England-Germany.
What a game! What a tragi-comedy! Not even the ole bard Shakespeare could've dreamt this one up! England. The Ing-ger-land - crashes to its heaviest-ever World Cup defeat to ye olde enemy, Germany. In the round of 16, no less, when the word before the first kick was made was that semi-finals were the bare minimum.
Ha!
If the poetry behind the defeat was tragic enough, the defending behind the four goals even better. First goal - school-boy stuff. Second too. The third and fourth, caught pants down on the counter-attack following from a free-kick in the German half.
For sure, England did play well, for about 5 minutes from the time Upson scored - rather unexpectedly and against the run of play - till Lampard's goal was missed. What better way to make that defeat even more tragic, than to have a totally legitimate and dreadfully obvious goal missed.
There'll be lots lots and lots said, and there'll be lots more - but the decision on the goal by Lampard was just hilarious. Yes, the referee was culpable; yes, the linesman was an insult to the blind; yes, with the standards of refereeing we've seen this World Cup, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise. But you know who and what look stupidest of all? FIFA, Sepp Blatter and their intransigence over goal-line technology and replays.
Just classic. Millions (if not billions) watching FIFA's World Cup, and this, their headline match of the matches so far, and it's cocked up. Plain and simple. They've cocked up elsewhere before, no doubt, but this has to be the funniest (given my England sentiments) and the most public. (But wait, more was to come in the Argentina game!)
As for England's performance, well, what can be said? First, Rooney was at his best. At doing nothing and looking frustrated. Second, the defence - would've made Wigan Athletic look tidy any day. Third, how can England go through four games of a World Cup, and score just three goals? Gerrard, Defoe and Upson. Upson! Wherefore art thou, ye predators of the English Premier League? You know it's bad when the BBC's own commentators start cannibalising the EPL's best and brightest.
What went wrong? I'd start with these same pundits - for playing it all up in the media hype. Look at it all objectively, and anyone would know that England really, just don't have the pedigree nor the bollocks to deal with games of these magnitude.
As for Argies-Mexico, what can you say? Mexico start off way the better team for the first half hour or so. Argentina can't quite get in it. Then, the goal. Pathetic officiating again. Clear off-side, but the poor Mexicans are let down. I mean, it's almost bizarre. Stadiums now having big screens. These big screens televise instant replays, well, instantly. And, no...everyone has a look, but the referee and his linesman can't. Same thing as in the England game. What can you do. Good luck to all of us waiting for FIFA to stop sitting on their hands. Methinks they're gonna take the next logical step and either (a) ban those giant screens or (b) ban having replays on the screens.
Anyhows, first a crappy mistake from the officials, and then another comical mistake from the Mexicans themselves. Quite unfortunate. Played well for most of the half, but two down at half time. Of course, what better way to vent their frustrations than to get into a little fisticuffs with the Argentinians on the way to the tunnel.
As much as the first two goals were dodgy for different reasons, the third from Tevez was a thing of beauty in itself. Ouch ouch ouch. That would've hurt the net a tad. Game over, and who would begrudge the Mexicans a peachy goal of their own to make it 3-1.
Having watched both England and Argentina at their best today, you can't help but wonder. How is it that one team struggles in qualifying, only to turn up a different team when it really matters. And the other - breezes through qualifying only to turn up a different team too, when it really matters. The answer? Quite simply, is that the first team really, can only be inspired by the pressure, the attention, the enormity of the occasion. And the other, only whithers up, and shrinks. Ah well. Nothing new there.
So, we're just going to have to watch that Argentina keeps it up and hasn't already peaked too early. Next up, though: Argentina v Germany. Now that, is going to be really yummy! Funny isn't it? You get one quarter-final like that, and another with Uruguay v Ghana. I suppose that's what makes it all so riveting.
Finally, something else that I saw in both games today - the matching outfits. And I'm not talking about the jerseys on the pitch. I'm talking here the managers/coaches. What's the deal here? Joachim Low and his sidekick looking decidedly gay, if not daft - as I've mentioned before, and Diego Maradona and his clique looking decidedly Soprano-ish. Not sure what it's for. Strange.
On to Holland then! Hop Holland!
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