my beloved life
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
hey people!.. this is a special update of the Round of 16 matches finished.
Germany 2-0 SwedenI shall not comment much about this match, simply because Germany was a clear winner in this match. Only 12 minutes on and Germany was two goals up through a brace from Podolski and seem to be playing with school boys as Sweden was totally outplayed. No more goals were to follow though as Germany was contented to defend their two-nil lead. A missed penalty from Larsson pretty much sealed a terrible night for Swedish fans and sends Germany through to the Quater-finals.
Argentina 2-1 Mexico (
after extra time)
This match burst right from the start. End to end football with lots of flair from the two sides, though surprisingly Mexico was dominating the early exchanges and their efforts were rewarded when captain Marquez scored through a flick on from Borgetti from the free kick. However, Crespo's(its an own goal la friend!) goal pulled the score level. Many wave of attacks came from both teams but they just could not apply finishing touches to all the fine passes. Thus, extra time along, and as the story goes, Rodrigues scored a wonder goal to book Argentina's place in the Quater-finals.
England 1-0 EcuadorHas the England side not criticised enough? Based on this performance, the clear answer is
NO! Shaky defense, toothless attack, what else is left to say in this England side? Nothing positive can be said of this performance. Only a Beckham free-kick saved England from being humiliated by Ecuador who largely dominated the attacking part of the match and went close several times. And England are still talking about winning the World Cup!? MADNESS! Questions that were still unanswered would be, 'When will Lampard ever score a goal, or even hit the target!?' and 'Is the England attack ever gonna score again!?'. Unless something happens in the England side, they would be elminated in the Quater-finals.
Portugal 1-0 NetherlandsOne of the most entertaining matches so far, and its not because of football! On paper this match is dubbed as the biggest match in the competition, with both the rivalry and style of play clashing. No one had predicted that this match would be pretty, but this? out of this world! It started of brightly for Portugal when Maniche scored from some superb passing by Deco. Chances came by for Netherlands but they failed to convert it. At the end of the first half, Portugal's Costinha was the first player to be red carded from a delibrate hand ball. Second half was a complete mess, players lunging tackles that were clearly aiming for the legs instead of the ball, fights were going on between players every time a tackle is being made, all this and the referee had no control over them, thus he resorted to flashing yellow cards at every player. Red cards came for Boulahrouz(63 minutes), Deco(78 minutes) and Van Bronckhorst(95 minutes). As Dutch coach Marco Van Basten said, the referee was poor and the second half was poor as the match was largely played by the player's mouth and hands instead of the ball. A nice match for wrestling fans but a poor match for football fans.
Italy 1-0 AustraliaItaly was suppose to win this match comfortably, but Australia put up a resounding effort and showed to Italy early on that they are not going to just give way easily. Even though Australia had attacks early on, it was Italy that had come close on several occasions to take the lead. Australia however had been very discipline in their defense and look as sound as the Italian defense. Australia had a huge advantage when Materazzi was given a straight red card from a reckless tackle on Bresciano. However, Australia did not capitalise on it and was punished dearly when at the last minute of regulation time, Italy was awarded a dubious penalty in my opinion. Grosso sprints into the box and fell on Lucas Neil's body. It was not like Neil had challenged and tackled Grosso, but it appears to me as if Grosso had intentionally fall on Neil to earn the penalty. Nothing can be said about the quality of Totti's penalty though as he slots it home and Italy to the Quater-finals.
Switzerland 0-0 Ukraine (
0-3 after penaly shoot-out)
Not much can be commented about this match. It was largely played in the middle of the park as both teams fail to really create chances. After 120 minutes of football, it was to be decided by the first penalty shoot-out of the tournament. Shevchenko made the worst possible start for Ukraine as he missed the first kick, the second consecutively in a penalty shoot-out after his miss in the Champions' League final against Liverpool. It did not matter though, as the rest of the Ukraine kicks sailed into the net. Switzerland penalty takers however had possibly the worst 10 minutes of their lives as all of them failed to convert a single penalty!! Now how often do you see that happen?? However, Switzerland bows out of the World Cup creating history as the first team in history to exit the World Cup without conceding a goal in regulation time and also as the first team in history to exit the World Cup without scoring a penalty in a penalty shoot-out!. So, Switzerland may have thebest defense, but they also had the worst possible penalty takers. Ukraine through to the Quater-finals.
Ok, I know most of these news are in the newspapers already, just want to write in my blog for people to read, haha!
P/S: These comments are entirely my opinions, and if it offends anyone, I would thereby apologies before hand.
1:57 PM
