed the goal, and that Michael Ballack got injured, like, they had perhaps ten seconds for the game. But I brought it up because the captions spelled Ballack as "Bollack" *snigger*. The American captioning seems to cover the wide variety of names found in sports pretty well, but, I'm sure there'll be some good misses this June, I'll post them if I see them.
During Euro 2008, I walked into an Italian pizzeria (I was doing my summer internship elsewhere in Chicago) and the nice old proprietor actually had no idea what channel the soccer would be on, I had to go back to work, with his cable company information, and figure it out for him.
Well, this year, ESPN owns all the rights to the World Cup for domestic viewing here in the US (correct me if I'm wrong), and they are not letting you forget it. They started showing their first adverts during the Vancouver Olympics in January (they bought ad time on NBC to do so, if you hadn't thought of that) and are now blasting us whenever they can.
It's getting a bit overboard, albeit entertaining, as they are using their own advertising time to show 30 second reviews of the 32 teams that will be playing in the tournament. You can see the forty (at time of press) different adverts on their youtube page.
I liked the "power of 10" ad, which discusses the best players to have worn that number, but I'd honestly like it if they did a "power of n" advert because there has been so many great players.
On a related note, I had always detested the commentating done in previous tournaments, and would turn the captions off. Tonight, ESPN had someone on to briefly discuss the Dutch's defense and teamwork, and they subscripted the discussion with his "Resume", to tell me that his work in soccer had basically consisted of being on their international commentary team for the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Euro 2008 and Japan/S. Korea 2006 and....that's IT. His so-called "Resume" did not include any managerial experience or playing experience...in fact, he looked all the world like someone who had barely touched a ball, and ESPN was going out of their way to tell me that(!) All I could think of was, "Oh, so it was you that I'd been tuning out?".
Euro 2008 was better, including Andy Gray, and I was pleased to see Andy, but he got into an argument on the air with a fellow American analyst who was obviously pissing Andy off, and I didn't see him review games again after that (he did continue to commentate). I was disappointed, and I am hoping that ESPN has invested heavily, in fact as much as they did on the adverts, on their commentating team, because it makes such a difference (an infinite difference, some might suggest) when you have people who actually know what they're talking about.
I just had a look, here's the line up. I don't follow commentators, so I don't know these names *crosses fingers*.
Finally, ESPN took a little time to review the FA Cup Final tonight, and by review, I don't mean they showed Kalou's miss, or the number of times Chelsea hit the woodwork, I mean they showed the goal, and that Michael Ballack got injured, like, they had perhaps ten seconds for the game. But I brought it up because the captions spelled Ballack as "Bollack" *snigger*. The American captioning seems to cover the wide variety of names found in sports pretty well, but, I'm sure there'll be some good misses this June, I'll post them if I see them.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
World Cup Memories: S. Korea/Japan '02
S. Korea/Japan '02
My first summer in the sweltering heat of Chicago, with no AC. I should be grateful that the games were at 2am, but it was still damn hot. This is the world cup I don't remember so much about, and the sleep deprivation is to blame there. I'm sorry to admit that I did start to stay in bed for a lot of the games in the group stages, as I ran out of steam.
England re-united with their hated foes, the Argentinians, and many of the same players were there from the first time, so it was all the more anticipated. The game itself didn't have the same spark that the two teams found in France '98, but certainly, given the history of the two nations, you can't blame the reaction from Beckham's penalty that won the game:
I am so glad Beckham held his nerve there.
The French were just abysmal, it's almost as if the malaise that infected the forwards in France '98 spread throughout the squad. Senegal had their day, in their first game of the tournament, by beating their old colonial power:
Two of their players were poached by Houllier for Liverpool, before the tournament, but neither of them turned out well for the Reds, though Diouf (seen assisting on the goal) seemed to have cured his spitting syndrome and is doing OK with Blackburn.
We went out against Brazil, and I remember anticipating a good run for us, because I believed we could have beaten Turkey in the semi-final, and handled whoever reached the final, even though it could have been the Germans, especially if it was the Germans, given how we unloaded on them in the qualifiers. The memory of standing in a pub shouting "We want six! We want six!" is one of my favourites, sorry Ernst.
