Last time I wrote a blog for you guys out there, we were waiting for the last 2 matches of the 2010 World Cup. These matches were the 3rd place play-off between Uruguay and Germany, and the final itself to be contested by Spain and Holland, 2 teams who had never won the World Cup in their history. So, I think we should get going with all that and then after, possibly Thursday, I will give my best and worst's of the 2010 World Cup so look out for that aswell.
Saturday night, the 2 unlucky semi-finalists met in Port Elizabeth for the 3rd place play-off to determine who would gain the bronze metal at this World Cup. The spirited Uruguayan's came into this game as the underdog's, but in fairness to them, I don't think anyone, least of all themselves, thought that they would get this far and be in a position where they may just sneak a medal out of this World Cup. In all seriousness, Diego Forlan had possibly been one of the best players at South Africa 2010, but it was another one of the player's who had emerged as exceptionally gifted, Thomas Muller, who got the early goal to give the favoured German's the lead after just 18 minutes. That goal looked to have set the 3-time champions on their way to a second consecutive 3rd place finish having registered the same result in their home nation just 4 years ago. However, once again, the Uruguayan's sprang a shock on the millions watching around the world as Edinson Cavani slotted past German keeper Hans-Jorg Butt after just 28 minutes. The German's had hung onto the lead for just 10 minutes, and in all reality, it didn't really come as a shock after what the Uruguayan's had done so far at this tournament and so the game went into half-time on level terms. As the second half began, Forlan's Uruguay looked very dangerous and just 6 minutes in, Forlan himself scored to enhance his chances of winning the Golden Ball for the best player and also get himself back in the hunt for the Golden Boot, for the top scorer. Muller's earlier goal had put him on 5 goals, equal with Villa and Sneijder, and so Forlan's goal was necessary if he wanted to be seen as the best player at this World Cup. It was a very well-taken goal aswell and one that Forlan will undoubtedly watch again and again. In this topsy-turvy game however, the Germans got back level just 5 minutes after Uruguay had taken the lead through a Marcell Jansen header. That was unlucky for a side who had been enjoying their best World Cup in 40 years and it would then be down to who blinked next to decide the bronze medal of the 2010 World Cup. Duly, up stepped midfield maestro Sami Khedira, the young German heading into the goal after 82 minutes to seal the German's second successive 3rd place finish. Or so it seemed. As the seconds ticked away in injury-time, Luis Suarez, a man who had been heavily booed by the African contingent in the crowd for his part in defeating Ghana at the quarter final stage, won a free-kick right on the edge of the box for Forlan to take. It would have to be the last kick of the game but many onlookers doubted whether he could get it over the wall and back down in time. Well, he stepped up and struck it, and it looked for all the world as if it was a spectacular goal to take this fantastic game into extra-time, but unfortunately for Forlan and Uruguay, it struck the bar and rebounded out, upon which the referee blew the final whistle and gave Germany their bronze medal position for the second time in 4 years. Unlucky Uruguay will go home feeling they could've done so, so much more, but have completed their best World Cup in 40 years so perhaps they shouldn't look down on what they have acheived this year.
Onto the 2010 World Cup final then, which came live from Soccer City, Johannesburg on Sunday night between perennial World Cup underacheiver's Spain and Holland. The Dutch had previously been to 2 World Cup final's but had a 100% loss rate whereas this would be the first World Cup final for the Spanish having finally broke their jinx at the quarter-final stages at this year's finals. They can also now boast a 100% record in World Cup semi-finals and so would they take this chance to win the World Cup and establish another positive 100% record, or would they lose their composure having come this far and establish a 100% losing record in World Cup finals? In what was a hotly-contested finals, many pundits criticised the tactic's the Dutch had used to try and get their first World Cup success, but I genuinely think that they used the only tactics that they thought would be successful in breaking up the Spanish passing game. It may not have been pretty, but can you really blame them for doing so? Despite the utter brilliance of the Spanish, and the swift counter-attacking of the Dutch, we didn't really get any clear-cut chances until the second-half when Robben ran straight through the Spanish defence but failed to beat Iker Casillas in the Spanish goal. The Spanish also had a chance as Sergio Ramos headed over a free header from a Spanish corner. For the second successive World Cup, the game ended 0-0 after 90 minutes and we entered extra-time, where there would be yet more drama before the night ended. The first half ended without much incident, but most of the games action came in the second half as the Dutch had a man sent off on 109 minutes (Johnny Heitinga) having collected his second yellow card. In all fairness, the Dutch could've had 5 or 6 sent off during the course of the match, but luckily Howard Webb kept his composure and made sensible decisions which benefited the final as a whole. Just 7 minutes after this fatal blow to the Dutch, Andres Iniesta, the brilliant young midfielder from Barcelona got the ball just inside the box and struck past Maarten Stekelenburg (who had been brilliant in the Dutch goal) to give the Spanish their first World Cup triumph in their only final, but condemn the Dutch to their 3rd defeat in their 3rd final. That came as a crushing blow for the Dutch, who had gone through qualifying and the finals all unbeaten, but in all fairness, Spain were the best side at this World Cup and so it's fitting that they actually came through to win the trophy in the end. Congratulations to Spain who are now double champions (European and World) and right now, will definitely be the number one international team in the Fifa rankings, and deservedly so.
My congratulations then go to Spain and I have to admit I'm devastated that this World Cup has come to an end. I've thought it has been an exceptional tournament despite the fact that most of the football has been poor. We have however seen some brilliant goals and some brilliant individual performances, and the colour and vibrancy of this World Cup will surely live very long in the memory. Thank you for experiencing it with me, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have and enjoyed reading this blog throughout the tournament. As I said earlier, tomorrow I will present my best and worst's of the 2010 World Cup, and after that we have a few week's until the start of the football season although I will be blogging about transfer's, pre-season friendlies and the like. See you all soon guys, and once again thanks for reading
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
The semi-final stage
The World Cup is sadly reaching it's end, and this week, we saw the last 4 teams attempt to reach the pinnacle of World football that is the World Cup final at Soccer City Johannesburg on Sunday 11th July. The stage was set for Holland-Uruguay and Germany-Spain, the 4 best teams of 2010.
