Match 55: ARGENTINA v.
SWITZERLAND 
R16
R16
Date: Tuesday July 1, 2014
Venue: Arena de Sao Paulo, SAO
PAULO
PANDO! or GORDO? Gordo?
1
As
ARG has looked like they were playing their way into the Festival, they again
looked very pedestrian in the first-45 .. .. In their opener v. BIH, they
didn't attempt a single cross in the 1H, and while they hit in 7 balls early
on, none of them looked very appetizing .. ..
As
ARG has looked like they were playing their way into the Festival, they again
looked very pedestrian in the first-45 .. .. In their opener v. BIH, they
didn't attempt a single cross in the 1H, and while they hit in 7 balls early
on, none of them looked very appetizing .. ..
On
the other side of the pitch, SUI did carve out a couple of nice chances early
on, especially in the 27th minute when XHERDAN SHAQIRI got loose on the R/Byline
and his perfect ball > GRANIT XHAKA at the penalty spot ended up being a
tame roller right to GK SERGIO ROMERO .. ..
SHAQIRI
set JOSIP DRMIC loose with an instinctive release ball and DRMIC was alone,
bearing down on ROMERO, but his soft L/Footed chip landed harmlessly in ROMEROs
arms .. .. One would think that SUI won't get many more good chances and they
have to sink one, or else .. .. 0-0 @ HT .. ..
2
SUI
must have decided to play for ET/PK coming out on the pitch for
the second-45
.. .. The Swiss just cleared their lines and could not/would not hold
possession when they had it .. .. They didn't get forward enough to even
attempt a single cross while ARG pumped in 17 balls in the 2H to go with 12
attacking set-pieces > And yet, not many quality chances came out of it ..
.. SUI
must have decided to play for ET/PK coming out on the pitch for
'MESSI-DEPENDENCY'
didn't even have a shot in the 1H and finally uncorked a decent effort from
above the box in the 67th minute .. ..
ET
Both
sides continued to huff and puff and blew absolutely nothing down .. .. 117
minutes of hyped futility .. .. then .. ..
Both
sides continued to huff and puff and blew absolutely nothing down .. .. 117
minutes of hyped futility .. .. then .. ..
SUI
turned it over again at the halfway line, LIONEL MESSI then set off on another
mazy run into M/Box, pushed the ball out > R/Box where ANGEL DI MARIA squared
up his body and first-timed his L/Footer > L/Left past a diving DIEGO
BENAGLIO who was leaning to cover the near post .. .. sweet strike .. ..
All
of a sudden, it became fun to watch .. .. In stoppage time, a SUI GK saw sub
BLERIM DZEMAILI got lose in L/Box and his header came off the L/post, straight
back to DZEMALI and off his knee and wide-left .. .. As if that wasn't enough,
XHERDAN SHAQIRI drew a FK from the middle of the 'D' with no time remaining but
his FK was denied off the top of the ARG wall .. .. ARG survives .. ..
ARG
MoM:
LIONEL MESSI (club: Barcelona)
Again, it all goes through the Magician and ARG
advances thanks to his late, mazy run that set up DI MARIA for his winner .. ..
SUI
MoM: XHERDAN
SHAQIRI (club: Bayern Munich)
Ran, and ran, and
ran, but just couldn't connect with his teammates and they couldn't connect
when they had their chances .. ..
===============================================
Match 56: BELGIUM v.
UNITED STATES 
R16
R16
Date: Tuesday July 1, 2014
Venue: Arena Fonte Nova,
SALVADOR
PANDO! or GORDO?
1
I
reckon MICHAEL BRADLEY is just a LUSTING dude; Again, not his best 1H sending
balls directly to BEL players without any pressure .. .. Speed did help out on
the flanks, sending in 6 balls (2 left & 4 right) from DAMARCUS BEASLEY
& DEANDRE YEDLIN - The 2 balls by DAMARCUS already equals the total USA
crosses from the left in their first 3 matches .. .. BEL had 6 shots which
didn't trouble TIM HOWARD too much and the bak-four was helped out by a
last-ditch clearance by BEASLEY on a great cross from EDEN HAZARD .. ..
