Ok, maybe that's a bit much; let's all be glad that isn't the nationanl anthem any more (though I did just find out that the model of the "perfect aryan child" used by the Third Reich was Jewish, which is hilariously ironic).
My prediction of the score was definitely way off the mark, and Germany's match against Argentina was far more of a piece with the rest of this World Cup.
Argentina, still missing di Maria, was largely content to sit back against the Germans, and attempt counterattacks. And that strategy worked ok for them, as all of their chances came on the counterattack. But they had a bit of bad luck, as Higuain (called hig-wayne by one of the commentators; think rhyming with lil' wayne's older brother) put the shot off to the side of the net on his first chance, when he tried to chip Neuer* (Boateng might well have been able to head it away if it had been on target). And Higuain was called offside on his second chance, which did end up in the net; his celebration went halfway around the field before he noticed the flag.
* A small shout-out to the German midfielder who headed it over his defense, and straight to Higuain to give him that chance.
But the Germans had even less luck. Repeatedly going into the teeth of a harsh and ready defense, they had few chances; none as good as either of those by Higuain.
The only decent chance I can remember from Argentina in the second half had them again shooting wide from in-close, but I have no notes on the game, so I can't say when it happened. Or exactly who had it, for that matter.
In any event, Germany had some good chances in the second, but only forced one good save that I can recall.
So, into extra time they went, again tied at nil (for the fifth time, by my count). And really, not much was going on there. Nobody got terribly close (there were several dangerous free kicks, but none were close to scoring) before Goetze received the ball in the box in the 113th minute. He had some time, but was still quick to blast it past Romero for the lead. And for the win, as it turned out.
Argentina tried pushing forward, but had no luck. Their best chance came in stoppage time, when Messi had a 25-yard or so free kick, but the direct shot went well over the net.
And, with that, Argentina's chances dimished to nil, and the Germans started celebrating.
Loew, like van Gaal, also showed some class, subbing Mertesacker in for Oezil just before stoppage time. I assume that was mostly as a career thank-you for Mertesacker, who has given yeoman service to the national team in the past, but played very little in this tournament (I think he might have been a late sub in one previous game. Maybe).
So, despite a bunch of surprises along the way, the tournament ended with a predictable bunch, and a predictable victor. In fact, I seem to recall a friend telling me that a computer simulation (done by ESPN with the latest FIFA game, I think) came up with Germany as the winner before play started.
And I was certainly hoping for German victory, so I was happy with the result (and I can't express just how much happier I am that it didn't go to penalty kicks). I wonder how Klinsmann feels...
(And I feel a bit sorry for Messi, who's undoubtedly getting a great deal of undeserved criticism from Argentinian fans.)
Showing posts with label germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label germany. 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.
20140701
USA loses to advance
In group G, the Group of Death, there was a lot of talk that the Germans and US might have an gentleman's agreement to play to a draw, so both would advance.
Then it appeared likely that the game would be cancelled, as Recife was experiencing severe flooding, and it was very difficult to drive the hour out of town to get to the stadium. But everyone made it, eventually, and the game went on as scheduled.
Well, it quickly became apparent that there was no agreement, as the Germans came out firing, getting several chances in the opening minutes.
A pass across the box to Mueller in the eighth minute was one of those chances, where Mueller jumped at the ball, leg outstretched, but it was a foot or so off. A minute later, the Germans had a corner that was immediately played out, leading to another corner. That one ended up with two Germans interfering with each other, to keep either from having a very good chance.
The US played up, and there was a foul on the play. Odd that the ref stopped play immediately, instead of allowing US to continue play upfield. Regardless, the possession lasted well over a minute and was the longest that the US managed in the entire game. And they never even threatened to score.
The Germans came back fairly quickly, and in next several minutes forced Gonzalez to break up a couple plays across to Mueller.
Things went back and forth a bit less eventfully for a while after that, but the Germans did force a really good save out of Howard in the thirty-fourth.
A few minutes later, a nice through pass was put to Podolsky, but his pass across the box went to Howard.
A minute later, the US managed to get a corner, but the cross flew over everyone.
That was it for chances in the first half, but it was certainly clear that the battle lines were drawn.
