day 6

the beat continues for the world cup and its avid world-wide followers:

match 15: spain v. ukraine

well, anyone who has read about my luck with picking teams in this world cup knew that this match was over before it started because i was for ukraine and their usually-quicksilver striker, andriy shevchenko. when the announcers stated that gametime temps were above 30 degrees Celsius, i knew the match was over. one day, i feel they should play the world cup on antarctica or greenland just to give teams like russia, norway (my lads), finland, and other such cold-climate nations a fighting chance.

regardless, from the start of the match, it was clear that spain were the better squad, unwavering heat or no. despite an early ukraine chance, in the buildup to spain’s first goal in the 13th minute, the iberians were clearly dominating possession, were crisp in their passing, sure in their tackling, and confident in their verve. xabi alonso’s poke in of a bounding ball in front of the ukraine goal for the first score was more than fair.

it only got worse four minutes later when a david villa free kick deflected off a ukrainian defender’s head and past hapless ukraine goalkeeper shovkovskiy. from that moment on, it was just a matter of how many spain were going to score. my man, shevchenko, who i believe was earlier a man some idiot had pimped to score a brace for the ukrainians, was nearly a non-factor for the first half, for he was shackled effortlessly by the spanish back line, led by carlos puyol.

the second half was only worse for the yellow-clad ukrainians. as the sun bore down and temps reached 34, in the 47th minute, the referee ridiculously sent off ukranian defender vladislav vashchuk for what was deemed a “professional foul.” after seeing the replay numerous times, i’m still befuddled at the decision. to compound matters, this phantom foul was committed in the ukraine box, thus handing spain this world cup’s first penalty kick. david villa coolly stepped up and hammered the penalty home and, just three minutes into the half, spain were ahead, 3-nil.

being a man down in the searing heat, ukraine put up little resistance for the remainder of the half. they had a moment or two when they threatened the spanish goal, not the least of which when robbie savage, uh, andriy voronin, who must be the jackass welchman’s ukrainian cousin, nearly put into the top left corner a spectacular shot from somewhere near the polish border. it didn’t matter, though, as spain continuously and mercilessly plundered and marauded the ukraine side of the pitch.

it was ugly–and that was before the (team) goal of the tournament in the 81st minute (not to be confused with the two best individual goals of the tournament, one by germany’s torsten frings and the other by czech republic’s tomas rosicky): the aforementioned carlos puyol took the ball near midfield, pirouetted around a lunging defender, laid off the ball for an unidentified teammate, who then laid it back to the still-running puyol, who defly laid it ahead for an onrushing fernando torres, who gratefully took the gift and put it past the hapless shovkovskiy. it was a magnificent goal, made all the more so by the nifty passing.

spain, after this performance, which i never saw coming (i thought it would be a much closer match, given ukraine’s stout run through the qualifying rounds the last couple of years), belong in the same breath as the czech republic and mexico as the most impressive teams to date.

of course, we all know how the spaniards are and this being their first match, may go straight in the tank for their next two matches and flame out of the group stages. until the spaniards prove their grist on the international stage, i have no faith in their ability to continue this performance, no matter how good they looked and how talented they may be…

this now brings my tally to 15 matches played, three teams correctly cheered for.

it was asked of me tonight, not without reason, whether i had a trinibago strip, since that is who england play tomorrow night. the sad and shocking truth is that i have no trinibago strips, only four or five different england ones.

dear shiva, might i bring the “curse of dissidence” down on the mighty three lions? only wayne rooney can stop the madness, so he damn well better be playing tomorrow night.

and, yes, it was not spain who fell on their arse tonight, it was my hijacked prediction that they would. i believe that this isn’t first mistake i’ve made all week.

i just realised another mistake: it’s not 3 in 15 matches that i’ve cheered for the winning team, but 4 in the first 15, as i did cheer on oz when they played japan (and that doesn’t include trinibago’s 0-0 “win” with sweden). my mistake, my friends from down under.

now about that last african team upon which i was pinning my hopes…

match 16: tunisia v. saudia arabia

regarding my unabashed love for all teams africa, this was the most difficult for me to choose, not the least of which because tunisia and egypt are usually my two least favourite teams on the forgotten continent. this, coupled with the fact that i still feel badly for saudi arabia based on their ‘02 performance, really had me in a quandary, but i eventually remained africa when choosing sides. however, should the result have gone against me, i wouldn’t have been too ragged, either.

anyway, as i mentioned earlier while commenting on spain-ukraine, tunisia were 1-nil up at half time thanks to a nicely-taken goal by zied jaziri in the 23rd minute. jaziri took a side-volleyed goal in the box when it fell to him after a tunisia free kick.

i think one of the reasons i've always less fancied the atlas lions”than most other african teams is that they are the african side that most resemble a european side. they are usually tight on defense (relatively speaking, of course), they aren’t spectacular in their offense prowess, but, rather, are efficient, and normally have none of the flair of the majority of the other african sides. however, they are often vulnerable to opponents’ counterattacks, and tonight was no different.

in the 57th minute, a ball was struck well from near midfield to saudi winger mohammed noor running down the right flank just outside the tunisian box. noor then cleanly squared to onrushing striker yasser al kahtani, who, between two defenders, lasered the ball up into the top inside of the crossbar with the side flick of his right boot. just like that, with tunisia having had the better of play for nearly an hour, it was level.