Tuesday saw the clash between two times winners Uruguay and two times beaten finalists Holland. Could the Dutch get to a third World Cup final where they would have the chance to break their World Cup duck?? Or would the Uruguayans again reach the final and attempt to join the likes of Germany, Italy and Brazil by winning their 3rd World Cup?? The Uruguayans have been the surprise package of this World Cup, winning a tough group containing the host nation South Africa, former champions France and the excellent Mexicans to set up a last 16 match against South Korea. Having won that, they then knocked out the last African side, Ghana, having narrowly survived an Asamoah Gyan penalty towards the end of extra-time and then winning through 4-2 on penalties. The Dutch had come through tough encounter's with Slovakia and Brazil to get to the semi-final against Uruguay and with all their brilliant attacking players, it looked like it would be an overly entertaining tie. As a stat before the game, no World Cup semi-final had ever been won by more than a one-goal margin and many critics didn't expect that to change during this tie. The Dutch looked to hit out early, and that they did as Gio Van Bronckhorst smashed in a long-range effort in the 18th minute that Muslera had no chance of getting to. That goal was perhaps the goal of the tournament and unlike many long-range shots at this World Cup, the Jabulani didn't seem to deviate in any way, shape or form and perhaps that is indicative of how good a strike it was from the experienced defender and Dutch captain. The Uruguayans managed to get back level just before half-time when Diego Forlan curled in a brilliant effort from outside the box that Maarten Stekelenburg perhaps should've saved, but unfortunately for him, he took a step to the right having not anticipated the flight of the ball correctly. The Dutch then went and scored 2 goals in the space of 2 second-half minutes after first Wesley Sneijder (70 minutes) and then Arjen Robben (73 minutes) pretty much made the game safe for the Oranje Army. Or so the Dutch thought. Having indicated that there would be just 3 minutes of injury time, the Urguayan right-back Maxi Pereira curled in a delicious finish from just outside the box. After that, the referee seemed happy to let the Uruguayans attack for a few more minutes before blowing up and sending the Dutch into Sunday's final at Soccer City after a 3-2 win over their South American rivals. Having talked so much about how the South American's were dazzling us all at this World Cup, it seem's ironic that for the 2nd successive World Cup, Hollands victory confirmed that we would once again have an all-European final as Germany took on Spain in the second semi-final. Incidentally, it is also the first time there has been an all-European final outside of Europe and so once again, the World Cup of 2010 throws up a first.
Tonight then we got to witness the combined brilliance of Germany and Spain as they duelled for the second place in the World Cup final in the brilliant setting of Durban. Both teams will have been going into this game thinking it was a game that they could win and would have been confident of making Sunday's final. The Germans had the advantage of their extensive experience at this stage of the World Cup, whereas this was the first time the Spanish had gotten to a World Cup semi-final having finally broken their quarter-final duck against the Paraguayans in the previous round. The Germans has illuminated the tournament with their excellent incisive play and mechanical attitude and the fact that they scored 4 goals in 3 games during this tournament, all against quality opposition. The Spanish however, dominated large periods of the game and the European champions always looked the more likely to score the winning goal throughout the game. The eventual winner came as Carles Puyol headed in a Spanish corner after 73 minutes, hardly a goal that was circa Spain 2008. But that goal was enough to win the game even though the Spanish should've sealed the game late on after Pedro failed to find Fernando Torres in an advanced position, but luckily for the European champions, the Germans simply weren't strong enough to craft the opening that could get them back into the semi-final and hence they go into Saturday nights 3rd place play-off with Uruguay, and Spain will meet Holland at Soccer City on Sunday night for the right to be called the World champions. That win not only means that there will definitely be a new name on the famous trophy, incidentally the nation that wins will be the 8th nation to have ever won the title, but also that the stat stated earlier stands: no nation has ever won a World Cup semi-final by more than a one goal margin.
So then, we have the 3rd place play-off on Saturday, and then the final on Sunday night. I will cover both of those games and then next week, I will bring my bests and worsts of the World Cup 2010. I've really enjoyed this brilliant World Cup and I hope you've enjoyed it aswell. I've loved covering it, and I'm glad that you guys have enjoyed reading this blog as usual. Having said all that, see you Saturday, and have a great Thursday and Friday. Cheers guys
Tuesday saw the clash between two times winners Uruguay and two times beaten finalists Holland. Could the Dutch get to a third World Cup final where they would have the chance to break their World Cup duck?? Or would the Uruguayans again reach the final and attempt to join the likes of Germany, Italy and Brazil by winning their 3rd World Cup?? The Uruguayans have been the surprise package of this World Cup, winning a tough group containing the host nation South Africa, former champions France and the excellent Mexicans to set up a last 16 match against South Korea. Having won that, they then knocked out the last African side, Ghana, having narrowly survived an Asamoah Gyan penalty towards the end of extra-time and then winning through 4-2 on penalties. The Dutch had come through tough encounter's with Slovakia and Brazil to get to the semi-final against Uruguay and with all their brilliant attacking players, it looked like it would be an overly entertaining tie. As a stat before the game, no World Cup semi-final had ever been won by more than a one-goal margin and many critics didn't expect that to change during this tie. The Dutch looked to hit out early, and that they did as Gio Van Bronckhorst smashed in a long-range effort in the 18th minute that Muslera had no chance of getting to. That goal was perhaps the goal of the tournament and unlike many long-range shots at this World Cup, the Jabulani didn't seem to deviate in any way, shape or form and perhaps that is indicative of how good a strike it was from the experienced defender and Dutch captain. The Uruguayans managed to get back level just before half-time when Diego Forlan curled in a brilliant effort from outside the box that Maarten Stekelenburg perhaps should've saved, but unfortunately for him, he took a step to the right having not anticipated the flight of the ball correctly. The Dutch then went and scored 2 goals in the space of 2 second-half minutes after first Wesley Sneijder (70 minutes) and then Arjen Robben (73 minutes) pretty much made the game safe for the Oranje Army. Or so the Dutch thought. Having indicated that there would be just 3 minutes of injury time, the Urguayan right-back Maxi Pereira curled in a delicious finish from just outside the box. After that, the referee seemed happy to let the Uruguayans attack for a few more minutes before blowing up and sending the Dutch into Sunday's final at Soccer City after a 3-2 win over their South American rivals. Having talked so much about how the South American's were dazzling us all at this World Cup, it seem's ironic that for the 2nd successive World Cup, Hollands victory confirmed that we would once again have an all-European final as Germany took on Spain in the second semi-final. Incidentally, it is also the first time there has been an all-European final outside of Europe and so once again, the World Cup of 2010 throws up a first.