In the second half, Germany was even more aggressive in going for the net. Klose, who had just come in, had a great chance in the air in the 50th, but the serve across was off by an inch or two and he was unable to put it on net.
A few minutes later, Howard made a fantastic save off a shot in close, but the rebound bounced all the way out to the edge of the box, to the right of Howard, where Mueller was waiting to pound it into the far corner of the net.
Almost ten minutes later, the US managed a bit of a threat with a long pass from Bradley to Jones, which forced Neuer to come thirty-five yards out of his net to break up the play (see foreshadowing here to the Germany game against Algeria).
The US might have had another threat on the counterattack a couple minutes later, but there was a breakdown in communication that kept the ball from moving upfield quickly enough.
In the 69th, the US got a pair of corner kicks, and were threatening on the second one until Jones and Bedoya ran into each other at speed, breaking Jones' nose and knocking Bedoya down. Both ended up continuing, but it didn't look good.
While they were being looked at, Schweinsteiger went out for Goetze. Seems like an odd substitution; wonder what the reasoning was.
In any event, the Germans continued attacking, and Gonzalez was called upon again in the 82nd, to break up a diagonal run into the box by Hoewedes.
A couple minutes later, the US threated again, until a miscommunication by Bedoya and Dempsey broke up the play.
The Germans brought the ball back down after that, and Gonzalez again broke up the play, although the offside flag went up anyway.
The US managed a final offensive push just before the end of the game, in stoppage time. The first of them was pushed outside by Neuer, where it was retrieved by the US and crossed back in before Neuer could get back into position. Dempsey was on the receiving end, but headed it over the goal from only a few feet out.
Although the score was 1-0, the US was never in danger of winning the game. And they wer definitely watching the progress in the other game. Although they were never in position to be eliminated, they were very worried when Ghana pulled even with Portugal. But Ronaldo delivered a second goal for the Portuguese to win the game, which ensured US moving on.
The US performance was very uneven, although maybe it showed some weakness at the German back end. But the US couldn't get the ball up front; I think Dempsey only had two or three touches (one of which came via him coming back well into the midfield).
Really, the only two Americans who consistently looked good were Jones, who made some great runs upfield, and Gonzalez, who was the rock in the defense. Let's hope they can improve.
Then it appeared likely that the game would be cancelled, as Recife was experiencing severe flooding, and it was very difficult to drive the hour out of town to get to the stadium. But everyone made it, eventually, and the game went on as scheduled.
Well, it quickly became apparent that there was no agreement, as the Germans came out firing, getting several chances in the opening minutes.
A pass across the box to Mueller in the eighth minute was one of those chances, where Mueller jumped at the ball, leg outstretched, but it was a foot or so off. A minute later, the Germans had a corner that was immediately played out, leading to another corner. That one ended up with two Germans interfering with each other, to keep either from having a very good chance.
The US played up, and there was a foul on the play. Odd that the ref stopped play immediately, instead of allowing US to continue play upfield. Regardless, the possession lasted well over a minute and was the longest that the US managed in the entire game. And they never even threatened to score.
The Germans came back fairly quickly, and in next several minutes forced Gonzalez to break up a couple plays across to Mueller.
Things went back and forth a bit less eventfully for a while after that, but the Germans did force a really good save out of Howard in the thirty-fourth.
A few minutes later, a nice through pass was put to Podolsky, but his pass across the box went to Howard.
A minute later, the US managed to get a corner, but the cross flew over everyone.
That was it for chances in the first half, but it was certainly clear that the battle lines were drawn.
In the second half, Germany was even more aggressive in going for the net. Klose, who had just come in, had a great chance in the air in the 50th, but the serve across was off by an inch or two and he was unable to put it on net.
A few minutes later, Howard made a fantastic save off a shot in close, but the rebound bounced all the way out to the edge of the box, to the right of Howard, where Mueller was waiting to pound it into the far corner of the net.
Almost ten minutes later, the US managed a bit of a threat with a long pass from Bradley to Jones, which forced Neuer to come thirty-five yards out of his net to break up the play (see foreshadowing here to the Germany game against Algeria).
