Last night (9/7/14) saw the second World Cup semi-final between the Netherlands and Argentina.
Throughout the tournament the Dutch side and in particular their head coach Louis van Gaal have liked to think of themselves as the master tacticians. For example in their quarter-final against Costa Rica they brought on a goal keeper in the last minute of extra-time specifically the psych out their opponents in the subsequent penalty shoot-out. In their second round match against Mexico they successfully lobbied for a cooling break to mitigate any fitness advantage the Mexicans may have had. In every match the Dutch have played tactics have also been first and foremost in how they play every game.
Their main tactic seems to have been inspired by the story of the Tortoise and the Hare in which a Tortoise and a Hare have a race. Being the faster animal the Hare immediately rushes into the lead but is forced to stop and rest allowing the Tortoise to to take the lead and win at the last minute due to its slow and steady plodding. This is exactly how the Dutch approached the semi-final with lots of precision passing and probing possession intended to force the Argentinians to chase the ball and tire themselves out allowing the Dutch to snatch a late winner.
The problem was that having watched the Dutch through out the tournament the Argentines were wise to this and deliberately slowed down their game in order to avoid falling into the trap. So while Argentina were much less disjointed and disorganised then they'd been in all of their previous matches they lacked the attacking zeal they'd shown in their quarter-final against Belgium which they won with an early (10th minute) goal by Gonzalo Higuaín ably assisted by Linoel Messi and Angel Di Maria. As a result the Dutch were allowed to be the superior team and were able to dictate the pace of the game throughout. However as the Argentines did not tire themselves out the Dutch were unable to find the late breakthrough they had been hoping for.
This lead many people to compare the slow paced match to a chess game. However I think it more closely resembled a very specific phenomenon of chess known as stalemate. This occurs when both players have the defence needed to protect their King in order to avoid defeat but each lack the attacking resources to to capture the opposing King in order to win. As a result the game remained goal-less and was decided on a penalty shoot-out. These of course owe much more to luck and mental strength then skill and footballing ability so when Ron Vlaar had the Dutch's first penalty saved the Netherlands immediately found themselves at a disadvantage from which they never recovered. With Argentina scoring all their penalties when Wesley Sneijder missed the Netherlands' third penalty the Dutch lost 4-2.
This means that Argentina will go on to face Germany in Sunday's (13/7/14) final while the Netherlands will face Brazil in Saturday's (12/7/14) third place play-off. I personally think this dreadful news. In part that is because from the start of the competition I've been saying that Argentina have been over-rated in a competition that I thought would be decided between Germany and the Netherlands. Mainly though it is because it means that the hosts Brazil will not face Argentina on Saturday.
Although it decides which team is better then 29 other teams in the competition the third place play-off is always overshadowed by the fact that it is simply not the final. However Brazil and Argentina are not only neighbours but the two giants of South American football. As such any match between the two is going to be a derby game loaded with pride and local bragging rights. I think that is exactly what Brazil needed because the way they move on from their crushing defeat at the hands of Germany in the semi-final is to pull on their shirts again and play their little legs off.
15:40 on 10/7/14 (UK date).
Thursday, 10 July 2014
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
Seriously, The F*ck?!
Today has seen the first semi-final of the 2014 World Cup between Brazil and Germany. Perhaps more importantly though this match was refereed by Mexico's Marco Rodríguez who was last seen 'refeering' the disaster between Italy and Uruguay in the final game of Group D.
As many people thought that performance should have seen Rodriguez sent straight home from the competition rather than being advanced to the pool of referees for the knock-out phase there was obviously a lot on interest in how he would cope during this match. There was particular concern over whether his obvious bias in favour of South American teams at the expense of European teams would once again kill the football game and hand Brazil an easy victory over a clearly superior German team. On the face of it I would say that generally Rodriguez had a fairly good game. After all he is generally considered a World class referee which makes his performance against Italy even more difficult to explain.
The confusion over what sort of referee would be turning up along with the obvious pressure of the occasion meant that the start of the game was very unsettled and disjointed. Having noticed how the Germans have been able to settle in and control a game the Brazilian side began with the obvious intent of playing a very attacking and harassing game in order to prevent the Germans establishing a rhythm. Obviously this also prevented the Brazilians establishing a rhythm of their own and in the early melee Germany won a corner in the 10th minute. From that corner Toni Kroos was able to deliver a cross that found Thomas Müller who neatly swept the ball into the net to put Germany 1-0 up.
Although every neutral wanted Brazil to equalise rather than Germany go 2-0 up we were also desperate for Germany's Miroslav Klose score his 16th goal in a World Cup finals in order for him to beat the Brazilian Ronaldo's record and become the player to score the most goals in a World Cup finals. In the 21st minute Klose decided to tease us when his left footed shot was saved by Julio Cesar - the Brazilian 'keeper. Teasing us further Klose picked up the rebound only for it to be blocked for a third time by Cesar. Picking up the rebound for a second time Klose made no mistake and netted Germany's second in the 23rd minute.
At this point the confusion over the referee along with the shock of going 2-0 down inside 25 minutes clearly added to Brazil's uncertainty over losing both their star-player Neymar and their Captain Thiago Silva and they began to collapse. In the 24th minute Kroos scored Germany's third and in the 26th minute he got their fourth. It was around this time people who normally only call me when there's been a death in the family started ringing to make sure I was watching. Despite this distraction though I'm pretty sure that Sami Khedira added Germany's fifth in the 29th minute.
Germany then took a short pause allowing us to realise that by half-time Germany had already equalled the record win of 5 clear goals in a semi-final and were well on track to beat the record win of 9 clear goals in any World Cup finals match.
Unfortunately for the record books Germany came out for the second half intending to rest up for the final while Brazil came out looking to at least limit the damage in order to restore something resembling pride. As a result Brazil had the best of the first 25 minutes of the half with Ramires, Oscar, Marcelo and Paulinho all creating chances without effect.
In the 69th minute though Schürrle decided he hadn't done scoring and netted Germany's 6th. Ten minutes later he netted his 3rd and Germany's 7th. This put Germany in sight of their all time biggest World Cup finals victory of 8-0 against the mighty Saudi Arabia in a group game in the 2002 finals. Sadly with Schurrle's hat-trick in the bag Germany took their foot off the gas and Oscar scored a late - consolation seems too strong a word - goal for Brazil in the 90th minute leaving the final score 7-1 to Germany.
As a result Germany will now go through to Sunday's final while Brazil will have to find a way to rise again for Saturday's third place play-off. In tomorrow's semi-final between the Netherlands and Argentina we will find out who plays who.
23:10 on 8/7/14 (UK date).
As many people thought that performance should have seen Rodriguez sent straight home from the competition rather than being advanced to the pool of referees for the knock-out phase there was obviously a lot on interest in how he would cope during this match. There was particular concern over whether his obvious bias in favour of South American teams at the expense of European teams would once again kill the football game and hand Brazil an easy victory over a clearly superior German team. On the face of it I would say that generally Rodriguez had a fairly good game. After all he is generally considered a World class referee which makes his performance against Italy even more difficult to explain.
The confusion over what sort of referee would be turning up along with the obvious pressure of the occasion meant that the start of the game was very unsettled and disjointed. Having noticed how the Germans have been able to settle in and control a game the Brazilian side began with the obvious intent of playing a very attacking and harassing game in order to prevent the Germans establishing a rhythm. Obviously this also prevented the Brazilians establishing a rhythm of their own and in the early melee Germany won a corner in the 10th minute. From that corner Toni Kroos was able to deliver a cross that found Thomas Müller who neatly swept the ball into the net to put Germany 1-0 up.
