by Golazo of the Day
If any match deserved a deciding "golazo of golazos", it was the
sublime match up between Argentina and Mexico. This was a game fitting
of any World Cup Final; always absorbing, teasingly tactical, sizzingly
sensational at times, and oscillating throughout the 120 minutes.
Mexico will feel unlucky to have gone out at this stage as they should
have been playing against ten men for the entire second half. There
were some outstanding individual performances from Los Tricolores, and
kudos must go to Ricardo Osorio who was a dynamic presence at the back,
and the peerless Rafael Marquez, who has been the player of the
tournament. The Mexicans pressed the Argentinians all over the pitch,
not allowing their opponents the time to get their passing game
functioning to full effect. As the Mexicans tired as a result of these
exertions, Argentina got stronger with their world class substitutes
Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez to the fore.
In the 9th minute of extra time Messi twinkles up the right wing into
the Mexico half, drifts inside and hits a left-footed pass to Riquelme
who stands centrally on the edge of the centre circle. Riquelme returns
the ball to Messi who is now 5 metres forward and to the right of his
team mate. Messi, shining like a 100 watt light bulb on a hot sultry
summer's night, draws three Mexican midfield moths towards him and
spreads the ball to his captain Sorin on the left wing. Sorin controls
the ball and hits a 40 metre diagonal pass to the right apex of the
Mexico penalty area where Maxi Rodriguez is marked by Pineda. Maxi
controls the ball high on his chest taking it away from his marker and
a couple of metres further from goal. Every molecule in the Maxi's body
combines in sequence as the ball drops, and he hits a powerful, arcing
dipping 30 metre volley on the turn into the opposite left top corner
of the net. Golazo and the Argentine laundry gets another airing in the
stands.
Hero of the Day
The German team continue to gather ominous momentum as they grasp the
attacking gauntlet thrown down by Klinsmann. They have the best strike
partnership in the Cup with Lucas Podolski, the two-goal hero against
the Swedes, and Miroslav Klose, the tournament's top scorer,
dovetailing beautifully. Behind them Bastian Schweinsteiger continues
to impress with his youthful brio. The main man though is Michael
Ballack whose presence in, and stamp on the tournament is growing by
the day. Against Sweden he was everywhere, marshalling his troops with
aplomb. Always available to receive a pass, he probed with intelligence
and found himself in space on the edge of the box on endless occasions.
If it wasn't for a world class performance by Swedish keeper Andreas
Isaksson, Ballack could have scored a hattrick with his powerful,
accurate shooting.
Villain of the Day
Both of today's referees come into focus for their villainy, without
quite reaching the standards required to win the award. In the
Germany-Sweden match the Brazilian referee Carlos Simon acquiesced to
the demands of the card-waving German players, and awarded Teddy Lucic
a second yellow card in the 35th minute for the act of breathing on
Miroslav Klose on the halfway touchline. In the Argentina-Mexico
exhibition of latin flair, Swiss ref Massimo Busacca watched as Gabriel
Heinze allowed a pass from his keeper to run over his foot before
chopping down Francisco Fonseca who had capitalised on the Argentine's
mistake. Fonseca was clear on goal and it should have been a straight
red but Busacca bottled it.
Cue fanfare. I open the golden envelope and reveal that the laurels of
infamy go to Swedish manager Lars Lagerback. Sweden are 2-0 down to
Germany in Munich and down to ten men, when Henrik Larsson is clumsily
fouled in the penalty area by Christoph Metzelder. Larsson is left
counting the blades of grass as the Germans indulge in the usual
time-wasting tactics to delay the penalty, only to be joined in their
tedious charade by Lagerback. Inexplicably the Swedish manager decides
now is a great time to make a tactical substitution and replaces
Mattias Jonson with Christian Wilhelmsson. The further delayed penalty
is inevitably missed as Larsson balloons it over the bar. What was
Lagerback thinking? Could it be he thought "This will be saved but
Wilhelmsson is the best player in the world at scoring from penalty
rebounds so I must bring him on"? Answers on a postcard to Lars
Lagerback, c/o Swedish FA, R?sunda Stadium, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.
steve d