The two moments that summed the England-Brazil game for me was Beckham's turnover leading to Rivaldo's goal. I couldn't find a youtube video showing the moment, but before Ronaldhino took off down our midfield, Beckham was supposedly shepherding a ball out of play, ready to claim the throw-in, but he jumped when someone went for the ball, and they claimed it back for Brazil right under his studs, sparking the counter-attack. Ronaldhino was able to advance because the English were still thinking, "what happened to that free-throw?!". The other general moment was our inability to break down Brazil's defense, when they were down to 10 men, which was unfathomable, Brazil playing defensively?!
Korea had a good run in this tournament, beating Italy to make the semi-finals. This 7 minutes video shows a game that is everything that you expect from the World Cup, and is very entertaining to watch:
Ahn Jung Hwan who became the hero by scoring the game-winning goal, was fired by his Italian boss! (He was playing for Perugia at the time). Take note of the journeyman coach of Korea, Guus Hiddink, he's got the Midas touch, and I think it's a shame that he couldn't get Russia through the playoffs, because I've no doubt they would have won a few games, no disrespect to Slovenia.
Finally, Ronaldo had his day, if not a hair-stylist, it was a mundane final, but an inevitable result:
My first summer in the sweltering heat of Chicago, with no AC. I should be grateful that the games were at 2am, but it was still damn hot. This is the world cup I don't remember so much about, and the sleep deprivation is to blame there. I'm sorry to admit that I did start to stay in bed for a lot of the games in the group stages, as I ran out of steam.
England re-united with their hated foes, the Argentinians, and many of the same players were there from the first time, so it was all the more anticipated. The game itself didn't have the same spark that the two teams found in France '98, but certainly, given the history of the two nations, you can't blame the reaction from Beckham's penalty that won the game:
I am so glad Beckham held his nerve there.
The French were just abysmal, it's almost as if the malaise that infected the forwards in France '98 spread throughout the squad. Senegal had their day, in their first game of the tournament, by beating their old colonial power:
Two of their players were poached by Houllier for Liverpool, before the tournament, but neither of them turned out well for the Reds, though Diouf (seen assisting on the goal) seemed to have cured his spitting syndrome and is doing OK with Blackburn.
We went out against Brazil, and I remember anticipating a good run for us, because I believed we could have beaten Turkey in the semi-final, and handled whoever reached the final, even though it could have been the Germans, especially if it was the Germans, given how we unloaded on them in the qualifiers. The memory of standing in a pub shouting "We want six! We want six!" is one of my favourites, sorry Ernst.
The two moments that summed the England-Brazil game for me was Beckham's turnover leading to Rivaldo's goal. I couldn't find a youtube video showing the moment, but before Ronaldhino took off down our midfield, Beckham was supposedly shepherding a ball out of play, ready to claim the throw-in, but he jumped when someone went for the ball, and they claimed it back for Brazil right under his studs, sparking the counter-attack. Ronaldhino was able to advance because the English were still thinking, "what happened to that free-throw?!". The other general moment was our inability to break down Brazil's defense, when they were down to 10 men, which was unfathomable, Brazil playing defensively?!
Korea had a good run in this tournament, beating Italy to make the semi-finals. This 7 minutes video shows a game that is everything that you expect from the World Cup, and is very entertaining to watch:
Ahn Jung Hwan who became the hero by scoring the game-winning goal, was fired by his Italian boss! (He was playing for Perugia at the time). Take note of the journeyman coach of Korea, Guus Hiddink, he's got the Midas touch, and I think it's a shame that he couldn't get Russia through the playoffs, because I've no doubt they would have won a few games, no disrespect to Slovenia.
Finally, Ronaldo had his day, if not a hair-stylist, it was a mundane final, but an inevitable result:
World Cup Memories: France '98
For some reason, I remember more about France '98 than I do with any other World Cup, I think it has something to do with being in college, and having all the time in the world for the games.