Although every neutral wanted Brazil to equalise rather than Germany go 2-0 up we were also desperate for Germany's Miroslav Klose score his 16th goal in a World Cup finals in order for him to beat the Brazilian Ronaldo's record and become the player to score the most goals in a World Cup finals. In the 21st minute Klose decided to tease us when his left footed shot was saved by Julio Cesar - the Brazilian 'keeper. Teasing us further Klose picked up the rebound only for it to be blocked for a third time by Cesar. Picking up the rebound for a second time Klose made no mistake and netted Germany's second in the 23rd minute.
At this point the confusion over the referee along with the shock of going 2-0 down inside 25 minutes clearly added to Brazil's uncertainty over losing both their star-player Neymar and their Captain Thiago Silva and they began to collapse. In the 24th minute Kroos scored Germany's third and in the 26th minute he got their fourth. It was around this time people who normally only call me when there's been a death in the family started ringing to make sure I was watching. Despite this distraction though I'm pretty sure that Sami Khedira added Germany's fifth in the 29th minute.
Germany then took a short pause allowing us to realise that by half-time Germany had already equalled the record win of 5 clear goals in a semi-final and were well on track to beat the record win of 9 clear goals in any World Cup finals match.
Unfortunately for the record books Germany came out for the second half intending to rest up for the final while Brazil came out looking to at least limit the damage in order to restore something resembling pride. As a result Brazil had the best of the first 25 minutes of the half with Ramires, Oscar, Marcelo and Paulinho all creating chances without effect.
In the 69th minute though Schürrle decided he hadn't done scoring and netted Germany's 6th. Ten minutes later he netted his 3rd and Germany's 7th. This put Germany in sight of their all time biggest World Cup finals victory of 8-0 against the mighty Saudi Arabia in a group game in the 2002 finals. Sadly with Schurrle's hat-trick in the bag Germany took their foot off the gas and Oscar scored a late - consolation seems too strong a word - goal for Brazil in the 90th minute leaving the final score 7-1 to Germany.
As a result Germany will now go through to Sunday's final while Brazil will have to find a way to rise again for Saturday's third place play-off. In tomorrow's semi-final between the Netherlands and Argentina we will find out who plays who.
23:10 on 8/7/14 (UK date).
Sunday, 6 July 2014
The Fantastic Four.
Yesterday (5/7/14) the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup drew to a close with matches between Argentina and Belgium and the Netherlands and Costa Rica.
The first match seemed the more difficult to predict because despite their obvious stars the Argentine team had been mis-firing throughout the tournament often relying on a moment of magic from Lionel Messi to get themselves out of trouble against lesser opponents such as Iran. It has been a similar story for Belgium with their team of young stars often relying on late goals to see off opponents although they always seemed more organised and co-ordinated then the Argentines.
Things changed dramatically in yesterday's match though with Argentina finally deciding to play as a team. So suddenly passes were completed and runs were predicted. Messi as usual was on spectacular form at one point riding tackle after tackle from five Belgian players to win a free-kick in the 38th minute. On this occasion though he was assisted by Gonzalo Higuaín who was excellent throughout until he was substituted in the 80th minute and Ángel Di María who at one point succeeded in juggling the ball on his feet to turn past a Belgian mid-fielder. It was these three who combined for the first goal with Messi causing chaos in the mid-field and drawing out Vincent Kompany - Belgium's talented defender - with his excellent dribbling skills before passing the ball to Di Maria who quickly passed it on to Higuain who was in the space where Kompany should have been. Higuain struck the ball on the half-volley and glided it in at the far post to put Argentina 1-0 up in just the 8th minute.
By contrast it was Belgium who seemed incredibly disjointed playing more as an unconnected group of talented individuals rather than a team. Obviously with their talent Belgium's stars did play the type of open, attacking football that we've become accustomed to during this tournament and did create goal-scoring opportunities. However none of these chances really felt genuine because the Belgians lacked the vision (or team-spirit) to identify players in good positions and provide them with the passes and crosses needed to score. This was probably summed up in the 75th minute when Jan Vertonghen won Belgium a free-kick on - their - left-side of the penalty area. This was really too far out for a shot on goal but seeing his name in lights Dries Mertens had a go anyway only for his shot to go wide of the goal. Meanwhile his teammates were left standing in the 6 yard box scowling at him for not crossing the ball into them.
As a result Higuain's goal was enough to take Argentina through to the semi-finals with them having finally delivered a performance that warranted being there.
On paper the other match of the day between the Netherlands and Costa Rica should have been much easier to predict. After all the Netherlands were finalists in the 2010 World Cup, had destroyed the 2010 winners Spain 5-1 in their opening game and had impressed everyone at this tournament with their very skilled and professional style of football. By contrast Costa Rica were supposed to have been the whipping boys of Group D rather than quarter-finalists.
As they have done throughout the tournament the Costa Ricans showed no interest what was on paper and from the start of the match started playing a very disciplined game that pressed the Dutch and prevented them from finding their rhythm. However that is not to say that Costa Rica set out to kill off the game and play for penalties instead coming forward whenever the opportunity allowed and creating chances of their own. For example Johnny Acosta came close in the 34th minute, Giancarlo Gonzalez came close in the 65th minute and most of the second-half of extra-time belonged to Costa Rica.
My only complaint about the way the Costa Ricans played was that in the build up to the match they seemed to have made the mistake of believing that Mexico's complaint that the Netherlands' Arjen Robben had dived to win the penalty that put Mexico out in the 94th minute (90+5mins stoppage) of the pair's last 16 match was widely shared. As a result they seemed to believe that the referee would be prepared to deliver a type restorative justice meaning that they could foul Robben with impunity and only needed to fall over in his general vicinity to win free-kicks and yellow cards.
The problem was that outside of Mexico no-one in the football world saw anything wrong with the way that Robben won the penalty and instead were rather impressed by his skill and professionalism. Plus there is a world of difference between a referee making up for an early mistake later on in the same match and a completely different referee trying to correct a mistake in a different match against different opposition. Even Uruguay were given fair treatment in their game against Columbia despite the refereeing in their match against Italy being so bad and so biased the result probably should have been annulled.
As a result Ravshan Irmatov - the Uzbek referee - had no intention of being anything other than fair and unbiased. Unfortunately the Costa Ricans didn't seem to get this message even after the referee made a big point of booking Júnior Díaz in the 37th minute for a foul on Robben. As a result they continued making bad fouls, diving and bad-mouthing (dissent) the referee every time he stuck to the rules and gave a decision against them. This meant that Costa Rica gave away a lot of risky free-kicks from which the Dutch could have scored such in the 52nd minute when Michael Umaña brought down Robben, the 73rd minute when Cristian Gamboa brought down Daley Blind and when Giancarlo Gonzalez brought down Robben in the 81st minute to name but a few.
It of course also meant that the Costa Ricans got on the referee's nerves which cost them chances of their own. For example when Marco Ureña was brought down in the penalty area in the 98th minute it was one of those 50/50 calls that go your way if the referee likes you but because Costa had annoyed the referee it went against them. So rather than being biased in favour of the Netherlands I found the referee to be very patient and professional. For example in the 91st minute (90+5mins stoppage) when Júnior Díaz again brought Robben down with a bad foul he really should have been shown his second yellow card and sent-off.