Tonight then we got to witness the combined brilliance of Germany and Spain as they duelled for the second place in the World Cup final in the brilliant setting of Durban. Both teams will have been going into this game thinking it was a game that they could win and would have been confident of making Sunday's final. The Germans had the advantage of their extensive experience at this stage of the World Cup, whereas this was the first time the Spanish had gotten to a World Cup semi-final having finally broken their quarter-final duck against the Paraguayans in the previous round. The Germans has illuminated the tournament with their excellent incisive play and mechanical attitude and the fact that they scored 4 goals in 3 games during this tournament, all against quality opposition. The Spanish however, dominated large periods of the game and the European champions always looked the more likely to score the winning goal throughout the game. The eventual winner came as Carles Puyol headed in a Spanish corner after 73 minutes, hardly a goal that was circa Spain 2008. But that goal was enough to win the game even though the Spanish should've sealed the game late on after Pedro failed to find Fernando Torres in an advanced position, but luckily for the European champions, the Germans simply weren't strong enough to craft the opening that could get them back into the semi-final and hence they go into Saturday nights 3rd place play-off with Uruguay, and Spain will meet Holland at Soccer City on Sunday night for the right to be called the World champions. That win not only means that there will definitely be a new name on the famous trophy, incidentally the nation that wins will be the 8th nation to have ever won the title, but also that the stat stated earlier stands: no nation has ever won a World Cup semi-final by more than a one goal margin.
So then, we have the 3rd place play-off on Saturday, and then the final on Sunday night. I will cover both of those games and then next week, I will bring my bests and worsts of the World Cup 2010. I've really enjoyed this brilliant World Cup and I hope you've enjoyed it aswell. I've loved covering it, and I'm glad that you guys have enjoyed reading this blog as usual. Having said all that, see you Saturday, and have a great Thursday and Friday. Cheers guys
Monday, 5 July 2010
Nadal-Bedrych and what looks like another summer of turmoil
So today I am going to go over the Mens Wimbledon Final from yesterday in some brief detail and also I'm going to go over the big story for all Swans fan's, a story that will break hearts and dominate the early part of the Summer for all of us.
Yesterday at Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal came up against the conqueror of Roger Federer on Centre Court, Tomas Berdych, in the final at the All England Tennis Club. Nadal never technically lost the Wimbledon crown having been injured last year and therefore not able to compete, so as he was walking onto Centre Court, it had an air of him coming out to regain the title he never lost against a man who had never been this far in a Slam before. If Nadal thought that Berdych's inexperience and nerves would get to him early on, he was sorely mistaken as as the Czezh held serve all the way until 3-3 in the first set. At this point, the Czech's game seemed to disintergrate and Nadal broke the Czech's serve to take a 4-3 lead. From there on, Nadal won the next 2 games to take the first set 6-3. That then was Berdych's chances pretty much up as most commentators would agree that he had needed to take the first set to grab the initiative in the match and to stand a realistic chance of taking the final from Nadal. As the old addage goes, the proof is in the pudding, and Nadal served up Berdych's just desserts as he waltzed through to a 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 win to clinch his second Wimbledon title and secure his place as World number 1 for at least the forseeable future. The brilliant Spaniard now has 2 Slam titles to his name this year and could go on to win another one and make it a hat-trick after the US Open later on in the Autumn.
Swansea fans, I think you should brace yourself for this, it looks very much like we'll be having another unsure Summer. That's right, after all the drama of Roberto Maritnez calling time on his Swansea City career last Summer, we've managed to bring back all the drama yet again as Paulo Sousa, the man appointed to replace Roberto, has left the club to join fellow Championship club Leicester City. I actually think the pain of this betrayal could be worse than Roberto's last year, because this time he hasn't left for a club he loved before, or because they're a bigger team than us, he's simply left for a team in our division who can afford to pay him more money. Obviously, money makes the world go round and who can say that they wouldn't take a job with more money than the job they have right now? I mean that much is pretty self-explanatory, but remember, Sousa was a man who had had his reputation severely tarnished by the fat cats of QPR before we bravely picked him up last July and said come on and have a go. This then is really the crux of why it hurts so much to have Paulo walk out on us like that. To me, and I'd surmise most other Swansea City fan's, it feels as if Mr Sousa has walked in to our club, used us as a way back into management and having done OK, decided to ditch us because somebody has simply thrown some money his way. That may be too harsh an assesment of Paulo, but I geuninely believe that to be the truth of the matter and I don't think I will be forgiving him at any time in the near future. I actually met Paulo once, and he didn't strike me as the type of man who would do that sort of thing to the fans who so vehemently supported him through his time at the Liberty despite all the rumour's about player and board discontent. Possible names that have already been touted for the once again vacant manager's role at the Liberty Stadium are the likes of Gus Poyet, Chris Coleman and Paul Tisdale. I'd like to see somebody like Gary Speed personally. He's the sort of man all the player's would respect from day one and who would implement a good footballing ideology and another main positive is that he is actually Welsh. Of course, another aspect which Speed has in his favour is that he is pretty much a rookie, which as we know from the previous 3 appointments, is the type of manager that Swansea would be looking at. Maybe I'll apply for the job as well. Let's face it, they won't find anyone more committed or passionate about the team than me.
That's all I've got for today then guys. I had to do a blog about the depressing news as soon as I heard it, but I had been predicting this for a couple of days and so it really doesn't come as such a massive surprise to me, even though it still hurts. Well anyway, I guess I'll be off, but I hope you all enjoyed the blog and the little insight into my feelings about the news coming out of the Liberty this afternoon. See you all on Tuesday with my blog on the first of the 2 World Cup semi-finals, take care guys
Yesterday at Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal came up against the conqueror of Roger Federer on Centre Court, Tomas Berdych, in the final at the All England Tennis Club. Nadal never technically lost the Wimbledon crown having been injured last year and therefore not able to compete, so as he was walking onto Centre Court, it had an air of him coming out to regain the title he never lost against a man who had never been this far in a Slam before. If Nadal thought that Berdych's inexperience and nerves would get to him early on, he was sorely mistaken as as the Czezh held serve all the way until 3-3 in the first set. At this point, the Czech's game seemed to disintergrate and Nadal broke the Czech's serve to take a 4-3 lead. From there on, Nadal won the next 2 games to take the first set 6-3. That then was Berdych's chances pretty much up as most commentators would agree that he had needed to take the first set to grab the initiative in the match and to stand a realistic chance of taking the final from Nadal. As the old addage goes, the proof is in the pudding, and Nadal served up Berdych's just desserts as he waltzed through to a 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 win to clinch his second Wimbledon title and secure his place as World number 1 for at least the forseeable future. The brilliant Spaniard now has 2 Slam titles to his name this year and could go on to win another one and make it a hat-trick after the US Open later on in the Autumn.