The US might have had another threat on the counterattack a couple minutes later, but there was a breakdown in communication that kept the ball from moving upfield quickly enough.
In the 69th, the US got a pair of corner kicks, and were threatening on the second one until Jones and Bedoya ran into each other at speed, breaking Jones' nose and knocking Bedoya down. Both ended up continuing, but it didn't look good.
While they were being looked at, Schweinsteiger went out for Goetze. Seems like an odd substitution; wonder what the reasoning was.
In any event, the Germans continued attacking, and Gonzalez was called upon again in the 82nd, to break up a diagonal run into the box by Hoewedes.
A couple minutes later, the US threated again, until a miscommunication by Bedoya and Dempsey broke up the play.
The Germans brought the ball back down after that, and Gonzalez again broke up the play, although the offside flag went up anyway.
The US managed a final offensive push just before the end of the game, in stoppage time. The first of them was pushed outside by Neuer, where it was retrieved by the US and crossed back in before Neuer could get back into position. Dempsey was on the receiving end, but headed it over the goal from only a few feet out.
Although the score was 1-0, the US was never in danger of winning the game. And they wer definitely watching the progress in the other game. Although they were never in position to be eliminated, they were very worried when Ghana pulled even with Portugal. But Ronaldo delivered a second goal for the Portuguese to win the game, which ensured US moving on.
The US performance was very uneven, although maybe it showed some weakness at the German back end. But the US couldn't get the ball up front; I think Dempsey only had two or three touches (one of which came via him coming back well into the midfield).
Really, the only two Americans who consistently looked good were Jones, who made some great runs upfield, and Gonzalez, who was the rock in the defense. Let's hope they can improve.
20140624
Surprise addendum
The surprise continued in the second game, as Germany faced Ghana. Ghana was in red, this time, with Germany again in white with red trim.
With Germany ranked in the top four, and Ghana down at 37th, this was not expected to be a terribly competitive game.
Germany started out very conservatively, taking the ball and feeling their way around the edges for a while. In fact, Ghana got the first real chance in the sixth minute on a counterattack. Seven minutes later, Ghana managed a bit of sustained pressure, but the goalie was able to get across to get their one really good chance.
In the 28th, Germany finally tried to go over the top, and made a good run, though the only result was a corner kick. And the goaltender caught the cross on that corner.
In the 32nd, they had another decent chance. It was a long shot, from outside the box, but it was still a tough save for the keeper. In the next few minutes, the Germans got Oezil and Goetze behind the defense, but neither one was able to get a good shot off.
At the end of the half, it looked inevitable that the Germans would score, probably in buckets, but nobody had yet managed it.
In the second half, it seemed that the Ghanaians were pressuring much deeper, perhaps to make it more difficult to get those long shots over the top.
But it didn't work all that well, as it only took six minutes for the Germans to take the lead. There was a long cross to the middle of the field, where Goetze was charging in from the left, and he headed it in calmly.
It didn't take long for the Africans to equalize, though. And they did it on a very similar cross to the German one, except that there were three targets waiting, and the third, Ayew, put it in. It was interesting, though, as all three were tightly covered; so much for the German height.
In the 62nd minute, Ghana shocked everyone by taking the lead. It was a really terrible turnover by the German defense, leading to an easy score by Gyan.
Five minutes later, the Germans showed some desperation, bringing in Schweinsteiger and Klose for more scoring punch.
And that worked almost immediately, as Klose scored off a corner kick. But not with his normal header; he was waiting at the far post as Hoewedes flicked it on to him, and Klose tapped it in for his fifteenth career World Cup goal. It was also his fourth World Cup in which he scored. Both put him among the leaders, all-time. Kudos to Miroslav, and Poland (he's an ethnic Pole, and where he was born was part of Poland, prior to WWII).
One bit of weirdness in the 76th minute; the Germans had a free kick about ten yards outside the box, and they had three people run over the ball before Schweinsteiger finally kicked it over the net.
The Germans almost scored again in the 86th, but Oezil's cross to Mueller was deflected just before getting to him.
For the last few minutes, both teams were looking very tired, and that was the end of the close chances.
