Lex Iniesta Est Lex

Andres Iniesta has become Spain's local hero overnight. The decisive116th minute goal was the turning point in the long-drawn match leaving the Dutch dream of the coveted cup in pieces. Spain beat Holland 1-0, 26 minutes into extra time.

The controversies and decisions of Howard Webb, the referee at this morning's FIFA World Cup 2010 finals in Soccer City, Johannesburg will be the talk of a lot of towns till the next championships in Brazil-

• Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk blamed for an indiscipline game and failure to call a free kick to Netherlands. The on-field official showed a second yellow card to Puyol when he appeared to impede Arjen Robben in the 82nd minute, allowing Robben to play on and miss his chance to score. This will always be the summer of their discontent.
  

• I'm positive the world's audience saw Nigel de Jong's flying kick into Xabi Alonso's chest which although strongly argued merited a red card only saw Webb dismissing that clear offense with a yellow card.

Holland was of course a man down with John Heitinga's dismissal after a second yellow card 19 minutes into extra-time. Evermore so, the team's desperation would have fueled the derision they had on the English referee. Who can blame them from being "deprived" of a chance at the World Cup.

I can't help but to once again assert that I would have preferred to watch the Germans take on Spain in the finals. But they did well against Uruguay, beating the latter 3-2 despite lowered spirits. Their defeat to Spain took on toll on Miroslave Klosse who fell ill with a flu. Germany's coach, Joachim Loew disallowed the sickly star from playing, lest the Panzers desired to diminish their chances to take on 3rd placing. This decision although tactically sound left Klosse devastated as he lost his chance of beating Ronaldo's record of 15 goals at the World Cup. He was just short of 1 to match.

The fever is over. Rio De Janeiro now awaits football nations to converged again.

Finals!!!

This is it... for a month now...teams have enjoyed the ecstasy of victory and suffered the agony of defeat. 16 of the world's finest have proved their mettle or gone back to the drawing board. You all have lost sleep over one of the world's most watched sporting event.

Holland vs. Spain...

Soccer City, Johannesberg...

It comes down to 22 men, 0.7 billion people, a bird in Singapore and an octopus in Germany...

Semi-Finals: Germany vs. Spain: Paul the Octopus was right

Should have had octopus sashimi for dinner. A cephalopod's prediction came true. Paul the Octopus picked Spain to be the winner in an aquarium with one box painted with the German flag and the other, the Spanish flag. It was right.

Playing a defensive game as I've witnessed can cost you. It's a small margin for error when you need to hold fort for 90 minutes. If a goal is scored in the 2nd half, the whole ball game (no pun intended) turns around and you'd be fighting for your life. That's what happened with the Germans who rallied with the Spanish up until the 2/3 of the 2nd half. Neuer was close to saving it but not close enough.

In the 73rd minute, a corner shot gave Puyol a opening to score. The game was tight with Germany playing defense most of the time. Possession was mostly in the Spanish boys' favour, especially A.Iniesta and David Silva. Their show of skills I must admit, is admirable. The control and seamless passing is like no other I've seen. If not for that watershed corner kick, the Germans would have had a chance as their defense was back up to the brim. Podolski got a close one in from the side-line with Toni Kroos deflecting into the Spanish goal. An equalizer at so close of the match would likely to have been a crucial point for both teams.

Mueller sat out in this match by reason of the previous match offense. Would he have made a difference? Well, I think so. He hasn't missed a game until now.

I guess Joachim Loew's future as the team's coach has now taken the turn for the worse, incidentally his coaching contract has run its course. I think he has done an excellent job and it would be Germany's peril not to renew it.

Needless to say, this marks the end of the Panzer's dream to reach the World Cup 2010 finals, much to the disappointment of a multitude.

Quarter Finals: Germany sends Argentina home

Germany celebrates their 4-0 victory over Argentina.

Mueller scored Germany's 1st goal in the 3rd minute of the game. I thought the Argentinians would had put up half an effort to regain their footing so early in the game but their rallying was futile.

