It seemed like it would be impossible for Brazil's finish to the World Cup to get worse, after a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Germany (their first competitive loss at home in 62 matches). And they certainly came out fired up to show that that was a fluke.
The Netherlands got the ball to start, and the hosts were chasing the ball, on defense, all the way back to the goalie. But the Dutch dealt with that pressure, and after the ball getting all the way back to the goalie, they pushed it way upfield with a couple of passes. One of those went to van Persie in the air, and he headed it straight up in the air. It came down at his feet, with him facing his own goal. He saw Robben breaking, to his left, and turned and put it into space behind the defense.
Robben ran to the ball, and Silva, who'd been on van Persie, had to pull Robben down by his jersey at the top of the box. It was a weird call by the ref, who awarded the penalty kick and gave Silva a yellow card. Normally, a foul at that spot would be a foot or so outside the box, but it was a foul by the last defender and clearly should have been a red card.
By the time they finished arguing that out, and van Persie put the penalty kick into the top-right corner, it was still only the third minute of the game. The Brazilians were clearly off-kilter, though, at being behind so early, and it took them a while to settle down. Before they did, however, the Orangemen scored again with a run down the right side that went all the way to the touch line. From there, it was centered back to Blind, in the middle, who might have had enough time to drink a coffee while he took three touches, in place, to get a controlled shot into the net.
That was in the seventeenth minute, and was pretty much the end of the match, competitively speaking. The Brazilians did get several chances over the balance of the game, but were unable to convert any of them, putting it off to the side a couple of times.
Ramires, who'd had a decent game against Germany (one of the few; he came on as a sub for Hulk around halftime), and who looked decent against the Dutch, went out in favor of Hulk around halftime.
Hulk tried to repeat his runs down the left that showed some threat against Germany, but it was nothing doing.
The final score of the game didn't come until stoppage time, when Wijnaldum was left alone in the middle (this seems familiar, somehow) to knit a sweater for a relative. Or put the ball past Cesar, he had a difficult decision.
I've been very impressed by the Dutch coach, van Gaal, and he showed his class by subbing in his third-string goalie, Vorm, a minute or two after that. With that move, he'd managed to get his entire line-up onto the pitch at some point in the tournament. My understanding is that van Gaal is going to Man U for next season, and I think that'll work well for both him and the team.
In any event, while the Dutch went home fairly happy (but not going into space; nice PR move to make that offer), for the second time, hosting the World Cup ended in misery for the Brazilians (maybe they'll look for a co-lo host next time). It was the first time that they had lost consecutive home games of any sort in seventy-odd years; I can't imagine what the locker room was like afterwards.
In any event, it left only the title game to be played, with Germany taking on Argentina.
Showing posts with label brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brazil. Show all posts
20140714
20140709
Pounding away
I still need to write up my notes on the quarter-finals of the World Cup, but holy crap! that game yesterday.
I figured it'd be close to a toss-up with both teams at full strength, so with Silva and Neymar out, I did expect a German victory. But man, did Brazil crap the bed.
I joked to a friend of mine, after the third goal, that it looked like Brazil had already given up. He responded that they were doing the traditional turtling, defensively, except that this turtle was on its back and thrashing.
And then there were a couple more German goals, in short order. After that stretch, figured the Germans would score a few more.
What I didn't realize, going in, was how key Silva was at the back end. I knew how big a deal Neymar missing was, but didn't know that Silva was the coordination for the defense. At least, I hope that was it, because there was no coordination on the back end.
For a while, not only were Germans finding space anywhere they wanted to, but they weren't even being pressed until they got within ten yards of the Brazilian box. It was incredible.
When Mueller scored in the 11th minute, on the Germans' first corner, he was basically uncovered. I saw a tweet saying that he'd "found a thiago silva-sized hole", and that seems about right.
It took about ten more minutes for the Germans to score again (Klose, this time, with a generous feed from Mueller and a bit of luck on a rebound. That was enough to give him the all-time World Cup goal-scoring record), but then they scored three more in rapid succession after that. The remaining fifteen minutes or so of the first half went fairly quickly, with the Germans able to move about at will, but unable to score.
The second half finally showed a bit of spine from the Brazilians; in fact, they had several good scoring chances in the first few minutes of the half. Some of that was due to the German's playing extremely avoiding of any fouls, and thereby giving a lot of space. That still might have been a good strategy, though, as the Brazilians were diving all over the place, and that might have been less obvious.
But Schuerrle came in for Klose not too long after, and he got into the scoring act with a pair of his own (to match Kroos' brace and exceed Khedira's lone tally).
The rest of the game was pretty desultory, with occasional attempts by each team to score (Oezil missed a nearly-empty net off to the side some time around the 85th minute), but the only remaining score can from Oscar in the 90th minute. I was surprised the ref gave them as much stoppage time as he did, but it was still two minutes.
I saw a funny tweet doing scoring equivalents of that final margin. Though funny, it seems a bit off-base, in some of those sports. Baseball being twenty-two seems reasonable. NFL seems twenty or so points high as well (it's been well over 800 games (how many all-time World Cup games there've been) since anyone has scored even 80 points in an NFL game. Actually, just did a bit of research, and highest score since 1940 seems to be 73 (when the Bears beat the Redskins for the title; hadn't realized that was highest-scoring game since then). So 107 is pretty bizarre.
And the NBA one is just wacky-land. I'm fairly sure no one has ever scored even half that many in a single game. One quarter that many is well short of an everyday occurence. 484 is eight points a minute. That's at least three baskets a minute over an entire game. Crazy.
And I might need to rethink that NHL comparison. Since the 1917-18 season, there have been eight games with 14+ goals scored by one team (none in almost thirty-three years). Eight in almost a hundred years. Over 12000k games just in the last eleven seasons.
One in 800+ would be significantly less than that, and this was not the most lopsided result ever seen in the World Cup, so probably eleven or twelve would be a more reasonable number for NHL equivalence.
I figured it'd be close to a toss-up with both teams at full strength, so with Silva and Neymar out, I did expect a German victory. But man, did Brazil crap the bed.
I joked to a friend of mine, after the third goal, that it looked like Brazil had already given up. He responded that they were doing the traditional turtling, defensively, except that this turtle was on its back and thrashing.
And then there were a couple more German goals, in short order. After that stretch, figured the Germans would score a few more.
What I didn't realize, going in, was how key Silva was at the back end. I knew how big a deal Neymar missing was, but didn't know that Silva was the coordination for the defense. At least, I hope that was it, because there was no coordination on the back end.
