Following on from Germany’s utter destruction of the Australians last weekend, you could be forgiven for thinking that Germany would go on to win their group quite comfortably. Unfortunately for the Germans, a crazed referee, Milan Jovanovic and Lukas Podolski had other ideas.
Jovanovic and Krasic celebrate what turned out to be the winning goal
From the first whistle to the last, the referee patrolled the field with an almost psychotic desire to wave his yellow card at pretty much anyone that passed him. In what was far from a dirty game, he managed to produce the yellow card on ten occasions and even showed the German striker, Miroslav Klose, two of them in the first half for what can only be described as ‘nothing incidents’, resulting in his departure from the field of play after just 37 minutes of play.
From the resulting free kick, Serbia pressed forward and opened the goal scoring with Milan Jovanovic expertly finishing inside the six-yard box to put the Serbians in front. Milos Krasic, who was a constant thorn in the side to Badstuber, crossed from the right hand side to the far post where Nikola Zigic was on hand to head the ball down to Jovanovic, who took a touch to control before placing the ball into the bottom corner past a despairing Manuel Neuer.
The blame for the goal, for me at least, must fall at the feet of Per Mertesacker, who was drawn to the ball at the back post to compete with Zigic for the header when he should have, in fact, been marking the goal scorer. It was this decision that left Jovanovic with the time to think about what he was going to do and I am sure that, had Mertesacker have stayed with his man, the goal could have been prevented.
Germany continued to dominate the play from this point but, as time wore on, a German equalizer looked more and more unlikely. Chance after chance fell to Podolski, but he was rarely able to find the target. In fact, his only effort on target was a weak second half penalty that was far too easy for Stojkovic in the Serbian net to deal with. Once the penalty had been missed, which was bizarrely conceded from a Nemanja Vidic handball when there was no apparent danger, the Germans looked deflated and, whilst the Serbians retreated deeper and deeper to defend their lead, the Germans looked rushed and lacked the composure and ruthlessness that had been on display against the Australians.
The result leaves group D wide open now, with both Germany and Serbia on 3 points, and both teams will surely be praying for the Australians to get something out of their match with Ghana tomorrow. If Ghana manage to get the win tomorrow then things will get very nervous in this group and we could well be seeing the elimination of the Germans with the last matches being Germany against Ghana and Serbia against Australia. Suddenly, what had looked a formality just one week ago, group D now looks to be one of the most exciting.
England fans were feeling pretty disappointed after Saturday’s result against the USA and many were worried about whether or not England would be able to outscore the Americans in their other two games to ensure qualification as group winners. This afternoon’s proceedings between Slovenia and USA were widely tipped to result in a fairly straightforward victory for USA. If this tournament is providing one thing this year though, it is surprises.
At half time, the Slovenians were 2-0 up and looking pretty good for that lead too. Their performance against the Algerians had suggested that they did not have too much to bring to the table, but today they showed something much different. First half goals from Valter Birsa and Zlatan Ljubijankic ensured that the Slovenians looked comfortable at the break and had every right to hope that they may seal qualification from the group at the earliest possible stage.
Donovan gets USA back in the game
The Americans should never be written off though; they have shown in the past that they possess huge character and their drive and determination ensures that they will not give up until the final whistle blows. In the second half, things changed dramatically. The Americans looked invigorated and were clearly in the ascendancy. Within minutes of the restart, the Americans were back in with a shout. Cesar failed to deal with a long ball over the top and the result was Landon Donovan lashing a ruthless shot into the roof of the net from a narrow angle with the keeper looking like he was trying to get out of the way more than he was trying to stop it.
As the game wore on, the Slovenians began to try to defend the lead that they had, but the tides had turned. The Americans were dominating the play and with every passing minute they committed more and more men forward. It seemed to be only a matter of time before the Americans got the equalizer they so craved. After many attempts, the Americans were finally rewarded in the 82nd minute, with coach Bradley’s son, Michael, knocking in a knock down from Jozy Altidore.
There were further chances for both sides before the game came to an end, but neither side could force a winner. The most notable chances fell to Edu, who volleyed in a free kick from Donovan, only to see his effort disallowed, whilst the Slovenians had two chances courtesy of Novakovic and Radoslavljevic, with Tim Howard saving the rasping drive from the latter. After a pretty bland tournament so far, we were served some real entertainment today.