Ghana put up quite a showing, and probably got rid of any chance of German complacency. It also gave the US a pretty good chance to move on, as long as they could beat Portugal. It does mean that Germany needs a result against the US to be assured of moving on (and would win the group with a draw).
With Germany ranked in the top four, and Ghana down at 37th, this was not expected to be a terribly competitive game.
Germany started out very conservatively, taking the ball and feeling their way around the edges for a while. In fact, Ghana got the first real chance in the sixth minute on a counterattack. Seven minutes later, Ghana managed a bit of sustained pressure, but the goalie was able to get across to get their one really good chance.
In the 28th, Germany finally tried to go over the top, and made a good run, though the only result was a corner kick. And the goaltender caught the cross on that corner.
In the 32nd, they had another decent chance. It was a long shot, from outside the box, but it was still a tough save for the keeper. In the next few minutes, the Germans got Oezil and Goetze behind the defense, but neither one was able to get a good shot off.
At the end of the half, it looked inevitable that the Germans would score, probably in buckets, but nobody had yet managed it.
In the second half, it seemed that the Ghanaians were pressuring much deeper, perhaps to make it more difficult to get those long shots over the top.
But it didn't work all that well, as it only took six minutes for the Germans to take the lead. There was a long cross to the middle of the field, where Goetze was charging in from the left, and he headed it in calmly.
It didn't take long for the Africans to equalize, though. And they did it on a very similar cross to the German one, except that there were three targets waiting, and the third, Ayew, put it in. It was interesting, though, as all three were tightly covered; so much for the German height.
In the 62nd minute, Ghana shocked everyone by taking the lead. It was a really terrible turnover by the German defense, leading to an easy score by Gyan.
Five minutes later, the Germans showed some desperation, bringing in Schweinsteiger and Klose for more scoring punch.
And that worked almost immediately, as Klose scored off a corner kick. But not with his normal header; he was waiting at the far post as Hoewedes flicked it on to him, and Klose tapped it in for his fifteenth career World Cup goal. It was also his fourth World Cup in which he scored. Both put him among the leaders, all-time. Kudos to Miroslav, and Poland (he's an ethnic Pole, and where he was born was part of Poland, prior to WWII).
One bit of weirdness in the 76th minute; the Germans had a free kick about ten yards outside the box, and they had three people run over the ball before Schweinsteiger finally kicked it over the net.
The Germans almost scored again in the 86th, but Oezil's cross to Mueller was deflected just before getting to him.
For the last few minutes, both teams were looking very tired, and that was the end of the close chances.
Ghana put up quite a showing, and probably got rid of any chance of German complacency. It also gave the US a pretty good chance to move on, as long as they could beat Portugal. It does mean that Germany needs a result against the US to be assured of moving on (and would win the group with a draw).
20140617
Group of death, pt 1
The Iberian Peninsula was already smarting from Spain's humiliation at the hands of the Dutch, several days ago, when Portugal played Germany yesterday in the so-called Group of Death.
As an unrelated thought, I'm not loving the German jerseys. The 1990 German World Cup jerseys are probably my favorite jerseys of all time, but I'm at best indifferent to the current ones.
Be that as it may, the game started with Germany taking the ball, and engaging in a very long feeling-out period, where they weren't finding much in the way of openings. And after a few minutes, it got more even, as Portugal got the ball and fed Ronaldo as much as they could.
He had a couple decent chances, but wasn't getting much in the way of support, while the Germans were maintaining their composure and continuing to push, offensively.
They had one pretty good chance when the Portuguese goalie came out to play the ball, and fed it right to Khedira, just outside of the box. Sami couldn't put the shot on net, though, so a great chance was wasted.
A few minutes later, Pereira was carded for a foul in the box. It seemed a pretty obvious foul to me; enough that I was surprised it was only a yellow, but the Portuguese still argued it vociferously. But it was not retracted, and Mueller got a kick from the spot. Unsurprisingly, he had no trouble converting, and the Germans started celebrating.
The Portuguese got another chance in the 25th, but Nani put it a hair over the top of the net.
Hummels extended the lead seven minutes later; the defender Alves missed a cross coming off a corner kick, and Hummels came in right behind him to head it into the net.
