[ Home | Standings | Results ]

Match Day 20 > Friday 30Jun06

QUARTERFINALS WEEKEND

Match 57: GERMANY v. ARGENTINA

Booking: CLAP!

Der Lieblingssohn von Anaheim (Anaheim’s favorite son)

Sweetly ironic, eh? Now living in the hills above a former SoCal town founded by German immigrants, JURGEN KLINSMANN has gone from reviled to revered back in his native homeland .. ..

The former SIGI SCHMID ‘assistant’ at the Rose Bowl/Home Depot Center, has turned the lessons learned in Pasadena & Carson into victory in Berlin .. .. ‘Klinsi’ has integrated the vastly superior American practices of Sports Fitness & Medicine into the brilliant German technical ability and the results is a revolutionary GER side that attacks and has reignited a national pride that has gone to ground for decades .. ..

Shockingly – He floored GER followers by naming an uncapped, black German, DAVID ODONKOR, to the WC Team and gave him his first cap a week before the WC v. JPN  > the Deutsch rags called it heresy!! A grateful GER then watched the 22YO sparkplug turn the match around v. POL & ARG .. .. The very first Black German to make a significant impact to the GER MNT .. ..

Perhaps the most worrying to ITA is the belief that GER can do it now and the increasing fitness of BALLACK – If not for Klinsi’s fitness program, BALLACK may not have been any factor in the Tournament .. ..

GER was patchy early and may have been feeling the nerves a bit, turning the ball over under no pressure quite a few times, and it was BALLACK especially who couldn’t get his passes home .. .. And, I didn’t have ARG with a single shot in the first half – An unusual and worrying half for them .. .. Perhaps too conservative??

ARG was far too defensive-oriented in the second half after their goal – They didn’t venture into the GER end very much and made a defensive swap when they took off RIQUELME halfway into the last half .. ..

GER MoM: #22 DAVID ODONKOR is the living image of KLINSI’s foresight and ability to spot talent .. .. The Borussia Dortmund winger is a product of a Ghanaian father and German mother who joined Dortmund aged just 13 .. .. His cross to NEUVILLE won the match v. POL and his run-through steal of ARG Captain SORIN in the ARG zone helped start the series that eventually tied the match .. ..

ARG MoM: #2 ROBERTO AYALA slammed home a perfect lesson in taking CK’s .. .. Served in from RIQUELME, CRESPO dragged his marker to the near post and went up to distract LEHMANN while AYALA ghosted into the middle-box and crushed a perfect header between LEHMANN and the marker at the near post .. .. BRILLIANT .. .. 

=====================================================================

Match 58: ITALY v. UKRAINE

Booking: CLAP!

This what it takes?!

Your own domestic league under severe judicial threat – The Player Manager of Juventus, and close friend on many ITA players, attempts suicide – And, the unbearable weight of a futbol-mad Italy!!

It is almost an unprecedented (and unbearable) amount of pressure on an ITA side that could have easily folded. However, they have found the steely metal within themselves and came out hardened and focused – Much like a cornered cat .. ..

ITA didn’t come out looking for an error-free match, but counter-punched a luckless UKR and proved their quality despite distractions .. ..

UKR had hoped not to allow an early goal and allow the pressure to build up on ITA, but theta all changed in the 6^th minute .. .. They had a sharp header cleared off the line by ZAMBROTTA to nearly equalize and also had another header go off the crossbar .. .. Not meant to be .. . .

ITA MoM: #19 GIANLUCA ZAMBROTTA was one of those who played with a cutting edge of someone focused against all the distractions around him .. .. Just off a private plane from visiting former Juventus teammate GIANLUCA PESSOTTO who attempted suicide last weekend, the converted left-back scored the first, stopped a goal and assisted on the third .. .. Flushed the UKR game plan when he struck from above the PK box when he left-footed his drive into the lower-right corner .. .. Was guarding his right post when he cleared a goal-bound header .. .. Marauding down the left-flank, he cut inside, splitting markers, then toe-ed the ball over to TONI for an easy tap-in .. ..

UKR MoM: None