Despite their otherwise excellent performance Costa Rica were helped by the fact that luck didn't seem to be with the Dutch and they played with the sort of arrogance that suggested they felt that they didn't need to create a winning goal because one would come along soon enough. Plus their captain and supposed striker Robin van Persie had a really bad game. For example on another day Wesley Sneijder's 82nd minute free-kick would have gone in rather then hitting the post while van Persie's 92nd (90+5min stoppage) shot could well have curled in under the bar or not been blocked at all if only he'd hit it better.
After 90 minutes of normal time and 30 minutes of extra-time there were no goals so the match went to a penalty shoot-out. It was here that the Dutch's infamous mind games returned when Tim Krul was brought on at the last possible moment to replace Jasper Cillessen who had played well in goal for the Netherlands throughout the game. The intention here was purely to unsettle the Costa Rican penalty takers by putting the thought in their head that Krul has been doing nothing throughout this World Cup other than studying Costa Rican penalty takers so he knew exactly what they were going to do.
For the most part this didn't seem to work with Celso Borges confidently scoring Costa Rica's first penalty so Krul stepped up his efforts. This involved him walking up to the Costa Rican penalty takers and getting in their faces pointing at them and generally trying to intimidate them just before they took their shot. I'm pretty sure that the only reason that Krul wasn't booked for this is because no-one is quite sure what happens when a goal keeper - who has to be pre-designated - is sent-off in a penalty shoot-out. However it seemed to work with Bryan Ruiz' nervous looking second penalty being saved by Krul. With the Dutch scoring all their penalties when Michael Umaña had Costa Rica's fifth penalty saved the Dutch won the shoot-out 4-3.
So now the Netherlands will go onto play Argentina in Wednesday's (9/7/14) semi-final but did so in such a way as to turn every neutral against them. However with their opponents being Argentina they will have to go a long way to turn the Brazilian fans against them.
18:00 on 6/7/14 (UK date).
The first match seemed the more difficult to predict because despite their obvious stars the Argentine team had been mis-firing throughout the tournament often relying on a moment of magic from Lionel Messi to get themselves out of trouble against lesser opponents such as Iran. It has been a similar story for Belgium with their team of young stars often relying on late goals to see off opponents although they always seemed more organised and co-ordinated then the Argentines.
Things changed dramatically in yesterday's match though with Argentina finally deciding to play as a team. So suddenly passes were completed and runs were predicted. Messi as usual was on spectacular form at one point riding tackle after tackle from five Belgian players to win a free-kick in the 38th minute. On this occasion though he was assisted by Gonzalo Higuaín who was excellent throughout until he was substituted in the 80th minute and Ángel Di María who at one point succeeded in juggling the ball on his feet to turn past a Belgian mid-fielder. It was these three who combined for the first goal with Messi causing chaos in the mid-field and drawing out Vincent Kompany - Belgium's talented defender - with his excellent dribbling skills before passing the ball to Di Maria who quickly passed it on to Higuain who was in the space where Kompany should have been. Higuain struck the ball on the half-volley and glided it in at the far post to put Argentina 1-0 up in just the 8th minute.
By contrast it was Belgium who seemed incredibly disjointed playing more as an unconnected group of talented individuals rather than a team. Obviously with their talent Belgium's stars did play the type of open, attacking football that we've become accustomed to during this tournament and did create goal-scoring opportunities. However none of these chances really felt genuine because the Belgians lacked the vision (or team-spirit) to identify players in good positions and provide them with the passes and crosses needed to score. This was probably summed up in the 75th minute when Jan Vertonghen won Belgium a free-kick on - their - left-side of the penalty area. This was really too far out for a shot on goal but seeing his name in lights Dries Mertens had a go anyway only for his shot to go wide of the goal. Meanwhile his teammates were left standing in the 6 yard box scowling at him for not crossing the ball into them.
As a result Higuain's goal was enough to take Argentina through to the semi-finals with them having finally delivered a performance that warranted being there.
On paper the other match of the day between the Netherlands and Costa Rica should have been much easier to predict. After all the Netherlands were finalists in the 2010 World Cup, had destroyed the 2010 winners Spain 5-1 in their opening game and had impressed everyone at this tournament with their very skilled and professional style of football. By contrast Costa Rica were supposed to have been the whipping boys of Group D rather than quarter-finalists.
As they have done throughout the tournament the Costa Ricans showed no interest what was on paper and from the start of the match started playing a very disciplined game that pressed the Dutch and prevented them from finding their rhythm. However that is not to say that Costa Rica set out to kill off the game and play for penalties instead coming forward whenever the opportunity allowed and creating chances of their own. For example Johnny Acosta came close in the 34th minute, Giancarlo Gonzalez came close in the 65th minute and most of the second-half of extra-time belonged to Costa Rica.
My only complaint about the way the Costa Ricans played was that in the build up to the match they seemed to have made the mistake of believing that Mexico's complaint that the Netherlands' Arjen Robben had dived to win the penalty that put Mexico out in the 94th minute (90+5mins stoppage) of the pair's last 16 match was widely shared. As a result they seemed to believe that the referee would be prepared to deliver a type restorative justice meaning that they could foul Robben with impunity and only needed to fall over in his general vicinity to win free-kicks and yellow cards.
The problem was that outside of Mexico no-one in the football world saw anything wrong with the way that Robben won the penalty and instead were rather impressed by his skill and professionalism. Plus there is a world of difference between a referee making up for an early mistake later on in the same match and a completely different referee trying to correct a mistake in a different match against different opposition. Even Uruguay were given fair treatment in their game against Columbia despite the refereeing in their match against Italy being so bad and so biased the result probably should have been annulled.
As a result Ravshan Irmatov - the Uzbek referee - had no intention of being anything other than fair and unbiased. Unfortunately the Costa Ricans didn't seem to get this message even after the referee made a big point of booking Júnior Díaz in the 37th minute for a foul on Robben. As a result they continued making bad fouls, diving and bad-mouthing (dissent) the referee every time he stuck to the rules and gave a decision against them. This meant that Costa Rica gave away a lot of risky free-kicks from which the Dutch could have scored such in the 52nd minute when Michael Umaña brought down Robben, the 73rd minute when Cristian Gamboa brought down Daley Blind and when Giancarlo Gonzalez brought down Robben in the 81st minute to name but a few.
It of course also meant that the Costa Ricans got on the referee's nerves which cost them chances of their own. For example when Marco Ureña was brought down in the penalty area in the 98th minute it was one of those 50/50 calls that go your way if the referee likes you but because Costa had annoyed the referee it went against them. So rather than being biased in favour of the Netherlands I found the referee to be very patient and professional. For example in the 91st minute (90+5mins stoppage) when Júnior Díaz again brought Robben down with a bad foul he really should have been shown his second yellow card and sent-off.
Despite their otherwise excellent performance Costa Rica were helped by the fact that luck didn't seem to be with the Dutch and they played with the sort of arrogance that suggested they felt that they didn't need to create a winning goal because one would come along soon enough. Plus their captain and supposed striker Robin van Persie had a really bad game. For example on another day Wesley Sneijder's 82nd minute free-kick would have gone in rather then hitting the post while van Persie's 92nd (90+5min stoppage) shot could well have curled in under the bar or not been blocked at all if only he'd hit it better.
