Good day everyone.
Yesterday was another exciting day in terms of football and there was interest for Arsenal fans in both games, with Hernandez featuring for Mexico and Campbell playing the full game against Greece.
First up on the agenda was Holland vs Mexico and the game at Fortaleza took place in smouldering heat. Both teams were dead tired by the end of first half and this, of course, has affected the quality of football greatly. The Mexicans went closer to opening the scoring, though, with Sillissen pulling off a couple of saves.
Quite why the game had to be played in such circumstances is beyond me. Fortaleza is probably the closest place in Brazil to the equator and that's saying a lot. The game kicked off at 1 p.m. and the air temperature was 39 ᵒC. Most fans fled from the sunlit side of the stands and even the players themselves tried to keep to the shade. The ref had the sense to make at least two cooling breaks during the game, though, so fair play to him.
The second half turned out to be livelier. Dos Santos scored with a beautiful shot from outside the box almost immediately after the half-time break, thus forcing the Dutch players to come out of their coma and start attacking. Ochoa was up to the task and demonstrated just why he is one of the best keepers of this World Cup. He denied Robben from a one-on-one and followed it up with a save from a corner, after some Dutch bloke pulled off a shot from point-blank range.
Van Gaal threw on Depay and Huntelaar in an attempt to save the game, but both these substitutes seemed in vain up until 88th minute. Robben won a corner, crossed the ball into the box, Huntelaar won the headed duel and Sneider, unchallenged, smashed the ball home with his left with Ochoa stranded.
I thought it might go to extra time, where Holland would definitely have had the upper hand, but I was wrong. Deep into injury time, Marquez touched Robben in the box, the latter snatched at his chance and fell to the ground as though he had only had his leg hacked off and the ref bought it.
Was there contact? Definitely. Was it enough to scream to the heavens and fall like a shot man? I doubt it. Robben pulled off something similar in the first half and, though he later admitted diving, he insisted there was a foul in the episode with the penalty. Sometimes I regret he's not a psycho like Suarez, otherwise I'd be hoping he'd bite someone and get disqualified for as long as possible.
But it's all history now. Huntelaar stepped up to take the kick, sent Ochoa the wrong way and Holland came out on top.
This is the part where I say I'm deeply sorry to see Mexico leave the World Cup. They fought valiantly, didn't cheat, didn't blame everyone for that nightmare refereeing in the first game and were overall not much worse than the Dutch. Had they held on to their slender lead and gone through, no on would have said they didn't deserve it.
With them Chicarito also flies home and I do wonder, whether Arsene should consider signing the Mexican. I was surprised to see Hernandez only used as a sub, especially as I wasn't all that impressed by Peralta, but there must be a reason, I gather. Anyway, Hernandez is 26, seems to be willing to leave United and, if we can agree on a reasonable fee, then why not? Even if Sanchez is on his way to the Emirates, I'm sure we can find a place for Hernandez on the team sheet.
The second game was Greece vs Costa-Rica and I was thinking long and hard about going to bed at half-time. The game was drawn-out and boring, since Costa-Rica was forced to play on the front foot, because the Greeks flat-out refused to come out of their shells, other than from a counter.
I stayed on, however and was rewarded for it. Ruiz scored a wonder of a goal in the 52nd minute and Pinto's side fell back, content they don't have to play the role of first fiddle anymore. The Greeks started pouring men forward, quite reluctantly, I have to say, but all of that changed in the 66th minute.
Duarte hacked off Holevas, got a second yellow and got sent off as a result. Greece continued attacking with vigour and that brought about the desired result in the 91st minute.
Navas saved the initial effort from Gekas, but the guy with ridiculously long "P" surname was on hand to smash home the rebound.
However, Navas demonstrated wonderful skill to prevent Greece from ending the encounter in normal time by pulling off an amazing save from Mitroglou. He would save from him again in extra time and ensure the game would go to penalties.
This was a penalty shoot-out much more exciting than Brazil vs Chile. All the takers were very good, Campbell included, and it took a wonder save from Navas to gift Cocta-Rica a passage to quarter-finals. Well played, Costa-Rica and exceptionally well played Navas. There were whispers Barcelona wanted to sign him, but ploughed for Bravo, the Chilean, instead. Whether they now regret it is another story, cause Navas is tied in first place with Tibo Courtois with a save percentage almost a whopping 88%. To give you some context, Ochoa has a 77% save rate, number nine in the list, tied with Igor Akinfeev (!). And they have included Akinfeev in the worst team of the World Cup!
So, Costa-Rica will now face Holland and it'll be an intersting game, as both teams will allow one another to play the style of football they love. Gosh, how I'd love to see Robben, van Persie and the little boy inside him cry after that game. But we shall see what happens when we get there.
For today, it's France vs Nigeria and Germany vs Algeria. Again, we have interest in both encounters, with Koscielny and Giroud pushing to start, while Ozil and Mertesacker will definitely be named on the starting 11. However, Podolski is out, so Goetze or Klose will play. What makes these games compelling (aside from the fact that Nigeria is likely to challenge France all the way) is that Germany will face France in the quarter-final should both teams progress. Fingers crossed that's what will happen.
