World Cup - A review of the beautiful game.

The World Cup is over now and  for the winners Germany it is probably just sinking in what they have achieved. 

I thought the the some of the group games where fantastic and teams played without fear. 

One of the group games  I enjoyed watching was when France beat Switzerland by five goals to two and the French played amazing free flowing footballs. 

The game that I found most exciting was the Ghana versus Germany match and this match could have gone either way but ended up in the draw. 

However the match that almost put me sleep was Nigeria versus Iran was an incredibly boring match with both teams trying hard not to score....

So I thought the knock out games where going to be just as good and sadly it was not the case. The free flowing football had been replaced with edgy and defensive football. 

The stand out game of the knock out stages was Germany beating the host Brazil by seven goals to one. It was a little embarrassing to watch and this was compounded by the crying fans in the stadium. 

So the two most efficient and consistent teams of the tournament Germany and Argentina who made it to the final. 

However it was a little bit of a damp squib with little or no entertainment but the German team where the worthy winners. 

World Cup - Brazil v Germany review

In the semi-finals match Germany beat Brazil by seven goals to one! It really was a shocker of a match. 

Brazil defended so poorly and the Germans capitalised on this and where scoring goals at will. 

I thought that Brazil would wake up and start scoring goals but once it became  five goals to nil, the likelyhood of them having any impact on the game looked remote. 

I think Brazilian fans realised this and television pictures captured a lot of crying Brazilians. It was Brazil worst World Cup and too much for many of their fans to take. 

Without Neymar and the suspended Thiago Silva it was always going to be a difficult and this was compounded by there inability to score and desparately poor defending. 

However the Germans will be very pleased with themselves and will hoping that they can carry this form into next weeks final and win the trophy. 

World Cup - day seventeen

Day seventeen of the World Cup and it is now the knock out stages. So Brazil drew one all with Chile but beat them three goals to two on penalties. 

I think that others are now beginning to realise that this Brazil team is average and they are definitely not the Brazil of old. 

I suspect if this World Cup had not been held in Brazil then might have been knocked out already. 

 Colombia beat Uruguay by two goals to nil and Colombia probably would have got this win. 

However Uruguay being with  their banned striker Luis Suarez made it even harder for Uruguay but Colombia very much deserved this victory. 

World Cup - Day twelve

Day twelve of the World Cup and Brazil beat Cameroon by four goals to one. This helped them to qualify top of the group. 

However Cameroon where poor and some of there defending was just embarrassing and as a nuetral watching the game. 

I was not entirely convinced that Cameroon wanted to at least get something out of the game before exiting the World Cup. 

So Brazil won the game relatively comfortably but they where not playing the free flowing football that we are accustomed to seeing them play. 

If they are to win this tournament then they need to up there game and play more attacking free flowing football that made them footballing giants. 

Elsewhere Mexico beat Croatia by three goals to one to qualify the the knock out stages. 

World Cup - Day six

Day six of the World Cup and Brazil drew nil nil with Mexico and it was pretty lacklustre match. Brazil had few creative ideas and poor finishing. 

The Mexicans where little better had the same problems with a few ideas and poor finishing. 

This draw means that Brazil have four points and are on the cusp of qualifying for the knockout stages.

 

The Mexicans also have four points and our on the cusp of qualifying for the knock out stages.

Elsewhere Russia drew one all with Korea and the Russians probably thought this was going to be easy match.

 But Korea have a good record at the World Cup so this result was not such a big surprise to me. 

World Cup - Day One

The opening game of the World Cup and Brazil beat Croatia by three goals to one. However the scoreline did not reflect the game.

Croatia went ahead in the first ten minutes albeit by an own goal and then Brazil got an equaliser. Then somewhat controversially the refree awarded Brazil a penalty. 

In real time it did not look like a penalty and looking at the replay, Brazil where very fortunate to be given that penalty. 

Up until that point both sides where pretty even and once Brazil converted the penalty, Croatia did not really look like they where going to get an equaliser. 

Then in extra time to add salt to Croatia's wounds Brazil got the third goal and killed of the game. 

So Brazil got a rather fortunate win but Croatia did not really play their free flowing attacking football style that we are used to seeing from them.. 

World Cup preview

Ok I am a little late with my World Cup preview but it is better late than never..I haven't got World Cup fever yet but I am sure I will soon get it. 

The teams to watch this World Cup are Spain, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Brazil. Needless to say that they are all World Cup wiinners. 

These teams will be hard to beat with their experience of winning this plus some unbelievable players. 

Teams that I think have an outside chance of winning it our France and Portugual. France are former winners but I don't think they have the team to win it but I expect them to do reasonably well. 

I also think that realistically Ivory Coast might do reasonably well. I am hoping that both Ghana and England do well but it is going to be incredibly difficult for them. 

So it should a really interesting World Cup with lost of twists and turns, happiness and heartbreak and that is why it's called the beautiful game. 

International Friendlies - review

The last of the international friendlies for the year took place yesterday and Germany beat England by a goal to nil.

To be fair it was always going to be an up hill struggle for England to beat Germany. What made it even harder for England was that Roy Hodgson could  not play all his first team players. 

For England it's the first time in over thirty years that they have lost two back to back friendlies and it goes to show that there are no easy games at this level. 

Naturally there will probably be the usual media uproar, but we are still about six months away from the start of the Brazil 2014.

 

 I think these two losses will give the players and  the fans a reality check for Brazil 2014. 

Elsewhere the reigning World Champions Spain where beaten one nil by South Africa.

 I was shocked by this result and thought either South Africa have made some real improvements or Spain had a very bad night but most likely a bit of both.

It was probably a wake up call for a team like Spain no to be too complacent and it does go to show that unexpected results can happen to the best or worst of teams.