I
reckon MICHAEL BRADLEY is just a LUSTING dude; Again, not his best 1H sending
balls directly to BEL players without any pressure .. .. Speed did help out on
the flanks, sending in 6 balls (2 left & 4 right) from DAMARCUS BEASLEY
& DEANDRE YEDLIN - The 2 balls by DAMARCUS already equals the total USA
crosses from the left in their first 3 matches .. .. BEL had 6 shots which
didn't trouble TIM HOWARD too much and the bak-four was helped out by a
last-ditch clearance by BEASLEY on a great cross from EDEN HAZARD .. ..
The
first US shot didn't happen until CLINT DEMPSEYs tame L/Footer in the 21st
minute and the only other shot was a JERMAINE JONES bomb from above the box ..
.. BEL had 9 attacking set-pieces, but more worrisome was when FABIAN JOHNSON
pulled up lame in the 31st minute and had to come off and headed straight to
the dressing room (left hamstring) .. .. USA has to hold more of the possession
and stop the unforced TOs (6 in the 1H) .. .. We all know what happens when you
allow talented sides keep the ball .. .. 0-0 @ HT .. ..
2
TERRIFIC
COLLECTIVE DEFENSIVE EFFORT and TIM HOWARD has had bags of saves and has
exorcised the demons of 2010 .. .. USA tried to scramble a goal where they
could (6 total crosses), compared to BEL coming forward (8 total crosses + 8
CKs) .. .. What good chances BEL got, TIMMY was there ~~ HERO!
TERRIFIC
COLLECTIVE DEFENSIVE EFFORT and TIM HOWARD has had bags of saves and has
exorcised the demons of 2010 .. .. USA tried to scramble a goal where they
could (6 total crosses), compared to BEL coming forward (8 total crosses + 8
CKs) .. .. What good chances BEL got, TIMMY was there ~~ HERO!
ET
1H)
Three minutes into ET, sub ROMELU LUKAKU held off a terrific MATT BESLER on
a BEL breakout on the R/Flank, got into the box and after a box scramble, KEVIN
DE BRUYNE got the ball in the R/Box and slid home his R/Footer > L/Left
.. .. And, again on the break, LUKAKU galloped into the L/Box and his
sweet L/Footer got inside the near post to grab a 2-0 lead .. ..
1H)
Three minutes into ET, sub ROMELU LUKAKU held off a terrific MATT BESLER on
a BEL breakout on the R/Flank, got into the box and after a box scramble, KEVIN
DE BRUYNE got the ball in the R/Box and slid home his R/Footer > L/Left
.. .. And, again on the break, LUKAKU galloped into the L/Box and his
sweet L/Footer got inside the near post to grab a 2-0 lead .. ..
2H)
U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A!!
And why was JULIAN GREEN selected? Now - we know why! In the 107th
minute, an instinctive run into the box saw a nice chip from MICHAEL BRADLEY
and GREEN hit his R/Footer first-time > U/Left despite THIBAUT COURTOIS
getting a palm to the ball .. .. USA stayed on the front foot and had BEL
doubting, creating some really decent chances, none better than the exquisite
FK at the top of the box just minutes from the final whistle .. .. With BRADLEY
at the helm, a masterfully-crafted set-piece saw a passing sequence that set
CLINT DEMPSEY free, but he just couldn't quite handle the pill .. .. Every
chance .. .. Every chance .. ..
BEL
MoM:
KEVIN DE BRUYNE (club: Wolfsburg)
Live wire was a terror the whole match long and
just wore down the USA defence to roll home the opening goal .. .. 22YO has
flourished since moving to Germany .. ..
USA
MoM: TIM
HOWARD (club: Everton)
Saved a WORLD CUP RECORD 19 SAVES tonight .. .. If USA
could just hold some possession, hopefully we'll never see this save tally
again .. ..
