Profound, profane or pedestrian

The last few World Cup final haven't really shown football at it's finest and this one tried hard to change that. Sadly, one man tried to stop that - the referee who trotted out no less than 12 yellow cards and one red (for a second yellow). Unfortunately, this changed the entire course of the game and the Dutch, in particular, had to alter their play style to cope with this.

Statistically, this game sounds very level but the Spanish almost always seemed to be the more threatening. Yes, the Dutch did threaten at times, Robben again being a particularly potent threat on the wing, his pace causing especial difficulty to the Spanish defence, Puyol having definite issues at times but Casillas was at the top of his game and rarely looked challenged. At the other end, it was different with Stekelenburg being called on to make a number of saves. Momentum near the end of ordinary time rested with the Spanish but, despite the efforts of Iniesta, extra time was needed.

That momentum continued in extra time and the Spanish had a number of shots early on in extra time. When Heitinga was sent off for a crude foul on Iniesta, it just seemed to spur the Spanish on. Hopes of the "10-man miracle" occurring were snuffed out by Iniesta with a goal just minutes later and Spain won the game 1-0, becoming the first Spanish team to ever measure up to their individual promise.

It's not that I forgot about the last two games (or that I don't know the results for that matter), it's just that I couldn't watch the games whilst in Melbourne (but I have recorded them) so I will post my comments when I get back home on Thursday after I watch the games. Having watched every one of the past 62 games, I sure as hell wasn't going to fail on those last two!

This was the second semi-final and and I was sure that we were due a dud, boring game - and we didn't get it yet again. Instead, Spain finally hit their straps and largely dominated Germany, at least in the attacking third of the field, any way. Both teams started brightly and created chances early but eventually it was obvious that Germany had decided not to crowd Spain when Spain had possession, opting instead to defend in depth. This meant that the much-vaunted Spanish passing game finally got going and wonderful it was to see, almost mesmeric at times. Neither team scored in the first half although the Spanish attack looked so much better with Pedro making his first start with the ever-lethargic Torres on the bench this time.

Eventually the breakthrough came from a thundering header, courtesy of Puyol, off an in-swinging corner. The Germans thrashed away at the Spanish defence and came very close to scoring but never quite nailed it. The Germans, with the ghost of 2008 clearly burdening them, looked well beaten with minutes to go and that's how it finished, 1-0 to Spain.

I really was surprised by this result - in fact I though Germany might well have scored another 4 but they let the Spanish play their own game and lost as a result.

Neither Paraguay nor Spain have hit their top form yet so I wasn't quite sure what this game was going to bring. Regardless of final result, what it did bring, most important of all, was a pulsating vibrant game of attacking football from both sides. Spain's attack barely got going in the first half because Paraguay's midfield press was so effective that no-one really found space or time often but then again Paraguay's own passing game was too wayward too often so they never really got going either. Having said that, this was no dour ugly struggle but rather a thrilling game of feint and counter-feint. The Paraguayans did get the ball in the net just before the break but it was rightly ruled off-side.

In the second half, the excitement notched up to near-overload as both side's attacks found their rhythm and both goalkeepers were called on to save penalties. First Casillas saved from the spot and held onto the rebound and then, within a minute, Villar let one in from the spot only for the referee to rule that it had to be taken again due to early Spanish encroachment into the Paraguayan penalty area. Alonso inexplicably shot in exactly the same spot again and Villar saved this time. Later replays showed that Villar was extremely lucky to have avoided giving away another penalty dealing with the rebound but in the heat of the moment, no-one noticed.

Spain finally took off the impotent Torres, bringing on Fabregas, and immediately, their attack came alive, firing in several shots, eventually resulting in Villa scoring, having seen Pedro's shot bounce off the post, and then his own shot hit the same post only to travel across the mouth of the goal behind a stranded Paraguayan defender before the ball hit the other post and finally went in! The Paraguayans threw everything at Spain and came agonizingly close to equalizing, only to see Casillas pull off a wonderful double save at near point-blank range. There was one more Spanish attack which came very close to succeeding and then it was over - victory to Spain by Villa's solitary goal.

