The most interesting of Saturday’s matches featured Germany and Argentina, two of the tournament’s most explosive teams.
Germany and Argentina, perennial soccer powerhouses with a bitter rivalry, met in Cape Town, South Africa. Germany, three time winners of the World Cup, has the second youngest team in the tournament and their play has been marked with exciting, attacking soccer.
German Teamwork Dominates
Coming off a dominating 4-1 win over rival England, the Germans dominated the Argentines from start to finish. The Argentines, led by playing legend Diego Maradona, reached the quarterfinal match with a star-studded line up, cruising through one of the easier groups and showing their skill in some dominant performances.
Maradona, an emotional and outspoken coach, was tested as a national team coach for the first time. His defense, identified as the weakness on this team, proved unable to match up against the German’s version of total soccer.
Argentine Defense Breaks Down
The Germans scored the first of their 4 goals of the day in the third minute of the match when Thomas Mueller beat a defender to head the ball in off of a direct kick taken by Sebastian Schweinsteiger. They continued to dominate throughout the match although the Argentines had a slight advantage in shots and in time of possession.
Germany carved up the Argentine defense with surgical precision and limited the Argentines to much lesser quality opportunities. The Germans added two goals from Miroslav Klose in 68th and 89th minute of the match and from defender Arne Friedrich in the 74th minute of the match.
Referee's decision Affects Germany's Next Game
Thomas Mueller received his second yellow card of the tournament in a questionable decision by the referee and as a result will miss the semi-final. He summed up the rout after the match when he said “What’s happened today is obviously just unbelievable. After you’ve played Argentina off the park and beaten them 4-0, you’re basically speechless. The star today was definitely the team, yet again. We’re all playing at the limit, every one of us is giving everything for the cause. I hope my team-mates do everything right in the semi-final, and maybe I’ll score again in the final.”
Spain versus Paraguay
In the last quarterfinal match, 2nd ranked Spain faced Paraguay, 31st ranked team in the world going into the tournament. Spain has been solid in the tournament, if not dominant, with David Villa leading the Spaniards in scoring. To counter Spain, Paraguay put up their solid defense that was the stingiest in the competition so far.
Experts expected Paraguay to play counterattacking soccer and allow Spain to bring the attack to them. Instead, Paraguay outplayed Spain for much of the match missing several good opportunities to score in the first half. Spain dominated possession and outshot Paraguay 16-9 but Paraguay limited the number of quality opportunities for Spain.
Goal in Final Minutes Allows Spain to Advance
The match featured back to back penalty kicks where Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas saved a blazing shot by Paraguay’s Oscar Cardozo. Immediately after the save, Spain counterattacked and, after David Villa was pulled down in the penalty area, Spain was awarded a penalty kick. Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso scored on the kick but it was called back because Spain’s players entered the penalty area before the shot was taken.
On the retake, Paraguayan goalkeeper, Justo Villar saved the shot. In the 83rd minute, David Villa, Spain’s leading scorer, beat Villar with a shot that bounced off one post to the other and into the net. This proved to be the game winner in the 1-0 decision setting up a Germany versus Spain semifinal.
Predictions for the Round of Four
Although Spain entered the tournament ranked 2nd in the world, it would be a stretch to make them the favorites in the semifinal against the high flying Germans based on how the two teams have performed in the tournament. In the other semifinal, Uruguay is a definite underdog in their match against the Netherlands. Regardless, the match ups for the two semifinal matches promise to be entertaining and feature exciting, attacking soccer.
Beth Anderle - A retired US Army officer, Beth has been writing professionally and personally for many years but has only recently made the transition to ...
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