After 90 minutes of normal time and 30 minutes of extra-time there were no goals so the match went to a penalty shoot-out. It was here that the Dutch's infamous mind games returned when Tim Krul was brought on at the last possible moment to replace Jasper Cillessen who had played well in goal for the Netherlands throughout the game. The intention here was purely to unsettle the Costa Rican penalty takers by putting the thought in their head that Krul has been doing nothing throughout this World Cup other than studying Costa Rican penalty takers so he knew exactly what they were going to do.
For the most part this didn't seem to work with Celso Borges confidently scoring Costa Rica's first penalty so Krul stepped up his efforts. This involved him walking up to the Costa Rican penalty takers and getting in their faces pointing at them and generally trying to intimidate them just before they took their shot. I'm pretty sure that the only reason that Krul wasn't booked for this is because no-one is quite sure what happens when a goal keeper - who has to be pre-designated - is sent-off in a penalty shoot-out. However it seemed to work with Bryan Ruiz' nervous looking second penalty being saved by Krul. With the Dutch scoring all their penalties when Michael Umaña had Costa Rica's fifth penalty saved the Dutch won the shoot-out 4-3.
So now the Netherlands will go onto play Argentina in Wednesday's (9/7/14) semi-final but did so in such a way as to turn every neutral against them. However with their opponents being Argentina they will have to go a long way to turn the Brazilian fans against them.
18:00 on 6/7/14 (UK date).
Saturday, 5 July 2014
Psych!
I'll do a full write up of today's World Cup matches tomorrow. In part because it's late and in part because it will help fill the giant football-less wasteland between now and Tuesday. However I think I do need to quickly cover the controversial moments of the Netherlands versus Costa Rica match.
Basically the Costa Ricans big mistake going into the match was assuming that everybody in the footballing world agreed with the Mexicans who thought that Arjen Robben had cheated to win a penalty in the last 16 match. As a result they came out thinking that the referee would automatically be against Robben so would award everything against him. The problem was that the referee either wasn't going to retrospectively punish Robben or knew enough about football to know that he didn't cheat so refereed the game pretty fairly and evenly.
Unfortunately the Costa Ricans didn't seem to get this message even after the referee booked Júnior Díaz for a bad foul on Robben inthe 37th minute and continued to foul and dive. Along with the constant dissent from Costa Rica's players this obviously tried the referee's patience so when Marco Ureña tried to win a penalty for Costa Rica in the 98th minute (1st half, extra-time) the referee was in no mood to give him the benefit of the doubt. So rather then being biased towards the Dutch Ravshan Irmatov - the Uzbek referee- was overly patient with the Costa Ricans. For example Junior Diaz should have received his second yellow card and been sent off for another crunching foul on Robben in the 91st (5mins stoppage) minute.
The Dutch's big trick though was to substitute Jasper Cillessen who had played in goal throughout the match for Tim Krul in the 121st minute (2mins stoppage) specifically so Krul could take part in the penalty shoot-out. This was a clear attempt to psychologically unbalance the Costa Ricans by sending the message that Krul has been doing nothing else in this World Cup then study every penalty a Costa Rican player has ever taken so he knew exactly what they were going to do.
To their credit this didn't seem to have much effect on them with Celso Borges confidently scoring Costa Rica's first penalty. So Krul stepped things up by walking up to the Costa Rican penalty takers and whispering things to them just before they took their kick. This clearly put off Bryan Ruiz who missed Costa Rica's second penalty and I honestly think Krul should have been booked the second time he tried it. In the end Michael Umaña had Costa Rica's fifth penalty saved so the Netherlands won 4-3.
23:20 on 5/7/14 (UK date).
Basically the Costa Ricans big mistake going into the match was assuming that everybody in the footballing world agreed with the Mexicans who thought that Arjen Robben had cheated to win a penalty in the last 16 match. As a result they came out thinking that the referee would automatically be against Robben so would award everything against him. The problem was that the referee either wasn't going to retrospectively punish Robben or knew enough about football to know that he didn't cheat so refereed the game pretty fairly and evenly.
Unfortunately the Costa Ricans didn't seem to get this message even after the referee booked Júnior Díaz for a bad foul on Robben inthe 37th minute and continued to foul and dive. Along with the constant dissent from Costa Rica's players this obviously tried the referee's patience so when Marco Ureña tried to win a penalty for Costa Rica in the 98th minute (1st half, extra-time) the referee was in no mood to give him the benefit of the doubt. So rather then being biased towards the Dutch Ravshan Irmatov - the Uzbek referee- was overly patient with the Costa Ricans. For example Junior Diaz should have received his second yellow card and been sent off for another crunching foul on Robben in the 91st (5mins stoppage) minute.
The Dutch's big trick though was to substitute Jasper Cillessen who had played in goal throughout the match for Tim Krul in the 121st minute (2mins stoppage) specifically so Krul could take part in the penalty shoot-out. This was a clear attempt to psychologically unbalance the Costa Ricans by sending the message that Krul has been doing nothing else in this World Cup then study every penalty a Costa Rican player has ever taken so he knew exactly what they were going to do.
To their credit this didn't seem to have much effect on them with Celso Borges confidently scoring Costa Rica's first penalty. So Krul stepped things up by walking up to the Costa Rican penalty takers and whispering things to them just before they took their kick. This clearly put off Bryan Ruiz who missed Costa Rica's second penalty and I honestly think Krul should have been booked the second time he tried it. In the end Michael Umaña had Costa Rica's fifth penalty saved so the Netherlands won 4-3.
23:20 on 5/7/14 (UK date).
Friday, 4 July 2014
Sh*t Just Got Serious
Today has seen the start of the World Cup quarter-finals.
The day's first game was an all Euro affair between France and Germany. Throughout this tournament Germany have played a very domineering style of football which has seen them play very high up the pitch with even their defensive line often straying into the opposing half of the pitch. By contrast France have played in a very counter-attacking style which has seen their attacking line hover around the half-way line only to break away for the quick attack.
As a result this grudge match was always going to be a tightly balanced affair. Ideally what the neutral would have liked to have seen is for France to score an early goal which would then force Germany in to really attacking in the hope of producing an equaliser and in the process leave themselves vulnerable to lots of French scoring opportunities.
Unfortunately (unless you're German) Germany scored the first goal early on. At around 11 minutes France's Paul Pogba fouled Germany's Toni Kroos on the side of the penalty area. From the ensuing free-kick Kroos found the head of Mats Hummels who gently directed the ball into the French net with a deft header.
Finding themselves 1-0 up after only 12 minutes all Germany needed to do then was sit back in their own half and break up the play. Despite the boos from the neutrals in the crowd this is exactly what they did meaning that they won the game 1-0.
France's main problem was that they couldn't find a way to beat Germany's off-side trap. So whenever France's strikers were looking to make a break the German defenders simply stepped forward as the ball was played meaning that the French players were caught off-side and play was stopped. France weren't helped in this by the linesmen/assistant referees both of whom had a very bad game. Basically they struggled to keep up with play leading to them making a lot of mistakes so they were awarding off-sides when the French players were on-side and vice versa. The nicest thing I can say about this is that they were consistent in their inconsistency although the French did suffer more because it made it very hard for them to guess when they were going to be called off-side or not.
