Matches 6/14/05

I had to watch most of the matches on 2 or 3X speed, because I was busy last night, and who would have thought a match between Saudi Arabia and Tunisia would be something you'd want to watch, besides to see if one or both of the goalies would wear pants (We weren't dissapointed, the Saudi Goalie did in fact wear pants). Also, the Spanish/Ukraine match was won that seemed to be missable. Of coures there were some fine goals, and some big time controversy that made that one an interesting game as well.

Let's start with Spain vs. Ukraine.

First of all, Coach Luis Aragones, not one to avoid controversy (racist comments directed at Thierry Henry, caught on tape) left Spanish hero Raul out of the starting lineup. Raul is an aging striker, who has seen better days, but to leave him out, was still a difficult decision. Not too long into the match, you realized why he was left out. Xabi Alonso of Liverpool scored the opener off of a free kick, David Villa scored the next two, one off of a deflected free kick, and one off of a DUBIOUS penalty call. And the scoring was rounded out by Fernando Torres (one of the most targeted men in the world for big money transfers). The Torres goal was a sparkling effort by Spanish Skipper Carlos Puyol, who ball handled lovely before laying the ball off to Arsena wunderkind Cesc Fabregas who played it back to Puyol who headed down for Torres who Volleyed expertly into the net.

Check the goal out if you have a chance:



As to the Dubious Penalty. I've never seen a worse penalty rewarded.

1. The pulling of the shirt that occured, probably happened outside the box!

2. It was so minor that Villa still got a shot on, that was saved. The momentum from taking the shot took Villa off his feet, not the nominal shirt/short tug.

The referee literally ruined the defenders world cup, because of the edict Fifa sent down against shirt pulling, I mean, I know they want it called, but have some latitude in your interpretation of the rule:



I believe this was a Horseshit call, a foul? Maybe, a penalty?...probably not, a red card?...CERTAINLY NOT!

Either way, Ukraine did not show up for this match...as far as I could tell at 2-3X the match speed with no commentary, only slowing down to watch big plays. But I know what I read on other sites commentary. And Ukraine are in trouble.

The Ukraine Is Weak!

Newman


Saudi Arabia vs Tunisia

I figured this match would be about as exciting to someone outside of the Arab world as watching paint dry. I guess I was wrong. 4 total goals, 2 in the last 6 or 7 minutes. Goalies with Pants, I mean it seem to have it all.

After Saudi Arabia scored late through Sammi El Jaber, Bolton's Rahdi Jaidi scored very late in the match to salvage the points. I believe I heard it was the first time in 50 years that a Bolton Player scored in the world cup. That's a pretty cool stat.

Finally, the match of the evening. Germany vs. Poland.

It turns out that during the day, German and Polish police were rounding up hard core supsected Hooligans. The Poles apparently went quiet when a couple of dozen were arrested, but their german counterparts were not so friendly, sparking a battle between themselves and riot police. Bottles and chairs were thrown when police moved in and blocked the Hooligans' view of the big screen that is set up for people who don't have tickets to the match. Over a 100 people were arrested. I guess in Germany they can arrest you and keep you for 48 hours if they "suspect" that you will be committing a crime. I guess that will probably be long enough to keep the German and Polish Hooligans away from the match. After reading a few articles a Sports Minister from Germany said that while there had been precautions to stop English, Dutch and Polish hooligan's in particular from entering the country, he was far more worried about the hooligans that resided in the host country itself. Hopefully this will be the end of the troubles, as no one wants to see a smear on the reputation of the greates event in sports.

The match itself was a good one, Poland wasn't able to muster much offense, but they played a strong defensive game into the second half.

Two things then changed the game drastically. First Germany introduced substitutes Odonkor and Neuville. They injected speed and energy into the attack. And then, a player from Poland got sent off for his second booking of the match. A big turn of events, as the Poles were visibly starting to drain, and playing with 10 men only exacerbated that.

Very late in the match, Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack hit the Crossbar within a second or two of eachother, Klose off a header, and Ballack off the rebound. Then Dave O'Brien, the worst announcer of all time said possibly the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. With three minutes of added time to play O'Brien said "Well Germany will certainly not get a chance like that again" as if 3 minutes was really 3 seconds. When you break it down, 3 minutes is really like 3% of the match, which isn't that small of an amount.

Of course, Germany came right down the field on the pace of Odonkor who lashed a cross low into the box for Neuville to slide between two defenders and put the ball into the net for the winning goal.



I hate you Dave O'Brien, Really, I do. I fear that Dave and Marcelo may be the "Lead" broadcast team. I mean, they have done Germany, England and US matches so far. Doesn't that sound like the lead team?

I'll have to figure out a way to get the BBC broadcast or something for the final.

So far, I've been very happy with the World Cup action. There has been many more good games than bad. The only real bad games have been US Vs. CZE and SPA vs. UKR.

Even the low scoring matches have been exciting.

I look forward to England vs. T&T tonight when I get home...for a couple of reasons. One, I want to see if Rooney or Walcott will get some time. Two, the T&T players are calling this their world cup final. They are going to give everything to win this match, it should be fun.

I'll be back to report later!