Day Twenty Wrap Up.

Wow, just wow, wowowowowowowoWOW.  I can't believe my eyes/RSS feed.  Today's games were INSANE.

GAME ONE:  Brazil vs The Netherlands.


The only people who predicted the Dutch would win 2-1 are either Dutch themselves or didn't actually believe it was going to happen.  Count me among the latter group.  This game, as indicated in my intro, was INSANE.  You can't write a more story-ish storyline:

Dutch defender injures himself in the warm-up, the cagey Andre Ooijer, a 36 year old veteran, is forced to step in and promptly gives up a goal to Robinho for Brazil.  Minutes later, Skeletonburg makes an amazing save off a curling Kaka shot to keep the margin at 1-0.

The Dutch look lost for the next 40 minutes, but out of nothing, a hopeful cross evades Julio Cesar's brain farting grasp and skims off a hapless Felipe Melo into the back of the net.  It's not pretty, but suddenly, the game is ON.  Riding the wave of adrenaline, the Dutch win a corner. Robben serves in a low cross that Dirk Kuyt perfectly flicks on to a waiting Wesley Sneijder.  His finish is clinical.

Brazil panics and throw numbers forward.  Robben is dangerous on the counter attack, and in a moment of frustration, Felipe Melo cuts him to the ground and deliberately stomps on his thigh.  Immediate and deserved red card.  Down to ten men, Brazil somehow looks more dangerous.  The Netherlands are still trying to score though, and despite having at least three numbers up break aways, they can't seem to find a third tally.  In the penultimate moment of the game, Kaka takes the ball through midfield and finds himself with one man to beat:  Andre Ooijer, the author of the bad marking that lead to Brazil's earlier goal.  Kaka dribbles into the box, cutting to Ooijer's left and unleashes a shot.  Ooijer saves it with a sliding tackle.

The whistle blows about a minute later.  The Dutch have come back and won.  Scene.

Wesley Sneijder is a man shaped man.  He looks like a man, he smells like a man, he plays like a man and he most certainly is balding like a man.  Somewhere in the middle of all that manliness, he's quietly been turning into the BEST PLAYER in the ENTIRE WORLD.  I know that earlier in this blog, I gave that honor to Lionel Messi, who is kind of the sexy-consensus-choice among non-Portuguese soccer aficionados, but hear me out.  I was wrong.  It took me until today to realize it.  My bad.

Reason 1:  Regardless of whether he's at Inter Milan, on the Dutch National Team or playing in a Steve Nash charity game, Wesley Sneijder controls the pace of a game.

Reason 2:  He's got feet as sticky as Xavi, a shot to rival Rooney, the poise of Essien AND he plays defense.  It's crazy.  About the only knock on the guy is that he's not fast.  Who cares?  He's super slow and STILL beats people off the dribble.

Reason 3:  He shows up in big games.  Two* goals today versus Brazil is nothing to sneeze at.  Oh yeah, and he single handedly beat Japan about a week ago.  No big deal.

Reason 4:  Passing.  I'm not sure if there's a better passer out there right now.  Long, weighted, short, whatever.  He can do it all.

Reason 5:  He's on winning teams.  I'm not crowning the Dutch just yet, but is it really a coincidence that Sneijder is on a team that made the semis at the World Cup and the team who took the Champions League?

I'm not going to use this as a forum to talk shit on Brazil.  I was rooting for the Dutch, and I'm glad the game ended like it did.  I mostly blame Dunga for Brazil's loss:  By most estimates, selecting Felipe Melo for the 23 man roster was a bad decision, let alone starting him in the quarterfinal.  You reap what you sow.  Also, you are a TERRIBLE dresser.  Seriously.  Wow.

GAME TWO:  Ghana vs Uruguay.


Brazil vs Netherlands was such an exciting game that I wouldn't have really cared if the second game of the day was a relative snoozefest.  Imagine my surprise when it ended up being even more enthralling.  No, seriously.  Imagine it.  Write about it in your Dream Journal.

First, let's talk about the vindication of Sulley Muntari.

Constantly in the dog-house with the coach Milovan Rajevac, he was almost sent home after the second game of the group stage.  Though he's arguably the best midfielder on the team (in the absence of Michael Essien), to this point, he'd only seen limited action as a substitute.  I'm not sure how many dicks he had to suck to suddenly earn a place in the starting line-up, but all that lipservice sure did pay off for the proxy-host-nation.

In the waning minutes of the first half, Muntari ripped a bending shot from 35 yards.  Uruguayan goalkeeper and rent boy Fernando Muslera's view of the shot was initially blocked by two players, and he reacted too slowly as the ball whizzed over a ducking Asamoah Gyan and skipped into the bottom left corner.  It was an audacious effort, but a brilliant one.  Ghana went into the half up one to nothing.

Now, let's talk about Diego Forlan.

Up to this point, unless Higuain scores another easy hat trick in Argentina's next game, Forlan has got to be the player of the tournament.  It's not so much about the fact that he's scoring a bushel of goals, it's about his leadership, his passing, his cleverness on the ball and the way, despite receiving the lion's share of the defensive attention, he's STILL managing to produce moments of brilliance.

Exhibit A:  Corner kicks.
Exhibit B:  Set pieces.
Exhibit C:  Crosses.
Exhibit D:  Free kick goals from improbable angles.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but after Forlan thunderfucked the ball past the brown-clad futility that was Richard Kingson and into the back of Ghana's net, he'd tallied his second goal of the campaign off a dead ball.  While the rest of the world seems to struggle with the Jabulani, Forlan is making it his bitch.  His goal in the 55th minute put the game back on a knife edge, opening it up to 70 more minutes of attack after tense attack from both teams.

It's funny, but Ghana's loss today kind of reminds me of the US's most recent defeat to Ghana.  I feel that today, Ghana was the better team in the game, attacking more and creating better chances, but despite their slight superiority (more shots, more possession), they just couldn't pull it off.  Case in point:  The craziest moment of the 2010 World Cup.

Let me walk you through what happened:

It's the last minute of extra time.  Ghana is on one last attack.  The ball is crossed into the box.  It pings around.  It gets cleared off the line.  Adiyah heads the ball back towards the goal mouth.  It's surely in.  Luis Suarez channels his inner Mutumbo and slaps at the ball with both hands, batting it away from the goal.  Ghana erupts as the whistle blows to signal hand ball.  Suarez is given a straight red card and walks off the field crying.

Asamoah Gyan steps up to take the penalty.  He's already converted two this tournament.  Gyan's shot is struck hard and down the center.  Muslera is already diving stage right.  This has to be the winner.  Crossbar.  Suarez, watching from the mouth of the tunnel, celebrates his impossible success.  Gyan is in nearly in tears.

It's really impossible for me to see how Ghana could be expected to win in a penalty shootout after such an emotional let down.  To go from a guaranteed place in the semi finals to penalties can't even be described as an emotional roller coaster.  It's more like a cliff dive.  Mensah misses, Adiyah misses and Abreu cheekily chips home the winner.  Uruguay 4, Ghana 2.

Uruguay wins.  I'm sad that Ghana is gone.  Africa, however, is heartbroken.

-ZGS

*Felipe Melo shouldn't get credited with an own goal.  That was a deflection, in my book.  It BARELY touched him.