During the 2nd half, the Panzer's survived Argentina's relentless onslaught and popped in the other 3. Miroslave Klose and Arne Friedrich scored the subsequent 2 goals in the 68th and 75th minutes to bring them out of any equalizing chances and the 4th by Klosse at the brink of the 2nd half sealed the Argentinians' doom. Lukas Podolski contributed largely to the 3rd goal with an excellent pass from the side line to Friedrich.

Fragmented defenses and what seemed to be a pressured atmosphere lead to the Argentinians' bad defeat in last night's game. Even their coach, former football superstar Diego Maradona showed the immensity of what they were up against. The truth is, Argentina was not playing well tonight. I confess I would have enjoyed evenly matched game with the winner coming out at the brink of defeat. A 4-0 win robs Argentina of their last shred of dignity at Capetown last night.

Whilst the Panzers are ecstatic, the next match between Paraguay and Spain kicks off to determine who they will be up against in the semis. I lack the stamina to watch a 2nd game, so I retire looking forward to know the results later in the morning.

Will there be another upset tonight?

Will Cape Town see the Panzers hold their fort and kick their way into the race for the coveted cup or will the Argentinians refuse them just like how they did Mexico? Brazil was the latest casualty in the hands of Holland. The Dutch ousted them South American team at the final moments. Tensions must be high for pundits and fans alike.

Some interesting statistics:-

• Argentina beat Germany 3-2 in the finals in 1986

• In 1990, Germany vindicated themselves and sent Argentina off with a 1-0 victory to the trophy

• In 2006, the Germans managed to snatch victory away from the Argentinians in the quarter-finals securing a penalty kick for 4-2 win

• The two teams have met each other 18 times previously with Argentina winning eight, losing five and drawing five, while outscoring the Germans 25 to 23 in the process

• Messi has yet to put in a goal although he has massively contributed in all matches played by Argentina

• From the likes of the previous matches, it seems that Germany has a strong defense based on skill and discipline, but they cannot now afford to slip like that they did engaging Serbia barely a month ago

• Argentina have been flawless in their performances so far in the tournament. They won all matches, three in the group league and then grounded Mexico in the Round of 16.

In European Football Forum, the polls predict Argentina a 60% chance of winning against 34% for Germany with a 4% chance of a tie!

I would like to see Germany ride their way safely past this one. Lukas Podolski and Miroslave Klosse must be at their best tonight. At the brink, survival will be granted to the fittest. There must have been some Buenos Aires magic in the air sealing victories for Argentina so far. Their pace is stead and their tenacity seems to know no relent as yet.

No doubt, the pressure for both teams would be astronomical.

Round of 16: Germany vs. England

The Panzers reigns triumphant against the Lions in a 4-1 victory. The Lions are out of the World Cup race.

I caught the match a Irish Pub Finnegans in Sri Hartamas with my colleague Sankar last night. The psychological win was when Miroslave Klose and Lukas Podolski scored the first 2 goals in the 20th and 32rd minute of the 1st half. England's Upson scored their first goal with Lampard shooting what would have been an equalizer had it not been a disallowed goal.

From my viewpoint, I must admit it was a clear goal which would might just have turned the tides in the psychological element. The official should have let it through for the sake of fairness. The crowd of England fans' cheers in the bar fell silent after the 1st half, signifying the atmosphere at that time. This "controversy" will be told for years to come.

Germany performs when referees don't pull booking offenses on them unlike the Serbian match where they lost 0-1. England was well rounded in their game, controlling midfield well but the last efforts could not stave off Germany's onslaught. Mueller nailed 2 more in the 2nd half, sealing the Lion's doom. It looks like they have to wait another 4 years to get another shot to vindicate themselves against Germany.

Germany will now face magnificent Argentina who trashed Mexico 3-1 in the Round of 16 this morning. The match is scheduled this Saturday and I reckon would be one of 2010 World Cup's most defining moments.

Group G Portugal vs. Brazil

Portugal emerged as the runner up for the Group G match against Brazil after they drew with the South American team. Both qualify for the Round of 16 matches where Portugal will play against Group H's winners whilst Brazil with the runners' up.

Ivory Coast is now out of the World Cup despite defeating North Korea.

Considering Portugal's advances are just by the grit, they had better buck up now that they've been given a shot to play in the elimination rounds prior to the quarters. I would of course love to see them march into the semis.

