Well, once again it wasn’t pretty, but once again it was slightly less ugly than before.
I’m not sure what to make of Ecuador. Powerful and creative against Poland and Costa Rica, they then looked hopelessly deflated against Germany. Today, they managed to condense both moods into one match… I fully expected them to score during the first half, and they started the second half with vigour, but they slowly melted away after Beckham scored England’s goal.
As for England… that defence is still looking jittery. Paul Robinson really has to decide whether he’s the sort of goalkeeper who comes out or the sort who stays put. You just can’t dither between the two, as we found in the match against Sweden. He looked more comfortable as the game went on, though. Frank Lampard is also not quite up to his usual standard. He was involved in some good passing moves today, but his speciality is creating chances and scoring from midfield, and this just isn’t working for him. On a number of occasions over the past four matches, he’s been in a strong striking position with the ball at his feet, only to pass unselfishly to a player in a far less promising position. He just wouldn’t do that for Chelsea.
On the upside, it was great to see Beckham keeping his lunch down long enough to score with that fantastic free kick. The work by the German camera crew wasn’t quite as sharp, though, only panning over to him as he spat out the last few diced carrots. Seriously, Beckham put in a solid performance despite the Delhi Belly, combining well on the right flank with Owen Hargreaves, who is looking better with every match. He certainly seems to have got the hang of the Gary Neville overlapping role. Also improving constantly is England’s favourite round pink thing since Gazza’s fake breasts. Rooney started the match looking a little rusty, much as he did during his last two appearances, but something suddenly kicked in during the second half. He’s still not quite at his best, but things are looking a little more promising for the next round. And speaking of which…
Now, I like watching skilful, creative football as much as the next fan, but there are times when you just want to see a good fight.
It’s difficult to know what to make of this match from an England perspective… there were times in the first 25 minutes (including Maniche’s well-hit goal) when Portugal looked a very scary prospect for the next round, but they also showed a remarkable ability to descend into defensive chaos when threatened by Holland’s wingers, Robben and Lord van Persie.
What came next was certainly chaotic. Sixteen yellow cards and four red cards… that’s a World Cup record. Portugal dived, writhed, whined and howled, but also dished out their fair share of fouls, still finding time to squeeze in some moments of quite beautiful football. I’ve complained about Arjen Robben’s play-acting before, but for once his performance was positively understated, concentrating on his football while anarchy broke out all around him. The rest of the Dutch team weren’t quite so disciplined, happily following the Portuguese into battle with elbows and studs flying.
I suspect Marco van Basten will be out of a job fairly soon. His decision not to pick Ruud van Nistelrooy started to look like the manifestation of something more personal, an outright snub. With five minutes to go, a goal behind and with centre-forward Dirk Kuyt never looking like scoring, van Nistelrooy was overlooked once again, this time in favour of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. Okay, so he’s the most spectacularly named player of the tournament, but syllables, as I’m sure Motty would tell us, are not goals. As the red cards started to appear, Holland were twice in the position of having a one-man advantage, but just couldn’t make it count. This is Marco van Basten’s first coaching job, and it shows. To paraphrase (predictably) the Grolsch adverts, “Wait… dis coach ish not ready!”
Oh, and let’s not forget the referee. Having produced his yellow card eight times in the (solid, but not overly aggressive) Switzerland/France snoozefest, Valentin Ivanov was clearly on a mission to referee himself into the record books. Every ref has his own particular style, and some are more fussy than others. Ivanov certainly seems to have a low tolerance for yellow card offences, and stamped his identity on this match in only the second minute, booking Mark van Bommel when a wagging finger and raised eyebrow would have sufficed.
There are two problems with having such a skewed sense of fair/unfair play. Firstly, when a match such as this one escalates into massed petulance, you can’t step up to the “red alert” level of discipline, because you’re already there. Secondly, the players see the opportunity to act up and get their opponents sent off, a practice which, as we saw today, works both ways.
I have said it before, Lampard is just not showing his class.
Another excellent round-up Ade.