Five minutes after that was where the train went entirely off the rails for the Portuguese. Going for a header, Pepe struck Mueller across the mouth (probably accidentally). Mueller went down, complaining (it probably hurt, but he certainly made the most of it). The ref didn't immediately make a call at all, so I was very surprised when, a minute later, he was showing Pepe a red card.
The replay showed that Pepe saw Mueller down there holding his jaw, and walked over, put his head against Mueller's, and complained about Mueller's complaint. Very odd, and complete, loss of composure.
From that point on, the Germans basically had the run of the field. It took them another eight or nine minutes to score, but they were threatening with regularity by then. The goal came when Mueller, at the top of the box, blocked an attempted clear, and then kicked it past the surprised goaltender.
And that's pretty much how the second half played out. The Portuguese had the odd threat by Nani or Ronaldo (both played very good games, despite the rest of the team. In fact, it was the best game I'd seen by Nani in at least a year), but mostly the Germans were controlling the play and threatening at will. The only thing really odd was that Ronaldo was never subbed out to prevent injury.
It might have had something to do with Coentrao getting injured in the 65th minute; that used their third substitution. Hard to say.
In any event, Ronaldo did his best, but it wasn't nearly good enough (nor would anyone's best, I think).
The final score came in the 78th, when a cross by Schuerrle deflected off the goalie's hand, and right to Mueller's feet. Reacting with impressive speed, Mueller kicked it in without worrying that he'd fall over from the effort.
All in all, an impressive effort from the Germans, and a pretty terrible day for Portugal. As I said, Ronaldo and Nani looked very good, but the rest of the team was quite bad.
And things don't look great for the Lusitanians, going forward, as Pepe and Coentrao will be unavailable against the Americans (and Coentrao might not be for Ghana, either; I don't believe that is yet known). Portugal's chances of advancing do not look good.
Germany, on the other hand, should win the group pretty handily, barring them taking someone lightly. I'll talk about the rest of the group's chances in a bit.
As an unrelated thought, I'm not loving the German jerseys. The 1990 German World Cup jerseys are probably my favorite jerseys of all time, but I'm at best indifferent to the current ones.
Be that as it may, the game started with Germany taking the ball, and engaging in a very long feeling-out period, where they weren't finding much in the way of openings. And after a few minutes, it got more even, as Portugal got the ball and fed Ronaldo as much as they could.
He had a couple decent chances, but wasn't getting much in the way of support, while the Germans were maintaining their composure and continuing to push, offensively.
They had one pretty good chance when the Portuguese goalie came out to play the ball, and fed it right to Khedira, just outside of the box. Sami couldn't put the shot on net, though, so a great chance was wasted.
A few minutes later, Pereira was carded for a foul in the box. It seemed a pretty obvious foul to me; enough that I was surprised it was only a yellow, but the Portuguese still argued it vociferously. But it was not retracted, and Mueller got a kick from the spot. Unsurprisingly, he had no trouble converting, and the Germans started celebrating.
The Portuguese got another chance in the 25th, but Nani put it a hair over the top of the net.
Hummels extended the lead seven minutes later; the defender Alves missed a cross coming off a corner kick, and Hummels came in right behind him to head it into the net.
Five minutes after that was where the train went entirely off the rails for the Portuguese. Going for a header, Pepe struck Mueller across the mouth (probably accidentally). Mueller went down, complaining (it probably hurt, but he certainly made the most of it). The ref didn't immediately make a call at all, so I was very surprised when, a minute later, he was showing Pepe a red card.
The replay showed that Pepe saw Mueller down there holding his jaw, and walked over, put his head against Mueller's, and complained about Mueller's complaint. Very odd, and complete, loss of composure.
From that point on, the Germans basically had the run of the field. It took them another eight or nine minutes to score, but they were threatening with regularity by then. The goal came when Mueller, at the top of the box, blocked an attempted clear, and then kicked it past the surprised goaltender.
And that's pretty much how the second half played out. The Portuguese had the odd threat by Nani or Ronaldo (both played very good games, despite the rest of the team. In fact, it was the best game I'd seen by Nani in at least a year), but mostly the Germans were controlling the play and threatening at will. The only thing really odd was that Ronaldo was never subbed out to prevent injury.
