June 15, 2010
Another day of great soccer has gone by. No major surprises in the score-line, except for North Korea giving Brazil a hard time, despite all the odds. However, with Portugal and Ivory Coast tie, it means that this group of death is far from over.
June 17, 2010
Oh La La! Les Bleus and Al Matadors were brutally defeated at the hands of inferior opponents, individual silly mistake cost Nigeria the tournament, and the vuvuzela could not save the Bufana Bufana from Forlan and company!
More drama is on the way in the World Cup as USA will face Slovenia in a must win match up, and England will try to save face against Algeria tomorrow. Yet, be ready to treat your eyes watching Germany taking on Serbia.
June 22, 2010
With a broken heart, and teary eyes, I relay to you the sad news that France has surrendered and left the world cup. Yet, France did not fail to amaze and amuse the world not on, but off the pitch, with the players-against-coach saga that started with Anelka (France supposedly top scorer) using 'langue sauvage' with his coach, Anelka's sent home to Paris, and the players walking away from training session. As France qualified to the world cup with controversy (Henry's infamous hand ball goal against Ireland), it leaves with another controversy. Thank you France for the wonderful, entertaining drama, and bon chance a la prochaine fois!
Brazil and Argentina continue their football domination, and plaguing their opponents with attacks and goals. This is expected from the masters. On the other hands, stakes are high now for Spain and Germany as they must win their next games to stay on in the tournament. England continues to prove my point that they are nothing but an overrated, overpaid, and mediocre team. Rooney - so called top scorer - did nothing but whining and complaining. Italy met the expectation of producing nothing but dramatic defensive football.
June 23, 2010
With an out of this world goal by the LA Galaxy top scorer, Donovan, USA made a dramatic come back and qualified to the round of 16, rendering Bill Clinton's trip all the way to South Africa worthwhile. Now USA, sitting at the top of group C, will be anxiously watching the afternoon games of the undecided group D to know if USA will be facing the Germans, Serbians, or the Ghanians in the round of 16.
Donovan's goal has proven to be earth shattering with an impact felt across the globe, hitting Toronto with a 5.5. earthquake! Now USA will be facing Ghana in the second round, while England - yes they did manage to score a goal - will be playing its arch enemy, Germany. While the Socceroos managed to hop over Serbia with a 2-1 win, their humiliating loss to Germany 0-4 in the first game haunted their chances to join the ranks of top 16 on goal differential that favored Ghana.
June 24, 2010
With a couple of Made in Japan, laser sharp precision set pieces, the Asian nation mastered two goals in the Danish net, and has assertively joined its neighbor, South Korea, in checking in the order of 16. In the process, the Danes were sent off on their Viking ships to their home shores, unable to provide an answer to the Samurai attack.
In this world cup, the Asian nations, Japan and Korea, have proven that Asian football has come along way, and now they are to be taken seriously as major contenders.
The Dutch team has managed to quietly win all of their 3 games to perch comfortably on top its group.
As this world cup continues to amuse us with unscripted drama that puts Reality TV to shame, the Azures were having an appointment with destiny this morning. The ruling champions of 2006 world cup were wrapped in disgrace when they were dethroned of their title by the least of their opponents, the humble soccer nation of Slovakia. The Slovaks mortified the Italians three times this morning with three killer goals to guarantee that the unimaginative and uncreative Italian team was send packing their Armani suits, and joining their runner-up playmates, the French, in changing their travel booking in to an earlier trip home.
June 25, 2010
The Almatadors hunted down their spot in the second round, along with Chile, eliminating the Swiss who melted down like their chocolate in front of the Honduran squad. In the other group, Portugal tied the country they discovered in an uneventful match, saving their prospects of reaching the second round to meet their arch neighbor's, Spain, in one of the most promising Second round games!
America will be playing Ghana in the second round on Saturday in a very winnable match.
Dave Cameron may try to avoid meeting with Merkel in Toronto over the weekend, but his boys will surely be meeting hers on the pitch in South Africa on Sunday.
June 28, 2010
As the world cup has entered the knock-out stages, the thrill has just begun. Tie is no longer an option, and players must put it all on the pitch, seeking honor to their homeland, and personal glory. Sadly, USA team has run out of steam, and lost to Ghana in the extra time.
