My 2010 World Cup Diary : The Exciting Semi-Final stage

Sometimes when you expect something exciting to happen, the exact opposite pop up. This was what happen tonight. I often find World Cup semi-final matches to be more exciting than the World Cup final itself. That didn't happen today between Germany and Spain.

Prior to this semi-final, Germany was scoring lots of goals against Argentina & England. I never find German football to be attractive, just very well-organized and tactically sound with emphasis on teamwork. I like to call them efficient football. On Spaniard side, they like to pass the ball , often too much for my liking & without really threatening. I prefer football play at a quicker pace. Still, when these two are schedule to meet in the all important semi-final today, I was expecting a very good game of football between the two sides who are evenly matched. I predicted a draw for the game and expect it to go into extra-time.

As the game progress, it really looks like my prediction is going to be spot-on because both teams play a very tight game with very few openings. It was boredom at its best in the 1st half. The Spainards dominated possession without really threatening. Germany was hardworking as before with Bastian pulling the strings in midfield and nullifying any threat that the Spainards may pose. A stalemate looks on the card. It never came and Bastian in fact, was the German player that conceded the important corner kick of the game in the 70++ mins. When the corner was swing in, Spanish captain Puyol, one of the slowest defender in this world cup, came in and headed Spain into the lead. It was 1-0 Spain and around 15 more mins to go. The Germans didn't panic and continue to gradually up their pace in discrete steps like programming in order to achieve their equaliser goal. They didn't hit the big match tempo to create any excitement. By doing this, they weren't really exposed like what Argentina and England have done when going behind by a goal. Pedro do find a good chance towards the end to score a 2nd goal for Spain but his selfishness or fancy football mind got the better of him and the German defender cleared the danger. Finally, the whistle blown and my pain of watching a boring semi-final was over. Spain has made history by reaching the World Cup final for the very first time after playing one of the most dull semi-final. The German players was expressionless by the 1-0 defeat, consecutive defeat at the hands of Spain in a major tournament. The famous German Octopus Paul is spot-on again with his prediction of a Spain win over his country.

Spain will meet the Netherlands in this coming Sunday World Cup final. Yesterday, the Dutch has beaten Uruguay in a 3-2 victory. I watch the game by juggling between pockets of sleep and watching the TV. Only caught 2 of the 5 goals, which was the 2nd & 3rd goal of Holland scored by Wesley Sneijder (lucky defected shot) and Arjen Robben header. Earlier, fellow 1975 rabbit Giovanni Van Bronckhorst has given Holland the lead which Uruguay equalised through hotshot Diego Forlan. After holland lead 3-1, I dozed off again and miss the injury time Uruguay goal. I suppose this semi-final match was much interesting than the Spain vs Germany match.

So this is it. The stage is set for a new World Cup holder this Sunday. Will it be the boring boring Dutch or the looks good but not as good Spainards? Holland vs Spain in South Africa FIFA 2010 World Cup Final. Hope they do some good for the game of football by playing exciting football this weekend. Time to get to work. QBR con-call in 45 minutes time.