Germany v Uruguay
So, this is the final time that ITV and I shall meet in this World Cup - or, indeed, in term of international football, for a long time to come. Thank Christ for that. If there were awards given to a major broadcasting for getting it wrong in so many ways, on so many levels, they'd have won this one hands down. Their opening segment was what you'd expect, frankly, another debate on the manifest unfairness of That Bastard Handball (get over it, guys, nobody else much outside of Ghana is bothered in the slightest, it's yesterday's news), the crass patronising of a couple of excited Spanish commentators and a 'no, honest, the Third Place Play Off isn't a complete waste of bloody time' assurance. Oh, and yet more of Andy YOU KNOW NOTHING Townsend. In relation to the Third Place Play-Off, it is a really tough sell. I mean, who cares who's the third best team in the world and who's the fourth?! I'm sure if you asked either, they'd much sooner be playing tomorrow in the final. Or, failing that, being back home enjoying a day at the beach. Peter Drury drew the short straw, commentating on what he described himself as 'the World Cup's game of "might-have-beens."' I'm currently trying to work out if there's a more pointless thing in the world and, assuming that there isn't, what does it say about me that I'm spending a Saturday night in my gaff watching it?!
Of course, as so often happens in matches like this, it was a effing blinder! Played in what was little short of a monsoon, the first half started with a shockingly bad over-the-top tackle by Aogo on Diego Perez then got better, quickly.
Four years ago, Bastian Schweinsteiger scored a couple of belters in the equivalent game and he nearly did it again there - after his well-struck thirty-yard drive was blocked and spilled by Fernando Muslera, that man Thomas Mueller got in quick as a flash to coolly tap in from eight yards. Then, arguably Schweinsteiger's first mistake of the tournament cost an equaliser. He was dispossessed by a fine Perez tackle on halfway and suddenly Uruguay broke with pace as Luis Suarez fed Edinson Cavani on the inside left channel and he slipped the ball nonchalantly past the amusingly named Hans-Joerg Butt with his right foot.
At half time, bloody Chiles and flaming Townsend were still going on about Ghana's injustice and Suarez's hand-of-cod. For Christ's sake give it a rest.
Second half. They really are a lovely team to watch at times, Uruguay. Egidio Arevalo played an immaculate - if unconventional - one-two down the right with Suarez and his cross to the edge of the box is acrobatically volleyed into the ground and into the Germany net by Diego Forlan. That wasn't in the script.
Back came Ze Chermans, equally pleasing on the eye and with more raw power about them. I'm not sure Fernando Muslera's mind was properly on the game. He came for yet another cross, this time flung in from the right by new Manchester City signing Jerome Boateng, got nowhere near it - for about the third or fourth time - and was helpless as Marcell Jansen headed into an empty net. As noted, a blinder. A pointless blinder, admittedly, but a blinder none the less. Ten minutes from time a corner from the German right was headed into the six-yard box and after Lugano couldn't adjust his feet quickly enough to clear, the ball popped up to Sami Khedira who looped a header into the corner of the net. In the last minute, Suarez threw himself over and got a free-kick on the edge of the German box. Forlan hit the crossbar with the last kick of the game which would have earned him the golden boot, instead of just a share in it.
And that was it, Germany got some meaningless medals, Uruguay didn't. Ultimately pointless. But bloody entertaining!
Goals: 144
Red Cards: 15
So, this is the final time that ITV and I shall meet in this World Cup - or, indeed, in term of international football, for a long time to come. Thank Christ for that. If there were awards given to a major broadcasting for getting it wrong in so many ways, on so many levels, they'd have won this one hands down. Their opening segment was what you'd expect, frankly, another debate on the manifest unfairness of That Bastard Handball (get over it, guys, nobody else much outside of Ghana is bothered in the slightest, it's yesterday's news), the crass patronising of a couple of excited Spanish commentators and a 'no, honest, the Third Place Play Off isn't a complete waste of bloody time' assurance. Oh, and yet more of Andy YOU KNOW NOTHING Townsend. In relation to the Third Place Play-Off, it is a really tough sell. I mean, who cares who's the third best team in the world and who's the fourth?! I'm sure if you asked either, they'd much sooner be playing tomorrow in the final. Or, failing that, being back home enjoying a day at the beach. Peter Drury drew the short straw, commentating on what he described himself as 'the World Cup's game of "might-have-beens."' I'm currently trying to work out if there's a more pointless thing in the world and, assuming that there isn't, what does it say about me that I'm spending a Saturday night in my gaff watching it?!
Of course, as so often happens in matches like this, it was a effing blinder! Played in what was little short of a monsoon, the first half started with a shockingly bad over-the-top tackle by Aogo on Diego Perez then got better, quickly.
Four years ago, Bastian Schweinsteiger scored a couple of belters in the equivalent game and he nearly did it again there - after his well-struck thirty-yard drive was blocked and spilled by Fernando Muslera, that man Thomas Mueller got in quick as a flash to coolly tap in from eight yards. Then, arguably Schweinsteiger's first mistake of the tournament cost an equaliser. He was dispossessed by a fine Perez tackle on halfway and suddenly Uruguay broke with pace as Luis Suarez fed Edinson Cavani on the inside left channel and he slipped the ball nonchalantly past the amusingly named Hans-Joerg Butt with his right foot.At half time, bloody Chiles and flaming Townsend were still going on about Ghana's injustice and Suarez's hand-of-cod. For Christ's sake give it a rest.
Second half. They really are a lovely team to watch at times, Uruguay. Egidio Arevalo played an immaculate - if unconventional - one-two down the right with Suarez and his cross to the edge of the box is acrobatically volleyed into the ground and into the Germany net by Diego Forlan. That wasn't in the script.
Back came Ze Chermans, equally pleasing on the eye and with more raw power about them. I'm not sure Fernando Muslera's mind was properly on the game. He came for yet another cross, this time flung in from the right by new Manchester City signing Jerome Boateng, got nowhere near it - for about the third or fourth time - and was helpless as Marcell Jansen headed into an empty net. As noted, a blinder. A pointless blinder, admittedly, but a blinder none the less. Ten minutes from time a corner from the German right was headed into the six-yard box and after Lugano couldn't adjust his feet quickly enough to clear, the ball popped up to Sami Khedira who looped a header into the corner of the net. In the last minute, Suarez threw himself over and got a free-kick on the edge of the German box. Forlan hit the crossbar with the last kick of the game which would have earned him the golden boot, instead of just a share in it.And that was it, Germany got some meaningless medals, Uruguay didn't. Ultimately pointless. But bloody entertaining!
Goals: 144
Red Cards: 15