the goal seemed to energise the “desert princes”, who immediately began to exert their influence on the match. they were finally rewarded in the 84th minute when, again, on a counterattack that started at the foot of their own goal, they were, in a flash of two passes, past midfield. a streaking, unmarked, sami al jaber slotted the ball past tunisian ‘keeper, ali boumnijel, after having an unimpeded run of about 50 meters. as i watched yet another team i fancied seemingly about to go up in smoke, i couldn’t help but feel a sense of happiness, anyway, as i watched the saudi players celebrate hedonistically. after their ‘02 censuring, you could see the pure joy in their celebrations.

there was not much time left, but i couldn’t abandon the only african team left, so i grudgingly watched the remainder play out. when the referee signalled that 4 minutes of stoppage time remained, there was a hint of opportunity, but i wasn’t sure how much. the first two and a half minutes was just a myriad of long balls by tunisia into the saudi half followed by a saudi clearance.

until…

…out of the blue, the saudi defense failed to clear one ball and allowed a tunisian to gather the ball just inside the box, nearly on the touchline and to the right of the goal, and he deftly flicked a cross to an awaiting radhi jaidi, who was between two defenders but not really marked. jaidi did what he was supposed to do and that was bury the ball into the back of the net.

now it was the north africans’ turn to be bounding on the pitch and in the stands in unfettered delight. about a minute later, the referee blew his whistle and the match concluded. it was an outstanding finish to a fairly entertaining game and a deserved result for tunisia. saudi arabia should feel flattered to get out of this with a point, but their two goals were well-taken and not undeserved, so they shouldn’t be too apologetic for nicking that point.

however, finally, africa have a point!!! that it should have to have come from tunisia–the one african team i thought was a sure win–is a tad depressing, but i’ll take it and hope it delivers good karma for the rest of the forgotten continent as the tournament heads to “week” two.

oh, the first “week” tally is now official: 16 matches played, 4 teams correctly cheered for (though there are two draws, the trinibago one and the just-concluded tunisia one that each feel like a correctly-chosen selection). let’s hope the second go-round is better. if it’s not good for me, then i hope it is for you…

match 17: germany v. poland

dortmund was the site of the hosts’ second match and it was as festive an atmosphere as you could hope to see, one you would expect from a host nation–reminiscent of two certain asian nations from back in ‘02 or something (and, yes, let’s not forget that japan CO-hosted the ‘02 version with korea…)

for this particular match, the barbarians, er, bavarians would be virtually booked a place in the next round if the could keep their pesky polish neighbours at bay, and, to many in attendance and watching around most of the world–not in poland or, say, indonesia, of course–this match was a foregone conclusion in favour of the germans.

germany had looked very good on attack in their first one against costa rica, but a little soft at the back, while poland had looked like warmed shit covered with banana cream sauce in its first one with ecuador. it would only stand to reason that the germans would romp, right?!?!

well, though the teutons’ michael ballack was back from injury patrolling midfield, they didn’t manhandle the polish as easily as was thought they would. in fact, it was obvious nearly from the outset that poland were not the same easy date ecuador had brought to the dance and taken advantage of; no, this time, poland was far more protective of her virtue than she had been in her first dance. to be honest, they were even the more aggressive of the two at times and it was german who often found itself trying to fend off poland’s advances.

the two squads traded close calls with one another for good portions of an entertaining first half before lukas podolski nearly gave germany the lead at the break, except that his lousy finish from five meters had all the quality of a one-legged first-grader.

the second half continued in the same vein as the poles continued to frustrate the german advances. there was very little imagination from either side and the anxious locals in the stadium were starting to show their discomfort with the proceedings. to appease the masses–and to inject some life into his own team–german gaffer jurgen klinsmann substituted david odonkor for arne friedrich about 25 minutes from time. this did seem to put some life in the bavarians and, ten minutes later, poland were reduced to ten men when midfielder radoslaw sobolewski was sent off for his second bookable offense on a marauding miroslav klose.

though the poles were a man down, germany could not breach the poland goal, even with its now-rampant domination and peppering of the poland defense. much too close for comfort for the home crowd, it was not until injury time that germany finally put the poles away.

it was substitute odonkor who provided a nice cross to onrushing fellow sub, oliver neuville, and neuville clinically drove the ball into the net for a hard-fought 1-nil victory that sent germans the world over into party mode. regardless of their difficulty with the poles, germany is now at the brink of 2nd round qualification and the locals were (are still) mad with joy.

as has already been mentioned in other points in aetherspace, germany is going to be tough to beat for the title with a strong squad and a raucous home nation backing it. should be fun to watch, as it was four years ago.

things i hope not to see today: a rainy surface for england’s match render wayne rooney inactive or re-injured; more trinibago resolute defending, like against the swedes; fried pub food; a sweden win over paraguay; serbinegro’s horrible-looking, pinwheel-like home kits; an argentine win over said serbs; english complaints about the heat.

things i do hope to witness: rooney emerge from trinibago unscathed; more goal celebrations like the togolese did; more koreans watching matches that don’t involve korea; indonesia in the world cup before 2104…