For a while, not only were Germans finding space anywhere they wanted to, but they weren't even being pressed until they got within ten yards of the Brazilian box. It was incredible.
When Mueller scored in the 11th minute, on the Germans' first corner, he was basically uncovered. I saw a tweet saying that he'd "found a thiago silva-sized hole", and that seems about right.
It took about ten more minutes for the Germans to score again (Klose, this time, with a generous feed from Mueller and a bit of luck on a rebound. That was enough to give him the all-time World Cup goal-scoring record), but then they scored three more in rapid succession after that. The remaining fifteen minutes or so of the first half went fairly quickly, with the Germans able to move about at will, but unable to score.
The second half finally showed a bit of spine from the Brazilians; in fact, they had several good scoring chances in the first few minutes of the half. Some of that was due to the German's playing extremely avoiding of any fouls, and thereby giving a lot of space. That still might have been a good strategy, though, as the Brazilians were diving all over the place, and that might have been less obvious.
But Schuerrle came in for Klose not too long after, and he got into the scoring act with a pair of his own (to match Kroos' brace and exceed Khedira's lone tally).
The rest of the game was pretty desultory, with occasional attempts by each team to score (Oezil missed a nearly-empty net off to the side some time around the 85th minute), but the only remaining score can from Oscar in the 90th minute. I was surprised the ref gave them as much stoppage time as he did, but it was still two minutes.
I saw a funny tweet doing scoring equivalents of that final margin. Though funny, it seems a bit off-base, in some of those sports. Baseball being twenty-two seems reasonable. NFL seems twenty or so points high as well (it's been well over 800 games (how many all-time World Cup games there've been) since anyone has scored even 80 points in an NFL game. Actually, just did a bit of research, and highest score since 1940 seems to be 73 (when the Bears beat the Redskins for the title; hadn't realized that was highest-scoring game since then). So 107 is pretty bizarre.
And the NBA one is just wacky-land. I'm fairly sure no one has ever scored even half that many in a single game. One quarter that many is well short of an everyday occurence. 484 is eight points a minute. That's at least three baskets a minute over an entire game. Crazy.
And I might need to rethink that NHL comparison. Since the 1917-18 season, there have been eight games with 14+ goals scored by one team (none in almost thirty-three years). Eight in almost a hundred years. Over 12000k games just in the last eleven seasons.
One in 800+ would be significantly less than that, and this was not the most lopsided result ever seen in the World Cup, so probably eleven or twelve would be a more reasonable number for NHL equivalence.
20140703
Round of Sixteen
There were no surprises in the round of sixteen of the World Cup. How they got to the results was a surprise in a couple cases; how close the result was, in some cases, shocking.
Brazil beating Chile was certainly expected; when Neymar scored in the eighteenth minute, it seemed like a harbinger of more to come.
But when Chile stole the ball from the defense, fifteen minutes later, and promptly equalized, that was not at all expected.
The reffing seemed generally favorable to Brazil (as you'd expect); when Jo went flying into the goalie with his spikes extended, he got away with only a yellow. But when Hulk used his mighty thews to knock down a ball in the offensive zone, preparatory to a scoring kick, I didn't expect the goal to be called back, let alone for him to get a yellow.
But basically all of the game, after Chile's equalizer, minus a couple brief forays upfield, was all Brazil hemming in their Spanish-speaking rivals. But the Chileans held on, all the way to the end of regulation and stoppage time. And then all through thirty minutes of extra time.
So it came down to penalty kicks. Things really looked bad when Ceasar blocked the first two from Chile. But the Chilean goalie stopped the second, and Hulk's shot in the fourth slot went over the net. When Neymar nailed the fifth for Brazil, Chile needed to score to stay alive into sudden-death.
And the ensuing kick was beautiful, curling in to the inside of the right side post. But it bounced out, curling around the far-size post and landing behind the goal line. I suspect it was only millimeters from going in. Such a disappointing finish for a really good game.
Uruguay's game against Colombia (the only one of the round I probably would have gotten wrong, if I'd done a bracket as planned) was a game of attractive, attacking soccer, with both teams attempting to break through via build-up. But almost all of the shots were very long ones, from outside the box.
One that was a little shorter came from James Rodriguez of Colombia in the 28th minute. He fired it off his right foot, on the half volley and right into the top of the net. And it was shot so hard that the goalie got his hand on, but it was barely even deflected, let alone stopped.
The only other goal of the game also came from Rodriguez, and it was also pretty, but because of the passing that led to it, not the shot itself. It was first crossed too high across the box, then crossed back to the far post, where it was headed into the middle, where Rodriguez was waiting.
Uruguay had a few chances, but they were largely outplayed. And Rodriguez was electric.
The Netherlands v Mexico was one of the games I was most looking forward to, in the round. And it was a build-up vs counterattack game, with the Dutch mostly sitting back. And getting pretty seriously outplayed; their counterattacks were basically nonexistent in the first half. I think RvP only touched the ball on one possession (for two touches) in the entire half.
Meanwhile, the Mexicans had a number of attacks that went all the way down to the endline but only managed a few shots off of them.
Offensively, the Dutch were mostly just playing back and forth, then trying to go over the top to connect with the offense. Their few forays downfield were down the sides, with no results.
Holland's only real chance in the first half was when Robben was taken down in stoppage time in the box, but no call resulted.
In the second half, Mexico finally broke through when Dos Santos pulled the ball down at the top of the box, in the middle, drifted to the side a little, and placed an innocent-looking shot into the bottom corner of the net.
In the seventy-fifth minute, there was an official water break, and the Dutch coach showed why he was selected. They abandoned their few attempts to build up, and went purely to the long ball.
That paid off in the 88th, when a cross in was headed out by a defender on the goal line, and the rebound went right to Sneijder, who put it into the left side of the net. And then it paid off again in stoppage time, when Robben got the ball in the box, and took a complete dive to get the penalty call.
Huntelaar took the shot from the spot (van Persie had already subbed out), and ended the game in a bit of an anticlimax.
It really looked like Mexico was going to pull off the upset, and that was a really terrible way for it to end. Very disappointing.
When Costa Rica and Greece faced off, I was feeling a little bit guilty. The Greeks had played some impressive (for almost completely lacking offense) soccer to get to that point, and I'd been cheering against the all the way. But Costa Rica had gotten there with some very impressive wins.
Ruiz scored first, for the Costa Ricans, with a shot from the top of the box that went into the side of the net. It was uncharacteristically terrible defense from the Greeks, who neglected to cover him.
But things looked really bad for the Western Hemisphere when Duarte was sent off with his second yellow card in the sixty-sixth minute.
