BRA striker HULK limped out of practice today .. ...
Match 9: SWITZERLAND
V. ECUADOR
Date: Sunday June 15, 2014
Venue: Estadio Nacional,
BRASILIA
PANDO! or GORDO? mas Gordo?
U know how it goes > U meet someone for the first
time, hate them from the very start, yet you're still across from them at
breakfast the following morning, and hate them even more .. .. Well, that's what this
morning was like > Last night's nightcap bollocks (IVC/JPN) was the first
bad match of the Festival, and now followed up by this garbage .. .. terrible .. ..
I reckon the
first half was the difference in outlooks > SUI peppered the ECU box with 7
crosses and 7 CKs while ECU attacked down the center and didn't even attempt
their first cross until the 30th minute .. ..
By then they had
the lead 1-0 when ENNER VALENCIA headed in a CK in the 22nd minute in
the middle of the box when he climbed above the SUI defense and saw GK DIEGO
BENAGLIO leaning in the wrong direction .. .. Considering the SUI are a bit
slow to find their stride, and they had some unforced TOs, I would imagine
the
second-45 would be a different story .. ..
The utter LUST of passing the ball to your opponent
continued non-stop in the second half except for when SUI had the nerve to
score off balls from the flanks .. .. In the 47th minute, HT sub ADIR
MEHMEDI climbed above a comatose ECU defense and headed home his CK ball
and in stoppage time (93rd minute), sub HARIS SEREFOVIC made a hard
L/Box run and whacked home the cross from RICARDO RODRIGUEZ > U/Left for the
heartbreaking winner .. ..
I can't believe
that the SUI played this poorly after watching them the last four years .. .. I
have to believe they will play ages better in their next match .. .. sigh .. ..
I hate myself .. ..
SUI
MoM: none
ECU
MoM: none
=================================================================
Match 10: FRANCE v.
HONDURAS
Date: Sunday June 15, 2014
Venue: Estadio Beira-Rio, PORTO
ALEGRE
PANDO! or GORDO? Pando!
THANK
GOD FOR FRANCE & THEIR DRAMA - How many times can you say that? After the
vomit-inducing poison of the early match, a sharp FRA threw off he shackles of
the disgraced 2014 WC side .. .. Not only did the PA system in the
beautiful Estadio Beira-Rio didn't work, the French FA is filing a complaint
about a drone monitoring their training!
FRA started off
sharply and their 7 set-pieces in the attacking-third produced oozes of
half-chances that included two shots off the bar .. .. The 9 crosses into the
HON box put them under pressure for the entire first half and it finally paid
off just before HT when PAUL POGBA was forearmed in the back in the box and KARIM
BENZEMA put the spot-kick home .. .. And, to add to the drama, PK culprit
WILSON PALACIOS was booked for the second time .. ..
FRA saw the match
off very easily, putting the physical match far out of reach when BENZEMA hit a
first-time volley in the 48th minute that crunched off the R/Post and GK NOEL
VALLADARES
lazily saw the rebound go off his hand and over the line > The slick
Goal-Line Technology validated the ball was over the line .. .. BENZEMA really
cemented his 'hat-trick' in the 72nd minute when off a FK scramble picked up
the ball in the far R/Box and roofed his R/Footer from a sharp angle that left
VALLADARES with no chance .. ..
FRAs noveau
'Shock-And-Awe' assault saw 24 crosses rain into the HON box that resulted in 9
shots in the box, compared to just 1 for HON .. .. LES BLEUES IS BACK!!
FRA MoM: KARIM BENZEMA (club: Real Madrid)
26YO prototypical target man took his revenge on
the ghosts of the 2010 side (where her was a late cut) and showed he is a man
who can lead their line .. ..
HON
MoM: none
=================================================================
Match 11: ARGENTINA v.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
Date: Sunday June 15, 2014
Venue: Estadio Mario Filho, RIO
DE JANEIRO
PANDO! or GORDO? Gordo?
A dull, drab
contest in the first half that was virtually even after the third minute OG ..
.. Off a L/Flank FK that made it's way all through the defense and bounced into
the empty net off of poor DF SEAD KOLASINAC .. .. BIH had no fear or ARG
and continued to press when they could and had 5 set-pieces in the
attacking-third while ARG didn't pump in a single cross in the first-45,
instead settling on feeding the ball to the middle & MESSI .. ..
The last-45 was
almost as bad as the first, until LIONEL MESSI put on a classic display
in the 65th minute to draw away 2-0 .. .. Taking a cheeky pass at the T/Box,
MESSI cut left across the top of the 'D', running two BIH markers into each
other, and L/Footed smoothly > L/Left .. .. Classic .. ..
Both sides tried
to go forward but that lust of passing the ball to your rival took hold in the
last match as well .. .. Finally, St. Louis' VEDAD IBISEVIC took a nice
pass in the L/Box and his L/Footed 'megged' GK SERGIO ROMERO to get SERBIA as
close as they were going to get .. ..
It will have to
get a lot better for both sides (especially ARG) to last the length of the
Festival .. ..
ARG MoM: LIONEL MESSI (club: Barcelona)
Nothing more to say about someone where the
extraordinary is expected, but even he had just an average match until he
scored .. .. He will also have to pick it up .. ..
BIH
MoM:
none
=================================================================
WIN OR GO HOME?
What
happens when you get to the 2014 World Cup for your first match .. ..
If you LOST your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 1W – 1L – 0D = 3 pts
If you WON your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 7W – 7L – xD = 21 pts
If you DREW your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 2W – xD – 2L = 6 pts
=================================================================
EXPERIENCE! Yeah, or neh?
How players do when they came to
BRA with 5 caps, or less .. ..
Diego Costa (ESP), Matteo Darmian
(ITA), Cedric Djeugoue (CMR), Antoine Griezmann (FRA), Sead KOLASINAC (BIH),
Gabriel Paletta (ITA), Raheem Sterling (ENG), Jose Juan Vazquez (MEX), Alex
Wilkinson (AUS)
4W -- 5L
-- 0D
=================================================================
PANDO! or GORDO? SIDE OF THE TOURNAMENT
GK:
Keylor NAVAS (CRC)
D: Daley BLIND (NED)
M: OSCAR (BRA) -- Paul POGBA (FRA) -- Arjen ROBBEN (NED)
--
James RODRIGUEZ (COL)
F: Joel
CAMPBELL (CRC) -- Lionel MESSI (ARG) -- Alexis SANCHEZ (CHI) -- Robin VAN
PERSIE (NED)
Bench: F Karim
BENZEMA (FRA) -- F Tim CAHILL (AUS) -- M Luka MODRIC (CRO) -- NEYMAR (BRA) --
Andrea PIRLO (ITA)
 |
Posts
