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.
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