your semi-finals recap

[rone]

Italy 2 - Germany 0: Good first half, dull second half, dull first overtime, exciting second overtime.  The Italians were just a bit better throughout the game and deserved the win.  Cannavaro is a rock in their backfield, Buffon saved the few chances where Podolski actually managed to put the ball on goal, Gilardino proved to be an inspired substitution, and Grosso was totally alone in the box when he one-timed Pirlo's pass just past Lehmann's fingers and just inside the post.  Odonkor proved to be as energetic as ever a subsitution for the Germans, but he couldn't get it done alone.  Klose was almost invisible.

France 1 - Portugal 0: Both teams came out looking for an early goal.  France established control of the midfield soon after that, and then earned a penalty kick when Carvalho whacked Henry from the ground.  Zidane stuffed it into the low corner, but Ricardo guessed right (again) and almost saved it.  In the second half, the game diminished considerably, with Portugal being unable to get anything happening up front and France not really showing any interest in making a serious attack.  Figo looked tired even before the game started, and as the end of the game came close, he looked completely gassed.  Then Scolari inserted Simão and Postiga, the former of which really started making things happen (and the latter took some pretty dives).  Actually, the Portuguese really dove a lot, and whined a lot for calls, too.  Really, really annoying.  I'm glad they lost. At least they made the last 10 minutes of the game really exciting, with Ricardo coming up for the final two minutes of play to try to make something out of a couple of corner kicks. He was the man of the match.

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I've heard several people say that the best thing about Portugal losing was seeing that diving you-name-it Cristiano Ronaldo in tears.

A statistic which occurred to me tonight is that, in the ten most recent world cups including this one (i.e. going back to 1970), only six different nations have reached the finals: Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France and Holland. I find myself hoping for a bit more variety in 2010...

Based on the most recent performances, I find myself fancying Italy for the final, but both teams defend so well (apart from that weird mistake by Barthez) that it could easily finish 0-0 after 120 minutes.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, i actually missed seeing CR crying. Ah well, i'm sure it'll happen again.

Since France has only been in one final, that's as varied as it gets these days. And in the end, Italy and France have been the two teams that have played the best, so it's a deserving couple of finalists.

I see Italy winning, too, on another late goal.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

palecur and I enjoyed the Germany/Italy game a lot and frightened the cat after that second goal.

But yeah, the diving on the part of Portugal was so irritating that I found myself cheering on France.

The reffing for both games was much better than it was for the rest of the Cup.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Indeed it has been, whereas in the QFs it was rather crappy.

[yong-mi.livejournal.com]

It's been wonderful watching Zidane since the Spain match. What strikes me is his parsimony on the pitch - there is no wasted motion, no flashiness for its own sake. It would be wonderful to see Les Vieux hoist another world cup.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, Les Vieux. I actually thought Zidane lost his magic in the second half; there were some misplayed balls, some bad passes. Nobody's perfect, or at least not for long.

[bungo.livejournal.com]

Z. looked pretty damn fatigué by the end. I hope he gets a good rest before the weekend.

And it was cool to see the Portguese keeper up in the attack in the final minutes.

[kawgirl.livejournal.com]

Well, at least I won´t be sad to be missing the final as I fly back home from Mexico...

[waider.livejournal.com]

Personally I didn't think France deserved to get that penalty, as Henry had actually kept his footing and only fell to the ground after the fact. And I really hate it when a game is decided on a cheap call like that, so I spent the rest of the game urging on Portugal.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Well, it was definitely a foul, but yeah, Henry did a little extra selling on it.