Harumphing about Group H

It’s the final countdown. The last four. The eighth group. The last set of teams to be analysed from the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 and frankly, at first glance, it looked a little flan. Juicy on top but limp and soggy underneath.

Of course I’m referring to La Furia Roja, the mighty European Champions Spain, as the fruity part of the group and potentially the whole damn show. Jam packed with actual world class players, take note England, with chaps like the Joy of Cesc Fabregas only able to make the bench the Spanish were an easy tip for everyone. Follow that with the solid Swiss, responsible for cuckoo clocks and not much else. Plus the Chileans, who could offer an aggressive cold shoulder but little in the way of proven stars beyond the coach Bielsa. And making up the quartet the mighty Honduras, hoping to prove they weren't just making up the numbers. Looked like the fight for the poisoned chalice of second, with a likely encounter against Brazil, would be the only question that needed answering in H.

Luckily Switzerland hadn’t read the script, or at least they simply remembered their excellent defensive skills from 2006 after a disappointing Euros on home soil. Mama Hitzfeld didn’t raise no fool and Ottmar successfully implemented the parking of a bus in that first game against Spain. That Fernades kept cool to score a winner off a long ball was an added bonus and thus the first major upset of the tournament was served. Personally I found the Spanish football to be pretty and clever but with clear issues in the finishing department, even the creation of chances was a weak spot and the defence surprisingly dodgy on a couple of occasions. Must do better. Elsewhere Chile could only manage a single goal against Honduras although given that it was their first World Cup win for 48 years certainly impressive in one sense. To be fair their performance was definitely reasonable but chances were wasted and the opposition poor.

With the group wide open Switzerland and Chile saw a perfect chance to escape, the winner of their game would be able to taste round two. It was tense stuff with a decent attacking team against a decent defensive team although when Behrami was sent off on the half hour mark much of the bite was removed and Switzerland grew even more withdrawn. It was a dodgy decision, not helped by the crumpling of Mr. Vidal, and the ref generally showed too many yellow cards and broke the game up with his silly whistling. That played into the hands of the 10 man Swiss team but Gonzalez, whom I remember from his unfulfilled promise at Liverpool, snuck in with a 75’ header to give the South Americans a shunt in the right direction. In the other game Spain finally had some end product to show for all their special skills. Cheeky little Villa scored twice and once again the Hondurans could have been spanked such was their lack all over the pitch. A missed penalty amongst myriad other chances saved some blushes.

So the final games retained plenty of interest with three of the four fighting for two spots. Alas the Swiss demonstrated the fundamentals of their game couldn’t be changed, a lack of attacking edge cost them dear. The 0-0 with Honduras was surprisingly tight, the Central Americans could even have snatched it at the end and the Europeans managed to miss opportunities like clockwork, they could have no-one to blame but themselves. And maybe the referee from the game against Chile.

Meanwhile Spain were starting to tick over nicely against exciting Chile who had Estrada sent off in the build up to a second Spanish goal. Again the decision looked harsh as a curiously slovenly Torres tripped on the edge of area during a flowing move that Iniesta ultimately finished. Well done to the man in yellow for playing advantage but poorly played for overreacting to something which looked pretty accidental. All in all it was pretty incidental given that Spain were coasting after Villa had demonstrated a quite wonderful touch in scoring earlier from all of 40 yards. Chile showed some fight by getting one back just after half time but the domination of the favourites was rarely in question. Fortunately the impotence of the Swiss meant that both these teams went through to the next round.

To be honest the group was feistier than expected thanks to Chile demonstrating a decent intent in going forward and Switzerland starting off by upsetting the apple cart. That they then put all the fruit back in the basket and shuffled off out of the tournament did defuse the tension somewhat. The Hondurans were as awful as expected but at least they didn’t disgrace themselves, although failing to score is always pretty bad news. The Spanish were fine, took a while to warm up but then put themselves in the driving seat with domination of the short passing variety although there were a couple of red flags to take into account. The lack of goals, 8 in 6 games for the entire group, seemed to be a problem afflicting most but the lack of thrilling goalmouth action was a factor better teams would surely exploit.

The matchups for the last sixteen, Spain v Portugal and Brazil v Chile had the taste of continental grudge matches featuring mouthwatering potential clashes of attacking talent all over the place. Jolly good.