Like It Is

Another penalty shoot-out. Or penalty lottery. France dominated the match and really should have won this game, but it was not to be, as at half time, the two teams were 1–1.

There were many twists and turns in this contest. But the strangest thing was Zidane’s red card. Not that he shouldn’t have been sent off, for what he did that was the only response. No, what was strange was that he would do what he did. I can only imagine that whatever Materazzi said to him, it sent all thoughts of finishing the World Cup out of his head. That headbutt in the chest was fierce and tumbled Materazzi to the ground. I know this was Zidane’s last World Cup, but even so. Now all people will remember him for was his sending off for headbutting his opponent in the World Cup.

Have to say though, it was something to see..he looked like he wanted to punch him.

Italy 2 Germany 0. Blogging from a very hot England, I watched the match last night tucking into a Balti chicken curry and naan bread and lots of cold water. Ice cold water was the only drink that would do in the sweltering heat. We are having a heat wave for sure. The match was 0-0 into extra time, but after all is said and done the best minutes were really the last three… that first goal in the last two minutes of extra time was brilliant - and at that point I feared it was just about over for Germany.

The second goal was the icing on the cake - and, as if to cruelly underline the fact, the end of Germany’s hopes of the World Cup in 2006. Just cannot but say that Italy played very well. They just refused to give up, and they clearly did not want the game to go the dreaded penalties. Germany also played well, but Italy became more difficult to cope with as the game drew nearer to the end. I suspect that, had the game gone to penalties, Germany may have had an advantage, and may even have gone on to win. We’ll never know, will we?

Italy will play the winner of tonight’s match - Portugal v France… starting in 15 minutes. Time for me to go - I’m planning to catch it!

France 1 Brazil 0. What an upset! France knocks out the favourite Brazil to go through to the semi-finals. Zidane is the man of the hour. Brazil are out after playing as if they had it already in the bag. They hadn’t. It’s goodbye to Brazil for this world cup. They shouldn’t have been surprised - France has beaten them in three of their four encounters.

Portugal 0 England 0 (3-1 on penalties). England goes out of the world cup after being beaten by Portugal on penalties. Again. The penalty shoot-out followed 120 goalless minutes of play. There is an eerie silence outside, for just one moment it seemed that England would have a chance to be in the semi-finals, but it was not to be.

I thought England played very hard and very well, after losing David Beckham to injury just after half time and Wayne Rooney in a send off. I will forever question the decision to play Rooney up front in the first place.

I was very happy to be able to watch the match in England in spite of the loss (and my jet lag). We are all very sad for the boys, it’s heartbreaking for them but I did think that, as far as the penalties were concerned, Portugal did better than England in getting them by England’s goalie. Ricardo was good, no doubt about it. They managed to get through in spite of two of their shots hitting the post.

So England’s dream of World Cup glory is over, the boys are gutted, many are in tears. The fans are rallying round. The post mortems will go on for a long time; I hope the media will not be too hard on the team. And Sven’s reign is well and truly over. So it should be.

Italy 3 Ukraine 0. I favoured Italy to win this encounter. I still thought Ukraine had a chance when Italy scored their first goal, but on the second, I thought it was pretty much over – Italy had won.. Italy played very well and deserved their win, with some great defensive football and some beautiful goals.

Ukraine had a couple of chances to score, but on two occasions hit the woodwork.Any chance of saving the day disappeared, when, at about halfway through the second half, they again missed a great opportunity to score at least a goal. They weren’t helped by the  strong Italian defence, theirs was less disciplined. Still, though they lost, lot’s of things for them to reflect on for their next attempt in four years.

Italy will face their big test when they meet Germany in the semi-finals.

Germany 1 Argentina 1. (Germany wins 4–2 on penalties).

Wow! What a close match this was! Terrific game. Germany beats Argentina 4–2 on a penalty shoot out. Argentina was leading after Roberto Ayala’s goal at 49 minutes. But then, with 10 minutes left Germany equalised with Miroslav Klose’s goal, his fifth of the tournament.

The quarter-final was 1–1 after extra time. These were two really good teams and you just knew that one of them was going to go home in tears. When it went to penalties I was holding my breath. Germany scored from their first four kicks, but Argentina missed two – sending the hosts all the way through to the semi-final. Well done Germany. Great match.

