Source: FOOTYMAD
Six Out Of Eight Ain't Bad - Little Boy Blue's World Cup Diary
June 29: Day Nineteen. Just when I was telling anyone who would listen that this World Cup was about to really take off, Japan and Paraguay served up a load of dross. And having done fairly well in tipping winners, the Japs blotted my copybook slightly by blowing the penalty decider - did I not tell you we were about see the first shoot-out? - but, having already named six of the quarter-finalists, I don't suppose I did too badly. Spain did the business against Portugal to complete the last eight line-up but Carlos Queiroz has to take a good look in the mirror. With players like Christiano Ronaldo, Pedro Mendes, Raul Meireles, Liedson and Simao available to him, why on earth did he adopt such a negative approach? Having already shown that they know they way to goal with their seven goal romp against North Korea, the Portuguese could have made life a lot more difficult for the Spaniards. Never mind, they got what they deserved and at least the game in Cape Town was a bit more watchable than the earlier yawnfest from Pretoria. It started brightly enough with Lucas Barrios forcing a good save from Jap keeper Kawashima, while Daisuke Matsui cracked a 20-yarder off the crossbar at the other end. Slowly but surely, however, the fear of losing took a grip on proceedings, the entertainment rating hit zero and it was crystal clear the only way either side was going to score was in the penalty shoot-out. One joker in the pub even predicted it would be 0-0 on penalties and they'd end up having to toss a coin to decide the winner. Mind you, their penalty taking technique was spot-on. I thought we might be in for a marathon session but Yiuichi Komano hit the bar with Japan's third kick, the Paraguayans never once looked like missing and it was left to Benfica's Oscar Cardozo to wrap things up, which he duly did in the coolest of manners, sending the keeper the wrong way and rolling the ball into the corner of the net. Neither Portugal nor Spain would have been shaking in their shoes at the prospect of facing Paraguay on Saturday night, although the Portuguese approach appears to have been to run scared from everybody and anybody. At this stage of the World Cup, with so much glory to be won, it is not unreasonable to expect teams to have belief in their own ability - especially a team as talented as Portugal! - to seek to grab the initiative and impose themselves on their opponents. But getting a 0-0 draw with a Brazilian team just going through the motions in their final group match was seen as vindication of Queiroz's cagey approach and he went for more of the same again Spain. The Spanish got three shots on target in the opening six minutes, two from Torres and one from Villa, but keeper Eduardo saved well. Exactly two years ago Fernando Torres grabbed the goal which beat Germany 1-0 and clinched Euro2008 for Spain but he has struggled in the South Africa. Having ended the season dogged by injury, he clearly is far from fully fit and, after that opening flurry, he faded from the game and was ultimately replaced by Llorente after 58 minutes. Christiano Ronaldo was another big disappointment, although he can rightly claim to have lacked support. The physical presence of Hugo Almeida had shown signs of troubling the Spanish defence and, if the coach had chosen to make better use of his talents, it could have been a totally different match. But with no sustained pressure on their defence, Spain were able to play the ball out from the back and keep the Portuguese on the back foot. It was something of a surprise that it took the Spaniards 63 minutes to make the breakthrough. A neat link-up between Xavi and Iniesta set David Villa clear, his first shot was block by Eduardo but, ever alert, Villa pounced on the rebound and clipped the ball into the net off the underside of the crossbar. Would Portugal take the game to Spain now? Not a chance! It looked like their sole concern was to keep it at 1-0, which they were quite lucky to do, then make a do-or-die bid to save the game in the last ten minutes. It must have been frustrating for the Portuguese fans and was surely infuriating for the players who knew they had so much more to give. But that is how Queiroz opted to play it. By the time Pedro Mendes appeared as a late sub for Pepe the game was drifting away from them. A late red card for Spain held out quite comfortably and coach Vicente del Bosque will have taken some personal satisfaction from beating Queiroz, who replaced him as Real Madrid coach seven years ago, despite del Bosque having just won two Champions Leagues. I'll bet he didn't expect Queiroz to make it such an easy win for him here. Tomorrow: What Do You Think Of The Show So Far?