The second match of the day was an all South American affair. Unfortunately for one of those sides the other side was the host Brazil meaning that the match was played in a massive atmosphere in front of a hugely partisan sell-out crowd at the Castelao stadium and the game certainly did it's surroundings justice
Being an all South American tie the match was such a flurry of Samba hips, chips, turns and nutmegs I don't really know were to start. In the first-half alone there was the battle of the afros on Brazil's left-wing between Columbia's Cuadrado and Brazil's Marcelo alongside Columbia's James Rodríguez taking on all comers in the centre of the pitch. Then there was Brazil's David Luiz's (a defender!!) mazy run up the pitch only to be stopped by a Colombian player who immediately started a mazy run of his own only to be stopped by a pin-point tackle from (I think) Marcelo. Even Brazil's Hulk who neither looks nor sounds particularly light on his feet got in on the party tricks using them to very nearly score in the 20th minute.
By comparison the first goal seemed almost dull with Brazil's 'bellying' in a Neymar corner in the 7th minute. There was nothing dull about the second goal with Brazil's David Luiz curling a pin-point free-kick in from around 20-25 yards out. Despite Brazil going 2-0 up Columbia still had some fight left in them with Carlos Bacca being brought down by Brazil's 'keeper Julio César in the penalty area in the 77th minute. César was booked for this sloppy challenge and was probably only saved from a straight red card by David Luiz running back to make sure he was the last man between Bacca and the goal. Rodríguez neatly slotted home the penalty putting him two clear goals ahead in the golden boot (top goalscorer) tournament and pegging Brazil back to 2-1.
At this point I should take a moment to commend Carlos Velasco Carballo - the Spanish referee - on a good game despite all the criticism he has come in for from the English (ITV) TV commentators and other fans of the English Premier League on Twitter. Although this was clearly a very physical game with lots of shoves, elbows, kicks and body checks all those muscular moves were purely intentional rather than reckless and stayed away from areas (ankles, knees etc) that could cause players serious injury. Plus both sides were at it as much as each other and there was no specific targeting of players. As a result rather then constantly blowing his whistle and getting his cards out the referee simply let the players sort it out between themselves and the game was all the better because of it.
A small problem did begin to emerge after half-time when the Colombians came out and started diving and faking injury in an effort to break up the play and get Brazilian players booked. The referee responded to this by simply ignoring every Colombian call which let the Brazilians get away with some pretty hefty challenges. For example Thiago Silva's challenge in the centre circle around 60 minutes certainly should have earned his a yellow card despite the referee not even seeing a foul. What I would have done is to have booked the first Colombian player to make a bad tackle soon in the second half to send out the "Oh you want yellow cards do you?!" message. Cuadrado's thumping challenge on Neymar in the 63rd minute would have been a prime example and probably would have prevented Silva's strange challenge on the Colombian 'keeper shortly afterwards that earned him the yellow card that means he will miss the semi-final even if he should have been on one already by that point.
Despite their best efforts Columbia couldn't find an equaliser meaning that the match ended 2-1 and Brazil go through to the semi-final where they will face Germany. My mouth is already watering over that match-up even if Brazil will be without Silva and face an injury worry over Neymar.
23:05 on 4/7/14 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:50 on 5/7/14 (UK date) to add;
Shortly after writing the above it emerged that Neymar in fact sustained fractured vertebrae and is now out of the World Cup. However I should point out that it sounds like he has suffered stress fractures to some of the vertebrae in his lower back rather then breaking his back entirely. Essentially this means that Neymar has suffered hairline cracks to the bone rather then the bone being broken apart. If Neymar wasn't a professional athlete with access to top of the line medical care he would probably have put the pain down to a simple bad back. He will though need to rest in order to the injury to heal properly meaning that he is out of the rest of the tournament although at 22 I'm sure he's got plenty more World Cups ahead of him
I should point out that this injury is probably the cumulative effect of numerous collisions and knocks rather than one single incident. So while Columbia's Juan Zuniga's knee to Neymar's back in the 88th minute probably pushed things over the edge the weakness was created by all the knocks Neymar took in the game against Chile particularly Arturo Vidal's heavy-duty body-check.
It does also give me an opportunity to talk about one of my biggest bugbears of the tournament - players feigning injury. Not only is it cheating but it also makes it much harder to tell if a player has genuinely been hurt making the game much more dangerous for everyone. As I result I would like to start seeing players getting booked for feigning injury although it's sods law that the first time a referee does that the player will actually be injured.
The day's first game was an all Euro affair between France and Germany. Throughout this tournament Germany have played a very domineering style of football which has seen them play very high up the pitch with even their defensive line often straying into the opposing half of the pitch. By contrast France have played in a very counter-attacking style which has seen their attacking line hover around the half-way line only to break away for the quick attack.
As a result this grudge match was always going to be a tightly balanced affair. Ideally what the neutral would have liked to have seen is for France to score an early goal which would then force Germany in to really attacking in the hope of producing an equaliser and in the process leave themselves vulnerable to lots of French scoring opportunities.
Unfortunately (unless you're German) Germany scored the first goal early on. At around 11 minutes France's Paul Pogba fouled Germany's Toni Kroos on the side of the penalty area. From the ensuing free-kick Kroos found the head of Mats Hummels who gently directed the ball into the French net with a deft header.
Finding themselves 1-0 up after only 12 minutes all Germany needed to do then was sit back in their own half and break up the play. Despite the boos from the neutrals in the crowd this is exactly what they did meaning that they won the game 1-0.
France's main problem was that they couldn't find a way to beat Germany's off-side trap. So whenever France's strikers were looking to make a break the German defenders simply stepped forward as the ball was played meaning that the French players were caught off-side and play was stopped. France weren't helped in this by the linesmen/assistant referees both of whom had a very bad game. Basically they struggled to keep up with play leading to them making a lot of mistakes so they were awarding off-sides when the French players were on-side and vice versa. The nicest thing I can say about this is that they were consistent in their inconsistency although the French did suffer more because it made it very hard for them to guess when they were going to be called off-side or not.
The second match of the day was an all South American affair. Unfortunately for one of those sides the other side was the host Brazil meaning that the match was played in a massive atmosphere in front of a hugely partisan sell-out crowd at the Castelao stadium and the game certainly did it's surroundings justice
Being an all South American tie the match was such a flurry of Samba hips, chips, turns and nutmegs I don't really know were to start. In the first-half alone there was the battle of the afros on Brazil's left-wing between Columbia's Cuadrado and Brazil's Marcelo alongside Columbia's James Rodríguez taking on all comers in the centre of the pitch. Then there was Brazil's David Luiz's (a defender!!) mazy run up the pitch only to be stopped by a Colombian player who immediately started a mazy run of his own only to be stopped by a pin-point tackle from (I think) Marcelo. Even Brazil's Hulk who neither looks nor sounds particularly light on his feet got in on the party tricks using them to very nearly score in the 20th minute.
By comparison the first goal seemed almost dull with Brazil's 'bellying' in a Neymar corner in the 7th minute. There was nothing dull about the second goal with Brazil's David Luiz curling a pin-point free-kick in from around 20-25 yards out. Despite Brazil going 2-0 up Columbia still had some fight left in them with Carlos Bacca being brought down by Brazil's 'keeper Julio César in the penalty area in the 77th minute. César was booked for this sloppy challenge and was probably only saved from a straight red card by David Luiz running back to make sure he was the last man between Bacca and the goal. Rodríguez neatly slotted home the penalty putting him two clear goals ahead in the golden boot (top goalscorer) tournament and pegging Brazil back to 2-1.