I felt sorry for Argentina at first – who looked and probably were – in total shock.Their players were in tears, particularly the ones who missed the penalties. They really believed they were going through. I was only sorry for them until I saw what was happening on the pitch after the game, though. That reminded me what poor losers they are. Winning is important, but nobody likes a poor loser.

Brazil 3 Ghana 0.  I had favoured Brazil to win this match so wasn’t really surprised. When at half time I saw the score was 2–0 I thought that’s it for Ghana. Brazil then go on to get another goal. Ghana had plenty of energy, plenty of spirit and kept going at it. They even controlled play for a lot of the game and created some chances. But their lack of delivery let them down every time, which was a pity. They should have scored at least one goal. I think they have a lot of great players (many of whom play outside Ghana), however their coach needs to work on creating the talent that comes from a great team, rather than just great players. Something for the next World Cup?  All said and done though, well done to Ghana for coming this far.

France  3  Spain 1.  Late goals in the last 10 minutes sealed France’s place in the quarter final and an assured meet with Brazil, while a defeated Spain heads out of the World Cup. I’m surprised either team got this far, frankly. France v Brazil.  Today’s victory over Spain will be like a walk in the park compared to what they’ll get when they meet Brazil, because they aren’t as good a team as Brazil. Should be interesting.

Switzerland 0–0 Ukraine (0–3 on penalties). I didn’t catch this match live, but I think this would have been worth watching simply because of the dreaded penalties to elimination. Ukraine beat Switzerland on penalties and now go through to the quarter finals to meet Italy. The Swiss are going home. But not without a couple of records… they are the first team to go out of the World Cup without having conceded a goal. Pretty remarkable. They are also the first side that did not score a single penalty in a shoot-out. Ouch!

Italy 1 Australia 0. Did Australia want to win this one? I mean really, really? Nice tidy football, but where was the fire to win? Where was the ambition? Did they think they were playing…um… France?

Even though Australia dominated possession, (58% to 42%) they seemed unable to produce anything from it. Even with a 10 man Italian team. Not that Italy made the most of it either; not until stoppage time did Francesco Totti score a penalty during injury time that gave Italy all they needed to go through to the quarter finals. I hear that the Aussie coach thought the penalty award was suspect (No, really?)… perhaps it was, but it hardly matters now. Fact is, Australia hadn’t produced anything up until then anyway, so little point complaining? They paid the price, and it’s back to Oz for the Aussies.

Portugal 1 Netherlands 0. What to call this match? I have never seen anything like it. What a shambles of a match – bad tempered, unsportsmanlike, bad blood, play acting, head butting – the list goes on, all negative. The motto seemed to be cheat and dive and foul, no matter what. An ugly game. England must be rubbing their hands in glee looking forward to meeting a Portugal who will be fielding a team with lots of missing men. They shouldn’t be too happy as, in my opinion, there was still more quality in Portugal’s game than in England’s. It just got rather lost in the yellow and red cards.

England haven’t even played well yet and they are going to stumble into the quarter finals. The one good thing about the Portugal-Netherlands game was Maniche’s goal, but even then, he committed a bookable offence, leaving the field completely after scoring the goal. But Portugal are through to the quarter finals and will play England next week.

I could barely look away and when I did it was to return to yet another yellow or red card or a sending off. At times the game degenerated into farcical proportions, with the number of yellow cards and red cards flying around. The referee had huge problems controlling this match and the players were bent on taking full advantage of this. It looked like the players on both teams completely lost their heads for most of the game. Every single Portuguese player has a red or yellow card. The Netherlands not being far behind. In this match – 16 yellow cards and 4 red. The total of red cards for this World Cup Tournament: 23… an all time high. Number of goals: 1.

Looking for an example of how to play football professionally? Forget the entire 2nd half of this game. Just pretend you never even saw it.

England 1 Ecuador 0. The good news: England is through to the quarter final. They’ve done the job.

The bad news, the worrying news is that their game was still unconvincing, their performance lacklustre. In fact of the two teams, Ecuador put on the best performance with a defence that kept England at bay for all the first half. I find myself wondering “what if they hadn’t had that free-kick?” David Beckham’s goal from that free-kick saved England’s bacon and took them through to the quarter final.

By far one of the worst matches of this World Cup, but England is through and will meet the Dutch later in the week. England will have to ratchet up their performance if they want to stay in the contest.

Edit: I appear to be getting a little ahead of myself as far as who England is playing next. Let's see how good my early predictions turn out to be!

Edit: I was getting ahead of myself! It will be England v Portugal.