World Cup Week Three from Taiwan

World Cup Week Three from Taiwan

The third week of the World Cup only included four days of football, but what a four days we have seen.  So many close games, the underdog pushing the big dogs all the way, record breaking displays, goals, penalty shootouts, but alas all the favourites (group winners) came through.  For the first time since the World Cup became a 64 team tournament, all eight group winners are through the quarter finals.  At first this appears to be a disappointment, but all in all it is good for the tournament.  You want the big guns pushed, but at the end of the day/tournament you want to see the best teams and players battling it out against each other for the title.  Five of the eight games went the injury time, with another two decided in the last ten minutes; the Dutch won in injury time!  The only game not to be close compensated by provided one of, if not the goal of the tournament.  James Rodriguez’s control on the chest, spin and volley off the cross bar from the 25 yards was simply stunning.  I, and I hope many more, will hence forth call him James Rodriguez-Yeboah (try guessing who I support).

 

The Dutch and specifically Arjen Robben have created yet more controversy in the World Cup.  He said he dived in the match, but not for the penalty.  I do not see any difference from his performance vs Mexico and a regular Robben performance.  The only difference is he came out, admitted diving and apologised.  I am often critical of Robben and many others for going down ludicrously easily or just plain diving.  Let’s not forget as we speak football is still, for now, a contact sport.  There were excellent examples of how easy it is for these players to stay on their feet if they want to in the Netherlands vs Mexico games and Argentina vs Switzerland game.  First, Robben burst into the box, hurdled Marquez’s leg and had a shot on goal.  I’ve seen Robben and thousands of players go over in similar situations too many times to count.  Second, Messi in the 118^th minute goes past the defender, 30 yards out, is clipped, but stays on his feet and sets up Di Maria for the win.  Messi (and others), I have seen many times when his team are chasing stay on his feet when challenged, but go down easily or dive when they are ahead.  I read an interesting article on the BBC about diving (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28100892).  It essentially says the team winning dives more than the team who is losing.  I would assume the reason is two-fold: 1) the winning team wants to waste time/the losing team want to keep the game flowing and are only likely to dive for a penalty, and 2) often the better teams are winning and they often dive more.  I remember when I used to play football, I used to love knocking it past the defender and hurdling over the sliding the defender; admitted sometimes you’d get kicked in the mid-air, but I still loved it.  I used to love watching quick wingers doing it, but slowly over 2000’s this kind of thing has evaporated, attackers/wingers would much rather see a player booked than take him on, it is a shame.  I’ll stop this rant before it goes too far, but only way I see it changing is if FIFA impose a retrospective ban system.  Unfortunately, this is very hard to enforce and leaves FIFA open to many appeals.  Remember Eduardo in 2009.  I felt really sorry for Mexico as they were the better team only to get knocked by a sucker punch; has Van Gaal time started?

 

I think Tim Howard deserves a shout out for a great, record breaking, performance.  Fifteen saves in a game is pretty impressive, people say he should save them anyway, but to save them all without a mistake or pushing the ball out to an opponent is truly impressive.  I am also greatly enjoying ‘things Tim Howard could save’.  I think my personal favourite maybe Simba’s dad; the independent has a good selection (http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/worldcup/belgium-vs-united-states-the-best-memes-of-things-tim-howard-could-save-after-brilliant-performance-against-belgium-9579064.html).  USA fans and changing Wikipedia is also greatly amusing me.  First, it was Jon Brooks, the greatest American since Abraham Lincoln and now it is Tim Howard, Secretary of Defence. The Belgians played well, but really need to put their chances away.

 

The two African nations left put in two very good performances, but were beaten by, probably, slightly better teams.  Both games were very close and exciting, but credit to France and Germany for scraping it out and finishing the job.  It can’t be long before an African team makes it through to, and past, the semi-finals.  I think it is mind-set or a mental block with them at the moment because they have a lot of quality.

 

We have surprisingly seen two shoot outs.  But the surprising thing is, it has only been two!  It’s hard to begrudge Costa Rica a place in the quarter finals; what a tournament they are having!  Although, let’s not forget the stat: Costa Rica is the team to have committed the most fouls in the tournament  so far (followed by Uruguay).  At the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, I think it is worth mentioning as I think a European team would have been crucified by the media for the same statistic.  In the other penalty shootout game, Brazil were two-inches from being knocked out.  I felt bad for Chile, especially Jara, but for the sake of the tournament I think the result was for the best.  Chile were a little unlucky in their draw; Netherlands, Spain and Brazil.

 



Roony trys to find the secret of Ibrahimovic.  Is it Swedish Meatballs?

I thought having a couple of days off from the World Cup might have done me some good, but unfortunately my body clock is well and truly on World Cup time.  Now instead of watching World at 4am, I’ve been laying awaking wishing there was a World Cup match on.  I haven’t been out or got lost watching the World Cup this week, all for four days have been a mix of Taiwanese TV and streaming.  This week I have also watched a lot of Wimbledon, which is a bigger sport over here and has slightly more sociable hours, so it has been much easier.  Unfortunately, despite cruising through the first week, Murray couldn’t mend the broken heart from the World Cup.  What was equally disappointing was he went out with such a damp squib, which was surprising.

 

Hopefully, we can get a British winner of the British grand prix.  It has been getting very depressing being a British sport fan recently.  Also, let’s hope the cricket boys and rediscover the winning formula.

 

Here’s to the continued success and enjoyment of the World Cup and goals, goals goals,

 

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