At this point I should take a moment to commend Carlos Velasco Carballo - the Spanish referee - on a good game despite all the criticism he has come in for from the English (ITV) TV commentators and other fans of the English Premier League on Twitter. Although this was clearly a very physical game with lots of shoves, elbows, kicks and body checks all those muscular moves were purely intentional rather than reckless and stayed away from areas (ankles, knees etc) that could cause players serious injury. Plus both sides were at it as much as each other and there was no specific targeting of players. As a result rather then constantly blowing his whistle and getting his cards out the referee simply let the players sort it out between themselves and the game was all the better because of it.
A small problem did begin to emerge after half-time when the Colombians came out and started diving and faking injury in an effort to break up the play and get Brazilian players booked. The referee responded to this by simply ignoring every Colombian call which let the Brazilians get away with some pretty hefty challenges. For example Thiago Silva's challenge in the centre circle around 60 minutes certainly should have earned his a yellow card despite the referee not even seeing a foul. What I would have done is to have booked the first Colombian player to make a bad tackle soon in the second half to send out the "Oh you want yellow cards do you?!" message. Cuadrado's thumping challenge on Neymar in the 63rd minute would have been a prime example and probably would have prevented Silva's strange challenge on the Colombian 'keeper shortly afterwards that earned him the yellow card that means he will miss the semi-final even if he should have been on one already by that point.
Despite their best efforts Columbia couldn't find an equaliser meaning that the match ended 2-1 and Brazil go through to the semi-final where they will face Germany. My mouth is already watering over that match-up even if Brazil will be without Silva and face an injury worry over Neymar.
23:05 on 4/7/14 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:50 on 5/7/14 (UK date) to add;
Shortly after writing the above it emerged that Neymar in fact sustained fractured vertebrae and is now out of the World Cup. However I should point out that it sounds like he has suffered stress fractures to some of the vertebrae in his lower back rather then breaking his back entirely. Essentially this means that Neymar has suffered hairline cracks to the bone rather then the bone being broken apart. If Neymar wasn't a professional athlete with access to top of the line medical care he would probably have put the pain down to a simple bad back. He will though need to rest in order to the injury to heal properly meaning that he is out of the rest of the tournament although at 22 I'm sure he's got plenty more World Cups ahead of him
I should point out that this injury is probably the cumulative effect of numerous collisions and knocks rather than one single incident. So while Columbia's Juan Zuniga's knee to Neymar's back in the 88th minute probably pushed things over the edge the weakness was created by all the knocks Neymar took in the game against Chile particularly Arturo Vidal's heavy-duty body-check.
It does also give me an opportunity to talk about one of my biggest bugbears of the tournament - players feigning injury. Not only is it cheating but it also makes it much harder to tell if a player has genuinely been hurt making the game much more dangerous for everyone. As I result I would like to start seeing players getting booked for feigning injury although it's sods law that the first time a referee does that the player will actually be injured.
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
And Then There Was Eight
Today the last 16 knock-out phase of the World Cup drew to a close. You may remember that at the start of the tournament I spent a lot of time mocking people who were tipping Argentina to win because I thought they were over-rated. I also spent almost as much time tipping Switzerland because I thought they were under-rated. Today's first match was between Argentina and Switzerland.
What has made Switzerland so interesting throughout this tournament is that they are a relatively small nation with no domestic league to speak of. As a result they don't really have a huge pool of talented players to choose from. However their head coach - Ottmar Hitzfeld - has found a way around this by using a very inventive formation. Essentially Switzerland play in a classic 4-4-2 formation. However their wing-backs (the two defenders on the edges of the pitch) constantly sweep forward almost ahead of their wingers (the mid-fielders on the edges of the pitch) who also sweep forward to join the centre-forwards. As a result Switzerland frequently find themselves attacking with six players up front.
The problem is that if their opponents are quick counter-attackers (like France) then Switzerland's two centre-backs often find themselves defending against two and sometimes even three attackers. This is really difficult to do so Switzerland can find themselves letting in a lot of goals. Argentina are a team that like to play three and sometimes even four centre-forwards meaning that they posed a huge threat to Switzerland. As a result for this match Switzerland abandoned their attacking 4-4-2 in favour of a classic 4-4-2 with all the defenders acting as defenders and not sweeping forward. This coupled with some shockingly poor play by the Argentinians which often saw them struggling to string two passes together meant that Switzerland were able to contain the threat of Argentina.
However it also meant that Switzerland lost a lot of their attacking edge. Perhaps as further evidence of how poor a game Argentina had this did not mean Switzerland lacked chances. In fact Switzerland probably created the best chances of the first-half. Unfortunately the clear instruction from Hitzfeld to concentrate on defence rather than attack couple with their lack of a seasoned finisher meant that Switzerland squandered those chances. For example in the 39th minute Switzerland's Josip Drmic found himself one on one with - Sergio Romero - the Argentine 'keeper only to blast the ball straight at him when he had the whole rest of the goal to aim at. Earlier in the 28th minute Granit Xhaka's shot from a corner was stopped by Romero only for the ball to fall to Stephan Lichtsteiner who was also unable to put it past Romero.
Despite Switzerland creating further chances and Argentina creating chances of their own it finished 0-0 after the 90 minutes so the game headed into extra-time. It looked certain to go to penalties until the 118th minute when Lionel Messi slipped a through-ball to Ángel Di Maríawho broke his habit of the match by smashing the ball in from the right-hand side of the penalty area to put Argentina 1-0 up.
With seconds left in the game this left Switzerland know option then to attack and attack they did. In the 121st minute (90+30+5mins stoppage) Ricardo Rodriguez put a cross in the box which was found by Diego Benaglio whose shot was deflected out for another corner. From that corner Xherdan Shaqiri found Blerim Dzemaili whose header beat the 'keeper only to hit the post. Dzemaili recovered to collect the rebound but sadly put it wide. With the last meaningful kick of the game Shaqiri blasted a free-kick from the edge of the "D" only for it to be blocked by a wall that had advanced quite a way beyond it's 10 yard line.
1-0 was how it finished so despite being awful for the entire game Argentina advanced to the quarter-finals while Switzerland are left cursing the lack of an experienced striker.
Today's other match between the USA and Belgium was marred by the arrival of a Brazilian pitch invader in the 16th minute. This has of course become World Cup short-hand for the pop-star Rihanna who has been providing an intermittent commentary throughout the tournament. Although Rihanna is proving herself to be a woman who is incapable of just going with the joke her commentary should have been just a bit of fun. However people haven't helped but notice that Rihanna has not only completely failed to support her (adoptive) home team of the USA but has also been a vocal supporter of teams playing against the USA. I'm sure for the most part this has been for entirely personal reasons such as the fact that Rihanna has worked with Shakira who is effectively married to Spain's Gerard Pique, has met Germany's Miroslav Klose and like a lot of women finds Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo inexplicably attractive.
However some people have gone onto suggest that Rihanna is childishly rallying against the USA in a desperate effort to prove - to herself mainly - that she isn't simply property of the US State Department. This rumour has become so strong that the US State Department has been forced to formally deny it by granting Meriam Ibrahim - a Sudanese women who was pardoned for apostasy in a massive metaphor for Rihanna - effective asylum in their Embassy in Khartoum. The intention being to proclaim Rihanna as US property while Rihanna covers Harper's Bizarre Arabia in a desperate effort to continue with that "Free the Nipple" nonsense that was laughed out the door during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Obviously all this somewhat spoiled my enjoyment of the match. However going in it was clear that the USA were very much the underdogs because Belgium have a number of skillful and speedy players who have caused a lot of trouble for teams such as Algeria who are much stronger in the USA.