=================================================================
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 – 2D = 5 pts
If you WON your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 9W – 9L – 2D = 29 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 .. ..
Ramon AZEEZ (NGA), Eder BALANTA
(COL), Oliver BOZANIC (AUS), Diego COSTA (ESP), Matteo DARMIAN (ITA), Lukas DIGNE
(FRA), Cedric DJEUGOUE (CMR), Antoine GRIEZMANN (FRA), Anel HADZIC (BIH), Adnan
JANUZAJ (BEL), Maksim KANUNNIKOV (RUS), Sead KOLASINAC (BIH), Aissa MANDI
(ALG), Shkodran MUSTAFI (GER), Divock ORIGI (BEL), Gabriel PALETTA (ITA), Juan
QUINTERO (COL), Morgan SCHNEIDERLIN (FRA), Luke SHAW (ENG), Raheem STERLING
(ENG), Tino SUSIC (BIH), Jose Juan VAZQUEZ (MEX), Alex WILKINSON (AUS), YUN
Suk-Young (KOR)
12W -- 12L
-- 5D
=================================================================
PANDO! or GORDO? SIDE OF THE TOURNAMENT
Manager:
Jorge Luis PINTO (CRC)
GK:
Keylor NAVAS (CRC)
D: Matt BESLER (USA) -- David LUIZ
(BRA)
M: Jermaine JONES (USA) -- Paul POGBA (FRA) -- Arjen
ROBBEN (NED) --
Brian RUIZ (CRC) -- James
RODRIGUEZ (COL)
F: Tim
CAHILL (AUS) -- F Lionel MESSI (ARG) ◘ -- NEYMAR (BRA)
Bench: MF
Charles ARANGUIZ (CHI) -- MF Andrew AYEW (GHA) --
F Karim
BENZEMA (FRA) -- D Danny BLIND (NED) -- F
Joel CAMPBELL (CRC) --
MF Juan
Guillermo CUADRADO (COL) -- F Olivier GIROUD (FRA) --
GK Tim
HOWARD (USA) D Mats HUMMEL (GER) -- MF
Luka MODRIC (CRO) --
F Thomas
MULLER (GER) -- GK Guillermo OCHOA (MEX) -- MF OSCAR (BRA) --
MF
Andrea PIRLO (ITA) -- MF Juan QUINTERO (COL) -- -- F Alexis SANCHEZ (CHI) ■ --
F Xherdan
SHAQIRI (SUI) -- F Mathieu VALBUENA (FRA) --
F Enner
VALENCIA (ECU) -- F Robin VAN PERSIE
(NED) -- D Mario YEPES (COL)
◘ - denotes 2010 Pando! or Gordo? Starting Side of the Tournament
■ - denotes 2010 Pando! or Gordon?
Honorable Mention of the Tournament
-----------
-----------
2014 WC U.S. NATIONAL TEAM
How I saw it .. ..
Player v. GHA v. POR v. GER v. BEL
==========================================================================
GK) Howard Above-Average Above-Average Good OUTSTANDING
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D) Beasley Average Good Average Good
D) Besler Good OUTSTANDING Good Good
D) Cameron Average Average n/a Above-Average
D) Johnson Above-Average Above-Average Above-Average n/a
DM) Beckerman Average Above-Average Good n/a
D) Brooks Above-Average n/a n/a n/a
D) Yedlin n/a OUTSTANDING Good Good
D) Gonzalez n/a Average Good Good
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M) Jones OUTSTANDING OUTSTANDING Good Above-Average
M) Bradley Poor Below-Average Average Average
M) Bedoya Above-Average Average Below-Average Average
M) Zusi Above-Average Above-Average Above-Average Average
M) Davis n/a n/a Below-Average n/a
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F) Altidore n/a n/a n/a n/a
F) Dempsey OUTSTANDING OUTSTANDING Above-Average Average
F) Johannsson Below-Average n/a n/a n/a
F) Wondolowski n/a OUTSTANDING n/a Above-Average
F) Green n/a n/a n/a OUTSTANDING
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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