The game in which England got knocked out managed to capture two emotional extremes, and that was before half-time. First, the low, Beckham's moment of idiocy:
Then the high. It's fitting that the second best world cup goal ever came only second to a goal scored in another Argentina-England game. Thankfully, this time, we were the punishers...or rather, Michael was. He wasn't even a starter, being one of the youngest forwards to be capped for England. He came on to score against Romania in the group stages, and two games later, he gave my generation our piece of history:
I still get shivers every time I watch that goal, *every* *time*. The rest of the drama was in extra time, where Sol had a headed goal ruled out for an obscure infraction, Michael had another run and shoot that went wide, and the penalties, the damn penalties.
When I think of France '98, other than England, the other memories that spring to mind are: French forwards, Kluivert's miss, and Denilson's stepovers.
That the French won was surprising considering they had the most useless strike-force in my memory. Henry was a young winger (it was Wenger who put him up front), Ginola was frozen out, and what they had left amounted to nothing, to the amusement of everyone but the Geordies. Guivarc'h was the example here, the forward that Newcastle bought before the World Cup sunk to the lowest form of his life that nothing could resuscitate. As it happened, they had the midfield of dreams that still makes me salivate when I think of it (Viera, Petite, Karembeu, Djorkaeff, and Zidane). Even their defence was scoring goals, and Lilian Thuram had probably the best goal celebration of the tournament:
The Dutch should have won everything in France '98. We remember that Brazil were outplayed in the final, but I thought they were outplayed in the semis too. Holland vs France should have made for a more entertaining final given Ronaldo's "absence", and I think the French wouldn't have been able to handle Bergkamp and Kluivert. As it happened, despite Kluivert's headed goal that tied the game, the one image I have in my mind is Kluivert's headed miss, when he was wiiiide open, and to this day, I don't forget the look on Kluivert's face.
There were three players of that time, who, for me, were a step above everybody else when it came to flowing with the ball in the midst of a game: Zidane, Ronaldo and Patrick Kluivert. Of those three, Kluivert was the one who never reached the pinnacle.
Dennis Bergkamp left his own indelible mark too (take note of the great cross-field pass):
Denilson, an upcoming star, subbed in to the final in the second half, must have performed the most useless series of step-overs I've seen in my life, he did about 7 or 8 of them whilst standing still in the French box, and it was so ineffective, it was comical, everybody just stood there and watched him. I can't find videos of this moment unfortunately.
And Ronaldo? He had his day, he had to wait for it.
The game in which England got knocked out managed to capture two emotional extremes, and that was before half-time. First, the low, Beckham's moment of idiocy:
Then the high. It's fitting that the second best world cup goal ever came only second to a goal scored in another Argentina-England game. Thankfully, this time, we were the punishers...or rather, Michael was. He wasn't even a starter, being one of the youngest forwards to be capped for England. He came on to score against Romania in the group stages, and two games later, he gave my generation our piece of history:
I still get shivers every time I watch that goal, *every* *time*. The rest of the drama was in extra time, where Sol had a headed goal ruled out for an obscure infraction, Michael had another run and shoot that went wide, and the penalties, the damn penalties.
When I think of France '98, other than England, the other memories that spring to mind are: French forwards, Kluivert's miss, and Denilson's stepovers.
That the French won was surprising considering they had the most useless strike-force in my memory. Henry was a young winger (it was Wenger who put him up front), Ginola was frozen out, and what they had left amounted to nothing, to the amusement of everyone but the Geordies. Guivarc'h was the example here, the forward that Newcastle bought before the World Cup sunk to the lowest form of his life that nothing could resuscitate. As it happened, they had the midfield of dreams that still makes me salivate when I think of it (Viera, Petite, Karembeu, Djorkaeff, and Zidane). Even their defence was scoring goals, and Lilian Thuram had probably the best goal celebration of the tournament:
The Dutch should have won everything in France '98. We remember that Brazil were outplayed in the final, but I thought they were outplayed in the semis too. Holland vs France should have made for a more entertaining final given Ronaldo's "absence", and I think the French wouldn't have been able to handle Bergkamp and Kluivert. As it happened, despite Kluivert's headed goal that tied the game, the one image I have in my mind is Kluivert's headed miss, when he was wiiiide open, and to this day, I don't forget the look on Kluivert's face.
There were three players of that time, who, for me, were a step above everybody else when it came to flowing with the ball in the midst of a game: Zidane, Ronaldo and Patrick Kluivert. Of those three, Kluivert was the one who never reached the pinnacle.
