World Cup Semi-Final: Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, 6/7/10

Despite the scoreline this wasn’t a classic. Semi-finals rarely are.

I thought Uruguay were shading it till van Bronckhorst hit his wonder strike. Holland took control for a while but the kerfuffle before the double booking seemed to benefit Uruguay who had much the better of the remainder of the half. Forlan’s goal was also well hit but yet another of this tournament’s goalkeeping misjudgements.

Uruguay were looking more menacing in the second half too; until the Dutch goal – at which van Persie was quite definitely offside. However I suspect that after Suarez’s handball in the last game Uruguay were never going to get the benefit of any close decisions in this one. They were then hit with a sucker punch via Robben’s head and suddenly Holland began to look a team. The game was effectively over.

The well worked free kick for Uruguay’s second came too late but showed Holland can be panicked at the back. A few minutes earlier and who knows…?

Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, 3/7/10.

World Cup history was going to be made whoever won this match. In the end it was Spain who got to their first ever semi-final.

For all they played quite well tonight (and might have won but for the penalty save) I couldn’t keep from reminding myself that Paraguay had got this far by virtue of only one victory in the whole tournament – against Slovakia. Spain now have four; but have looked far from convincing. Once again, and like Argentina earlier in the day, their players continually took wrong options, held on to the ball when they should have passed and generally kept running into defensive walls.

The first half was dire, the second (pac̩ the assertions of Hansen and Dixon) not much better Рthough we had the mad three minutes with three penalty attempts and a third award denied.

Four South American sides in the quarters but only one survives to the semis; and that the team that came fifth in the Conmebol qualifiers, and had to beat Costa Rica in a play off, to wit Uruguay.

Puyol again looked vulnerable, as did Piqué. Germany could mince them.

Greeen Point Stadium, Cape Town, 3/7/10.

A triumph for teamwork over individualism. The Argentines believed in their own abilities too much, kept the ball when a pass was on instead and ended up smothered by a German blanket. (Spain might be able to pass their way through this sort of defence; but I have my doubts. They don’t have enough width – as neither did Argentina.) The Germans knew exactly what to do when they had the ball, passed into the correct space and had scalpel-like precision when it mattered.

The turning point was really the first goal, a bad one for Argentina to lose as it gave the Germans extra belief – and something to hold on to. Without it, the first goal in the second half wouldn’t have been such a blow to Argentina. 1-0 down was perhaps doable, but not 2-0.

There are only two former winners left in it now. What odds would you have got on one of them being Uruguay? And neither being Brazil nor Argentina?

Soccer City, Johannesburg, 2/7/10. aet 1-1: pens 4-2

This game had everything.

Both teams going for it, momentum see-sawing, chances at both ends, crunching tackles, neat passing, a surprising long range goal, a superbly struck free kick, a sending-off, a last minute (of extra time) penalty – missed. A game like this is why football can be so enthralling.

Sadly the culmination was a penalty shoot-out; never a satisfactory way for a team to lose.

The first half was one of two quarters. It looked bad for Ghana – not at the races early on. After about twenty minutes there was a stat that said: Corners; Uruguay 4-0 Ghana.

Then Ghana got their first and suddenly it was all them and Uruguay “fell oot it.*”

Ghana deserved their lead at the break. The second half was more even. Ghana were shading it in extra time but Uruguay were never unthreatening.

Btw it took till extra time before the commentators noticed Ghana were stationing two men on the goal line at their attacking corners – something I clocked very early.

I also thought that, since the keeper had come out, Stephen Appiah might have been offside before he hooked the ball towards goal immediately before the handball on the line and that therefore it shouldn’t have been a penalty – but that would have deprived us of the compelling finale.

* (phrase © a schoolmate of mine.)

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth, 2/7/10.

This match had drama but it wasn’t a classic. It was too stop-start, there were too many fouls. And any game where someone is sent off ends up unbalanced – and unsatisfying. But, as I recall, the Holland-Brazil game in 1974 was a bad-tempered, niggly affair too.

You couldn’t see the result coming at half time. Holland had created nothing, Arjen Robben kept running into blind alleys, Brazil had scored through a very direct route indeed.

In the end Brazil pushed the “destroy self” button, or the Dutch pushed it for them.

The irony is that a team built (against the national stereotype) on being solid at the back was undone by defensive mistakes.

