ENGLAND COLLAPSE
(Image taken from BBC)
Last time around, we wound up facing Ecuador in a World Cup 2nd round match at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium. England had the early attacks but a squad that had been merely cruising through the tournament so far were clearly being complacent, at half time I was worried that the game would go into extra time. I needn't have worried, a David Beckham special gave us the lead on this occasion and the South American side pretty much white flagged after that. I never complain about an England win, particularly in the World Cup knockout stages but by this point the lethergy of Sven's side was getting a bit frustrating, I was expecting us to bury Ecuador.
This time around, well...Germany. What more do I need to say? Well the last time we faced the Germans was in an '08 friendly at the Olympiastadion. It was effectivly a match between our backup crews and we won that rumble 2-1. We haven't faced a united German side in the World Cup before though and the last time we faced any German side in the world's biggest competition was in what has become known as "one night in Turin". We drew 1-1 after extra time with the former West Germany at the Stadio Della Alpi in the 1990 semi finals before losing on penalties. The last time we beat them in the World Cup, yep still the 1966 final when we beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley.
Well our group campaign was probably the dodgiest I've seen in the four tournaments I watched as an England fan but at least we survived it. Thing is in what looked like deja vu from '98 our punishment not getting our act together quick enough was an earlier than scheduled encounter with a big gun. However this German side didn't have an ideal group campaign and weren't at full strength themselves, so we had no reason to fear them and surely England would find form sooner or later. Well, Fabio left our starting lineup unchanged for this World Cup second round match at the Free State Stadium. Winding up at the Imperial on this occasion, surely we'd see a bit more fire from the players this time around.
Well the opening stages of the match didn't look so bad and both sides seemed to be matching each other in terms of posession though Germany had more shots on goal. Still, it stunned everyone when German goalie Manuel Neuer just booted the ball down to Miroslav Klose to leave our defence looking like morons. More of the same occured in the 32nd minute when Thomas Muller ate our defence like a Munich pretzel before finding Luca Podolski who put the Germans two up. Still, England were not to be counted out. A 37th minute cross found the head of Upson and we were back in business...and then we scored again! Except the ref didn't allow our equaliser for reasons best known to himself.
At half time the thoughts were of what might have been and if the equaliser had been given, who knows what would have happened. The Three Lions certainly tried to make up for lost time but failed to get anything and in the 67th minute all thoughts of injustice were out the window when Germany fastbreaked and Bastien Schweinsteiger fed Muller for Germany's third. It was gameover in the 70th minute when Mesut Ozil fed Muller for his second. After that, well I have to say I was really just waiting for the full time whistle. For England the World Cup has ended way too soon and the question of "why" deserves an entirely separate article.
Elsewhere, Argentina faced Mexico at the Soccer City Stadium. Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for the Argies though the United-turned-City assasin's goal was well offside and Gonzalo Hiquain made it two for Maradona and his merry band before half time. Tevez then got his second goal early on in the second half and though future United player Javier Hernandez pulled one back for Mexico, this match belonged to the Argies. That sets up a quarter final between Germany and Argentina at the Green Point Stadium. Those two sides certainly have enough history with each other to make that a good encounter - more on my thoughts on that later.
In other games, Paraguay drew 0-0 with Japan at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium. That result continued to stand after extra time and it led to the first penalty shootout of the tournament. Paraguay won that encounter and will go on to play in their first ever World Cup quarter final. Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in the Green Point Stadium in a match where the Portuguese seemed more focussed on smothering the Spanish attack than feeding their classier players, Spain's 2nd half goal was inevitable. That sets up a Paraguay vs Spain quarter final at Ellis Park. Talk about David vs Goliath, more on how I think that match will play out in the follow up article.
Here's how the quarter finals look like:
Uruguay(beat South Korea 2-1) vs Ghana(beat USA 2-1 after extra time)
Germany vs Argentina
Netherlands(beat Slovakia 2-1) vs Brazil(beat Chille 3-0)
Paraguay vs Spain