From there, it was just waves of Greek attacks, crashing against the buttresses of the Puerto Rican defense. Every so often, one of the clearances would get to Campbell, and he'd attempt to make something out of it.
But it was a lot of defense for the Pura Vidans, and just as the commentator was saying how great they'd been, in stoppage time, the Greeks pulled down a ball bouncing around the attacking box, and Papastathopoulos put it past the goaltender.
That sent the game into extra time, with Puerto Rico still defending, down a man. They even managed a couple of close chances while defending, but the game went into penalty kicks. And my recording cut out a couple of minutes before that, so I didn't see Puerto Rico's 5-3 win there.
Not a good day for the Mediterranean.
The next day, things went a little better for Europe. I don't have any notes on the game, as I watched most of it in a restaurant. France beat Nigeria 2-0, but the game was much closer than that score indicates. It took France close to 80 minutes to score, and they allowed many, many chances the other way during that time. In fact, it looked like Nigeria scored, early on, but the offside flag was up (though on replay it looked like it should have counted).
All in all, France was the better team, and did deserve to win, but with a little bit of luck, Nigeria could have won. And the game itself was one of the better-played ones of the tournament, with less diving, and both teams attacking constantly. I would not have been even a little disappointed for it to go to extra time.
The late game, that day, had Germany versus Algeria, and the Algerian's definitely learned from the Americans game, and improved on the strategy. Germany's attack was very much side-to-side, while Algeria was straight-forward, going over the top to turn it into a footrace with the German defenders.
Algeria never scored that way, but they forced Neuer to come a long way out of his net to prevent some of those passes from connecting. Algeria definitely had, by far, the better of the play through the first half.
I'm not sure what the Germans changed at the half, but they did much better in the second half. In the first ten minutes of the second half, they forced several good saves out of the goaltender; I don't think they managed to do that once in the first half.
But Algeria kept coming at them, and kept getting good chances. Neuer was up to the challenge, mostly because he was so adept at reading the play, not because he was making such great saves.
Mueller probably would have scored in the 81st, if he'd been comfortable taking a shot with his left foot. But his great job bringing a long pass under control only left him space on his left side, and he still tried to shoot with his right; it was not close.
But neither team was able to capitalize in the first ninety, so it went into extra time again. Scoreless, instead of tied at one.
But it didn't stay scoreless long; the Algerians had already been looking tired, and allowed a goal less than two minutes in. Mueller made a nice run down the left side, and crossed in to Schuerrle just past the near post. Schuerrle slightly overran the ball, but managed to deflect it just enough with his trailing foot to send it in.
Algeria got a few more chances in extra time, but were unable to capitalize. And Germany got an insurance goal in the final minute, as Oezil and Schuerrle combined to pass back and forth several times, shedding defenders, before Oezil put the ball in. And my recording stopped just after the replay of that goal, so I missed Algeria scoring one to make it closer.
The final day had Argentina attacking Switzerland. Unfortunately, I missed the first eight minutes, but what I saw was Argentina attacking hard, both with and without the ball. Their aggressive defense resulted in Switzerland not holding on to the ball, and put them in good position on counterattacks.
Because of that, it took twenty-seven minutes for the Swiss to get their first chance (and only good one of the first half). Meanwhile, the Argentines had a number of chances, twice forcing the Swiss keeper to come out to stop crosses into the box.
In the second half, chances were a bit more even (and Argentine defense was a bit more passive). Di Maria did have one interesting run down the right hand side, but got to the end line and was unable to cross with his right. So he tried crossing his legs to center with his left; it didn't work, but was an interesting attempt.
Shaqiri was certainly doing everything in his power to push the Swiss to the next round, but despite his best efforts, I think Benaglio felt like he was in a shooting gallery. Thankfully for him, the Argentines put a lot of shots over or wide of the net.
So regulation ended scoreless again, and both teams looked really tired going into extra time. In particular, there were a lot of wild clearances from the defenses, with fewer passes to the midfield.
And all of that resulted in getting to the 118th minute without a goal. Then Messi made a run down the center, avoiding defenders, and passing outside from just above the box. The entire defense had collapsed on him, leaving di Maria with an open shot to the far side of the net, and he didn't miss.
The Swiss got very close three times in the remaining couple of minutes (Benaglio was even in the attacking box a couple of times, and looked useful there. And not just on their corner kick), but were unable to get closer than hitting the post from an in-close header (which bounced right back to the shooter, off his leg, and out of bounds). I really felt bad for the Swiss, coming so close.
The final game did not go so well for the Americans, as they faced off against Belgium. And basically, Belgium just ran over, around, and through them. In the first half, the Flemish were one of eighteen on crossing attempts. Good center defense to stop so many attempts; terrible outside defense to allow so many.
Howard certainly felt like he was facing a firing squad; he turned in the best goaltending performance of the tournament with sixteen saves. He got them all the way to extra time (and almost to winning, but Wondolowski was unable to put a ball headed to him in the last minute or two of regulation into the net with the goalie out of position. He kicked it over on the half volley from the inner box), but the Belgians kept attacking.
Origi was a beast during regulation, getting his first shot just forty seconds in and being a large part of the constant attack. He shot several of those crosses, and headed a couple more towards net. And had a couple other shots as well.
Fellaini was largely contained, due to Beckerman being benched and Cameron covering him. That helped a lot with breaking up those crosses, but it definitely hurt the American attack, as his passes were much less reliable.
But despite his yeomanlike work in the center, the US was just getting used on the outside. And that stayed the case all game.
But, as mentioned, the US managed to survive the barrage into extra time, but it took only two minutes for the Belgians to finally score. Lukaku, who came in for Origi at the beginning of extra time, charged down the right and crossed in to de Bruyne. He put several moves on the US defender, and finally got a clear shot from inside the box. Howard had his first moment of weakness, and was off-balance when the shot finally came.
It took another twelve minutes, and a couple more saves for Howard, before the Dutch struck again. And again, it was Lukaku leading the charge, this time down the left. And this time he just took it himself to very close, and was able to beat Howard to the near post.
I actually turned the game off at that point (I'd promised to take my daughter bike riding), so I missed Green's gorgeous goal a couple minutes later (at a sprint, on a full volley, he kicked a ball coming over his shoulder from behind, into the net. Give him ten more chances at that shot, and I'd be impressed if he could do it twice). A friend texted me, though, so I watched the last few minutes (we'd gotten delayed from the bike ride). But nothing more came of the last few minutes.