With both of these teams not really expected to to do this well, this game was a bonus for both of them but sadly it didn't really turn out like that. Even though both sides attacked at times, it wasn't quite as exciting as it could have been. The goals were good and Kingson, the Ghanaian keeper just about kept Ghana in the game all on his own at times. At full-time it was 1-1 and so extra time came into play. In extra time, Ghana certainly woke up and launched a number of attacks, none of which scored. In the final minute, Suarez blocked a header from Adiyiah with his hand giving Ghana an enormous chance to win the game. Sadly, Gyan missed and so it was onto penalties. Gyan's miss seemed to have rattled a number of the Ghanaian penalty takers because there were some miserably tentative shots, meaning that Uruguay won the shoot-out 4-2, the sealing Uruguayan kick being a wonderfully cheeky chip from Abreu.

Least surprising result - England lost to Germany by a large margin. No, really?
Most disappointing player - Wayne Rooney - see above! (but Fernando Torres is not too far behind)
Greatest sigh of relief - only one game of the eight finished with penalties
Punching above their weight - Ghana, probably the weakest (on paper) of all the African teams and yet they are into the quarter-finals as Africa's sole representatives
Best performing region - South America, with 4 of their five teams into the quarter-finals, has a team in every single game and only Chile (knocked out buy another South American team, Brazil) has failed to progress
Best return from injury - Arjen Robben, whose first full game for Netherlands saw him score a wonderful (and, for him, very typical) goal
Most disconcerting feeling - having no new game to watch for two consecutive nights has left me feeling aimless and listless (and no, that isn't a pun as I write this list!)

At least it took until the 7th game of this round before we had to go to a penalty shoot-out. Paraguay, who were marginally the better and definitely the more adventurous team, eventually won 5-3 on penalties after neither side could score a goal in the first 90 minutes or the added 30. Japan relied on a pure counter-attack strategy which, admittedly, they did repeatedly trouble Paraguay whilst Paraguay tried a build a little more although it was their fast counterattacks which troubled Japan the most. Both sides had real trouble keeping possession of the ball in the midfield which turned parts of the game into fairly erratic dreary games of foot ping-pong with the occasional decisive burst by one team or the other. In the end Paraguay deserved to go through because they were marginally better.

As results go, I was happy to see Netherlands beat Slovakia 2-1, not because I have anything against Slovakia but because I think that the Dutch, on their day, can produce as exciting football as anyone can. As a bonus, my pick for player of the tournament, Arjen Robben, scored a beauty of a goal with a precisely hit shot in the bottom right corner of the goal, having worked his way past a couple of tackles. He didn't score again and eventually came off after about 70 minutes, looking a little sore and slow. While he was on the pitch, though, he had done what he was supposed to - tear up the Slovak left wing and pull their defence out of shape. Sadly, no other Dutch forward really stepped up and van Persie looked out of sorts in front of goal again. Eventually Sneijder scored the second goal. The Slovaks, for all their efforts, really didn't threaten the Dutch goal often and only scored from an undeserved penalty in the 90+4th minute of the game.

The 4-1 scoreline in Germany's favour over England was about right for this game, I felt. All the talk will be about the disallowed goal but the fact is that Germany were devastating on the counter-attack whilst England were flat, Rooney still napping away. The English defence was caught napping so many times that it just became painful to watch and it could well have been 6-1 by the end. The impotence of the English attack just embarrassed me after a while. At the final whistle it felt like someone had removed a pain, so agonizing was it to watch England's stumbling fumbling shuffle.

This game between Korea Republic and Uruguay showed both teams in a classical light - Uruguay scored on an early break and the then stood back, satisfied, it seemed to spend the next 82 minutes defending that one goal lead. Korea, on the other hand, ran and passed and then ran some more and passed some more and then ran even more and then ..... well, you get the picture! Eventually, the Koreans were successful after a bad mix-up between Muslera the keeper and Lugano meant thet both went for the same ball, giving the Koreans an easy header in. They took a while but the Uruguayans eventually took back the lead off a glorious Suarez shot, giving him his second goal for the game. The Koreans cane desperately close to getting an equaliser but Lugano redeemed himself by clearing off the line and so the Urguayns won 2-1, being the first team into the quarter finals.