Swansea fans, I think you should brace yourself for this, it looks very much like we'll be having another unsure Summer. That's right, after all the drama of Roberto Maritnez calling time on his Swansea City career last Summer, we've managed to bring back all the drama yet again as Paulo Sousa, the man appointed to replace Roberto, has left the club to join fellow Championship club Leicester City. I actually think the pain of this betrayal could be worse than Roberto's last year, because this time he hasn't left for a club he loved before, or because they're a bigger team than us, he's simply left for a team in our division who can afford to pay him more money. Obviously, money makes the world go round and who can say that they wouldn't take a job with more money than the job they have right now? I mean that much is pretty self-explanatory, but remember, Sousa was a man who had had his reputation severely tarnished by the fat cats of QPR before we bravely picked him up last July and said come on and have a go. This then is really the crux of why it hurts so much to have Paulo walk out on us like that. To me, and I'd surmise most other Swansea City fan's, it feels as if Mr Sousa has walked in to our club, used us as a way back into management and having done OK, decided to ditch us because somebody has simply thrown some money his way. That may be too harsh an assesment of Paulo, but I geuninely believe that to be the truth of the matter and I don't think I will be forgiving him at any time in the near future. I actually met Paulo once, and he didn't strike me as the type of man who would do that sort of thing to the fans who so vehemently supported him through his time at the Liberty despite all the rumour's about player and board discontent. Possible names that have already been touted for the once again vacant manager's role at the Liberty Stadium are the likes of Gus Poyet, Chris Coleman and Paul Tisdale. I'd like to see somebody like Gary Speed personally. He's the sort of man all the player's would respect from day one and who would implement a good footballing ideology and another main positive is that he is actually Welsh. Of course, another aspect which Speed has in his favour is that he is pretty much a rookie, which as we know from the previous 3 appointments, is the type of manager that Swansea would be looking at. Maybe I'll apply for the job as well. Let's face it, they won't find anyone more committed or passionate about the team than me.
That's all I've got for today then guys. I had to do a blog about the depressing news as soon as I heard it, but I had been predicting this for a couple of days and so it really doesn't come as such a massive surprise to me, even though it still hurts. Well anyway, I guess I'll be off, but I hope you all enjoyed the blog and the little insight into my feelings about the news coming out of the Liberty this afternoon. See you all on Tuesday with my blog on the first of the 2 World Cup semi-finals, take care guys
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Quarter-finals in the football, semi's at Wimbledon, and my FINAL drinking rule (very sad!)
Last night, the quarter-final stages of the World Cup came to a conclusion, and boy were they dramatic. In today's post, we take a look at all 4 quarter-final's in our World Cup round-up, aswell as a semi-final round up of the tennis at Wimbledon but unfortunately, we have our last World Cup drinking rule. I can sense the tears flowing for you guys already, so I'll dive straight in and get the round-up's done before you break down completely.
As chronolgically as possible then, Friday's lunchtime kick-off saw Brazil take on Holland in what was one of the most highly anticipated match-up's of the 2010 World Cup. Having watched Brazil destroy Chile in their last 16 match, I doubt there was any heavy betting against the Samba star's going into this match and when Robinho swept in deliciously after 10 minutes, it seemed as though the Brazilian's would almost certainly be waltzing into the semi-final. Despite all the positive talk about the Dutch defence before the match, it seemed to simply dissolve when, on 10 minutes, Felipe Melo spotted the run of Robinho and slid a brilliantly insightful pass through to the Manchester City man who, much like he did against Chile, swept in first time past the onrushing Maarten Stekelenburg, who actually had a good game despite his early lapse. The rest of the first half passed without much extra incident, and the Brazilian's must have been going in at half-time feeling very confident of booking their semi-final place against either Uruguay or Ghana. However, a defensive mix-up just 8 minutes after the restart changed the game as the seemingly unadventurous Dutch were gifted a goal thanks to a Felipe Melo deflection. As the ball came in after a lofted ball was played by Wesley Sneijder, both Julio Cesar and Felipe Melo went up to clear the ball, but unfortunately for Melo, the ball glanced off his head and crashed into the back of the net giving the Dutch a way back into the game. Just 15 minutes later, and the Oranje Army took the lead through a Wesley Sneijder goal and Brazil seemed very much on the ropes. I actually haven't seen the second Dutch goal yet as I was watching Andy Murray, but I have been assured it was of the highest quality which is what you would expect from a player like Sneijder who has been excellent for the Dutch thus far. Needless to say, the 2nd Dutch goal sparked the Brazilian's into action and they threw everything at Holland. Unfortunately for Melo, he got a bit too worked up and was sent off for a blatant stamp on Arjen Robben. In all reality, that just typified what was a bad day for the midfield stalwart, despite his assist for Robinho's goal, and he will now head back to Brazil in disgrace at how his tournament has sadly come to an end. Not long after that, the World Cup had come to an end for all the Brazilian player's and Dunga's time as manager of Brazil simultaneously came to an end as he resigned shortly after. It would've been a brave man to bet on Holland before the game having seen the sort of football that Brazil were playing heading into the game, but afterward's he would probably have been quite a rich man as Holland produced a massive shock to make it to the semi-final's. Final score then was Holland 2-1 Brazil.
I'm sure people would've looked at the match-up's on Friday and possibly made plan's to go out during the night-time game as it could never match the excitement and drama of the early kick-off. If you did that, get online and check out the highlight's because this was genuinely one of the best games at this year's World Cup. Full of attacking football, hot-headed challenges and 2 brilliant goal's, it was a pleasure to watch and a very, very good advert for World Cup football. In a topsy-turvy first half, the Uruguayan's were the one's who made all the early running after a few early shot's were well-saved by Ghana keeper Richard Kingson. However, midway through the first-half, the Ghanain's started to come into the game a bit more as Asamoah Gyan and Kevin-Prince Boateng started to get chances on goal. During this period, the Ghanain's managed to snatch the advantage just moment's before the interval after a speculative 40-yard drive from Sulley Muntari deceived Uruguay keeper Muslera off-guard and flew into the bottom right corner sending the African contingent within the stadium absolutely delirious. It looked very much like Ghana would become the first African team to reach the semi-final of a World Cup, but the game would take a swing back to deadlock just after half-time as the spectacular Diego Forlan drilled a free-kick into the back of the Ghanain net to break African heart's. The game was then very stretched as both team's tried to find the killer goal against their opponent's and the Ghanain's wasted quite alot of good chances and good positions by picking out the wrong pass in advanced positions. The game then ended 1-1 and we were thrust into extra-time for only the second time at this World Cup and as the Uruguayan's visibly tired, the African's seemed to get a second win as they looked for that Golden goal that would give them their semi-final place against the Dutch. At the end of extra-time, it was Forlan's strike partner's turn to break the hearts of the Ghanain's. As Adiyiah, one of the Ghanain substitutes, headed the ball goalward's, Luis Suarez raised his hand's instinctively and pushed the ball away from just under the bar. In all fairness to the referee, he saw it straight away and Suarez was immediately given a red card, and as he walked off the pitch in tears with his shirt over his face, Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty, and everyone in Accra and in the stadium must've thought it was a dead cert that Gyan would send Ghana through. After a short run-up, Gyan decided to go for power rather than placement and unbelieveably struck the bar with the last kick of the game. As the game headed to penalties, footage was played of Suarez celebrating Gyan's miss, and I think that's pretty bad because he went from inconsolable to jumping around like a mad man almost mocking Ghana. It was terrible behaviour to do that on the side of the pitch as it looked very disrespectful to the Ghanain's. I have to give credit to Gyan who just moment's after his crucial penalty miss stepped up first in the shoot-out and banged his penalty home. That did take alot of guts and so I have to say well done to him for that. The Uruguayan's though don't live on sentiment and they eventually took the penalty shoot-out 4-2 to knock out the only remaining African side and break the heart's of a continent. They will face Holland in Cape Town on Tuesday.