Portugal plays well so much the last World Cup against France was full of suspense. I am looking forward for some quality matches. Their chances would be better if Christiano Ronaldo makes a real impact in the forthcoming matches instead of a running strafe. It's about time they make their striker's attacks count. Near misses won't cut it anymore.

Tomorrow's match line-up should be a good watch. Germany takes on England after the latter beats Slovenia 2 days ago and USA takes on Ghana. I I hope England gets taken out. The Argentines will face off with Mexico whilst Uruguay will do South Korea in the upcoming Round of 16 matches. Argentina comes in pretty strong this time although Brazil's brazenness seems unshaken so far.

Group G Portugal vs. North Korea

After taking my dad out for a belated Father's Day dinner tonight, my brother and I reckon we'd spend some time watching a qualifying World Cup 2010 match with him. Footie fanactics probably saw the heaviest ever casualty ever in the last 10 days.

If North Korea had impressed the crowd when they scored one pitted against Brazil on the last occasion, tonight's battle at Greenpoint Stadium in Capetown, South Africa. The audacious 3 goals within 7 minutes is a far cry from putting up a fight. Appalled fans of and against the team saw how the N Koreans bowed out in a 7-0 disgraceful defeat to Portugal. Was there not enough Kimchi to go around the night before for this abysmal display of skill in an international arena?

The North Koreans could barely control midfield with the onslaught of the Portuguese. It's understandable that the N. Koreans didn't have what it took to assault the Portuguese but cracking up a lousy defense just sealed their doom. Wide open reckless endeavor, I'd call it.

It's like the Asian team had no defenses at all. Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo didn't break a sweat nudging in the Portuguese's 5th goal with the ball gently landing on the back of his neck and straight on with a softy punt into the wide open goal and then he displays a smile which just say, "that was a piece of cake". I do believe that this is Ronaldo's first ever goal in the 2010 World Cup and marks the end of his two-year goal drought for the national team.

The winner of this match will take 2nd place in what has been called the "Group of Death". Portugal will face brazen Brazil on Friday to vie for a shot at the semis.

Group D Aussie vs. Ghana

In my previous entry, I implied Ghana would have no problem against Australia in yesterday's (19th June) game. I was wrong. Aussie played excellently despite being down to 10 men at Rustenburg, South Africa.

The game was a 1-1 draw with both the teams unable to break it till the 90^th minute. Thus, Ghana has 4 points in total and Australia is behind at just 1 point. Aussie played rather well considering Harry Kewell was sent off on a straight red card by the referee in the 24th minute.

The soccer team from down under can progress if Germany plays as well against Ghana as it did against Australia in next Wednesday's final match for Group D.

FIFA World Cup 2010

It's been 8 days since FIFA World Cup 2010 had started and I watched my first game between Germany and Serbia in the Group D matches last night. I'm not a ardent fan of the game and probably miss a few good ones last week. Sankar, my colleague is a die-hard footie fan and after work last night, I tagged along for some food and a few beers whilst tuned on the live telecast at a bar across the street.

It didn't take long for me to get into the hype and suspense of watch Germany's Lucas Podolski shooting over and over again into the Serbian defences in a hope to pin that coveted goal on a hot afternoon at Nelson Mandela Stadium. Germany lost to Serbia 1-0 after Milan Jovanovic scored the Serb's first goal barely a minute after Miroslav Klose was sent off after tackling a foul twice thanks to an over-zealous referee. Six yellow cards in the first half is being over-zealous. Sankar was exasperated over the showing of those sanctioning instruments for every minor infraction. It was different in the 2nd half. One can only speculate that the ref got a ticking off for his quick draw sanctions.

So, down to 10 men, Germany's onslaught came one after another but to no avail. It just wasn't their day. To add insult to injury, the last 3 additional minutes saw a Serb taking injury and sent off the field in the stretcher, only to screw up the momentum and waste time for the already desperate Germans. With this unexpected defeat, Germany must now man-up against Ghana next for that would be a tough game. I wouldn't want to see the Germans out so early.

In Group D, Ghana is up against Australia today and I guess that much is a foregone conclusion.