Lost In Your Failures – Super Deluxe
Going to be slightly quicker today because I am exhausted after getting up ridiculously early to watch the opening game.
Algeria 0 – 1 Slovenia
Dreadful. An embarrassment to the beautiful game.
The idea that I woke myself up at 4:30 in the morning to watch this–to scope out the US opposition–is really depressing. About 15 minutes in, my thought was that it resembled an MLS game, and not a very good one. After an hour, I decided that that was really unfair…to MLS. The standard of play in display in this match was nowhere near that quality. The game basically went like this:
Algeria overhits hits a speculative ball, which then goes over the touchline. Slovenia thumps a goal kick to midfield, where they make two or three passes and then give it away under no pressure at all. Algeria passes it pointlessly around the back for a while, and then thumps a 50 yard speculative pass way beyond the striker making a run. Rinse and repeat.
I’m not sure either team successfully strung together more than 6 or 7 passes the whole game. That’s how terrible it was.
Events that summed up the game: 1) a mediocre pass to an Algerian on the far right wing, in territory that poses no real threat, is whistled for being offside. 2) late in the game. Slovenia has a decent counter opportunity, when Koren with loads of time and several teammates to pick out, taps the ball forward directly to the feet of the Algerian defender. Counter-attack ended. 3) Ghezzal comes on as a substitute, immediately gets a yellow card for pulling a shirt right in front of the ref in a completely irrelevant part of the field, and then within 10 minutes gets a second yellow for deliberately handling the ball–on a play where he FAILS to actually control the ball despite using his hand. Either one of them was an incredibly stupid card to pick up. To get both of them as a sub within 10 minutes of coming on…just wow. 4) The goal. If not for Rob Green, this would be a challenger for goalkeeping error of the tournament. A tamely hit shot that bounces in front of him, he puts his hands down far below it and stupidly watches it bounce off his shoulder and into the net.
If England or the US compound the grave crimes of Egypt and Russia by allowing either of these teams to advance, it will be a travesty. It is ridiculous that a team can play as poorly as Slovenia did and still be topping the group. God help us if we can’t beat them.
Serbia 0 – 1 Ghana
Serbia once again this year look like they’re flattering to deceive. They were okay today, but nothing special. Their biggest problem was an almost maniacal devotion to playing stupid pointless long balls up to their 6’8 striker. This team would be truly great if they had a world class creative midfielder. I’m not saying they need Xavi or something. Frankly, they could be significantly improved with even someone as mediocre as Michael Carrick. Or, say, Luka Modric. Which invites an interesting question: if Yugoslavia still existed, how good would they be? Imagine the defending talent of Serbia combined with the attacking power of Croatia and Bosnia. Add Modric or Eduardo or Dzeko or Ibisevic to this team and you’d have a squad challenging for the semifinals, certainly.
But back to the game. It’s hard to say that the result wasn’t deserved. Ghana were certainly the better team. Still, Serbia did a good job of keeping half and quarter chances from turning into full-blown opportunities and probably could have held out for a draw, or even a late winner, if not for the utter stupidity of a couple of their players. First, the sending off. Both cards were a bit harsh, maybe, but I can’t really see how they could have any serious complaints. Particularly the second one: when you’re already on a yellow you need to be careful. Particularly when you’re not in a crucial area. It’s not like the foul was necessary to prevent a goal or something.
Serbia actually looked a bit more lively after the sending off, I think because it put some fear into them and made them think they probably needed to attack because the draw was in serious danger. But this left them a bit exposed. Which led to the penalty. Here, the decision-making was even more inexplicable. I guess he thought he was going to fool the ref. But really, that’s just crazy. It was a dangerous cross but not terrifying. And the consequences of getting caught are a virtual certainty of giving up a goal. Just a stupid stupid split-second decision. No two ways about it.
Serbia’s backs are really to the wall now. They basically have to get a result against Germany…which is certainly doable but probably not if both teams play the way they did today. Which means the finely balanced group where everyone had a strong chance of going through might be done and dusted after two games. That would be a shame.
Germany 4 – 0 Australia
Very little to say about this. Germany looked good, much better than I expected. Podolski and Klose both scored, once again defying all evidence from their club seasons. Australia was probably not going to pose a real threat, but Cahill’s sending off (which was pretty harsh: technically correct perhaps but really deserved a yellow at most) pretty much slammed the door. As it was they were lucky to get away only conceding 4.
That said, I don’t think Australia is a pushover. They looked bad today, but might still give Ghana or Serbia a surprise.
As for Germany, they played in a very non-German fashion. Lots of slick passing, tremendous use of pace and movement. Ozil, in particular, showed why people have been raving about him. I don’t think they can really hang with the very best, but I’m less sure of that now than I was a week ago. And definitely watch out for them in Euro 2012. With a bit more experience the young guns could be ready to reinstate some German dominance.
I’m going to try to get up at 4:30 again to watch Netherlands v. Denmark–which is one of my most anticipated group stage games. We’ll see how that goes. I’m less excited about the other two, so may fall back asleep. But here are the predictions:
- Netherlands 3 – 1 Denmark
- Japan 1 – 2 Cameroon
- Italy 1 – 1 Paraguay
My prediction record so far has been okay, not great. 4 out of 8 results right. So a bit better than random. Wooo for that.