So next is the team that I predicted would waltz to the final and win the whole thing. I'm really glad that I put that out there and made such a big call. At least I didn't bet anything on it which is nice I guess. Saturday 3 pm was the big quarter-final between Argentina and Germany. This was the big one that we all looked at when we knew the shape of the quarter-finals and was set to be one of the games of the tournament between one of the sure fire favourites and an inexperienced but brilliantly talented young team. It was certainly a brilliant game, but unfortunately for me, I had predicted an Argentina win, in fact I believe I even said that they would definitely win the whole tournament on this very blog. Well they won't win it now after they were crushed 4-0 by the insanely clinical German's. The goal's came from Thomas Muller, after 3 minutes, two for Miroslav Klose, 67 and 89 minutes, and finally Arne Friedrich, 74 minutes which was the defender's first international goal and what a time to score it really. I was hugely disappointed with the Argentine's attacking and defensive play. They looked as though they didn't care about being in the quarter-final and definitely didn't look as though they wanted to play a semi-final. It's a shame really because now the two team's that were playing the best football at this World Cup are both out and it's because neither of them showed enough desire to go out and beat what should've been, for them, relatively easy opponent's given how poor the European team's have been thus far. It's strange because I thought Maradona and Argentina had more in the bag than that and maybe they do, but they just needed to show it against the German's. As England proved, you can't just turn up to face the German's unless you are playing your best game which the Argentine's obviously didn't learn. Sorry for being foolish and predicting that they would win the tournament, and so now I have to pick a new team. Germany??
Saturday evening saw another Europe-South America clash and so far, it was 2-0 to Europe. Could Spain make it a clean sweep of European victories over their South American counterparts?? The Paraguayan's actually played very well against the European champions and I think they were unlucky to come away having been eliminated courtesy of an 83rd minute David Villa goal. That was the striker's 5th goal at these finals and he now stands alone as the top scorer, an accolade his play has surely deserved so far. The Paraguayan's were unlucky to miss a penalty they won in the second half of the game, but perhaps even more unlucky not to be given the chance to take it again after the Spanish defence was seen encroaching on the replay. Just moment's later, the Paraguayan keeper stopped a retaken Spanish penalty and in all honesty, after that, I genuinely thought that the Paraguayan's might make a fight of it and possibly come out on top, they did fight until the very end and I think they can be immensely proud of the way they played against the hotly favoured Spanish and the fact that it was only a 1-0 victory sort of show's you that the game wasn't all Spain and wasn't dominated by Spain so thank you to Paraguay for at least making a game of it.
Ummm semi-finals of Wimbledon then. Tomas Berdych, conqueror of Roger Federer, came up against 3rd seed Novak Djokovic in his semi-final. Surprisingly, Djokovic didn't really show up and Berdych eventually ran away with it in straight sets which meant Andy Murray came out onto Centre Court around 4 o'clock right in the middle of the Holland-Brazil showdown hence why I didn't see most of the second half. The man who stood in his way?? Rafael Nadal. The man who won the French Open 4 years in a row and the current World number one. Some people were giving Muzza a chance as Nadal had been taken to 5 sets a couple of time's during the tournament whereas Murray had only lost one set and that had been in the previous round. As the match got underway, both men seemed to be on a par, although Murray was making much more of a fight of it on Nadal's serve than Nadal seemed to be making on Murray's service games. However, it was actually Nadal that made the first breakthrough and ended up taking the first set from his British opponent 6-4, putting Murray under some serious pressure early on during the match. Both men then held their serve all the way through the second set and during the tie-break, Murray had the chance to win the second set and push himself back into the match and give him a chance at getting through to the final and making himself the first Brit to reach a Wimbledon final since Buddy Austin 74 years ago. Unfortunately though, Murray missed his chance and Nadal clinched the second set to give him a 2-0 lead and to effectively end Murray's chances. Despite an early break in the 3rd set, Murray didn't manage to hold his way through to get back into the match at 2-1, and Nadal broke back and then managed to take the set 6-4 and put the brilliant Briton out. That 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 victory means Rafa sets up a final at the All England Club with Tomas Berdych. That match is due to start in about 10 minutes time so I'll get off and have a watch of that for you guys.
I am now struggling. I think I may have given you all of my World Cup rules, but I'm going to think of one as I right so forgive me if it's rubbish. Ok, so I may sort of have one, but this is very dependent on you ACTUALLY watching the game properly closely, but it's decent. This is the "Jabulani" rule. Anytime there is a goalkeeping error/error/the ball moves in a weird way, the last one to say some variation of "I blame the ball", or "Jabulani", essentially something ball related, must do the assigned punishment. I'm sorry it's rubbish, but let's be honest, we knew that they were actually going to get worse as we went on didn't we. That's your last World Cup rule. I'm sad about it, I bet you guys are back home aswell. How could you not be in all honesty??
Right then, off to watch a mixture of T4 On The Beach and Wimbledon. More Wimbledon to be honest as I want to cast my eye over that final to bring you some of my writing tomorrow. So I guess I'll see you all in a bit. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment and as always, thank you for reading and I'll see you soon for more blogging.
