Day 6 thoughts
Group G preview
Group H preview
Togo-Switzerland.
This looks like Christmas with all of the red and green.
Togo's coach looks a lot like Dick Cheney, except that his shirt is disco-tastic: solid pink, top 4 buttons undone, exposing his chest, and rocking a gold chain.
Frustrated that Togo didn't score
first on a pre-emptive strike.
Also, apparently all of this fuss over not being paid bonuses and threatening not to play with Togo comes down to this: the dollar amount is apparently $2,500. Amazing that such a brouhaha could be made over such a small amount of cash. But considering that this article suggests that Togo is a nation without TELEVISION, perhaps $2,500 per player is like $500,000 to you and me.
HT. Togo 0-1 Switzerland. Good first half, both teams creating several chances. Togo have looked dangerous, and may even have more shots, but the Swiss goal was a thing of beauty and well deserved. Towards the end of the half Adebayor was tripped in the box but the obvious penalty was not given. He made a bit of a meal of it (that's Britspeak for exaggerating the effect of the foul), and I think the ref didn't give it because he thought Adebayor was diving. If he hadn't exaggerated then the ref may very well have given the penalty, and upon looking at the replays, it was a clear penalty despite Adebayor's cherry on top.
Swiss Miss (without the petite marshmallows)
BTW - I thought a big point of emphasis for FIFA this time around was cracking down on simulation and diving. Thankfully there hasn't been much, but I cannot remember seeing a single player booked for diving or simulation. What happened to their point of emphasis? Instead they seem to be handing out cards left and right, and I don't ever remember seeing so much red mist in one tournament. It's like they changed their focus at the last second. Interesting...
Togo 0-2 Switzerland.
Switzerland got a 2nd goal right at the death (another beauty), but overall the scoreline did not indicate how close the match was. Togo created lots of chances and have showed that they can hang with the big boys on the world stage.
The result of this match is that France are now officially up against it. They have to beat Togo
Saudi Arabia-Ukraine.
HT. Saudi Arabia 0-2 Ukraine. The first goal was a classic hockey 5-hole (that's hockey parlance for a shot that goes between the goalie's legs). The 2nd by Rebrov was a sweet curler from 35 yards: Que Golaso! I have been watching in bits and pieces (stupid work), but from what I have seen this is a match that is very much as expected: an easy win for Ukraine against perhaps the worst team in the competition. Expect more of the same in the 2nd half.
0-3, and Sheva is on the board. Clinical header finish from a long cross from way out wide. Just what you would expect from one of the 3 best strikers on the planet (Henry, Eto'o). This is like a 1 seed vs a 16 seed match.
Sheva holds up his jersey and kisses the crest, a common soccer celebration used to show the fans how much you love your country or club team. It is cool, but at the same time it is a little played out, especially on a national team. While I can understand a Dutch player kissing the crest of an English club to show the fans that he really loves the club and not just the paychecks, on the national level it almost seems a little silly: of course you love Ukraine - you're Ukranian. Anyhow, it is cool but at the same time kind of reminds me of a rock band blatantly pandering to the crowd with their "We love you {name of city hosting tonight's gig}!". And I'm not picking on Sheva, because tons of guys do it for club and country. Just a thought I had seeing him do it today.
I love you Kiev! Ths town really rocks!
SA guy booked for diving - first time I have seen this in the competition, which is interesting considering that diving/simulation were a point of emphasis for FIFA going into the tourney (in defense of this there hasn't been too much diving and simulation).
0-4. 83rd minute. This is "training ground stuff" as the Brits say.
#4 and #15 for Ukraine need to quit soccer and form an 80s long hair glam metal band. If This Is Spinal Tap were set in the mid 80s instead of the late 70s, their hair would definitely go to 11.
Saudi Arabia 0-4 Ukraine.
Mercy comes in the form of the final whistle for Saudi Arabia. Excellent recovery performance from Ukraine after being thrashed by Spain in their first match.
Spain-Tunisia.
Spain have already done their heavy lifting, thrashing the 2nd best team in the group. Today they play the 3rd best team in the group. Tunisia are pretty good, but if Spain play to their potential then they will win. It's that simple. For Tunisia to get a result they will need to play to the best of their ability and hope that Spain puts it on cruise control and expect that all they have to do to win is show up.
7th min: 1-0 Tunisia. Game On! After a few good chances by Spain, Tunisia shock the Spainiards, the stadium, and the world with a well taken and well deserved goal.
13th min: Clear and blatant hand ball by Tunisian defender right on the edge of the box, not called.
44th min: Spain just keep going forward over and over. Just before the half A Spanish header beats the Tunisian keeper but it headed off the line by a Tunisian defender. High drama.
HT. Spain 0-1 Tunisia. Spain have created about 20 chances to Tunisia's 3 or 4, but Tunisia converted one while Spain have not (obviously). I'm off to the pub scross the street to watch the 2nd half on a proper television.
Spain 3-1 Tunisia.
Down 0-1 after 60 minutes, and it looked like it just might not be Spain's day. At that point the 2nd half shots were: Spain 10, Tunisia 0. Finally they got an equalizer, and 10 minutes later they went ahead 2-1. In the last 2 minutes they were awarded a pentalty that might have been a little soft, but the fact that the Tunisia hand ball in the first half was not called makes this one less soft. Spain advance through to the knockout stage, and look very likely to top the group, with a +6 goal differential and only a match against the Saudis remaining. To indicate the level of one-way traffic in this match, I give you the official shots stat: Spain 24, Tunisia 4. (Tunisia played the first negative/defensive/10 men behind the ball soccer by an African team in this Cup).
