A scrappy semi-final

I originally predicted portugal to edge a decent, if nothing more, France. Neither side created any major openings in what was a scrappy semi-final. While the Germany Vs. Italy semi-final was an open contest with end to end football, it was disappointing to see such a poor match in the semi-finals of the world cup. What baffled me the most were the substitutions of Scorlari, taking off Pauleta for Simao, while playing Ronaldo through the middle. After the substitution Portugal were even more toothless, it even baffled me more that he did not bring on an extra striker such as Nuno Gomes. As against England Portugal did not seem to pose any major goal mouth threat to the French. But at the same time neither did the French, and if it wasn’t for a questionable penalty this match could have easily gone to penalties. What became apparent is that the 4-5-1 formation that both the French and Portuguese had chosen virtually reduced the game to a near stalemate (this negative formation has become a major talking point of this tournament). If it wasn’t for one dubious penalty decision there would have been no goal to separate both teams. That’s the luck between winning and losing when both teams are so very close in terms of quality.

Hopefully the French luck will run out against Italy, a team that has given the tournament a class act on how to gather between both stoic defending and intelligent attack. There is nothing in this French team that makes me think they can beat a superior and excellent Italian team. I’ll stick to my original prediction before the tournament started, Italy will be the outright winners.

Gambling on young talent

Despite their defeat the Germans can be proud of their performances in the world cup, a semi-final place with a relatively young team is some achievment. Teams like Holland, Germany and Spain have impressed and will build for future tournaments. Most importantly, coaches like Van-Basten and Klinsman were more than prepared to gamble and play the likes of Van Persie and Odonkor. On all accounts they have been vindicated, maybe Sven should have learnt from their example and played the fresh looking Aaron Lennon from the start or even gamble with Walcott (seeing he brought him along to the tournament), but fresh thinking was lacking from conservative Sven. What has been particularly refreshing this tournament is the way a new crop of talent have preformed, the likes of Odonkor, Van Persie, Reyes, Cesc Fabregas, Rafael van der Vart and Lennon have pointed the way forward for their respective teams.