As chronolgically as possible then, Friday's lunchtime kick-off saw Brazil take on Holland in what was one of the most highly anticipated match-up's of the 2010 World Cup. Having watched Brazil destroy Chile in their last 16 match, I doubt there was any heavy betting against the Samba star's going into this match and when Robinho swept in deliciously after 10 minutes, it seemed as though the Brazilian's would almost certainly be waltzing into the semi-final. Despite all the positive talk about the Dutch defence before the match, it seemed to simply dissolve when, on 10 minutes, Felipe Melo spotted the run of Robinho and slid a brilliantly insightful pass through to the Manchester City man who, much like he did against Chile, swept in first time past the onrushing Maarten Stekelenburg, who actually had a good game despite his early lapse. The rest of the first half passed without much extra incident, and the Brazilian's must have been going in at half-time feeling very confident of booking their semi-final place against either Uruguay or Ghana. However, a defensive mix-up just 8 minutes after the restart changed the game as the seemingly unadventurous Dutch were gifted a goal thanks to a Felipe Melo deflection. As the ball came in after a lofted ball was played by Wesley Sneijder, both Julio Cesar and Felipe Melo went up to clear the ball, but unfortunately for Melo, the ball glanced off his head and crashed into the back of the net giving the Dutch a way back into the game. Just 15 minutes later, and the Oranje Army took the lead through a Wesley Sneijder goal and Brazil seemed very much on the ropes. I actually haven't seen the second Dutch goal yet as I was watching Andy Murray, but I have been assured it was of the highest quality which is what you would expect from a player like Sneijder who has been excellent for the Dutch thus far. Needless to say, the 2nd Dutch goal sparked the Brazilian's into action and they threw everything at Holland. Unfortunately for Melo, he got a bit too worked up and was sent off for a blatant stamp on Arjen Robben. In all reality, that just typified what was a bad day for the midfield stalwart, despite his assist for Robinho's goal, and he will now head back to Brazil in disgrace at how his tournament has sadly come to an end. Not long after that, the World Cup had come to an end for all the Brazilian player's and Dunga's time as manager of Brazil simultaneously came to an end as he resigned shortly after. It would've been a brave man to bet on Holland before the game having seen the sort of football that Brazil were playing heading into the game, but afterward's he would probably have been quite a rich man as Holland produced a massive shock to make it to the semi-final's. Final score then was Holland 2-1 Brazil.
I'm sure people would've looked at the match-up's on Friday and possibly made plan's to go out during the night-time game as it could never match the excitement and drama of the early kick-off. If you did that, get online and check out the highlight's because this was genuinely one of the best games at this year's World Cup. Full of attacking football, hot-headed challenges and 2 brilliant goal's, it was a pleasure to watch and a very, very good advert for World Cup football. In a topsy-turvy first half, the Uruguayan's were the one's who made all the early running after a few early shot's were well-saved by Ghana keeper Richard Kingson. However, midway through the first-half, the Ghanain's started to come into the game a bit more as Asamoah Gyan and Kevin-Prince Boateng started to get chances on goal. During this period, the Ghanain's managed to snatch the advantage just moment's before the interval after a speculative 40-yard drive from Sulley Muntari deceived Uruguay keeper Muslera off-guard and flew into the bottom right corner sending the African contingent within the stadium absolutely delirious. It looked very much like Ghana would become the first African team to reach the semi-final of a World Cup, but the game would take a swing back to deadlock just after half-time as the spectacular Diego Forlan drilled a free-kick into the back of the Ghanain net to break African heart's. The game was then very stretched as both team's tried to find the killer goal against their opponent's and the Ghanain's wasted quite alot of good chances and good positions by picking out the wrong pass in advanced positions. The game then ended 1-1 and we were thrust into extra-time for only the second time at this World Cup and as the Uruguayan's visibly tired, the African's seemed to get a second win as they looked for that Golden goal that would give them their semi-final place against the Dutch. At the end of extra-time, it was Forlan's strike partner's turn to break the hearts of the Ghanain's. As Adiyiah, one of the Ghanain substitutes, headed the ball goalward's, Luis Suarez raised his hand's instinctively and pushed the ball away from just under the bar. In all fairness to the referee, he saw it straight away and Suarez was immediately given a red card, and as he walked off the pitch in tears with his shirt over his face, Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty, and everyone in Accra and in the stadium must've thought it was a dead cert that Gyan would send Ghana through. After a short run-up, Gyan decided to go for power rather than placement and unbelieveably struck the bar with the last kick of the game. As the game headed to penalties, footage was played of Suarez celebrating Gyan's miss, and I think that's pretty bad because he went from inconsolable to jumping around like a mad man almost mocking Ghana. It was terrible behaviour to do that on the side of the pitch as it looked very disrespectful to the Ghanain's. I have to give credit to Gyan who just moment's after his crucial penalty miss stepped up first in the shoot-out and banged his penalty home. That did take alot of guts and so I have to say well done to him for that. The Uruguayan's though don't live on sentiment and they eventually took the penalty shoot-out 4-2 to knock out the only remaining African side and break the heart's of a continent. They will face Holland in Cape Town on Tuesday.
So next is the team that I predicted would waltz to the final and win the whole thing. I'm really glad that I put that out there and made such a big call. At least I didn't bet anything on it which is nice I guess. Saturday 3 pm was the big quarter-final between Argentina and Germany. This was the big one that we all looked at when we knew the shape of the quarter-finals and was set to be one of the games of the tournament between one of the sure fire favourites and an inexperienced but brilliantly talented young team. It was certainly a brilliant game, but unfortunately for me, I had predicted an Argentina win, in fact I believe I even said that they would definitely win the whole tournament on this very blog. Well they won't win it now after they were crushed 4-0 by the insanely clinical German's. The goal's came from Thomas Muller, after 3 minutes, two for Miroslav Klose, 67 and 89 minutes, and finally Arne Friedrich, 74 minutes which was the defender's first international goal and what a time to score it really. I was hugely disappointed with the Argentine's attacking and defensive play. They looked as though they didn't care about being in the quarter-final and definitely didn't look as though they wanted to play a semi-final. It's a shame really because now the two team's that were playing the best football at this World Cup are both out and it's because neither of them showed enough desire to go out and beat what should've been, for them, relatively easy opponent's given how poor the European team's have been thus far. It's strange because I thought Maradona and Argentina had more in the bag than that and maybe they do, but they just needed to show it against the German's. As England proved, you can't just turn up to face the German's unless you are playing your best game which the Argentine's obviously didn't learn. Sorry for being foolish and predicting that they would win the tournament, and so now I have to pick a new team. Germany??
Saturday evening saw another Europe-South America clash and so far, it was 2-0 to Europe. Could Spain make it a clean sweep of European victories over their South American counterparts?? The Paraguayan's actually played very well against the European champions and I think they were unlucky to come away having been eliminated courtesy of an 83rd minute David Villa goal. That was the striker's 5th goal at these finals and he now stands alone as the top scorer, an accolade his play has surely deserved so far. The Paraguayan's were unlucky to miss a penalty they won in the second half of the game, but perhaps even more unlucky not to be given the chance to take it again after the Spanish defence was seen encroaching on the replay. Just moment's later, the Paraguayan keeper stopped a retaken Spanish penalty and in all honesty, after that, I genuinely thought that the Paraguayan's might make a fight of it and possibly come out on top, they did fight until the very end and I think they can be immensely proud of the way they played against the hotly favoured Spanish and the fact that it was only a 1-0 victory sort of show's you that the game wasn't all Spain and wasn't dominated by Spain so thank you to Paraguay for at least making a game of it.