Cesc came on and played well - his pass to set up Torres' goal was beautiful. There is just something awesome about watching an 18 year old play so well on the world stage (same thing with Messi). You can tell with both that their key performances in their respective teams' runs to the Champions League final this year has served them well and made them not at all in awe of playing on this stage.
Cesc Appeal.
Reyes did not see the field today, which was a little suprising. At 0-1 and even 1-1, I was thinking he would be a great winger to bring on just because he runs his socks off and his pace can cause all kinds of problems even if he isn't the best finisher you will ever see.
Oh, and I'll re-iterate my comment in my pre-WC preview of Spain. Raul, washed up and past it at age 28? No, Senor! To reiterate - Raul has been disappoinitng the last 2 years at Madrid because of the complete failure of the Galatico experiment and the fact that the team has been in total disarray over the past two years, in the boardroom, in the locker room, and on the field. Don't sleep on Raul - he is Spain's all-time goal scorer at age 28, and they don't call him "The King Of Spain" for nothing. Sleep on him at your own peril.
Over the hill at 28? No freaking way.
So 1-nil down, 3-1 up for Espana. Spain become only the 3rd team in this World Cup to win a match after conceding the first goal. The team that scores first is now 29-3-2, which is just flat-out amazing.
To draw a comparison to the NCAA basketball tournament, this is like a 1 or 2 seed who takes a big punch from a cinderella, is tested, and replies in the end to move on. If you are a fan of Spain you would say that being tested is good for this team, better than a 1 or 2 seed that just rolls through every early match. If you are a Spain-hater, then your refutation of this argument is that they never should have gotten themselves into that position in the first place. As someone who predicted Spain to win the World Cup before it started, I'm going with the former.
9 comments:
Well, you could make the argument that there has been more cards this year simply because the refs have been overly lenient in the years before. I mean, everything is relative right? Now if they only do a number on the dives and we'll in really good shape.
One thing about diving is how different it could be for different people/nations. Italians and Argentines (and to some extent, the Portugese) make a meal of it, screaming and flopping to the ground, clutching their legs. The English, French, and Brazilians do it more subtlely, by getting knocked down a little too easily at times. It's not the "oh my god they shot me" reaction, but I think it's more effective, and stirs up less animosity as well.
Long shot here, but do any readers know of any good soccer-watching bars in Cleveland or Kent/Cuyahoga Falls?
PJH-
www.soccerbars.com, click on Ohio, and go from there. Good luck.
Ah... Rebrov. Now is a good time to bring up how Tottenham spent over 11 million pounds on him and got nothing in return. Always required.
My greatest hope for the Spain vs. Tunisia match are more pictures of that smoking hot Tunisian girl that was "discovered" during the Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia game.
re: cards:
Didn't they say only 80-85 cards total were given out in Spain '82? They probably hit that total in the first 16 games this time around. I believe some things should be punished severely for a while to get people to lay off on them, but the application has been random to the point of infuriation. I've seen tackles post Italy v. USA that would've put anything in that game (barring the elbow to McBride's face) to shame go uncarded. A whistle took care of the problem. I'd rather see more cards for preventing quick restarts than for hard play.
The oddest thing about this WC? Goals are being scored at a rate of somewhere around 2.2/match, yet no one is talking about it.
If I'm not mistaken, the 1990 WC--which resulted in a multitude of changes to increase scoring (getting rid handling the backpass, for example)--had goals scored at a rate of 2.1/match.
I think you are a little too pessimistic on what France has to do, Kanu.
If Switzerland/South Korea has a winner, France are through (albeit in 2nd place, and a likely date with Spain in the round of 16) with a win.
If Switzerland and South Korea draw, France will need to better each other team's result against Togo--that means that it's possible that a one-goal win would do it (provided it's high-scoring enough), but a two-goal win would guarantee it. And, in this case, a 3-goal win would see them win the group, no matter what.
There has been a lot of scoring, true, but a fair fraction of the goals have come in executions - which aren't particularly exciting except for the fans of the winning team. Conversely, there haven't been many shootouts (in the American sense of the word) - I count only two games so far in which each team scored at least twice.
Another way to look at it, Solon, is to say that there aren't really any more bad teams in the WC. Other than the odd occurence (4-0, 6-0 against 10 men squads), even the weakest teams have been able to hold their more illustrious counter parts to 1 goal or less. Maybe it doesn't make for more scoring, but it's exciting in a different way. (1-1 like France-SK was a helluva lot more exciting than 4-0 Spain-Ukraine, if you ask me.)
I agree with your interpretation. This is the typical match that Spain would ALWAYS lose (or tie when a tie is a loss) before: Paraguay in 98, Norway in 2000, Greece in 2004, etc. When those inconsistent performanes didn't kill their advancements, it doomed them to face France in 2000.
But this year, Spain fought through the rough patch like they couldn't before. Something those Spanish squad did not seem capable of.
Incidentally, Catalunya just passed a referendum to approve a Statue of Autonomy that's very violently opposed elsewhere in Spain (save the Basque countries), it goes as far as defining Catalunya as a nation. That should have made some bit of a difference in the performance of the Spanish squad today (Puyol, Xavi, Cesc).
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