your daily recap

[rone]

England 1 - Ecuador 0: England stank it up.  It took a trademark Beckham moment of brilliance for England to win.  Ecuador had their chances early but started losing ground in the second half.  Then Tenorio got hurt and Kaviedes was not noteworthy.  Sadness.  England's next opponent should be very happy to see the English suck it up, except that...

Portugal 1 - Netherlands 0: The first half was exciting and entertaining; after seeing the Dutch press forward with little efficacy, i predicted the Portuguese would score first on a counterattack, and so it happened.  Costinha got a second yellow card in first-half injury time with a completely stupid intentional handball at midfield.  Once the second half started, the Dutch went at it again with more success at getting shots on goal.  Then around the 60-minute mark, things started getting very chippy.  The yellow cards started flowing and the game finished with 16 yellow cards, four of those double yellows and thus reds, two on each side.  The teams were perhaps guilty of too much effort, playing very roughly.  The word of the game is "attrition".  I expect England-Portugal to be the dullest quarterfinal in Cup history.

Just remembered... as the game was in its final minutes (and i've never seen a ref add six minutes of injury time to a half), the camera flashed to the red-carded Dutch Boulahrouz and the Portuguese Deco commiserating on some steps close to the field.

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Hard luck for Ecuador, who probably deserved better. Beckham seems to be a one-trick pony these days: a liability except when there is a set piece to be taken. Apparently he also barfed on the pitch during the game. The only plus for the English, apart from the result, was that Rooney lasted 90 minutes. They are missing Gary Neville in a big way: he links well with Beckham (or whoever) down the right, delivers half-decent crosses himself, and is a shouter and organiser in defence. To make things worse, they didn't take another specialist right back.

Deco will be a big loss in the next game for Portugal (it sounds like Cristiano Ronaldo could miss it through injury, in addition to the two suspended players), but they should still have enough to take England.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Figo runs like he's five years older than he is. If he weren't so brilliant he'd be all done. He did get elbowed in the face, though, and there wasn't a yellow card for that.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

If Figo was five years older, he'd be my age. 'Nuff said. He also headbutted someone and (according to the radio commentary) did a nice line in feigning injury. *shurg* Both sides really wanted to win, and were preared to do anything to get that win.

As an aside, it's the third consecutive tournament where a team managed by Scolari has met England in a quarter final (Brazil in 2002, Portugal in the 2004 European championships). He won the first two, and was being lined up as Eriksson's replacement until either he fell out with the UK media or he refused to leave Portugal before the world cup (depending on who you believe)...