Ummm semi-finals of Wimbledon then. Tomas Berdych, conqueror of Roger Federer, came up against 3rd seed Novak Djokovic in his semi-final. Surprisingly, Djokovic didn't really show up and Berdych eventually ran away with it in straight sets which meant Andy Murray came out onto Centre Court around 4 o'clock right in the middle of the Holland-Brazil showdown hence why I didn't see most of the second half. The man who stood in his way?? Rafael Nadal. The man who won the French Open 4 years in a row and the current World number one. Some people were giving Muzza a chance as Nadal had been taken to 5 sets a couple of time's during the tournament whereas Murray had only lost one set and that had been in the previous round. As the match got underway, both men seemed to be on a par, although Murray was making much more of a fight of it on Nadal's serve than Nadal seemed to be making on Murray's service games. However, it was actually Nadal that made the first breakthrough and ended up taking the first set from his British opponent 6-4, putting Murray under some serious pressure early on during the match. Both men then held their serve all the way through the second set and during the tie-break, Murray had the chance to win the second set and push himself back into the match and give him a chance at getting through to the final and making himself the first Brit to reach a Wimbledon final since Buddy Austin 74 years ago. Unfortunately though, Murray missed his chance and Nadal clinched the second set to give him a 2-0 lead and to effectively end Murray's chances. Despite an early break in the 3rd set, Murray didn't manage to hold his way through to get back into the match at 2-1, and Nadal broke back and then managed to take the set 6-4 and put the brilliant Briton out. That 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 victory means Rafa sets up a final at the All England Club with Tomas Berdych. That match is due to start in about 10 minutes time so I'll get off and have a watch of that for you guys.
I am now struggling. I think I may have given you all of my World Cup rules, but I'm going to think of one as I right so forgive me if it's rubbish. Ok, so I may sort of have one, but this is very dependent on you ACTUALLY watching the game properly closely, but it's decent. This is the "Jabulani" rule. Anytime there is a goalkeeping error/error/the ball moves in a weird way, the last one to say some variation of "I blame the ball", or "Jabulani", essentially something ball related, must do the assigned punishment. I'm sorry it's rubbish, but let's be honest, we knew that they were actually going to get worse as we went on didn't we. That's your last World Cup rule. I'm sad about it, I bet you guys are back home aswell. How could you not be in all honesty??
Right then, off to watch a mixture of T4 On The Beach and Wimbledon. More Wimbledon to be honest as I want to cast my eye over that final to bring you some of my writing tomorrow. So I guess I'll see you all in a bit. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment and as always, thank you for reading and I'll see you soon for more blogging.
Friday, 2 July 2010
I have messed up....again!
I had meant to do another post after Andy Murray's quarter-final with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but I totally forgot and so in this post, I will summarise, Japan-Paraguay, Spain-Portugal and Murray-Tsonga. I think we should get on with it seeing as how right now I am trying to do this, and watch Ghana-Uruguay so I can post on that and Holland-Brazil very soon. Having said that, I may just post all the quarter-final's together as the other 2 are tomorrow anyway.
I believe the last sentence of my last post said I was hoping for a Keisuke Honda thunderbolt against Paraguay. I was obviously expecting a little too much there as both teams played out a dire 0-0 draw. The match itself was annoyingly pathetic as neither team showed any desire to win a match to put them into a quarter-final. There was none of the Japanese industry and skill that we had seen against Denmark last Friday, and none of the South American flair that we have seen in such abundance at this World Cup from the Paraguayan's. I had thought that my award for worst game in this competition was definitely going to France-Uruguay, but I've gotta be honest, this game has given it some major competition and maybe the French won't win anything at this World Cup, not even one of my sought after World Cup awards. The game then was undecided and goalless at the end of extra-time, so, in total contrast to the rest of the game, we got the high drama of a penalty shoot-out for the first time at this World Cup. The Paraguayan's qualified after they scored all their penalties and Camano missed for Japan with the end result appearing as 5-3 after penalties. Cue Japanese tear's and I have to admit, I was a little bit gutted for them myself. Well, I say I was gutted for them, but I was more gutted that Keisuke Honda, a player who has looked magnificient at this World Cup A) did not have a good game at all (although who did??) and B) we don't get to see more of him, that is unless he signs for a Premier League club, and he has been linked with many so hopefully that will come to pass.
So Paraguay would be the quarter-final opponents for the winner's of the Iberian derby between Portugal and Spain. Many would have assessed the Portuguese chances as very, very poor before the match as the European champions had seemed to regain some form towards the end of their group games whereas Portugal had never really looked like they had got going despite their 7-0 drubbing of North Korea. Mind you, after the first-half, the game looked too close to call after some brilliant Portuguese play inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo, but unfortunately, they couldn't continue this brilliance in the second half as the Spanish got their passing game together and a wonderful passing move was finished by the one and only David Villa to send the Spanish into a 1-0 lead over their local and most hated rivals. Despite Portugal then trying to exert some pressure and get back into the game, their effort was not enough to bring down the European champions who progress to the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win. One of the big stories to come out of this was post-game when Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to spit at a TV camera as he walked off the pitch, although for my money, I don't think he saw the camera and intentionally spat at it, I think he just needed to spit as the camera followed him. It wasn't as if he walked up to it, spat, and then walked off in a completely different direction, but obviously a lot was bound to be made of it as he is one of the best player's in the world.
Talking about best player's, Andy Murray was back in action at Wimbledon on Wednesday as the 4th seed took on 8th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals. With all the country looking on, how would Andy Murray fare?? Would he crumble under the pressure as he has done at times this year, or would he deliver a confidence-boosting victory over a rapidly improving and widely talented player?? The first set went with serve as both player's looked intent on taking the advantage, and after a tie-break, it was Tsonga who had the advantage over a player who was doing his best impression of Tim Henman out on Centre Court. That tie-break also incidentally meant that Murray lost his first set of the tournament. After the excitement of that first set, the second followed in much the same vein with both players holding their serve to take us into another tie-break. At 5-4 to Murray in the tie-break, Tsonga served a big first serve into Andy Murray who manage to block the ball back into play, and over the advancing Tsonga, who, thinking the ball was flying out, decided not to go with the easiest of volley's to get back level in the tie-break, however, as Tsonga turned around to watch the ball, he saw it drop onto the baseline and give Murray a 6-4 lead, and 2 set points. Having managed to save the first one, Murray served an ace to equal the match at 1-set-all. Murray then produced some stunning tennis to take the 3rd and 4th sets 6-2, 6-2 and dump the 8th seed out at the quarter-final stage and set up an appetising semi-final against World number 1 Rafael Nadal. I witnessed that match today, but if I'm going to do a post on the quarter-finals of the World Cup tomorrow, I think I'll include that match report just to beef it all out a bit. Just to summarise the final score of the Murray match, it was as follows: 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. As a quick afterthought, Roger Federer was surprisingly knocked out at the quarter-final stages of this year's Wimbledon by 12th seed Tomas Berdych who faced Novak Djokovic in his semi-final. I will bring the result's of that tomorrow as well.