It was a disappointing end, but by no means was the loss undeserved (or unpredictable). Belgium will be a handful for Argentina. Perhaps it's just that the US isn't as good as their survival of the Group of Death would seem to indicate, but Belgium looked much better than they had in any of their earlier games (and they were one of two undefeated teams in the group stage. Part of that might have been starting Origi instead of having him on the bench).
Anyway, France plays Germany tomorrow in the first quarterfinal. Brazil will play Colombia later. Saturday will start with Argentina facing Belgium, followed by the Dutch facing Costa Rica. And as much as I've enjoyed watching Costa Rica, their magic runs out there.
I would pick Germany over France, but France has looked very good in this tournament. I haven't really noticed how much speed France has up top, but if they have that, they can certainly win.
Brazil and Colombia will be an interesting match. Rodriguez has been a match for Neymar so far, but the hosts have a much better supporting cast. Like Costa Rica, I can see this one being a blowout.
I think Argentina and Belgium will be the most fun game to watch. Neither team is particularly prone to diving, and both will be attacking with speed. I'm looking forward to it. I think the South Americans will win, but I wouldn't be surprised if it went 3-2 or 4-3.
Brazil beating Chile was certainly expected; when Neymar scored in the eighteenth minute, it seemed like a harbinger of more to come.
But when Chile stole the ball from the defense, fifteen minutes later, and promptly equalized, that was not at all expected.
The reffing seemed generally favorable to Brazil (as you'd expect); when Jo went flying into the goalie with his spikes extended, he got away with only a yellow. But when Hulk used his mighty thews to knock down a ball in the offensive zone, preparatory to a scoring kick, I didn't expect the goal to be called back, let alone for him to get a yellow.
But basically all of the game, after Chile's equalizer, minus a couple brief forays upfield, was all Brazil hemming in their Spanish-speaking rivals. But the Chileans held on, all the way to the end of regulation and stoppage time. And then all through thirty minutes of extra time.
So it came down to penalty kicks. Things really looked bad when Ceasar blocked the first two from Chile. But the Chilean goalie stopped the second, and Hulk's shot in the fourth slot went over the net. When Neymar nailed the fifth for Brazil, Chile needed to score to stay alive into sudden-death.
And the ensuing kick was beautiful, curling in to the inside of the right side post. But it bounced out, curling around the far-size post and landing behind the goal line. I suspect it was only millimeters from going in. Such a disappointing finish for a really good game.
Uruguay's game against Colombia (the only one of the round I probably would have gotten wrong, if I'd done a bracket as planned) was a game of attractive, attacking soccer, with both teams attempting to break through via build-up. But almost all of the shots were very long ones, from outside the box.
One that was a little shorter came from James Rodriguez of Colombia in the 28th minute. He fired it off his right foot, on the half volley and right into the top of the net. And it was shot so hard that the goalie got his hand on, but it was barely even deflected, let alone stopped.
The only other goal of the game also came from Rodriguez, and it was also pretty, but because of the passing that led to it, not the shot itself. It was first crossed too high across the box, then crossed back to the far post, where it was headed into the middle, where Rodriguez was waiting.
Uruguay had a few chances, but they were largely outplayed. And Rodriguez was electric.
The Netherlands v Mexico was one of the games I was most looking forward to, in the round. And it was a build-up vs counterattack game, with the Dutch mostly sitting back. And getting pretty seriously outplayed; their counterattacks were basically nonexistent in the first half. I think RvP only touched the ball on one possession (for two touches) in the entire half.
Meanwhile, the Mexicans had a number of attacks that went all the way down to the endline but only managed a few shots off of them.
Offensively, the Dutch were mostly just playing back and forth, then trying to go over the top to connect with the offense. Their few forays downfield were down the sides, with no results.
Holland's only real chance in the first half was when Robben was taken down in stoppage time in the box, but no call resulted.
In the second half, Mexico finally broke through when Dos Santos pulled the ball down at the top of the box, in the middle, drifted to the side a little, and placed an innocent-looking shot into the bottom corner of the net.
In the seventy-fifth minute, there was an official water break, and the Dutch coach showed why he was selected. They abandoned their few attempts to build up, and went purely to the long ball.
That paid off in the 88th, when a cross in was headed out by a defender on the goal line, and the rebound went right to Sneijder, who put it into the left side of the net. And then it paid off again in stoppage time, when Robben got the ball in the box, and took a complete dive to get the penalty call.
Huntelaar took the shot from the spot (van Persie had already subbed out), and ended the game in a bit of an anticlimax.
It really looked like Mexico was going to pull off the upset, and that was a really terrible way for it to end. Very disappointing.
When Costa Rica and Greece faced off, I was feeling a little bit guilty. The Greeks had played some impressive (for almost completely lacking offense) soccer to get to that point, and I'd been cheering against the all the way. But Costa Rica had gotten there with some very impressive wins.
Ruiz scored first, for the Costa Ricans, with a shot from the top of the box that went into the side of the net. It was uncharacteristically terrible defense from the Greeks, who neglected to cover him.
But things looked really bad for the Western Hemisphere when Duarte was sent off with his second yellow card in the sixty-sixth minute.
From there, it was just waves of Greek attacks, crashing against the buttresses of the Puerto Rican defense. Every so often, one of the clearances would get to Campbell, and he'd attempt to make something out of it.
But it was a lot of defense for the Pura Vidans, and just as the commentator was saying how great they'd been, in stoppage time, the Greeks pulled down a ball bouncing around the attacking box, and Papastathopoulos put it past the goaltender.
That sent the game into extra time, with Puerto Rico still defending, down a man. They even managed a couple of close chances while defending, but the game went into penalty kicks. And my recording cut out a couple of minutes before that, so I didn't see Puerto Rico's 5-3 win there.
Not a good day for the Mediterranean.
The next day, things went a little better for Europe. I don't have any notes on the game, as I watched most of it in a restaurant. France beat Nigeria 2-0, but the game was much closer than that score indicates. It took France close to 80 minutes to score, and they allowed many, many chances the other way during that time. In fact, it looked like Nigeria scored, early on, but the offside flag was up (though on replay it looked like it should have counted).
All in all, France was the better team, and did deserve to win, but with a little bit of luck, Nigeria could have won. And the game itself was one of the better-played ones of the tournament, with less diving, and both teams attacking constantly. I would not have been even a little disappointed for it to go to extra time.
The late game, that day, had Germany versus Algeria, and the Algerian's definitely learned from the Americans game, and improved on the strategy. Germany's attack was very much side-to-side, while Algeria was straight-forward, going over the top to turn it into a footrace with the German defenders.
Algeria never scored that way, but they forced Neuer to come a long way out of his net to prevent some of those passes from connecting. Algeria definitely had, by far, the better of the play through the first half.
