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although when Behrami was sent off on the half hour mark much of the bite was removed and Switzerland grew even more withdrawn.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.

Goals Galore in Group G

We come to Group G and one of the tastiest looking groups in the competition - The perennial heavyweights of Brazil, always tricky customers Portugal, most people's fancied Africans The Ivory Coast and the the unknown entity that was North Korea.

Brazil and The Ivory Coast both entered the competition looking strong from qualifying and appearing relatively comfortable on the road to South Africa. Brazil always look like they are capable of something special even if their team does not boast the strength throughout the side of previous Brazil sides. Ivory Coast have got some very talented players including the talismanic Didier Drogba who is always good for an attention grabbing moment - we just hoped it was due to his football.

I was then backing these two to come out of this group - however Portugal would definitely have something to say about this. Though Portugal were looking to be a shadow of the team that had been narrowly defeated in the 2004 European Championship final against Greece. They were taken to the wire in a Play Off match to get to South Africa - and would look to be overly reliant on Cristiano Ronaldo to spear head their campaign.

The other team making up Group G was North Korea - they had perhaps shocked a few teams by even qualifying for the World Cup and were heavily tipped to be the whipping boys here. Little was known about the players though as the vast majority only play in their native country, what we could expect however was hard work and discipline as the team had been taken on a rigorous world tour to prepare for the tournament.

After all that - in true ironic World Cup style - when we were expecting a hummdinger of a game between Ivory Coast and Portugal both teams seemingly conspired to play out a bore draw. No performances of note from any of the top class players on show as it seemed both teams were more keen not to lose than either one of them was to win.

To give Didier Drogba his due he entered this game as an unlikely participant having looked to be out of the World Cup due to a broken arm in a warm up game, this must have adverse affects on the Ivory Coast team and had a major impact on their preparations. As for CR7 - I think he had just forgotten how to play for his country. One thing was for sure - at least one of these teams would be regretting this performance come the end of the group stage.

Attention turned to the other opening game in the group with the expectation of seeing a bag full of goals  at one end of the pitch. To surely everyones, even North Korea themselves, surprise after 45 minutes the score was Brazil 0 - NK 0. OK it didn't last, but for a moment North Korea were on top of the world and competing with the most illustrious international side around. Eventually Brazil broke through with the skill and precision that they possess, however North Korea scored a goal to lose out only 2-1 in the final reckoning - a great performance.


The second round of games were a bit more familiar - with Brazil looking too strong for the Ivory Coast and seeming more like the South American show stoppers we know and love. Ivory Coast looked capable without ever really being on top and their frustrations showed when they managed to get Brazilian midfielder Kaka red carded for an innocuous incident. The victory for Brazil secure before this however was a fair result.

The Ivory Coast had every need to get frustrated though as elsewhere Portugal would provide the landslide victory that everybody has expected against North Korea. Somewhat surprisingly Portugal managed to succeed where Brazil had failed and break down the stubborn defences of the communist state. In the end even Cristiano Ronaldo got in on the act in a 7-0 drubbing. Bad news for Ivory Coast indeed as they would now require a minor miracle to turn around the goal deficit in the final game.

It all went a bit predictable from here with the Ivory Coast huffing and puffing away to score as many goals as they could against North Korea. They did manage to record a 3-0 victory, but it was all shown to be in vain as elsewhere Brazil having already qualified seemed to rest players and take their foot off the gas in a non event of a 0-0 draw that put Portugal through without need for any last minute goal tallies.