Phew, enough for today. Back tomorrow with fresh goodies
Until then
Yesterday was another exciting day in terms of football and there was interest for Arsenal fans in both games, with Hernandez featuring for Mexico and Campbell playing the full game against Greece.
First up on the agenda was Holland vs Mexico and the game at Fortaleza took place in smouldering heat. Both teams were dead tired by the end of first half and this, of course, has affected the quality of football greatly. The Mexicans went closer to opening the scoring, though, with Sillissen pulling off a couple of saves.
Quite why the game had to be played in such circumstances is beyond me. Fortaleza is probably the closest place in Brazil to the equator and that's saying a lot. The game kicked off at 1 p.m. and the air temperature was 39 ᵒC. Most fans fled from the sunlit side of the stands and even the players themselves tried to keep to the shade. The ref had the sense to make at least two cooling breaks during the game, though, so fair play to him.
The second half turned out to be livelier. Dos Santos scored with a beautiful shot from outside the box almost immediately after the half-time break, thus forcing the Dutch players to come out of their coma and start attacking. Ochoa was up to the task and demonstrated just why he is one of the best keepers of this World Cup. He denied Robben from a one-on-one and followed it up with a save from a corner, after some Dutch bloke pulled off a shot from point-blank range.
Van Gaal threw on Depay and Huntelaar in an attempt to save the game, but both these substitutes seemed in vain up until 88th minute. Robben won a corner, crossed the ball into the box, Huntelaar won the headed duel and Sneider, unchallenged, smashed the ball home with his left with Ochoa stranded.
I thought it might go to extra time, where Holland would definitely have had the upper hand, but I was wrong. Deep into injury time, Marquez touched Robben in the box, the latter snatched at his chance and fell to the ground as though he had only had his leg hacked off and the ref bought it.
Was there contact? Definitely. Was it enough to scream to the heavens and fall like a shot man? I doubt it. Robben pulled off something similar in the first half and, though he later admitted diving, he insisted there was a foul in the episode with the penalty. Sometimes I regret he's not a psycho like Suarez, otherwise I'd be hoping he'd bite someone and get disqualified for as long as possible.
But it's all history now. Huntelaar stepped up to take the kick, sent Ochoa the wrong way and Holland came out on top.
This is the part where I say I'm deeply sorry to see Mexico leave the World Cup. They fought valiantly, didn't cheat, didn't blame everyone for that nightmare refereeing in the first game and were overall not much worse than the Dutch. Had they held on to their slender lead and gone through, no on would have said they didn't deserve it.
With them Chicarito also flies home and I do wonder, whether Arsene should consider signing the Mexican. I was surprised to see Hernandez only used as a sub, especially as I wasn't all that impressed by Peralta, but there must be a reason, I gather. Anyway, Hernandez is 26, seems to be willing to leave United and, if we can agree on a reasonable fee, then why not? Even if Sanchez is on his way to the Emirates, I'm sure we can find a place for Hernandez on the team sheet.
The second game was Greece vs Costa-Rica and I was thinking long and hard about going to bed at half-time. The game was drawn-out and boring, since Costa-Rica was forced to play on the front foot, because the Greeks flat-out refused to come out of their shells, other than from a counter.
I stayed on, however and was rewarded for it. Ruiz scored a wonder of a goal in the 52nd minute and Pinto's side fell back, content they don't have to play the role of first fiddle anymore. The Greeks started pouring men forward, quite reluctantly, I have to say, but all of that changed in the 66th minute.
Duarte hacked off Holevas, got a second yellow and got sent off as a result. Greece continued attacking with vigour and that brought about the desired result in the 91st minute.
Navas saved the initial effort from Gekas, but the guy with ridiculously long "P" surname was on hand to smash home the rebound.
However, Navas demonstrated wonderful skill to prevent Greece from ending the encounter in normal time by pulling off an amazing save from Mitroglou. He would save from him again in extra time and ensure the game would go to penalties.
This was a penalty shoot-out much more exciting than Brazil vs Chile. All the takers were very good, Campbell included, and it took a wonder save from Navas to gift Cocta-Rica a passage to quarter-finals. Well played, Costa-Rica and exceptionally well played Navas. There were whispers Barcelona wanted to sign him, but ploughed for Bravo, the Chilean, instead. Whether they now regret it is another story, cause Navas is tied in first place with Tibo Courtois with a save percentage almost a whopping 88%. To give you some context, Ochoa has a 77% save rate, number nine in the list, tied with Igor Akinfeev (!). And they have included Akinfeev in the worst team of the World Cup!
So, Costa-Rica will now face Holland and it'll be an intersting game, as both teams will allow one another to play the style of football they love. Gosh, how I'd love to see Robben, van Persie and the little boy inside him cry after that game. But we shall see what happens when we get there.
For today, it's France vs Nigeria and Germany vs Algeria. Again, we have interest in both encounters, with Koscielny and Giroud pushing to start, while Ozil and Mertesacker will definitely be named on the starting 11. However, Podolski is out, so Goetze or Klose will play. What makes these games compelling (aside from the fact that Nigeria is likely to challenge France all the way) is that Germany will face France in the quarter-final should both teams progress. Fingers crossed that's what will happen.
Phew, enough for today. Back tomorrow with fresh goodies
Until then