I'm not sure what the Germans changed at the half, but they did much better in the second half. In the first ten minutes of the second half, they forced several good saves out of the goaltender; I don't think they managed to do that once in the first half.
But Algeria kept coming at them, and kept getting good chances. Neuer was up to the challenge, mostly because he was so adept at reading the play, not because he was making such great saves.
Mueller probably would have scored in the 81st, if he'd been comfortable taking a shot with his left foot. But his great job bringing a long pass under control only left him space on his left side, and he still tried to shoot with his right; it was not close.
But neither team was able to capitalize in the first ninety, so it went into extra time again. Scoreless, instead of tied at one.
But it didn't stay scoreless long; the Algerians had already been looking tired, and allowed a goal less than two minutes in. Mueller made a nice run down the left side, and crossed in to Schuerrle just past the near post. Schuerrle slightly overran the ball, but managed to deflect it just enough with his trailing foot to send it in.
Algeria got a few more chances in extra time, but were unable to capitalize. And Germany got an insurance goal in the final minute, as Oezil and Schuerrle combined to pass back and forth several times, shedding defenders, before Oezil put the ball in. And my recording stopped just after the replay of that goal, so I missed Algeria scoring one to make it closer.
The final day had Argentina attacking Switzerland. Unfortunately, I missed the first eight minutes, but what I saw was Argentina attacking hard, both with and without the ball. Their aggressive defense resulted in Switzerland not holding on to the ball, and put them in good position on counterattacks.
Because of that, it took twenty-seven minutes for the Swiss to get their first chance (and only good one of the first half). Meanwhile, the Argentines had a number of chances, twice forcing the Swiss keeper to come out to stop crosses into the box.
In the second half, chances were a bit more even (and Argentine defense was a bit more passive). Di Maria did have one interesting run down the right hand side, but got to the end line and was unable to cross with his right. So he tried crossing his legs to center with his left; it didn't work, but was an interesting attempt.
Shaqiri was certainly doing everything in his power to push the Swiss to the next round, but despite his best efforts, I think Benaglio felt like he was in a shooting gallery. Thankfully for him, the Argentines put a lot of shots over or wide of the net.
So regulation ended scoreless again, and both teams looked really tired going into extra time. In particular, there were a lot of wild clearances from the defenses, with fewer passes to the midfield.
And all of that resulted in getting to the 118th minute without a goal. Then Messi made a run down the center, avoiding defenders, and passing outside from just above the box. The entire defense had collapsed on him, leaving di Maria with an open shot to the far side of the net, and he didn't miss.
The Swiss got very close three times in the remaining couple of minutes (Benaglio was even in the attacking box a couple of times, and looked useful there. And not just on their corner kick), but were unable to get closer than hitting the post from an in-close header (which bounced right back to the shooter, off his leg, and out of bounds). I really felt bad for the Swiss, coming so close.
The final game did not go so well for the Americans, as they faced off against Belgium. And basically, Belgium just ran over, around, and through them. In the first half, the Flemish were one of eighteen on crossing attempts. Good center defense to stop so many attempts; terrible outside defense to allow so many.
Howard certainly felt like he was facing a firing squad; he turned in the best goaltending performance of the tournament with sixteen saves. He got them all the way to extra time (and almost to winning, but Wondolowski was unable to put a ball headed to him in the last minute or two of regulation into the net with the goalie out of position. He kicked it over on the half volley from the inner box), but the Belgians kept attacking.
Origi was a beast during regulation, getting his first shot just forty seconds in and being a large part of the constant attack. He shot several of those crosses, and headed a couple more towards net. And had a couple other shots as well.
Fellaini was largely contained, due to Beckerman being benched and Cameron covering him. That helped a lot with breaking up those crosses, but it definitely hurt the American attack, as his passes were much less reliable.
But despite his yeomanlike work in the center, the US was just getting used on the outside. And that stayed the case all game.
But, as mentioned, the US managed to survive the barrage into extra time, but it took only two minutes for the Belgians to finally score. Lukaku, who came in for Origi at the beginning of extra time, charged down the right and crossed in to de Bruyne. He put several moves on the US defender, and finally got a clear shot from inside the box. Howard had his first moment of weakness, and was off-balance when the shot finally came.
It took another twelve minutes, and a couple more saves for Howard, before the Dutch struck again. And again, it was Lukaku leading the charge, this time down the left. And this time he just took it himself to very close, and was able to beat Howard to the near post.
I actually turned the game off at that point (I'd promised to take my daughter bike riding), so I missed Green's gorgeous goal a couple minutes later (at a sprint, on a full volley, he kicked a ball coming over his shoulder from behind, into the net. Give him ten more chances at that shot, and I'd be impressed if he could do it twice). A friend texted me, though, so I watched the last few minutes (we'd gotten delayed from the bike ride). But nothing more came of the last few minutes.
It was a disappointing end, but by no means was the loss undeserved (or unpredictable). Belgium will be a handful for Argentina. Perhaps it's just that the US isn't as good as their survival of the Group of Death would seem to indicate, but Belgium looked much better than they had in any of their earlier games (and they were one of two undefeated teams in the group stage. Part of that might have been starting Origi instead of having him on the bench).
Anyway, France plays Germany tomorrow in the first quarterfinal. Brazil will play Colombia later. Saturday will start with Argentina facing Belgium, followed by the Dutch facing Costa Rica. And as much as I've enjoyed watching Costa Rica, their magic runs out there.
I would pick Germany over France, but France has looked very good in this tournament. I haven't really noticed how much speed France has up top, but if they have that, they can certainly win.
Brazil and Colombia will be an interesting match. Rodriguez has been a match for Neymar so far, but the hosts have a much better supporting cast. Like Costa Rica, I can see this one being a blowout.
I think Argentina and Belgium will be the most fun game to watch. Neither team is particularly prone to diving, and both will be attacking with speed. I'm looking forward to it. I think the South Americans will win, but I wouldn't be surprised if it went 3-2 or 4-3.
20140618
Battle for Group A
Going out of order here, just because my notes for the Brazil/Mexico game are more accessible than those for the Belgium and Algeria (and there's more of them).
As expected, Brazil controlled the play through long stretches of the game. There were several times when, for a couple of minutes, Brazil would bring it down, get to the box, and Mexico would clear the ball. But Mexico did it by pulling so many people back that the Lusos would instantly return the ball to right outside the box and starting again.
It did help that, especially in the first, the foul calling seemed very uneven. It felt like anything close was a foul by Mexico, while Brazil practically needed to pull a (red! I know what El Tri means, but it's the first time I've seen them in red) jersey off the Mexican to get a foul. I think, based on the way things went later in the game, that that wasn't deliberate, but it felt like it for a while.
