Germany vs. Portugal - Day 5

-
Day 5 of the World Cup was a day full of thrills, spills, and quite a lot of goals. The morning game was one of the most anticipated games of the group stage part of the tournament. It was a mouthwatering clash for me because I wanted to see how Ronaldo would do in a big game on the big stage. The truth is that he was outclassed by the German team as a whole. A single man cannot win a game by himself, and this was a perfect example. The Portuguese were disorganized defensively, and were not in sync in the middle of the park or in the attacking third. Ronaldo had a couple chances in the opening 10 minutes, but he didn't take advantage of them. After that, it went downhill for Portugal. It all started with the penalty that Mario Gotze won, and Thomas Muller buried it. The Germans took control from there. Control of the midfield, and control of the ball. When Portugal lost the ball in the attacking third, Germany powered forward on the break each and every time. Hummels then scored a header, getting in between the center backs from a corner. Pepe than got a red card for head-butting the scorer of the first goal. This highlights Pepe's career. Just when things are getting better for him, he pulls out a foolish moment like the one he did yesterday. Muller than tripled the lead, taking advantage of a poor clearance by Bruno Alves. There was no way back for Portugal after half- time. I thought they should take Ronaldo off to keep him safe for the US game. They didn't, but also used 2 subs on 2 injured players. Almeida and Coentrao got injured and will probably miss the US game. Coentrao is a big loss because Portugal don't have another good left back. There are now 3 players from the Portugal team that will probably miss the US game. Those are Pepe, Coentrao, and Almeida. Germany rounded of the bashing with another Muller goal, getting his hat trick. He is now the highest scorer of the tournament and also got the first hat trick by a German since Miroslav Klose in 2002.

What a game!

Comments

  1. ArnabJune 18, 2014 at 12:55 AM

    Very good analysis of the game. I agree on almost all the observations.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Messi Mania

-
It took Lionel Messi 28 years to get around to playing a competitive game in the U.S. It was worth waiting for. After sitting out Argentina’s first game in the Copa America Centenario, Messi entered the second match, against Panama, as a second-half substitute, then scored three goals and assisted on a fourth in just 29 minutes. In less than half an hour, Messi was tied for the tournament lead in scoring and had taken his team through to the quarterfinals. Entering Monday’s games, seven of the 16 teams in the tournament hadn’t scored as much. All of which raises one big question heading into the final day of group play Tuesday: What will Messi do for an encore when Argentina, the world’s top-ranked team, plays win-less Bolivia, at No. 82 the lowest-rated team in the tournament.  If you believe Messi, there’s a lot of room to improve after he sat out two weeks with a bruised back. But Messi has a lot more to accomplish than simply getting his groove back...
Read more

Argentina vs. Bosnia - Day 4

-
Yesterday was an a great day in the World Cup. All the teams I wanted to win won. Switzerland got a stoppage time winner to make it 2-1, and France won 3-0 comfortably. Goal line technology was used for the first ever time in World Cup history on the own goal. There was a lot of controversy with that goal as to whether it should be an own goal or Benzema's goal. Eventually, he got 2 goals, but in  my opinion, he should have had a hat trick because of that goal. The game I want to talk about is the Argentina and Bosnia game. I want Argentina to go all the way. Sabella started with a 5-3-2 formation. Argentina will not win if they keep playing with this formation. It takes Messi out of the game completely. Messi was terrible in the first half. In the second half, Sabella brought on Gago and Higuain. They changed to a 4-3-3 formation, which brought Messi into the game a lot more. He scored a magical goal to seal the points for Argentina after a own goal 3 minutes in from a Messi freek...
Read more

Decline of Spain

-
The decline of the Spanish empire has been one of the most shocking events of this legendary World Cup. 2 years ago, after their Euros win against Italy, they were speculated to be the best international team in the history of the beautiful game. Even a year ago, they got to the Confederations Cup final, where they got easily beaten by Brazil 3-0. That may have been a sign for the whole planet, bu t no one took it seriously. The Barcelona players of Spain had an average season based on their very high standard. This may have been a big blow on their confidence and team spirit. The Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid players of the Spanish team ended their season late because of the Champions League Final. The final was May 24, which was just 13 days from the start of the World Cup. I don't think the team had enough time to get together and recover from the long season that preceded it. Along with those issues, they had some problems with the team selection. I don't know why Del Bos...
Read more