Oh my. Really the English loss to Portugal was so archetypal that it verged on satire. England, playing well, has a star controversially sent off, pluckily soldiers on with ten men, and then finally succumbs to the inevitable penalty shootout.
A few thoughts. At first, I thought Rooney's podiatric incursion into Ricardo Carvalho's joy department was unintentional. Then, looking back at the replay, I began to have my doubts. And after all, it is Wayne Rooney, whose potato-like head clearly harbors unsepakable thoughts. Now I really can't decide. And adding to the general confusion is the fact that no one really knows what the red card was actually for. Was it the stomp or the meaningless shove on Cristiano Ronaldo? It was incredibly indeterminate.
I think that Sven should have used his third substitution earlier, and brought on someone for Lampard, whose tiring was not helping his general uselessness in extra time. Knowing that they surely would tonk it in penalties, I'd have brought on Theo Walcott, and told him to play in the midfield and run a lot. Why did Sven bring him anyway? That particular gambit was useless, since he didn't play a minute.
Portugal sucked. A man up and they didn't really try and push the game; in fact, they were rarely threatening in any way. I'd say they might be better if Deco was back, but he hasn't been that impressive so far in the Cup. Hopefully France will put them to the sword, like they did Brazil.
Speaking of which... yeah, Brazil. Why precisely were they tournament favorites again? They studiously avoided any team of quality in their pre-Cup warm ups. They trundled through a not very difficult group after being pushed by Croatia and Australia. And when they played their first quality team, they folded like an origami artist. They were by far the worst of the quarter-final teams, including Ukraine. Why did they suck so very much today?
The fault may lie with Parriera moving Ronaldinho too far forward and bringing in Juninho, but really I think the defensive midfield let them down today. The Brazilian system depends on two holding midfielders who can hold the game up, disrupt their opponent and square the ball to their stars so that they can attack. Gilberto Silva was totally missing in action today; he could do nothing about Zidane. Ze Roberto went on some marauding runs, but didn't clog up the middle. Maybe Juninho messed up the roles, with Ze Roberto thinking he should get out to the wings. Either way, it was a dismal performance from the so-called practitioners of the beautiful game.
And Ronaldinho is clearly the flop of the tournament. World Cup 2006's anointed star did almost nothing to justify the billing.
Really, it's been an immensely disappointing knockout stage so far. Too many timid coaches refusing to commit numbers forward and too many red cards that have forced the hands of some potentially more adventurous teams. The France win over Spain and the Argentina win over Mexico will be remembered as exciting, but the quarters have been dreadful, especially considering all the enthralling soccer that has been played at that stage over the years.
1 comment:
There are very few Germans in the EPL. The EPL is the best league in the world because they have the best referees, and are managed by the best FA in the world, the FA(which is run better than Fifa is run.)
You don't hear about match-fixing, or fist-fights or absolutely rubbish football, because the EPL is the best league in the world.
Is Portugal a better team than England? Maybe. Do they have any honor whatsoever? No. They play like men who have no honor because that is precisely what they are, dishonorable scum that stain the game of football.
They are divers and they are cheats. And they represent everything that is wrong with football. They play act, they go down when they can stay up, they whine to the officials and then they head-butt people and get away with it.
England plays their best game of the tournament against Portugal. Lampard missed three sitters, Lennon inexplicably tried to kick it without full force toward net and let Ricardo have a chance, if he had kicked it hard on net Ricardo would have had no chance.
And the handball in the box that should have been called a penalty, conspiciously forgotten by F. Yes, the rule is hand to ball, or intentionally handling. On replay, it is clear the Portuguese player brings his arm from the air down to his side, right into the path of the ball. A clear penalty.
Now, whether England would have converted, is another story entirely. But Rooney probably would have taken it and buried it in the back of the net.
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