This World Cup is now five days old and what a tournament it
has been so far! The group stages in
many previous tournaments have produced mainly tight games, teams ‘feeling
themselves in’ to the tournament and a general lack of urgency, but the goals (aside
from the dreadful Iran vs Nigeria match that I endured today) keep flying in.
And who would’ve thought that as the first round of group
games almost come to a close that the only team so far that have been well and
truly taken apart is Spain! What an
extraordinary match and the second half performance from the Dutch was
phenomenal. Robben and Van Persie in
particular tore the World Champions to shreds.
It was also a great example of how goals and misses can change
the whole complexion of a match. David
Silva was clean through at 1-0 from the best through-ball I’ve seen in this
whole tournament – from Iniesta – and if he puts that away who knows how the
game goes from there? And then, to add
insult to injury Van Persie scores a fantastic, opportunistic goal to make it
1-1 just before the break, when Spain had been in complete control of the match. This passage of play has to of shaped what
followed: a touch of magic changing the whole course of the match. But I won’t dissect it too much, best just to
enjoy the football and watch how everything starts to take shape, unfold. It’s been a fascinating watch so far.
England also began their campaign against Italy late on
Saturday night. As a massive fan I am
usually so gutted when England lose; but although I was disappointed we didn’t
get a result from the match, I was strangely upbeat. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, for I realised
that I have wanted England to play like that for YEARS. Of course, there was plenty that we could’ve
done better, but it was a young team up against a streetwise Italian side. We were only narrowly beaten and I can’t be
too critical of anything. To do so would
be to vent anger merely because we lost, but there is more to football than
that. Sterling was excellent, probably
the best player on the park – so promising – and Sturridge is a joy to
watch. I love watching his footwork and
imagination on the ball. On another day
we could’ve got something from the game, without a doubt. If I had to criticise anything in the
performance it was that for the last twenty-five minutes or so, we seemed to
stand off the Italians more and gaps began to open up whenever Italy picked the
ball up in our final third. But when you
consider the conditions and how much the lads gave, it is not surprising that
they began to tire.
Criticisms: I hate how sometimes cheating is called cheating
and sometimes it’s called ‘clever’, such as the Diego Costa penalty incident
in the Spain-Holland match. Can somebody
please explain the difference? Incidentally, Diego Costa’s nickname in Spain
literally translates as ‘bad milk.’
Something that made me laugh in this opening week.
I wish the referees would book players that do that
‘imaginary card waving’ gesture. That
would soon nip it in the bud wouldn’t it?
It’s odious, extremely unsporting and even more disgusting when it comes
from a team’s MANAGER (I saw the Ivory Coast boss do it in their match against
Japan, but he hasn’t been the only one) as it is setting an example to their
players that it is completely okay to try and get an opponent booked.
TV COVERAGE: A mixed
bag on the whole. On the BBC I see Steve
Wilson and Mark Lawrenson as very much the ‘A-Team.’ Lawrenson constantly makes me chuckle and he
also doesn’t sit on the fence. The BBC
on the whole is streets ahead of ITV although I would still get rid of Gabby
Logan and certainly Robbie Savage. On
ITV it annoys me so much that having just shown forty-five minutes of often
dramatic world class football, we have to listen to a ‘Chiles-ism’ just before
the break. JUST GO TO THE ADVERTS!! He’s NOT FUNNY. Or informative.
The worst punditry I’ve heard in the tournament so far though
came from Sam Matterface and Clarke Carlisle – ITV’s commentary team at the
Switzerland vs Ecuador match. When
Ecuador were 1-0 up, Matterface asked Carlisle if he believed it would be
‘France and one other’ that would qualify from the group. Carlisle said yes and then added that it
should be Ecuador as ‘Jackson Martinez can’t get in the side, so they must be
pretty good.’ Firstly: Jackson Martinez
is Colombian and already played in the tournament for them. A pretty embarrassing gaff; Secondly:
Switzerland are the seeded team in the group and ranked by FIFA as sixth in the
world. Surely they deserve a bit more
respect? They turned the game around in
the second half and although they left it awfully late, they were good value for
their 2-1 win. But for getting their
facts wrong and for writing off a seeded team before it was even half-time in
their opening game, these two take the poor-punditry prize for me.
The officiating has also been a very mixed bag. The best games are always the ones where the
referee is not too fussy and can ‘see through’ the diving and
gamesmanship. The American referee Mark Geiger did a
fine job in the Colombia vs. Greece match in this respect and Pat Nevin on BBC 5 Live made a
great point: ‘If the players go down and the ref says: “come on, get up, get on
with it,” players aren’t stupid; they’re going to say to themselves, “oh it’s
one of THOSE referees…we’d better get on with it then.’ Great stuff.
And what a revelation the ‘vanishing spray’ has been! What a great and simple idea and I’m amazed how obedient
the players are being with it. It’s not
like the refs have had to send off half a dozen players for encroaching before
the message gets across; the players seem to have taken it on-board straight
away. Well done to them.
A lot of work needs to be done however on this ‘goal-line
technology’ graphic. Why are we seeing
that for every goal? It is so over the
top: if it has hit the back of the net I’m going to assume it’s a goal. But it’s progress I suppose; let’s be patient with it.
So the teams will soon be playing their second games of the
tournaments and the groups will start to take shape. The first teams will be either booking their
places in the knockout rounds or their flights home. Let’s hope the exciting matches continue.
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