Saturday, July 3, 2010

World Cup Fever! Catch it! (WARNING: may cause spousal irritation)

Match Day 21- Come on, can't we all just get along?

Germany v. Argentina

This is not going to be polite. Tensions between these two teams have been escalating all week with both sides taking verbal jabs at each other. Argentina has dismissed Germany's wins and Germany has called them "aggressive and provocative". A lot of other things have been said, so expect things to get a little ugly tonight.

Germany will look to expose the Argentinian defense which gave up a lot of early chances to Mexico and could be weaker than we think. The German midfield is extremely precise if we can bother to shoehorn on the stereotype. Germany also feature three exceptionally dangerous scoring threats in Muller, Klose and Podolski. Argentina again counters with Lionel Messi engineering most plays from outside the the 18 yard box. He will look to score on his own or offload to Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain.

Did I mention things might get ugly? You might see more playacting in this game than in an entire season of Shakespeare in the park. Expect the entire supply of shinguards to take a hell of a beating. I don't see this one going to overtime tonight. There is a lot of offensive firepower out on that pitch, and penalties could come in to play. Set pieces should be especially brutal. I'm not even going to try and call this one. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it.

Spain v. Paraguay.

Paraguay is looking to suck all the oxygen off the field tonight to snuff out blazing fire that is David Villa. Villa has been on an amazing tear in this Cup. Paraguay's main task will be cutting off access to Villa. Taking your chances with Fernando Torres isn't a great choice but considering the form he has been in, it will be the Paraguayan's best option. I expect Paraguay to sit back a bit as they won't be able to dominate ball control as they have in their last few games. They haven't scored in their last two games, and Spain's defense and midfield won't make it any easier. I think Spain takes this one in the 90 minutes.

Just a few more words about yesterday's games. I feel terrible for Ghana, It's a horrible way to go out. Going out to penalties usually is, but in this case the manner they got there was depressing. Asamoah Gyan misses the penalty kick that ends the game stopping the decision from going to a full shootout. It is heartbreaking and he will carry that for the next four years. I hope he overcomes it mentally. He seems strong though. For Uruguay, Diego Forlan was in absolute top form last night driving cross after dangerous cross into the box. His free-kick goal was spectacular. Luis Suarez however, earned himself a lot of haters. He played well enough, but he dove all over the place and his handball shut out the sure goal that would have won Ghana the game. Obviously, he was crushed by getting sent off and at the same time giving Ghana what appeared to be an almost certain goal in the penalty kick awarded after his foul. Now, Uruguay's most dangerous striker is out for the semi-final game against the Netherlands.

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