Despite all that, Mexico did manage to get some close chances, but not many. Most of them were shots from outside the box that barely missed the goal.
But the story of the game was definitely Guillermo Ochoa. Although he did have a clean sheet against Cameroon, I don't remember him making any great saves. Well, he made a number of them in this game.
First, he stopped a Naymar header from in close in the twenty-fifth minute. It was at the edge of the goal, down low, and, leaping at full extension, he got a hand on it and pushed it out before it could fully cross the line (it was more than halfway there, according to the goal camera).
In the 43rd minute, he had another great save; the defense tried to put the offside trap on, but Maza Rodriguez didn't get it, and left two attackers with no one closer to the goal (one was David Luiz, but I missed the guy who actually struck the ball), and Ochoa somehow made the save.
Much later, Thiago (who, incidentally, was the one who chested the ball through on the earlier failed offside trap) had an undefended header, off a Naymar free kick, from five yards out. Stopped, and the defense deflected the shot off the rebound.
He had another stop off a Naymar kick from about ten yards out.
Basically, without him, and some luck, Brazil would win this game, going away. But with him, they were mostly competitive.
But Mexico couldn't cash in on any of their chances either, and the game ended in a scoreless draw (second of the tournament, both in being a draw, and in being scoreless).
The draw put both teams in a good position to move on, although interestingly, it didn't guarantee either. In fact, if Croatia and Cameroon draw today, it's theoretically possible for both teams to be eliminated (the C's would need to win their last games by at least two; maybe even three). Very, very unlikely, but possible.
As expected, Brazil controlled the play through long stretches of the game. There were several times when, for a couple of minutes, Brazil would bring it down, get to the box, and Mexico would clear the ball. But Mexico did it by pulling so many people back that the Lusos would instantly return the ball to right outside the box and starting again.
It did help that, especially in the first, the foul calling seemed very uneven. It felt like anything close was a foul by Mexico, while Brazil practically needed to pull a (red! I know what El Tri means, but it's the first time I've seen them in red) jersey off the Mexican to get a foul. I think, based on the way things went later in the game, that that wasn't deliberate, but it felt like it for a while.
Despite all that, Mexico did manage to get some close chances, but not many. Most of them were shots from outside the box that barely missed the goal.
But the story of the game was definitely Guillermo Ochoa. Although he did have a clean sheet against Cameroon, I don't remember him making any great saves. Well, he made a number of them in this game.
First, he stopped a Naymar header from in close in the twenty-fifth minute. It was at the edge of the goal, down low, and, leaping at full extension, he got a hand on it and pushed it out before it could fully cross the line (it was more than halfway there, according to the goal camera).
In the 43rd minute, he had another great save; the defense tried to put the offside trap on, but Maza Rodriguez didn't get it, and left two attackers with no one closer to the goal (one was David Luiz, but I missed the guy who actually struck the ball), and Ochoa somehow made the save.
Much later, Thiago (who, incidentally, was the one who chested the ball through on the earlier failed offside trap) had an undefended header, off a Naymar free kick, from five yards out. Stopped, and the defense deflected the shot off the rebound.
He had another stop off a Naymar kick from about ten yards out.
Basically, without him, and some luck, Brazil would win this game, going away. But with him, they were mostly competitive.
But Mexico couldn't cash in on any of their chances either, and the game ended in a scoreless draw (second of the tournament, both in being a draw, and in being scoreless).
The draw put both teams in a good position to move on, although interestingly, it didn't guarantee either. In fact, if Croatia and Cameroon draw today, it's theoretically possible for both teams to be eliminated (the C's would need to win their last games by at least two; maybe even three). Very, very unlikely, but possible.
20140613
Wretched start to World Cup
I watched most of the opening game of the World Cup yesterday. Unfortunately, I turned it on a minute or two after Croatia stunned the hosts with an opening goal (yes, an own-goal, technically),
but watched the Brazilian methodical attack work its way down the field time after time.
And that's pretty much what was going on for the rest of the first half. Croatia was almost entirely defensive in its posture, and wasn't passing crisply enough to mount a real attack in return.
Neymar did manage a goal on a combination of not-good defense (they gave him (Neymar!) too much space) and a well-placed shot (it went off the inside of the post, after the goalie missed it by an inch or two) to equalize ten or fifteen minutes later.
But beyond that, Brazil really didn't have much in the way of chances, either. They had close to 70% of the possession (I do wonder how that's calculated; touches, completed passes, time?), but that was all they had to show for it.
So the second half began with the game still tied, though it looked like it'd be a stretch for Croatia to maintain that.
They did for a while, and even mounted a couple attacks of their own, but then things took a turn for the worse. The Lusos mounted a quick counterattack, that looked fairly innocuous, but it ended with Fred taking a dive in the box and drawing a yellow card and penalty kick. Neymar played some games in the run-up, and shot it high and to the side. The goalie guessed correctly and got his hands on it, but it slipped through for a goal.
To make matters worse, five (or so) minutes later, the Croats put a ball into the Brazilian box, and a foul was called when the goalie backed into Olic (I think), who was heading it back into the middle. By the time play stopped, the ball was in the Brazilian's net, but the (really terrible) foul call stood.
The Croats tried gamely, and put a bit of pressure on Brazil, but the Lusos were the ones who managed another goal in the waning minutes. Oscar's run down the left side of center led to a shot that again found the inside edge of the net, just past the goalie. Not sure what happened; the goalie seemed to react a bit slowly to the shot being taken.
And that was the end of the scoring.
There was never any doubt that the Brazilians were the better team in the game, but I'm not at all sure they deserved to win. For sure, they got two huge, and undeserved, helpings from the ref, and that should dominate the game discussion. It certainly should not have been a 3-1 final score.
And it doesn't get the competition off on the right foot, as it ends up looking like FIFA, through the refs, has a vested interest in Brazil moving forward. You don't want people to start off talking about conspiracy theories and gambling fixes. I don't think that's what was going on, but those were game-changing mistakes, both going in the same direction. It doesn't look good. I haven't looked yet, to see in what damage control FIFA has engaged, but I hope they've had something to say about it.
Update: It appears I might have been too generous in my interpretation.
Also, I forgot to mention the gratuitous use of the goal-line cameras on an unambiguous goal. I think even the announcers were annoyed at that.
And I forgot to mention how entertaining Scolari was on sideline calls. He was going ballistic over obviously-correct calls. Gotta think the refs would hate having to hear that.
but watched the Brazilian methodical attack work its way down the field time after time.