Hopes were high for England before the match
It was very difficult to find anything positive with the England performance against Algeria, despite the expertise of Fabio Capello. Unfortunately, it looked like the same old England that we have become accustomed to, despite possessing world-class players like Terry, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney. At best, England looked laboured; at worst, they were outclassed by an Algerian side considered to be much their lesser.
If England are to progress from group C, the performance against Slovenia will have to be much better. Another performance like the one that was witnessed today will surely result in their premature elimination from a group they were fancied to win comfortably. The Algerians were workmanlike throughout and looked to play quick, one touch football at every opportunity. England, on the other hand, looked to be a side devoid of ideas and seemed to be feeling the pressures of the nation.
I wrote an article, when Fabio Capello selected his World Cup squad, criticising many of his decisions; when he took the job, he promised that reputation meant nothing and that players would be selected based on current form for their clubs. There were as many as eight dubious selections, by my merit, in the World Cup squad and it appears that these decisions may well be coming back to haunt Capello. One thing is for sure; Capello has the biggest task of his career in making a success of the current England side.
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Maybe Capello wishes he had stuck to his principles now
Previous World Cup Diary Entries
Match Day 1: South Africa v Mexico, France v Uruguay
Match Day 2: South Korea v Greece, Argentina v Nigeria, England v USA
Match day 3: Slovenia v Algeria, Ghana v Serbia, Germany v Australia
Match Day 4: Netherlands v Denmark, Japan v Cameroon, Italy v Paraguay
Match Day 5: Slovakia v New Zealand, Portugal v Ivory Coast, Brazil v North Korea
Match Day 6: Chile v Honduras, Spain v Switzerland, South Africa v Uruguay
Match Day 7: Argentina v South Korea, Greece v Nigeria, France v Mexico
Match Day 8: Germany v Serbia, USA v Slovenia, England v Algeria written by Martin Palazzotto
Agreed on Mertesacker, if he stayed put he would've been in a position to clear the danger. He's always got a mistake in him. I think centre-back is definitely Germany's weak point at the moment.
Posted by geoffedwards | 19 June, 2010, 09:16I saw parts of the Germany and England games, and the hole US game in replay after work. Good games until the English one, US deserved the win, the press there is outraged. Germany looked lost, without a reference for such a young squad.
Posted by @fapresilli | 19 June, 2010, 16:39Well, Germany can rest easier today, thanks to the Aussies.
I do have to wonder why Capello doesn't rate Joe Cole, even if I must echo Tom English, who was more than a mite pompous in his rant in the Scotsman (re: Uk WC announcers).
Posted by mpalazzotto | 19 June, 2010, 21:36Pompous, maybe. But understandable. You do expect better than the lazy cliches and ignorant jingoism they come out with. Its not so in other countries.
I was reading today that Capello's issue with Cole is that he tends to drift infield and that he prefers his widemen to stay wide and keep the shape.
Posted by geoffedwards | 19 June, 2010, 23:58Re Tom English: I think it was the 'journeymen' remark that annoyed me most. Not that many players on the England side have played for one club their entire career. Certainly, Donovan, Dempsey and Howard have shown they can hang in the Premiership. Admittedly that's not the depth that England has but those three certainly don't deserve the insult.
Re Cole: Isn't that how Gerrard plays when he's out there? With Ash behind, looking to overlap, I think I'd want a left side man who is willing to go inside. I also think I'm not Fabio Capello. So, there's that.
Posted by mpalazzotto | 20 June, 2010, 00:14Ah I see, didn't re-read the article in its entirety. I was looking at it from the pundit angle, didn't notice those remarks, or forgot them. I def agree with you there. I have to as an Everton fan. Howard has been brilliant for us since he joined and Donovan gave us a new dimension when he came on loan. We want him back, alas we won't be able to afford it. From what I've seen of Dempsey I think he's a good player too, got that goalscoring knack, a bit like Tim Cahill. Another one you could add to the list is M. Bradley, he's had a good WC so far. Looked v good IMO.
Re Cole/Gerrard. That's true. Just repeating what I read. I think there's a wholle nation baying for him to start against SVN. I wonder whether Fabio will agree.
Posted by geoffedwards | 20 June, 2010, 00:25