It might have had something to do with Coentrao getting injured in the 65th minute; that used their third substitution. Hard to say.
In any event, Ronaldo did his best, but it wasn't nearly good enough (nor would anyone's best, I think).
The final score came in the 78th, when a cross by Schuerrle deflected off the goalie's hand, and right to Mueller's feet. Reacting with impressive speed, Mueller kicked it in without worrying that he'd fall over from the effort.
All in all, an impressive effort from the Germans, and a pretty terrible day for Portugal. As I said, Ronaldo and Nani looked very good, but the rest of the team was quite bad.
And things don't look great for the Lusitanians, going forward, as Pepe and Coentrao will be unavailable against the Americans (and Coentrao might not be for Ghana, either; I don't believe that is yet known). Portugal's chances of advancing do not look good.
Germany, on the other hand, should win the group pretty handily, barring them taking someone lightly. I'll talk about the rest of the group's chances in a bit.
20120628
European Axis, game
Just watched the Italy-Germany game on the DVR. The result was fairly disappointing, but it was quite a good game.
Germany dominated play for most of the game, but two bad defensive breakdowns on counterattacks gave Balotelli, and Italy, all the openings it needed. Last game, Balotelli got lots of chances, but couldn't convert. This time he only had a few chances, but he buried two of them.
The first involved a relatively innocuous cross that the defender, mysteriously, failed to even make a play on. That left Super Mario uncontested in the air from about six or eight yards out; he didn't hit it very hard, but the goalie still didn't have a chance.
The second was on a long through-ball where Mario got ten yards behind the defenders while the ball was in the air. They tried to catch up, but he got the shot off before they could even try to contest it, and it hit the back of the net right at the side netting (a very pretty shot). Again, no chance for the keeper.
I'd like to say that, from there, it was all Germany attacking, but that stopped being the case with ten or fifteen minutes left. At that point, the Germans were pushing forward so hard that they left huge, gaping holes in the back. It was rather surprising that it didn't end up with a much larger margin, thanks to that.
Germany did manage to get one back in stoppage time, when a hand ball in the box was called, and Oezil converted the penalty kick. But that was all they had; they really didn't get many good chances.
They just didn't show any real ability to get possession in the box against Italy. Oezil had one nice drive to the side of the net, but he couldn't get it to a teammate facing the net. Other than that, it was pretty much all long shots, with one or two closer ones that came off of deflected passes (and were not sitting at the right spot for kicking).
It was a disappointing performance for Germany. I thought they looked good in the midfield, but just couldn't penetrate at all. Oh, and their corner kicks were awful. I don't think a single one of them gave a decent scoring change. Thinking about it, they did have one nice chance on a set piece from twenty-two yards out, but Buffon made a very good save on Reus' shot.
The one good thing about the game was that it was good to see a game not end up one-nil (or won on penalty kicks after a scoreless draw). It was actually a pretty exciting game, especially the first ten or fifteen minutes of the second half when Germany was driving the play and keeping Italy back on their heels.
But it still leaves us with Spain and Italy. I'm not sure what to cheer for; maybe I'll just cheer for Balotelli and a good game. But I suspect it'll be pretty boring, with Spain passing all around Italy and the Romans mounting the odd counterattack. We'll see.
20100703
Finishing the Quarters
Another crazy day. The Germany-Argentina match, which I expected to be pretty wild, was actually quite tame. The Germans just put on a clinic, absolutely dismantling the Argentines. Klose got two goals, though he was far from being the most important player. Mueller and Oezil were again beasts. And Schweinsteiger, who I've been generally unimpressed with, even had a beautiful play to set up Friedrich for the third goal (he also assisted on Mueller's goal, though I can't say as he did anything special for that one).
Give credit to the Germans for playing fabulous defense, but Argentina just did not look like the same team that was romping through the tournament up to this point. They didn't appear to be enjoying playing (of course, giving up a goal three minutes in wouldn't help that), and had very few good passing sequences. Messi was his usual brilliant self, except that he didn't have his shot today (kind of like Podolsky in the Serbia game); I don't think he managed a shot on goal among the many he tried. He also didn't really have any help; nobody else had even a decent game for the Albiceleste.