And that's pretty much what was going on for the rest of the first half. Croatia was almost entirely defensive in its posture, and wasn't passing crisply enough to mount a real attack in return.
Neymar did manage a goal on a combination of not-good defense (they gave him (Neymar!) too much space) and a well-placed shot (it went off the inside of the post, after the goalie missed it by an inch or two) to equalize ten or fifteen minutes later.
But beyond that, Brazil really didn't have much in the way of chances, either. They had close to 70% of the possession (I do wonder how that's calculated; touches, completed passes, time?), but that was all they had to show for it.
So the second half began with the game still tied, though it looked like it'd be a stretch for Croatia to maintain that.
They did for a while, and even mounted a couple attacks of their own, but then things took a turn for the worse. The Lusos mounted a quick counterattack, that looked fairly innocuous, but it ended with Fred taking a dive in the box and drawing a yellow card and penalty kick. Neymar played some games in the run-up, and shot it high and to the side. The goalie guessed correctly and got his hands on it, but it slipped through for a goal.
To make matters worse, five (or so) minutes later, the Croats put a ball into the Brazilian box, and a foul was called when the goalie backed into Olic (I think), who was heading it back into the middle. By the time play stopped, the ball was in the Brazilian's net, but the (really terrible) foul call stood.
The Croats tried gamely, and put a bit of pressure on Brazil, but the Lusos were the ones who managed another goal in the waning minutes. Oscar's run down the left side of center led to a shot that again found the inside edge of the net, just past the goalie. Not sure what happened; the goalie seemed to react a bit slowly to the shot being taken.
And that was the end of the scoring.
There was never any doubt that the Brazilians were the better team in the game, but I'm not at all sure they deserved to win. For sure, they got two huge, and undeserved, helpings from the ref, and that should dominate the game discussion. It certainly should not have been a 3-1 final score.
And it doesn't get the competition off on the right foot, as it ends up looking like FIFA, through the refs, has a vested interest in Brazil moving forward. You don't want people to start off talking about conspiracy theories and gambling fixes. I don't think that's what was going on, but those were game-changing mistakes, both going in the same direction. It doesn't look good. I haven't looked yet, to see in what damage control FIFA has engaged, but I hope they've had something to say about it.
Update: It appears I might have been too generous in my interpretation.
Also, I forgot to mention the gratuitous use of the goal-line cameras on an unambiguous goal. I think even the announcers were annoyed at that.
And I forgot to mention how entertaining Scolari was on sideline calls. He was going ballistic over obviously-correct calls. Gotta think the refs would hate having to hear that.
20110710
In the Nick of Time...
I have to thank the newspaper this morning. I hadn't watched a minute of the Women's World Cup since the opening day, and didn't realize the US/Brazil game was going to be today. But I saw it while eating breakfast, and that was enough to put me in front of the TV about fifteen minutes before coverage started.
When I got to it, Sports Center was on, and going on and on about the 1999 Cup-winning game for the US. It seemed a bit overblown to be going on and on about that one before a quarterfinal game; I hadn't realized it was exactly twelve years after that game.
But this game definitely matched that one in drama and fortitude; really, exceeded it in every way except that it was only a quarterfinal game, not a Final.
It started out great for the US; they took the opening and worked it around the field, not allowing Brazil a touch until the 74th second. And that touch went into the Brazilian goal. Oy.
From there, the US played great defense, and were tactically very sound. Their execution on offense was not so great, though, with a lot of unforced turnovers. Mostly, they were outplayed by Brazil, but not by a huge amount.
Things really seemed to go south around the 65th minute. Marta got her feet on the ball in the box, and did a little chip over two defenders. Buehler, the defender who tracked the ball, ran to it, and was called for a foul in preventing the shot (by maintiaining her positioning). It was, at best, a very iffy call. No matter what happened, it was putting the US in a horrible position, thanks to the red card that went with that foul. My wife, who had walked into the house as this was unfolding, was very upset at my yell when Solo stopped the penalty kick. I was unapologetic, and livid when the (web designer?!?) referee called for a re-kick, throwing in a yellow card on Solo. She seemed to be saying that Solo had come off the line early, but the replay showed that she never left the line at all. <
Given a second chance, Cristiana (I think) put it into the back of the net. It was, quite possibly, the worst officiating sequence I had ever seen.
But instead of being pushed back onto their heels, the US actually became more effective. I think the strategy didn't change, but they were able to put quite a few more passes together offensively. This led to them threatening a number of times, mostly on set pieces, but they weren't able to convert.
After twenty-five minutes or so, regulation play ended with no further scoring.
A few minutes into extra time, while I was helping my daughter go to the bathroom, Marta managed to put one into the net. Again, the officiating looked bad, because it appeared that the player who passed it to her (Erika?) was offsides. One had to wonder what was going on..
Play continued to go back and forth through the end of the first half of overtime. Five minutes into the second half, when the US threatened again, just after the ball got cleared, one of the Brazilian defenders (Erika) went down, and stayed down for several minutes (literally). They took her off on a stretcher, but how badly hurt was she (ignoring that there was nobody near her when she went down)? Well, they took her a quarter of the way around the field, then she jumped off the stretcher and ran to the bench (where she could be allowed back onto the field).
She was allowed back on almost immediately, though she received a yellow card for her troubles.
But the good thing about it from the US perspective was that there was three minutes of stoppage in a fifteen minute period. So play continued to see-saw back and forth, with Brazil trying to rag off time in the corners. But coming out of one of those possessions, Rampone got the ball and played it well up to Rampinoe (who had subbed in fairly late in regulation, and got a full game's worth of touches while she was on the pitch). She ran it up the sideline a bit, and then put a very long cross to the far post in the air. The goalie misplayed it by a couple of inches, and the ball found Wambach's head before it found the back of the net. My wife did not yell at me for my scream when that got home, mostly because she was yelling almost as loudly.
That was in the second minute of stoppage time, and man, did that bring on some excitement.
The rest of the game (all minute or so of it) was almost anticlimactic. Brazil did manage to threaten, but the whistle was blown after the ball went out past the touch line off a US defender. I was amazed they didn't give Brazil the kick and a few seconds to try to finish it.
So that left things going into penalty kicks. Given that the US had been down a player for close to an hour of playing time, it was amazing that they were still standing. They had certainly been running much harder than the Luso's for all of that time.
In the penalty kicks, there was a bit of excitement when Boxx's opening salvo was blocked, but she was given a re-kick given that the goalie had come (far) off her line before the kick. No yellow card, though. But I think that threw off both goalies, as they weren't getting moving as quickly as usual.