Dennis Bergkamp left his own indelible mark too (take note of the great cross-field pass):
Denilson, an upcoming star, subbed in to the final in the second half, must have performed the most useless series of step-overs I've seen in my life, he did about 7 or 8 of them whilst standing still in the French box, and it was so ineffective, it was comical, everybody just stood there and watched him. I can't find videos of this moment unfortunately.
And Ronaldo? He had his day, he had to wait for it.
World Cup Memories: USA '94
Again, as an Englishman, the first thing I thought about with this Cup was how the English didn't even make it, courtesy of the Dutch, Graham "Do I not like that?" Taylor, and some dodgy refereeing, but of course.
As a British nation, we found ourselves rooting for the Irish. They surprised Italy with a 1-0 win in the first round, progressed to the quarters only to meetItaly again the Netherlands. I can remember that game, cheering them on as they were trying to come back from 1 2-0 down, hopelessly valiant as they seemed.
Cameroon vs Russia in the group stages had the distinction of having two records made in the same game. Roger Milla, again, became the oldest player in the history of the World Cup to score a goal (1:13 mark) and Oleg Salenko still holds the record for the most goals in one game (5).
Saudi Arabia were a surprise in this tournament, spear-headed by Saeed Al-Owairan, who went coast-to-coast against the Belgians to score one of the tournaments best goals:
Maradona was gone, being sent home after two games for failing a drug test. I don't remember the goal he scored against Greece, but certainly the celebration, see at the 0:38 mark of this video:
I remember the final being one massive "miss", and all the more so, as it was a match-up of Romario and Baggio, who had the biggest impact on all the games they played in, until the last one. Romario missing the most opportunities, Baggio with a bum hamstring, and thus it was the first World Cup Final With No Goals (Yawn!). The game is best remembered for its last kick:
The Italians really could have made someone else have a go, given his leg, and yet, in my mind at the time, seemed ready to concede the cup by letting Baggio take that penalty. They gambled and lost, the ponytail wasn't so divine after all.
The third place playoff is always worth mentioning because of a potential defensive collapse from a team that has stopped concentrating. In this case, it was Bulgaria, who were another surprise, led by Hristov Stoichov, a Golden Shoe winner; but they reverted to form in a 4-0 loss to Sweden. The Swedes had a talented playmaker who looked like he was equally comfortable eating donuts. Tomas Brolin went on to play for Leeds, abysmally so, and Stoichov made a name for himself with the Fire here in Chicago.
Finally, we cannot forget the ultimate own-goal. Andres Escobar was gunned down in his native Columbia, for scoring one for the USA (not shown out of respect).
As a British nation, we found ourselves rooting for the Irish. They surprised Italy with a 1-0 win in the first round, progressed to the quarters only to meet
Cameroon vs Russia in the group stages had the distinction of having two records made in the same game. Roger Milla, again, became the oldest player in the history of the World Cup to score a goal (1:13 mark) and Oleg Salenko still holds the record for the most goals in one game (5).
Saudi Arabia were a surprise in this tournament, spear-headed by Saeed Al-Owairan, who went coast-to-coast against the Belgians to score one of the tournaments best goals:
Maradona was gone, being sent home after two games for failing a drug test. I don't remember the goal he scored against Greece, but certainly the celebration, see at the 0:38 mark of this video:
I remember the final being one massive "miss", and all the more so, as it was a match-up of Romario and Baggio, who had the biggest impact on all the games they played in, until the last one. Romario missing the most opportunities, Baggio with a bum hamstring, and thus it was the first World Cup Final With No Goals (Yawn!). The game is best remembered for its last kick:
The Italians really could have made someone else have a go, given his leg, and yet, in my mind at the time, seemed ready to concede the cup by letting Baggio take that penalty. They gambled and lost, the ponytail wasn't so divine after all.
The third place playoff is always worth mentioning because of a potential defensive collapse from a team that has stopped concentrating. In this case, it was Bulgaria, who were another surprise, led by Hristov Stoichov, a Golden Shoe winner; but they reverted to form in a 4-0 loss to Sweden. The Swedes had a talented playmaker who looked like he was equally comfortable eating donuts. Tomas Brolin went on to play for Leeds, abysmally so, and Stoichov made a name for himself with the Fire here in Chicago.
