The pre-quarters turned out to be brutally bittersweet... on the very first day, USA let go of its best chance to reach the semis since 1930 by losing to Ghana in extra time and the very next day, Argentina turned in another good performance to progress through to the quarterfinals. The American defeat was a very saddening affair and I was very gutted when Gyan scored the winner, but the tournament went on, and the following day, Carlos Tevez played the game of his life to knockout the Mexicans. There were glaring problems with both teams which I'm going to give my humble opinions about in a later post, but for the most part, the expected teams went through and there were no major upsets. USA-Ghana was always 50-50 and the only other 50-50 match (PAR-JPN) did go to penalties.
URU 2-1 KOR
This was a decent game to start off the round of 16. Luis Suarez scored both of Uruguay's goal (the second one being a sublime effort from the edge of the penalty area) to ensure that the better team did go through. Korea scored only when Uruguay decided to defend their 1-0 lead instead of attacking. Shows that South American teams just shouldn't play like Italy...
GHA 2-1 USA (a.e.t.) :( :(
USA were always on the backfoot in this match. Boateng (don't know why, but I hate the douchebag) scored as early as the 5th minute and it took a Donovan penalty for USA to equalize but then Gyan scored a decent goal in the 93rd minute which was enough. This was a tight affair and I suppose a win in extra-time is somewhat fair but USA had some glorious opportunities which they wasted with shameless abandon.
GER 4-1 ENG
Probably the game of the round. Germany started explosively, like in their game against Australia, and got 2 early goals courtesy strikers extraordinaire, Klose and Podolski. But England for once, responded positively, and Upson scored in the 32nd minute. And then Lampard scored again in the 37th... wait, no he didn't, because the douche of a linesman failed to notice that the ball had indeed bounced way over the line and he and the douche of a ref disallowed the goal. Which sucked bad, because that would have made it 2-2 and would have completely changed the game, and would have probably provided a much better 2nd half, instead of a one-sided German domination a la Thomas Mueller.
Ok, rant time. Now, I'm no English fan (not in the slightest, I like it whenever they lose) but what happened in this match is just disgraceful. English fans and players will always rue what might have been and the neutrals will always regret what a great match this might have been. Some Germans have gone on to say that this is the comeuppance that England deserved for the Geoff Hurst goal from 1966, but that's kinda bullshit. Firstly, that call was much closer than this one, and it's not that obvious a goal as Lampard's was. Secondly, that was 19-fucking-66! This is 2010! There was no other way to decide whether Hurst's goal was legit or not apart from an on-the-spot decision. Since then, man has landed on the moon, the cellphone has been invented, and a third-grader in Thailand can view satellite images of fucking Staples Center sitting at home, and FIFA won't pause a match for 5 minutes to take a look at a video to determine whether the right decision has been taken or not? A little bit of human error is required? At what cost? At what fucking cost, Sepp Blatter? It's not like football's the first game that's gonna try this. Cricket has had it since the early 90s and it's being used in tennis for the past couple of years. Sure, those aren't free-flowing games like football, but come on, it's not like a match is started instantaneously after a goal. Spending a few minutes watching a video to make the right call is gonna morally fuck up the beautiful game? The only good that will come out of this game is that now, FIFA has to fucking implement video technology for atleast the 2014 tournament if not all the major tournaments in between. And Sepp Blatter's been at the helm too long. He needs to go...
Ok back to the football...
ARG 3-1 MEX :D
This match had another controversial goal as Tevez was in an offside position when he received Messi's ball and eventually scored. But since I've already ranted, and well, Argentina benefited, I'm not that pissed about it. :P
But anyway, Argentina were dominating the match till that point and they deserved the goal and the win. Messi was a little subdued but Tevez was in top form and scored both goals, the second being one of the goals of the tournament. A weird decision of Maradona's was to substitute Tevez for Veron and the game immediately changed pace and allowed Mexico back in the game with a goal, but Argentina hung on for the easy win in the end.
NED 2-1 SVK
Netherlands dominated but not enough to be considered a serious contender. Vittek got a consolation penalty goal with the last touch of the game. Arjen Robben was impressive on his return.
BRA 3-0 CHL
Brazil dominated Chile and turned in a performance to finally show why they are the favorites. Damn.
PAR 0-0 JPN (Paraguay won 5-3 on pens.)
A tight game with neither team having enough to finish the job in the final third. Paraguay probably deserved the win on penalties but Keisuke Honda capped off a perfect World Cup with another Man Of The Match performance.
ESP 1-0 POR
Another potential 'game of the tournament' turned out to be a letdown. Admittedly, this wasn't as pathetic as the Brazil-Portugal match but it was nowhere near what it should have been. Spain dominated possession (61%) and attacked with way more finesse than Portugal. Villa scored the winner while Ronaldo and co. were stone cold in front of goal. Spain deserved it completely.
So there you have it. The World Cup is down to just 8 teams. And well, it is pretty much the cream of the crop. Except Uruguay, Ghana and Paraguay, all the other teams were pretty much expected to make it this far and in all honesty, I think most people thought that some African team would reach the quarters in this edition.
Ok, final call for the week 26th June - 1st July
Match Of The Week: Germany 4-1 England (One of the biggest referee fuck ups in WC history notwithstanding, this game had a tight first half and Germans playing sexy in the second)
Team Of The Week: Germany (returned to 4 goal form against England after their shock defeat to Serbia and unimpressive win over Ghana)
Player Of The Week: Thomas Mueller and Carlos Tevez (Neither was clearly better than the other and both scored 2 goals to spearhead their respective nations into the quarters)
Goalie Of The Week: Another tie. Richard Kingson (for withstanding wave after wave of American attacks) and Eduardo (for limiting Spain to just 1 goal). Actually no goalie really stood out, so shout outs for Sergio Romero and Manuel Neuer.
Medio Of The Week: Thomas Mueller/Mesut Ozil (both have been brilliant for Germany throughout)
Striker Of The Week: Luis Suarez (brace against Korea included a sublime strike)
Goal Of The Week: Luis Suarez's 2nd goal vs Korea/Carlos Tevez's 2nd goal vs Mexico
Shock Of The Week: England losing as badly as they did
Moment Of The Week: Refs ruling out Lampard's legit goal and setting England up for a German shellacking!
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