One of my last Fifa drinking rules then, which I think I will end tomorrow when I bring you the quarter-final round-up, so this is my penultimate one. This is the dance rule. Whenever a goal is scored in the remaining matches, everyone must do a dance (which obviously is pre-agreed) in celebration and anybody that does not do it receives their drinking punishment. The personal favourite amongst my group of friends is the samba, but again you are welcome to pick your own before the match, with examples including the robot, the saturday night fever and the moonwalk. That is actually one of my favourite rules and so I hope you really enjoy that one.
Right, that's your lot for today then guys, hope you have all enjoyed today's post and come back tomorrow for your quarter-final round up. As I always say, I can't thank you guy's enough for reading this and for being so complimentary about it because I do genuinely enjoy writing them knowing that I might be bringing a smile to the faces of you reader's and that you guys get a bit of a kick out of it. Cheer's everyone, see you tomorrow, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Friday night
I believe the last sentence of my last post said I was hoping for a Keisuke Honda thunderbolt against Paraguay. I was obviously expecting a little too much there as both teams played out a dire 0-0 draw. The match itself was annoyingly pathetic as neither team showed any desire to win a match to put them into a quarter-final. There was none of the Japanese industry and skill that we had seen against Denmark last Friday, and none of the South American flair that we have seen in such abundance at this World Cup from the Paraguayan's. I had thought that my award for worst game in this competition was definitely going to France-Uruguay, but I've gotta be honest, this game has given it some major competition and maybe the French won't win anything at this World Cup, not even one of my sought after World Cup awards. The game then was undecided and goalless at the end of extra-time, so, in total contrast to the rest of the game, we got the high drama of a penalty shoot-out for the first time at this World Cup. The Paraguayan's qualified after they scored all their penalties and Camano missed for Japan with the end result appearing as 5-3 after penalties. Cue Japanese tear's and I have to admit, I was a little bit gutted for them myself. Well, I say I was gutted for them, but I was more gutted that Keisuke Honda, a player who has looked magnificient at this World Cup A) did not have a good game at all (although who did??) and B) we don't get to see more of him, that is unless he signs for a Premier League club, and he has been linked with many so hopefully that will come to pass.
So Paraguay would be the quarter-final opponents for the winner's of the Iberian derby between Portugal and Spain. Many would have assessed the Portuguese chances as very, very poor before the match as the European champions had seemed to regain some form towards the end of their group games whereas Portugal had never really looked like they had got going despite their 7-0 drubbing of North Korea. Mind you, after the first-half, the game looked too close to call after some brilliant Portuguese play inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo, but unfortunately, they couldn't continue this brilliance in the second half as the Spanish got their passing game together and a wonderful passing move was finished by the one and only David Villa to send the Spanish into a 1-0 lead over their local and most hated rivals. Despite Portugal then trying to exert some pressure and get back into the game, their effort was not enough to bring down the European champions who progress to the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win. One of the big stories to come out of this was post-game when Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to spit at a TV camera as he walked off the pitch, although for my money, I don't think he saw the camera and intentionally spat at it, I think he just needed to spit as the camera followed him. It wasn't as if he walked up to it, spat, and then walked off in a completely different direction, but obviously a lot was bound to be made of it as he is one of the best player's in the world.
Talking about best player's, Andy Murray was back in action at Wimbledon on Wednesday as the 4th seed took on 8th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals. With all the country looking on, how would Andy Murray fare?? Would he crumble under the pressure as he has done at times this year, or would he deliver a confidence-boosting victory over a rapidly improving and widely talented player?? The first set went with serve as both player's looked intent on taking the advantage, and after a tie-break, it was Tsonga who had the advantage over a player who was doing his best impression of Tim Henman out on Centre Court. That tie-break also incidentally meant that Murray lost his first set of the tournament. After the excitement of that first set, the second followed in much the same vein with both players holding their serve to take us into another tie-break. At 5-4 to Murray in the tie-break, Tsonga served a big first serve into Andy Murray who manage to block the ball back into play, and over the advancing Tsonga, who, thinking the ball was flying out, decided not to go with the easiest of volley's to get back level in the tie-break, however, as Tsonga turned around to watch the ball, he saw it drop onto the baseline and give Murray a 6-4 lead, and 2 set points. Having managed to save the first one, Murray served an ace to equal the match at 1-set-all. Murray then produced some stunning tennis to take the 3rd and 4th sets 6-2, 6-2 and dump the 8th seed out at the quarter-final stage and set up an appetising semi-final against World number 1 Rafael Nadal. I witnessed that match today, but if I'm going to do a post on the quarter-finals of the World Cup tomorrow, I think I'll include that match report just to beef it all out a bit. Just to summarise the final score of the Murray match, it was as follows: 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. As a quick afterthought, Roger Federer was surprisingly knocked out at the quarter-final stages of this year's Wimbledon by 12th seed Tomas Berdych who faced Novak Djokovic in his semi-final. I will bring the result's of that tomorrow as well.
One of my last Fifa drinking rules then, which I think I will end tomorrow when I bring you the quarter-final round-up, so this is my penultimate one. This is the dance rule. Whenever a goal is scored in the remaining matches, everyone must do a dance (which obviously is pre-agreed) in celebration and anybody that does not do it receives their drinking punishment. The personal favourite amongst my group of friends is the samba, but again you are welcome to pick your own before the match, with examples including the robot, the saturday night fever and the moonwalk. That is actually one of my favourite rules and so I hope you really enjoy that one.
Right, that's your lot for today then guys, hope you have all enjoyed today's post and come back tomorrow for your quarter-final round up. As I always say, I can't thank you guy's enough for reading this and for being so complimentary about it because I do genuinely enjoy writing them knowing that I might be bringing a smile to the faces of you reader's and that you guys get a bit of a kick out of it. Cheer's everyone, see you tomorrow, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Friday night
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