But the rest of it was very businesslike, with the US burying all five chances, and Solo getting one block (on the third, I think) to send the US on to the semifinals.
In all, it was a magnificent performance by the US to overcome some truly wretched officiating (and some very good play by Brazil, to be fair). I think the US should have won 1-0 (which would have been the fifth consecutive time the US would have won that matchup by that score), but the officiating turned what would have been a very boring game into something to be remembered for a long time.
Strategically, the US had an excellent plan. They wanted to play it into the deep, flank spaces that Brazil's defensive alignment allows. They switched up positioning a little bit to have a bit more speed on defense (and that saved them several times). The defense was excellent, keeping multiple people on the ball until the end of the game (where, I think, they were just too tired to continue that).
But the midfield passing was not good. Part of that was too much playing of long-balls. Too many of those passes went into the middle instead of to the flank, and those were eaten up.
But just as an outright gut-check, it was an amazing performance. Really, I was about ready to write them off (and turn the game off) several times. I am amazed they managed to get the equalizer while down a player.
Of course, all that drama only got them into the semifinals. They still need to defeat France and the winner of the Sweden-Japan match to take home the Cup. But nobody can question their determination and heart; not after that game.
I just hope they don't show any complacency. As long as they don't, they should be fine, even missing Wambach (IIRC, she's going to miss the semifinal for accumulated red cards) and, I assume, Buehler (I assume her red card will cause a similar effect for her).
When I got to it, Sports Center was on, and going on and on about the 1999 Cup-winning game for the US. It seemed a bit overblown to be going on and on about that one before a quarterfinal game; I hadn't realized it was exactly twelve years after that game.
But this game definitely matched that one in drama and fortitude; really, exceeded it in every way except that it was only a quarterfinal game, not a Final.
It started out great for the US; they took the opening and worked it around the field, not allowing Brazil a touch until the 74th second. And that touch went into the Brazilian goal. Oy.
From there, the US played great defense, and were tactically very sound. Their execution on offense was not so great, though, with a lot of unforced turnovers. Mostly, they were outplayed by Brazil, but not by a huge amount.
Things really seemed to go south around the 65th minute. Marta got her feet on the ball in the box, and did a little chip over two defenders. Buehler, the defender who tracked the ball, ran to it, and was called for a foul in preventing the shot (by maintiaining her positioning). It was, at best, a very iffy call. No matter what happened, it was putting the US in a horrible position, thanks to the red card that went with that foul. My wife, who had walked into the house as this was unfolding, was very upset at my yell when Solo stopped the penalty kick. I was unapologetic, and livid when the (web designer?!?) referee called for a re-kick, throwing in a yellow card on Solo. She seemed to be saying that Solo had come off the line early, but the replay showed that she never left the line at all. <
Given a second chance, Cristiana (I think) put it into the back of the net. It was, quite possibly, the worst officiating sequence I had ever seen.
But instead of being pushed back onto their heels, the US actually became more effective. I think the strategy didn't change, but they were able to put quite a few more passes together offensively. This led to them threatening a number of times, mostly on set pieces, but they weren't able to convert.
After twenty-five minutes or so, regulation play ended with no further scoring.
A few minutes into extra time, while I was helping my daughter go to the bathroom, Marta managed to put one into the net. Again, the officiating looked bad, because it appeared that the player who passed it to her (Erika?) was offsides. One had to wonder what was going on..
Play continued to go back and forth through the end of the first half of overtime. Five minutes into the second half, when the US threatened again, just after the ball got cleared, one of the Brazilian defenders (Erika) went down, and stayed down for several minutes (literally). They took her off on a stretcher, but how badly hurt was she (ignoring that there was nobody near her when she went down)? Well, they took her a quarter of the way around the field, then she jumped off the stretcher and ran to the bench (where she could be allowed back onto the field).
She was allowed back on almost immediately, though she received a yellow card for her troubles.
But the good thing about it from the US perspective was that there was three minutes of stoppage in a fifteen minute period. So play continued to see-saw back and forth, with Brazil trying to rag off time in the corners. But coming out of one of those possessions, Rampone got the ball and played it well up to Rampinoe (who had subbed in fairly late in regulation, and got a full game's worth of touches while she was on the pitch). She ran it up the sideline a bit, and then put a very long cross to the far post in the air. The goalie misplayed it by a couple of inches, and the ball found Wambach's head before it found the back of the net. My wife did not yell at me for my scream when that got home, mostly because she was yelling almost as loudly.
That was in the second minute of stoppage time, and man, did that bring on some excitement.
The rest of the game (all minute or so of it) was almost anticlimactic. Brazil did manage to threaten, but the whistle was blown after the ball went out past the touch line off a US defender. I was amazed they didn't give Brazil the kick and a few seconds to try to finish it.
So that left things going into penalty kicks. Given that the US had been down a player for close to an hour of playing time, it was amazing that they were still standing. They had certainly been running much harder than the Luso's for all of that time.
In the penalty kicks, there was a bit of excitement when Boxx's opening salvo was blocked, but she was given a re-kick given that the goalie had come (far) off her line before the kick. No yellow card, though. But I think that threw off both goalies, as they weren't getting moving as quickly as usual.
But the rest of it was very businesslike, with the US burying all five chances, and Solo getting one block (on the third, I think) to send the US on to the semifinals.
In all, it was a magnificent performance by the US to overcome some truly wretched officiating (and some very good play by Brazil, to be fair). I think the US should have won 1-0 (which would have been the fifth consecutive time the US would have won that matchup by that score), but the officiating turned what would have been a very boring game into something to be remembered for a long time.
Strategically, the US had an excellent plan. They wanted to play it into the deep, flank spaces that Brazil's defensive alignment allows. They switched up positioning a little bit to have a bit more speed on defense (and that saved them several times). The defense was excellent, keeping multiple people on the ball until the end of the game (where, I think, they were just too tired to continue that).
But the midfield passing was not good. Part of that was too much playing of long-balls. Too many of those passes went into the middle instead of to the flank, and those were eaten up.
But just as an outright gut-check, it was an amazing performance. Really, I was about ready to write them off (and turn the game off) several times. I am amazed they managed to get the equalizer while down a player.
Of course, all that drama only got them into the semifinals. They still need to defeat France and the winner of the Sweden-Japan match to take home the Cup. But nobody can question their determination and heart; not after that game.
I just hope they don't show any complacency. As long as they don't, they should be fine, even missing Wambach (IIRC, she's going to miss the semifinal for accumulated red cards) and, I assume, Buehler (I assume her red card will cause a similar effect for her).
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