Belgium are particularly dangerous in mid-field and the much talked about "final third" of the pitch (essentially around the start of the 18 yard box). As such a lot of people - myself, FIFA, the BBC - thought that the USA would chose to counter this threat by playing a 4-5-1 formation that would have left Clint Dempsey alone upfront but absolutely packed the mid-field area with players. Although I don't think there was anything sinister in the decision Jurgen Klinsmann - the USA's head-coach - instead decided to counter the threat by playing the standard 4-4-2 only with Kyle Beckerman being replaced by Geoff Cameron who was meant to be fitter and is traditionally a defender.
Sadly this didn't work and although they managed to put some good passages of play together and create a few attacks Belgium largely toyed with the USA throughout the game. Then - true to form - Belgium came alive in the final 10 minutes putting in shot after shot many which were ably saved by the USA 'keeper Tim Howard. However while it will probably offend many Americans I have to say that during this period Belgium seemed to be pulling their shooting punches. This was a little nudge to the Germans because although Germany most certainly played to win in their final group game against the USA once they'd gone 1-0 up they did seem to hold back from completely destroying the USA. So with the game going into extra-time at 0-0 the Belgians were suddenly much less charitable with Kevin De Bruyne banging in Belgium's first goal on 92 minutes. Romelu Lukaku - who you never want to see coming on at the start of extra-time - added a second on 105 minutes following a fast break.
However there was absolutely nothing planned about what happened next with the USA tearing into the second half of extra-time as if they had something to prove. They were quickly rewarded in the 107th minute when Julian Green spun in the penalty and scuffed a volley past Thibaut Courtois - the Belgium 'keeper to bring the USA back to 2-1. There then followed a breathless 13 minute battle to see if the USA could conjure up an equaliser. I think they could have done it if only Jermaine Jones had accepted that scoring one good goal does not make him Lionel Messi and crossed into the box rather then having a shot in the 108th minute. Sadly he didn't and America couldn't so 2-1 it ended.
As a result Belgium will go on to face Argentina in the quarter-final where they've got to be fancying their chances. However as my brother pointed out the true tragedy is that American fans never got to experience the joy of an extra-time comeback only to have it rapidly wiped out by the agony of a penalty shoot-out loss.
23:59 on 1/7/14 (UK date).
What has made Switzerland so interesting throughout this tournament is that they are a relatively small nation with no domestic league to speak of. As a result they don't really have a huge pool of talented players to choose from. However their head coach - Ottmar Hitzfeld - has found a way around this by using a very inventive formation. Essentially Switzerland play in a classic 4-4-2 formation. However their wing-backs (the two defenders on the edges of the pitch) constantly sweep forward almost ahead of their wingers (the mid-fielders on the edges of the pitch) who also sweep forward to join the centre-forwards. As a result Switzerland frequently find themselves attacking with six players up front.
The problem is that if their opponents are quick counter-attackers (like France) then Switzerland's two centre-backs often find themselves defending against two and sometimes even three attackers. This is really difficult to do so Switzerland can find themselves letting in a lot of goals. Argentina are a team that like to play three and sometimes even four centre-forwards meaning that they posed a huge threat to Switzerland. As a result for this match Switzerland abandoned their attacking 4-4-2 in favour of a classic 4-4-2 with all the defenders acting as defenders and not sweeping forward. This coupled with some shockingly poor play by the Argentinians which often saw them struggling to string two passes together meant that Switzerland were able to contain the threat of Argentina.
However it also meant that Switzerland lost a lot of their attacking edge. Perhaps as further evidence of how poor a game Argentina had this did not mean Switzerland lacked chances. In fact Switzerland probably created the best chances of the first-half. Unfortunately the clear instruction from Hitzfeld to concentrate on defence rather than attack couple with their lack of a seasoned finisher meant that Switzerland squandered those chances. For example in the 39th minute Switzerland's Josip Drmic found himself one on one with - Sergio Romero - the Argentine 'keeper only to blast the ball straight at him when he had the whole rest of the goal to aim at. Earlier in the 28th minute Granit Xhaka's shot from a corner was stopped by Romero only for the ball to fall to Stephan Lichtsteiner who was also unable to put it past Romero.
Despite Switzerland creating further chances and Argentina creating chances of their own it finished 0-0 after the 90 minutes so the game headed into extra-time. It looked certain to go to penalties until the 118th minute when Lionel Messi slipped a through-ball to Ángel Di Maríawho broke his habit of the match by smashing the ball in from the right-hand side of the penalty area to put Argentina 1-0 up.
With seconds left in the game this left Switzerland know option then to attack and attack they did. In the 121st minute (90+30+5mins stoppage) Ricardo Rodriguez put a cross in the box which was found by Diego Benaglio whose shot was deflected out for another corner. From that corner Xherdan Shaqiri found Blerim Dzemaili whose header beat the 'keeper only to hit the post. Dzemaili recovered to collect the rebound but sadly put it wide. With the last meaningful kick of the game Shaqiri blasted a free-kick from the edge of the "D" only for it to be blocked by a wall that had advanced quite a way beyond it's 10 yard line.
1-0 was how it finished so despite being awful for the entire game Argentina advanced to the quarter-finals while Switzerland are left cursing the lack of an experienced striker.
Today's other match between the USA and Belgium was marred by the arrival of a Brazilian pitch invader in the 16th minute. This has of course become World Cup short-hand for the pop-star Rihanna who has been providing an intermittent commentary throughout the tournament. Although Rihanna is proving herself to be a woman who is incapable of just going with the joke her commentary should have been just a bit of fun. However people haven't helped but notice that Rihanna has not only completely failed to support her (adoptive) home team of the USA but has also been a vocal supporter of teams playing against the USA. I'm sure for the most part this has been for entirely personal reasons such as the fact that Rihanna has worked with Shakira who is effectively married to Spain's Gerard Pique, has met Germany's Miroslav Klose and like a lot of women finds Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo inexplicably attractive.
However some people have gone onto suggest that Rihanna is childishly rallying against the USA in a desperate effort to prove - to herself mainly - that she isn't simply property of the US State Department. This rumour has become so strong that the US State Department has been forced to formally deny it by granting Meriam Ibrahim - a Sudanese women who was pardoned for apostasy in a massive metaphor for Rihanna - effective asylum in their Embassy in Khartoum. The intention being to proclaim Rihanna as US property while Rihanna covers Harper's Bizarre Arabia in a desperate effort to continue with that "Free the Nipple" nonsense that was laughed out the door during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Obviously all this somewhat spoiled my enjoyment of the match. However going in it was clear that the USA were very much the underdogs because Belgium have a number of skillful and speedy players who have caused a lot of trouble for teams such as Algeria who are much stronger in the USA.
Belgium are particularly dangerous in mid-field and the much talked about "final third" of the pitch (essentially around the start of the 18 yard box). As such a lot of people - myself, FIFA, the BBC - thought that the USA would chose to counter this threat by playing a 4-5-1 formation that would have left Clint Dempsey alone upfront but absolutely packed the mid-field area with players. Although I don't think there was anything sinister in the decision Jurgen Klinsmann - the USA's head-coach - instead decided to counter the threat by playing the standard 4-4-2 only with Kyle Beckerman being replaced by Geoff Cameron who was meant to be fitter and is traditionally a defender.
