So it’s Germany for breakfast, skip the middle game then out to somewhere rowdy for the England match. There’s never been a better time to be unemployed!
I’ve got same sentiment with a different order. Use Germany v Serbia to warm up for the USA game, then skip the England v Algeria debacle which should be something like 5-0 England.
While we’re discussing the Hand of God, on the ITV highlights programme tonight they showed a bit of footage from ESPN comparing Maradona with Messi. It started out with standard stuff - they’re both quite short, both wear 10 for Argentina, played for Barcelona, etc. - so far, so uninteresting. But they then showed footage of Messi “handing” the ball in for Barcelona. And that was followed by footage of a Messi goal for Barcelona startlingly similar to Maradona’s against England in '86. Now, I don’t believe that this means that Messi is destined to lift the World Cup, but it was very interesting all the same.
Work come too early tomorrow. I’ll get to see all of Germany/Serbia, then half of the USA game. Hope the USA is out to a good lead at halftime.
England vs. Algeria. This shall be the first time I’ll be supporting England in anything.
Serbia needs to win and they are extremely dangerous in this state of mind, they play much better than they have shown against Ghana and our team lacks experience on numerous positions against an opponent who knows us very well.
The Serbian coach won’t have missed our weak spots: Özil is key to our offence; he will either decide to track him closely as soon as he crosses the halfway line or even mark him with a man. Expect different Serbian players to tackle Özil early to inflict some pain and make him more cautious.
Coach Antic might switch to a 4-2-3-1 to deny us a free midfielder and use Stankovic in a more advanced position in the centre to drive the attacks with his well timed passing. I expect the Serbians to focus more attacking power against our fragile left side: Badstuber isn’t a fullback but a centreback, his limitations on the wide position have already been highlighted by ManU. And Podolski couldn’t spell defence with the help of the full cast of Sesame Street. If Serbia manages to break through on the wings, they have a good chance of scoring because their attackers are strong in the air.
If he opts for the 4-4-2 against Ghana, Pantelic will attack continuously right through the middle against Arne Friedrich who was his team mate in Berlin for many years. Pantelic is too quick for Friedrich and both know this. This might lead to a number of dangerous free kick situations and an early yellow card.
We could strengthen our defence considerably (up to the point where I’d call it “international standard”) by switching Lahm to the left and adding Jérôme Boateng to the right, while Badstuber takes on for Friedrich. But that won’t happen – Lahm and Müller play pretty well together (though the first one knows Podolski from his time with Bayern München) and are a continuous threat, while Boateng, one of our U21 European champions, hasn’t played a lot with Müller, is still too easily upset and inexperienced against the international A-teams.
I’d like to see Toni Kroos in our midfield if Özil should struggle: he is almost as creative as Özil but less fragile and they wouldn’t get into each other’s way. But we have never tried this combination on the field and it’s a bit too late for experiments.
Anyway, key to our attack will be explosive counter-attacks and vertical passes into the gaps of the Serbian back four. We should be quicker all around, have more good passers and a much more versatile team.
But this is no guarantee of success. If Serbia scores first, the inexperience of our young guns will show and they can easily face a 0:2 before order and calm is restored.
In other words, I’m nervous. It’s only a one-sided match on paper.
Most players don’t admit to diving either. Personally, I’d like to see professional fouls such as shirt pulling, diving, and deliberately taking players out to prevent a break dealt with by after-the-game video review and suspensions.
I am also much more nervous than a lot of my fellow countrymen seem to be. I think it’ll be a real nail-biter up to the very end.
I’m just glad we won’t have any players like Evra or Anelka who decide to not run faster than a slow jog all game.
Or at least they should have montages of their “finest moments” shown on the big screen in the city centre of whoever they play for.
Yeah, we’ll might face a bad day or bad luck or both, but a bad attitude won’t beat us.
Damn, too nervous for grammar. :smack:
Looking at England-Algeria tonight, we don’t just need a result, we could really do with a few goals to give us a good chance of winning the group on goal difference. If we can top group C we have a really kind draw, with no really strong teams until the semi-finals. If we go through as runners up, we would probably be facing an in-form Germany in the last 16.
What is with this referee? He just gave a German the gate, and he’s as likely as not to throw a card every time he blows the whistle.
…and now he’s made Germany pay. 1-0 Serbia. What horseshit.
This Spanish referee doesn’t seem to want Germany to qualify for some reason…
All of the cards so far have been by and large deserved, including Klose’s two foolish cards. I don’t see a whole lot wrong with this ref to be honest.
No, I think you’ll find Kaka plays for Brazil.
He is a bit card-happy for sure but seems to be treating both teams the same so there can’t really be any complaints. As long as referees are even handed then it’s fair as whether something is a bookable offence is down to interpretation more than anything, it’s when referees are inconsistent that you have problems.
I’m surprised given how eager the referee is to book people that he didn’t give Jovanovich a yellow for his celebrations. Anyway, the Germans have an uphill battle now, it could make the group interesting if Serbia win.
I can’t find info on who the ref is, but he’s horribly out of his element. The ref for the USA v Slovenia game later is even worse, from what I saw in his first match. He’s the one who booked and sent off a guy who didn’t commit the foul, African referee from some tiny country like Mali or some such place.
The Ref isn’t out of his element he is just strict and is equally strict with both teams and has been equally strict throughout the match.
If you see 5/6 yellow cards get handed out early on then the bar has been set, if you then go on to commit a foul equally as bad you can’t be surprised when you get booked. I can’t remember the first yellow Klose got but the second was deserved, it was a tackle from behind and he took the man.