Sunday was the day of exposing FIFA's shameful refereeing standards, and its stubbornness in refusing to allow technology to play a role in sorting out tough, significant calls, which was exemplified by disallowing a perfectly, legitimate goal by Lampard, and calling a clear off-side goal for Argentina. Yet, it seemed that the English players were grateful for disallowing the goal, so that they would have an excuse for their loss to Germany, which showed no mercy to its opponent, crushing them with 4 goals. Argentina's tango thrived in South Africa after receiving two gifted goals, one by the referee, and the other by the Mexican defender.
Today, the Netherlands are heading to Port Elizabeth to meet up with the formidable Brazil in the quarter finals, after an easy win against Slovakia. Brazil did the inevitable, and eliminated its South American neighbor, Chile, with three entertaining goals.
June 29, 2010
Paraguay shattered the Japanese dream of reaching the quarter finals for the first time, and hustled their way to a spot in the top 8 by winning in the penalty shots in a game many saw as to determine who was going to lose to Spain. In the more anticipated game, the countries sharing the Iberian peninsula shared the pitch this afternoon for what many perceived as clash of titans. David Villa, who will be joining Barcelona in the next season for 50 million sterling pound, showed his worth when he compromised the resolute Portuguese defenses, and scored the decisive goal in the match, sending the ineffective Christiano Ronaldo packing.
July 5, 2010
Brazil's loss to the Netherlands was unpredictable, easily avoidable, and unnecessary. While Argentina's loss to Germany was not beyond the realm of imagination, the margin - 4/0 - was certainly worth a pause. The South American traditional supremacy in Football space came under fire over the past couple of games, with the two titans, Brazil and Argentina, being sacrificed over the alter of soccer in two battles between style and tactic, passion and strategy.
Brazil against Netherlands, and Argentina against Germany's games were text book examples of how football is greatly a strategy game. Brazil dominated the first half of the game, scored the go ahead goal, and were frustrating the Dutch. However, their coach, Dunga made a fatal error in the second half; he asked his team to play deep defense and rely on counter attacks. Since defense was not Brazil forte, playing deep in their third had forced them to make errors that resulted in 2 silly goals for the Netherlands. Even though Brazil had 25 minutes to recover, which was plenty of time, Dunga, made another mistake of losing his cool and jumping up and down on the bench, transferring his anxiety to his players. The result was devastating. The players lost their composure, with a Brazilian player committing a red card worthy foul, which was purely emotional, angry Brazil had to play the rest of the game with 10 men only in front of cool Netherlands, as cool as the other side of the pillow!
Argentina lost the game before it even began, thanks to Maradona's faulty formation. He played 4-2-1-3 (2 wingers and one midfielder in the middle) against the formidable German 4-4-2 formation (with 4 midfielders). It was clear from the first few moments that the 4 German midfielders were dominating the midfield, neutralizing Messi (Argentina's only midfielder), and isolating Argentine's 3 strikers, who stayed in front watching most of the game unfold as spectators. German tactic was far more superior and dominating, even though they were playing with largely a young team. Joachim, the German coach, had masterfully dictated the terms of the game and scored the first goal in 6 minutes, and dominated since then. The sad part was that Maradona had no answer. he had no plan B after the whole world realized that plan A was not working. No one could play Germany with such thin formation. Yet, Argentina continued the formation in the second half, just to be brutally slaughtered by the German who showed them no mercy and 4 clean goals, while Joachim was laughing secretly at Maradonna's superstars.
July 8, 2010
Paul the Octopus was right again! Spain wins!
The great moment came, so did Spain. The Almatadors showed us how to tame the German machine, and how when you hit a brick wall, you break through. Whereas, Germany had finally swallowed from the venom it had administered to its former opponents, defeat.
Spain was by far the better team in both skill and tactic. They controlled the ball and contained the Germans, who were mere shadows of the German team that crushed Argentina, England, and Australia. This is how it is done - winning Germany; by controlling the med-field and pushing the German defenses deep into their zone. the German 4-4-2 formation did little to counter the Spanish innovative 4-2-3-1 formation that controlled the midfield by having two rows of 5 players in the center 2/3. Spain utilized what they were famous for, the killer passing, which was passing the ball smartly and succinctly amongst themselves, frustrating their opponents. Germans were totally outplayed, outmaneuvered, and succumbed to Spain by one goal to nil. Even though, Spain's Pedro missed a glorious opportunity by the end of the game to make it 2-0, as a result of a selfish act of keeping the ball and not passing it to Torres, who was basking in freedom by the open German goal!
Now it is up to Netherlands to do what it does best; that is losing the final!
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