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Germany v Argentina
Half-time thoughts:
What’s happening? Everyone seems to be copying England…
One word to sum up the entire first half: BORING.
My brother fell asleep while watching. Sighh… Nothing much to say about this half really. Neither side created any real chance, but Argentina have more of the possession, look slightly more threatening… that’s it.
This is the first real match I’m watching since that Australia game… Spent the past few days of break trying to overcome my grief… I still feel some sense of emptiness and loneliness… watching any other team in this WC won’t generate the same kind of emotions…
And with my “2nd team” Spain also out, I don’t know… maybe I’m sort of supporting Germany now because they don’t really piss me off except for Ballack… I just hope I don’t jinx all the teams I’m supporting…
BUT THIS IS FREAKING BORING! GRRR…
After penalty shootout:
Haha, ok… I slept quite a bit through the 2nd half and extra-time. As usual, think I saw enough to get a clear idea on what’s going on though. Argentina seemed to me as though they suicided themselves really. They weren’t really in any position to lose it… until they brought off Riquelme and Crespo, seemingly deluded that they can actually defend for the rest of the game or something. They really didn’t have to do it you know… but once they did it, and let Germany take control of the game… even though Germany didn’t look as sharp as the Argies in attack, they got their goal, and the Argentinians were faced having to get something without their 2 key players. To their credit, even without the 2, they still looked as though they could get something… but I guess by then the momentum was just with the Germans who had more confidence now…
That’s the number what penalty shootout I’ve been through in just over a year? Let me see… has to be the 4th one, and I’m so proud to say I’ve “won” all of them! Hahaha. That is, the team I was backing won. Yeahhh.
Yup, penalty shootouts are a cruel way for a team to lose, but I do have to say, all 4 of the penalties taken by the Germans were way class. I was a little surprised at how well they took their penalties, considering the amount of pressure they must be feeling… yeah, having the backing of fans can help you sometimes, but it can still feel pretty nerve-wrecking knowing the hopes of the entire nation rest on your shoulders (or feet)! The Argentinians in this case, just have to blame themselves on not taking their penalties better. I think only the first taker, Julio Cruz did a good job by placing it into the “unsavable region” in that top corner. I remember reading once how there’s like this unsavable region in the goal… and those top corners are really quite impossible to save. Hard to place a penalty so perfectly though.
And also, credit to Lemon for saving those penalties. He can be quite a lemon sometimes, but I think he has a pretty decent penalty-saving rate? After all, they won that shootout against Man U in the FA Cup final… and I remember Lemon saving one from Stevie last season…
Germany still have some work to do before they can think of winning the trophy though. Their defending was at times shaky, passes sloppy, and there weren’t enough individual quality to win those one-on-one battles and all. I think what took them through this time was perhaps their tougher mentality and the fact that Argentina just basically suicided with those changes by Pekerman. I remember how I thought their really late goal against Poland made a big impact on their campaign this World Cup, and now I really think that experience might have given them a little more belief in that they can grab a goal late in the game indeed. Haha, I know I’m a real sucker for this sort of “tougher mentality” thing, but I’m right you know. Football isn’t always just about the way you play the ball with your feet. If it was, Argentina would have went through…
And I wonder what was that scene at the end of the game about… looks to me like the Argentinians were furious about something and they were going to beat some people up… Hmmm… I guess I’ll go read about it in the morning. It’s 2am! Bloody hell. Isn’t the Italy match starting in only an hour’s time? I gotta sleep though… After what the Italians did to my Australia, I think some will probably find it weird that I want the Italians to go through… In fact I want them to if possible, go all the way to the final… where they can lose to a last minute controversial decision against them. Then I’ll laugh my head off, ‘cause then they’ll get a taste of their own medicine and feel double the agony of being so close, yet so far… Heh. I’m an evil person.
Half-time thoughts:
What’s happening? Everyone seems to be copying England…
One word to sum up the entire first half: BORING.
My brother fell asleep while watching. Sighh… Nothing much to say about this half really. Neither side created any real chance, but Argentina have more of the possession, look slightly more threatening… that’s it.
This is the first real match I’m watching since that Australia game… Spent the past few days of break trying to overcome my grief… I still feel some sense of emptiness and loneliness… watching any other team in this WC won’t generate the same kind of emotions…
And with my “2nd team” Spain also out, I don’t know… maybe I’m sort of supporting Germany now because they don’t really piss me off except for Ballack… I just hope I don’t jinx all the teams I’m supporting…
BUT THIS IS FREAKING BORING! GRRR…
After penalty shootout:
Haha, ok… I slept quite a bit through the 2nd half and extra-time. As usual, think I saw enough to get a clear idea on what’s going on though. Argentina seemed to me as though they suicided themselves really. They weren’t really in any position to lose it… until they brought off Riquelme and Crespo, seemingly deluded that they can actually defend for the rest of the game or something. They really didn’t have to do it you know… but once they did it, and let Germany take control of the game… even though Germany didn’t look as sharp as the Argies in attack, they got their goal, and the Argentinians were faced having to get something without their 2 key players. To their credit, even without the 2, they still looked as though they could get something… but I guess by then the momentum was just with the Germans who had more confidence now…
That’s the number what penalty shootout I’ve been through in just over a year? Let me see… has to be the 4th one, and I’m so proud to say I’ve “won” all of them! Hahaha. That is, the team I was backing won. Yeahhh.
Yup, penalty shootouts are a cruel way for a team to lose, but I do have to say, all 4 of the penalties taken by the Germans were way class. I was a little surprised at how well they took their penalties, considering the amount of pressure they must be feeling… yeah, having the backing of fans can help you sometimes, but it can still feel pretty nerve-wrecking knowing the hopes of the entire nation rest on your shoulders (or feet)! The Argentinians in this case, just have to blame themselves on not taking their penalties better. I think only the first taker, Julio Cruz did a good job by placing it into the “unsavable region” in that top corner. I remember reading once how there’s like this unsavable region in the goal… and those top corners are really quite impossible to save. Hard to place a penalty so perfectly though.
And also, credit to Lemon for saving those penalties. He can be quite a lemon sometimes, but I think he has a pretty decent penalty-saving rate? After all, they won that shootout against Man U in the FA Cup final… and I remember Lemon saving one from Stevie last season…
Germany still have some work to do before they can think of winning the trophy though. Their defending was at times shaky, passes sloppy, and there weren’t enough individual quality to win those one-on-one battles and all. I think what took them through this time was perhaps their tougher mentality and the fact that Argentina just basically suicided with those changes by Pekerman. I remember how I thought their really late goal against Poland made a big impact on their campaign this World Cup, and now I really think that experience might have given them a little more belief in that they can grab a goal late in the game indeed. Haha, I know I’m a real sucker for this sort of “tougher mentality” thing, but I’m right you know. Football isn’t always just about the way you play the ball with your feet. If it was, Argentina would have went through…
And I wonder what was that scene at the end of the game about… looks to me like the Argentinians were furious about something and they were going to beat some people up… Hmmm… I guess I’ll go read about it in the morning. It’s 2am! Bloody hell. Isn’t the Italy match starting in only an hour’s time? I gotta sleep though… After what the Italians did to my Australia, I think some will probably find it weird that I want the Italians to go through… In fact I want them to if possible, go all the way to the final… where they can lose to a last minute controversial decision against them. Then I’ll laugh my head off, ‘cause then they’ll get a taste of their own medicine and feel double the agony of being so close, yet so far… Heh. I’m an evil person.
posted by lala at 9:33 PM
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