Paraguay and Spain, on the other hand, was of a piece with yesterday's games. Two penalty kicks (one for each side) within a couple of minutes of each other. After one got called back for offsides, both were saved.
And Spain finally scored in the 80th or so minute when Paraguay was just too tired to maintain the pressure they'd applied up to that point. And even then it took a ball caroming off a post right to David Villa and him just barely putting it in (hitting one post and bouncing off to hit the inside of the other post.
While I expected Spain to win, I was still quite disappointed. Paraguay gave it their all, and really took Spain off its stride. They almost managed the upset, not being helped by a goal being disallowed on a very questionable offsides call.
Spain only got into their game after the goal was finally scored. They couldn't manage another goal, but their passes started connecting consistently. At that point, they looked very, very good. Their game against Germany will be very interesting, and Germany will definitely miss Mueller.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that the Dutch are really screwed going forward. Right now, they're going to be missing two starters against Uruguay, and have eight players carrying yellow cards forward. Especially given how physical a team they are, if they do get by Uruguay (and I think they will, especially with Uruguay missing Suarez and Fucile), they're likely to be missing multiple players in the final.
Germany will also need to be careful, they're carrying six now. Uruguay and Spain, on the other hand, are generally ok, carrying only seven between the two.
It used to be (and I'm not sure when it changed) that yellow cards reset after the group stage. I wish they'd go back to that; the carryover makes it really hard to maintain tough defense over so many games.
Anyway, I had Netherlands and Argentina winning the next round, originally. Argentina being out, I'm going to go with Germany winning their game. Spain's definitely got the talent (heck, they've got the talent to win by a bunch), but they haven't been playing up to their talent so far. I imagine that Germany will look at the pressure that Paraguay applied, and see how well it worked, and try to do the same.
Give credit to the Germans for playing fabulous defense, but Argentina just did not look like the same team that was romping through the tournament up to this point. They didn't appear to be enjoying playing (of course, giving up a goal three minutes in wouldn't help that), and had very few good passing sequences. Messi was his usual brilliant self, except that he didn't have his shot today (kind of like Podolsky in the Serbia game); I don't think he managed a shot on goal among the many he tried. He also didn't really have any help; nobody else had even a decent game for the Albiceleste.
Paraguay and Spain, on the other hand, was of a piece with yesterday's games. Two penalty kicks (one for each side) within a couple of minutes of each other. After one got called back for offsides, both were saved.
And Spain finally scored in the 80th or so minute when Paraguay was just too tired to maintain the pressure they'd applied up to that point. And even then it took a ball caroming off a post right to David Villa and him just barely putting it in (hitting one post and bouncing off to hit the inside of the other post.
While I expected Spain to win, I was still quite disappointed. Paraguay gave it their all, and really took Spain off its stride. They almost managed the upset, not being helped by a goal being disallowed on a very questionable offsides call.
Spain only got into their game after the goal was finally scored. They couldn't manage another goal, but their passes started connecting consistently. At that point, they looked very, very good. Their game against Germany will be very interesting, and Germany will definitely miss Mueller.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that the Dutch are really screwed going forward. Right now, they're going to be missing two starters against Uruguay, and have eight players carrying yellow cards forward. Especially given how physical a team they are, if they do get by Uruguay (and I think they will, especially with Uruguay missing Suarez and Fucile), they're likely to be missing multiple players in the final.
Germany will also need to be careful, they're carrying six now. Uruguay and Spain, on the other hand, are generally ok, carrying only seven between the two.
It used to be (and I'm not sure when it changed) that yellow cards reset after the group stage. I wish they'd go back to that; the carryover makes it really hard to maintain tough defense over so many games.
Anyway, I had Netherlands and Argentina winning the next round, originally. Argentina being out, I'm going to go with Germany winning their game. Spain's definitely got the talent (heck, they've got the talent to win by a bunch), but they haven't been playing up to their talent so far. I imagine that Germany will look at the pressure that Paraguay applied, and see how well it worked, and try to do the same.
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