Sadly this didn't work and although they managed to put some good passages of play together and create a few attacks Belgium largely toyed with the USA throughout the game. Then - true to form - Belgium came alive in the final 10 minutes putting in shot after shot many which were ably saved by the USA 'keeper Tim Howard. However while it will probably offend many Americans I have to say that during this period Belgium seemed to be pulling their shooting punches. This was a little nudge to the Germans because although Germany most certainly played to win in their final group game against the USA once they'd gone 1-0 up they did seem to hold back from completely destroying the USA. So with the game going into extra-time at 0-0 the Belgians were suddenly much less charitable with Kevin De Bruyne banging in Belgium's first goal on 92 minutes. Romelu Lukaku - who you never want to see coming on at the start of extra-time - added a second on 105 minutes following a fast break.
However there was absolutely nothing planned about what happened next with the USA tearing into the second half of extra-time as if they had something to prove. They were quickly rewarded in the 107th minute when Julian Green spun in the penalty and scuffed a volley past Thibaut Courtois - the Belgium 'keeper to bring the USA back to 2-1. There then followed a breathless 13 minute battle to see if the USA could conjure up an equaliser. I think they could have done it if only Jermaine Jones had accepted that scoring one good goal does not make him Lionel Messi and crossed into the box rather then having a shot in the 108th minute. Sadly he didn't and America couldn't so 2-1 it ended.
As a result Belgium will go on to face Argentina in the quarter-final where they've got to be fancying their chances. However as my brother pointed out the true tragedy is that American fans never got to experience the joy of an extra-time comeback only to have it rapidly wiped out by the agony of a penalty shoot-out loss.
23:59 on 1/7/14 (UK date).
Respect to Algeria Though.
All these late nights are starting to take their toll so last night I opted to go to bed comparatively early rather then writing up the days games. Having found a bit of time today though I've decided that I can't let a day of really good football pass without comment.
The first game of the day between France and Nigeria was a really impressive battle between two sides playing open and attacking with the advantage constantly swinging backwards and forwards throughout the game. So Emmanuel Emenike thought he'd put Nigeria ahead in the 19th minute only for him to to ruled off-side in a very good refereeing call because his right leg and a bit of his chest were just off-side. In the 22nd minute France's Paul Pogba forced an impressive save from Vincent Enyeama - Nigeria's 'keeper.
This is how the match continued until Pogba finally made the break-through for France with a headed goal putting them 1-0 up in the 79th minute. Even then though Nigeria didn't look out of it until the 91st minute when an attempted clearance deflected off Nigeria's Joseph Yobo into his own net giving France a 2-0 win that really flattered them.
The second match though between Germany and Algeria was absolutely epic. Throughout this tournament Germany have used a pressing, possession style of football that mean they don't so much attack opponents as completely overwhelm them. Algeria though were having none of this a set about pressing Germany from the start meaning that Germany were never able to establish a rhythm. Within 9 minutes Algeria had already forced a save out of Manuel Neuer - the German 'keeper - and after 10 minutes they had the ball in the back of the net only for it to be ruled off-side by a good foot or so.
While they were never able to take control of the match Germany did rally to put together good attacking spells off their own. Rais M'bolhi - Algeria's 'keeper - though had an answer for everything the Germans could throw at him producing match winning save after match winning save. Algeria continued to make chances of their own with Sofiane Feghouli in particular being nightmare on the right-wing producing darting run after darting run. However Algeria always seemed to lack the bit of magic needed to put the ball in the back of the net and kept falling foul of the off-side trap. As a result it was 0-0 after 90 minutes forcing 30 minutes of extra-time.
Just two minutes into that extra-time André Schürrle was finally able to get the better of M'bolhi with a cheeky left-heel shot that wrong-footed the 'keeper. Algeria kept pressing though until in the 119th minute the pressure of chasing the game meant that their defending let them down and Mesut Özil was left almost unmarked in the box and was able to score Germany's second after Schürrle was once again denied by M'bolhi. Algeria still refused to lay down and die though with that ball immediately going to Feghouli who put in an excellent long cross from the right-wing which found Abdelmoumene Djabou on the edge of box who volleyed home and impressive goal bring Algeria back to 2-1.
Despite having only 90 seconds on the clock Algeria kept pressing for that equaliser though. Unfortunately though there just wasn't enough time so Algeria lost 2-1 in one of the most honourable defeats seen at a World Cup.
Algeria's match was pretty much summed up by an incident in the 97th minute when Algeria's captain Rafik Halliche - almost doubled over with cramp - expertly won the ball in his own penalty area only to roll it out for a throw-in before collapsing to the ground because he simply had nothing more to give. So Algeria will now return home but I think they will do so to near universal acclaim.
13:05 on 1/7/14 (UK date).
The first game of the day between France and Nigeria was a really impressive battle between two sides playing open and attacking with the advantage constantly swinging backwards and forwards throughout the game. So Emmanuel Emenike thought he'd put Nigeria ahead in the 19th minute only for him to to ruled off-side in a very good refereeing call because his right leg and a bit of his chest were just off-side. In the 22nd minute France's Paul Pogba forced an impressive save from Vincent Enyeama - Nigeria's 'keeper.
This is how the match continued until Pogba finally made the break-through for France with a headed goal putting them 1-0 up in the 79th minute. Even then though Nigeria didn't look out of it until the 91st minute when an attempted clearance deflected off Nigeria's Joseph Yobo into his own net giving France a 2-0 win that really flattered them.
The second match though between Germany and Algeria was absolutely epic. Throughout this tournament Germany have used a pressing, possession style of football that mean they don't so much attack opponents as completely overwhelm them. Algeria though were having none of this a set about pressing Germany from the start meaning that Germany were never able to establish a rhythm. Within 9 minutes Algeria had already forced a save out of Manuel Neuer - the German 'keeper - and after 10 minutes they had the ball in the back of the net only for it to be ruled off-side by a good foot or so.
While they were never able to take control of the match Germany did rally to put together good attacking spells off their own. Rais M'bolhi - Algeria's 'keeper - though had an answer for everything the Germans could throw at him producing match winning save after match winning save. Algeria continued to make chances of their own with Sofiane Feghouli in particular being nightmare on the right-wing producing darting run after darting run. However Algeria always seemed to lack the bit of magic needed to put the ball in the back of the net and kept falling foul of the off-side trap. As a result it was 0-0 after 90 minutes forcing 30 minutes of extra-time.
Just two minutes into that extra-time André Schürrle was finally able to get the better of M'bolhi with a cheeky left-heel shot that wrong-footed the 'keeper. Algeria kept pressing though until in the 119th minute the pressure of chasing the game meant that their defending let them down and Mesut Özil was left almost unmarked in the box and was able to score Germany's second after Schürrle was once again denied by M'bolhi. Algeria still refused to lay down and die though with that ball immediately going to Feghouli who put in an excellent long cross from the right-wing which found Abdelmoumene Djabou on the edge of box who volleyed home and impressive goal bring Algeria back to 2-1.
Despite having only 90 seconds on the clock Algeria kept pressing for that equaliser though. Unfortunately though there just wasn't enough time so Algeria lost 2-1 in one of the most honourable defeats seen at a World Cup.
Algeria's match was pretty much summed up by an incident in the 97th minute when Algeria's captain Rafik Halliche - almost doubled over with cramp - expertly won the ball in his own penalty area only to roll it out for a throw-in before collapsing to the ground because he simply had nothing more to give. So Algeria will now return home but I think they will do so to near universal acclaim.
13:05 on 1/7/14 (UK date).
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