And then group F

Wednesday opened with Group F finishing its pool play.  Argentina was facing Nigeria, while Bosnia was taking on Iran.  Expecting a blowout in the Argentinian game, I opted to see if Iran was able to advance for the first time.

The game started with Iran being content to be tight in the back and look for counterattacks, which worked for both teams, as Bosnia is much better in the build-up.  But Iran was giving an awful lot of space, not looking to pressure until the Bosnians were fifteen to twenty yards into their side of the field.  So much of the game was taking place in a very small area, where Bosnia would bring it down, give it up in the midfield, and then squash the Iranian counterattack.

And that's how much of the game went, although each team got occasional glimpses of the net.  The first good look at the net from Bosnia actually looked pretty innocuous, as Djeko had the ball at the top of the box, and elected to shoot from there.  It wasn't a terribly hard shot, but it was placed with pin-point accuracy, on the ground, but an inch or two off the post, and the goalie just couldn't reach that far (it was only a few inches out of his reach).

Earlier, the announcers mentioned Argentina scoring, and I flipped over to see Messi's nice goal on replay.  Well, the Nigerians responded by also scoring before the replay even finished, so I saw that goal as well.

The Iranians didn't respond quite as quickly as the African team did, but they weren't far off, either.  However, their shot rang off the crossbar, and nearly straight down.  So it bounced up quite a bit, and the Iranian following up waited to kick it, rather than heading it, which gave the goalie time to get in the way.

They were opening up a bit, both offensively and defensively, and that seemed to be paying off.  They got close again in the thirty-first, with a nice play to chip it over the defense to one of three waiting forwards.  But the forwards were caught by the offside trap for no damage.

The Bosnians took advantage of that space with a run of their own in the 41st.  A pass ahead from the long run went to Vrsevic, but his pass across to Djeko, in the middle of the box (his home away from home, it seems) was a bit off-line and went out of bounds.

Dejagah (who had the bulk of the Iranian chances in the tournament, it seems) almost had a chance in the fifty-fifth, but was a hair off-sides.  There was no excuse for it, though, as he was all the way at one end, and could watch all the defenders.

Four minutes later, Pjanic thanked the Iranian defense for a terrible turnover by depositing the ball into the net.  Six minutes later, the Bosnians almost scored several times, but their players kept getting in each other's way.  Funny sequence to watch, though.

Play went back and forth for a quarter of an hour after that, until Iran got another corner kick.  The kick went to the back side, and was cleared out and further to that side.  It was immediately crossed back to the center, and cleared.  Then yet another played chipped it back into the center, where the only Iranian to stay onsides controlled it and passed it backwards across the net to Ghoochannejhad for an easy tap-in.

And in less time than it took for me to write out that sequence to a friend, the Bosnians came back and Vrsajevic put it in the net.

From there, the rest of the game was a formality.

In the other game, Messi had scored a second, as had Musa, before Rojo had provided the winning tally.  So the Argentinian game ended up being the closer of the two, though the Argentinians showed no fear of losing, subbing Messi out in the 63rd minute.

The results ended up putting both Argentina and Nigeria through, with Argentina winning the group.  No big surprises there, although I certainly wouldn't have been disappointed had Iran managed to win by two and advance.  But that was a long shot, to put it mildly.

Bosnia just off from draw or win

The last game Saturday was Nigeria facing Bosnia-Herzogovina (sorry Herzegovina, hereafter just Bosnia).

And this was a very interesting game, tactically, as the Bosnians looked very good on the build-up, but the Nigerians looked very good on the counterstrike.

It looked like the Bosnians scored first, with Djeko on the tail end of a pretty passing play to score in the twentieth, but it was called back for being offsides.  Video replay, apparently (I didn't see it), said that that was bupkus.  In fact, not even close, according to the commentators.

Djeko almost had another in the 23rd, when he had a clean breakaway, but the goalie managed to stop him.

But Odemwingie put the Nigerians on the board only a few minutes after that, with a counterattack down the right hand side to a cross.

Both teams got good saves between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth minute, with Enyeama coming all the way out to the top of his box to stop Djeko, and Begavic making a great save to deflect a ball off-net.

Bosnia got one more very good chance just before stoppage, with Djeko's shot being deflected by Enyeama just enough to hit the woodwork and go back into the field of play.

But that was it; Bosnia certainly deserved better, and now needs to win, and for Argentina to win, to move on.  We'll see how that goes.

Argentina over gold (flag)

I went into the Argentina/Ecuador game looking forward to seeing Messi and Aguero (incidentally, does anyone know why his City jersey has 'Kun Aguero' on it?) working together up front.  I thought they were the only two players I knew on Argentina, but I hadn't realized Zabaleta was Argentine (I did wonder why I didn't see him playing for Italy).  I've also seen di Maria a couple times, but not often.

For Bosnia, I think Dzeko is the only one with whom I'm familiar (I've probably also seen Begovic play a few times, but I don't know for sure).  He's great, but one man (especially one striker) does not a team make.

Given all that, I expected a rout, honestly.

And when Argentina scored on a lucky own-goal in the second minute, that analysis seemed to be borne out.  Basically, a header off a corner kick went right into a defender, who was unable to get out of the way, and into the far side of the net (relative to the corner).

But it felt like Messi was trying too hard for the rest of the half; giving up the ball too much, and trying some too-long passes.  And while Bosnia didn't have any terribly-good chances, they weren't giving up many, either.

One thing that struck me, tactically, was that neither team was pressuring much towards the middle of the field.  Both were waiting for the other team to get close.

The first half definitely favored the Argentines, probably fairly strongly, in terms of possession.  The second half was much more even (maybe even favoring Bosnia), despite Messi playing much better.

Scoring was more even, as well.  Argentina went up by two in the sixty-fifth minute on a surgical strike by Messi.  He was running across the top of the box, and fired a shot that curled in towards the near post.  His shot was so precise that it hit the inside of the post and bounced all the way across to hit the back of the far post.  The goalie, positioned very well, still had no chance at it.  Very impressive.

And perhaps that goal was part of why the Bosnians were doing better; perhaps Argentina was playing more conservatively.  Regardless of the reason, the Bosnians did play better, and scored in the 84th, Ibišević doing the honors (he had subbed in a few minutes after Messi's strike).

But that still didn't really put the outcome in doubt, as those from the land of silver held on comfortably.  Argentina looks to be in great shape to move on, but I could see any of the other three taking the runner-up position.