The winning side wasn’t the Holland of Cruyff and Neeskens – nor even Gullit and Rijkaard – but something rather more pedestrian and workmanlike. They’ll probably reach the final now, though.

And maybe go one better than either of those more flamboyant teams did.

Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, 29/6/10.

This could have been a good game but Portugal were content to let Spain keep the ball and pass it in front of them, restricting the Spanish to long range shots for the most part and as a consequence it failed to be a spectacle.

For all their vaunted passing (up blind alleys most of the time it has to be said) it was funny how Spain only began really to get at Portugal after they replaced Torres with Llorente and started humping it up to the big man.

The commentator (Guy Mowbray?) opined that Piqué was maybe a weak link for Spain. Personally I think given what I saw of his performance in the Switzerland game (and all of the Honduras one) Carles Puyol may have passed his peak.

Like most goalkeepers at this World Cup, apart from Julio Cesar, and Eduardo in this one, Casillas looked iffy too.

Two day break, now. I’ll be getting withdrawal symptoms.

Edited to add: even in real time I thought David Villa was offside at the back heel to him before the goal. We didn’t get the relevant stop-motion replay till after the game, though. Funny that, isn’t it?

Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, 28/6/10

This was a bit like last night’s game. One side bright and passing neatly, the other breaking quickly. Brazil are much more solid at the back than Argentina, though.

Chile flattered to deceive. In the end their passing went on too long and they were often crowded out. They had a marked reluctance to shoot, trying to carve out the perfect scoring opportunity or essaying an overambitious pass. They went down the middle too often and didn’t use width enough.

Brazil are getting more and more impressive.

Soccer City, Johannesburg, 27/6/10

This game drew a red line through the assertion that Argentina are a one man team. Apart from an effort in time added on, Lionel Messi was barely in evidence. The Argentines have plenty enough fire power without him.

The result was tough on Mexico who played very bright and attractive stuff.

Yes, Tevez was in an offside position for the first goal but the flag did not go up and so he wasn’t offside. The second was a poor piece of defensive play but the third was a belter.

The best goal though, possibly one of the best of the tournament, was Javier Hernandez’s consolation for Mexico. He looks a talented player.

Quite why the “offside” goal was played on the giant screen at the ground I’ve no idea. Controversial decisions or inflammatory incidents aren’t supposed to be. (Zidane’s head butt in the final four years ago wasn’t.)

In any case, had this been a Scottish Second Division game no one would have been any the wiser. There, the players just have to get on with it with no confirmed sense of grievance.

Replays in order to “improve” decisions are impractical. Who’s going to put up a big screen at Links Park?

An incident in the football last night reminded me of the poster advert which WKD vodka is running to coincide with the World Cup.

It’s headed, “The offside rule for girls.”

Below is the punchline.

“If the flag’s up, it’s offside.”

Em.

Sorry WKD. Isn’t that the offside rule for boys as well?

Free State Stadium, Maungang/Bloemfontein, 27/6/10

Well, this humiliation was coming.

Here, after dismal performances against the USA, Algeria and (despite some whistling in the dark) Slovenia, a bunch of over-blown, over-paid, cosseted individuals who perhaps believe their own hype too much but played as if they’d never seen each other before were roundly horsed by an opposition who worked together as a team and actually looked as if they knew what they were doing.

Yes, the ball was over the line from Frank Lampard’s shot but it wasn’t a goal. It wasn’t a goal because the ref didn’t give it. End of debate.

And forget about goal line technology. It’s not needed. For big games like this the fifth ref – as introduced in the Europa League this season – would surely have spotted this one.

Back to the game.

There was a telling stat which unrolled a few minutes before Germany scored.

Shots: Germany 4 England 0.

Yet England had had the greater share of possession. They simply couldn’t do anything with it.

At half time I was thinking that Argentina would probably take both of them. Germany’s confidence will have an almighty boost now, though. A 4-1 win does that to you. And we’ll see how Argentina fare against Mexico tonight.

As far as England is concerned, was it a case of good players not living up to their potential?

Maybe it’s really that they’re not actually very good, that in their club sides they are surrounded by people of other nationalities who make them look better than they are.

Anyway, I can relax and enjoy the competition now. No more references to 1966 to spoil it.