Finally, we cannot forget the ultimate own-goal. Andres Escobar was gunned down in his native Columbia, for scoring one for the USA (not shown out of respect).
Sunday, May 2, 2010
World Cup Memories: Italia '90
I'm so looking forward to this new World Cup coming up, I was remembering how much I enjoyed discussing the games I saw at the last World Cup, and decided to re-ignite a World Cup-specific blog. The ensuing pages will be my opinion on the football, comments welcome.
First off, say hi to Sockie, my personal mascot, courtesy of my kids. I had to go with Soccer and Duckie merged, for the name, because I couldn't well merge Football and Duckie. Come to think of it, I could teach my kids that but I don't think Erika would approve at all.
The first few posts, leading up to the event, are going to be about memories of my own, from the past World Cups, just to wet our tastebuds. I'll be reading some of the tournament summaries to refresh my memory, and trying to find various videos on youtube (though my memory of some big misses can't seem to be retrieved), but it'll be my perspective, and so these posts will be dominated by England's lack of progress, of course.
And, no, I don't remember "poco con la mano de dios", or that goal. I was too young then, I only know about Maradona's rampage through the inevitable folklore that followed, and watching youtube videos.
Italia '90
This is the earliest World Cup I remember, I was 11 years old then, and the first thing that comes to mind is Gazza's tears:
You'll see the agony on his face at the 1:50 mark. I remember Lineker's goal celebration, and I remember that we lost the shoot-out, but I don't really remember how it all ended, because my memories are dominated by this guy crying his heart out before the game was over. It came to resemble the heart of a nation, given we went on to lose to our old enemy. For the uninitiated, Gazza had just gotten his first yellow card of the game, but the one card that would mean he'd miss the Final.
I do also remember the most atrocious tackling laid down by the Argentinians in the final, as West Germany laid waste to them. Looking back, it was like a bad soap opera of a game. The attached video doesn't even give the event any justice, the tackle (at the 1:05 mark) being "off-the-ball", but it is amusing to see Maradona hustling the ref.
A big "hit" from this tournament was the advancement of Cameroon, on the back of an old forward: Roger Miller. His corner-flag dance is now World Cup Lore. There's a good example of it after this goal at the 1:05 mark of this game against Columbia:
First off, say hi to Sockie, my personal mascot, courtesy of my kids. I had to go with Soccer and Duckie merged, for the name, because I couldn't well merge Football and Duckie. Come to think of it, I could teach my kids that but I don't think Erika would approve at all.
The first few posts, leading up to the event, are going to be about memories of my own, from the past World Cups, just to wet our tastebuds. I'll be reading some of the tournament summaries to refresh my memory, and trying to find various videos on youtube (though my memory of some big misses can't seem to be retrieved), but it'll be my perspective, and so these posts will be dominated by England's lack of progress, of course.
And, no, I don't remember "poco con la mano de dios", or that goal. I was too young then, I only know about Maradona's rampage through the inevitable folklore that followed, and watching youtube videos.
Italia '90
This is the earliest World Cup I remember, I was 11 years old then, and the first thing that comes to mind is Gazza's tears:
You'll see the agony on his face at the 1:50 mark. I remember Lineker's goal celebration, and I remember that we lost the shoot-out, but I don't really remember how it all ended, because my memories are dominated by this guy crying his heart out before the game was over. It came to resemble the heart of a nation, given we went on to lose to our old enemy. For the uninitiated, Gazza had just gotten his first yellow card of the game, but the one card that would mean he'd miss the Final.
I do also remember the most atrocious tackling laid down by the Argentinians in the final, as West Germany laid waste to them. Looking back, it was like a bad soap opera of a game. The attached video doesn't even give the event any justice, the tackle (at the 1:05 mark) being "off-the-ball", but it is amusing to see Maradona hustling the ref.
A big "hit" from this tournament was the advancement of Cameroon, on the back of an old forward: Roger Miller. His corner-flag dance is now World Cup Lore. There's a good example of it after this goal at the 1:05 mark of this game against Columbia:
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