71% of the earth is covered by water... the rest is covered by Manuel Neuer!
01/07/14 01:51
Day 18 in the Footcall house...
What a tourney we are having! We've got goals galore (more than the whole of WC 2010), we've got crazy go nuts strikers and we've got heroic keepers in almost every match. Even when on paper (there it is again, for God's sake please tear up that bit of paper) it's looking like a dull all draw we get an epic contest when we weren't expecting it, we have our Lucky Stars to thank for that.
First up today France faced Nigeria to fight it out for a place in the Quarters. Sorry folks, the first was a dull all draw! Well it wasn't quite that bad, Emenike for Nigeria actually put the green shirts in front but it was ruled offside. Soon after Pogba tested Enyeama between the sticks but the Nigerian keeper was up to the task. The first half finished nil nil. The second half was much more of a spectacle. Yet again Enyeama was under pressure from no distance proving the monocle of best African keeper since Nelson Mandela played "goalie when" and was awarded player of the tournament in the Johannesburg five-a-side tournament! France however were starting to put the pressure on, Cabaye smashed it against the bar and finally it paid off as the effervescent Pogba headed it over the Nigerian defenders into the net. As the French ran down the clock a chance to nail the coffin shut presented itself in the 90th minute as the ball was crossed along the touch line to Griezmann to redirect it into the goal with the inside of his boot and make it two nil. A replay did actually show us that Joseph Yobo had the last touch and so it was changed to an own goal. Nigeria got their Snickers in a twist, France did a Twirl of joy!
Next up Germany took on Algeria in sixth second round match. Earlier in the week the veterans of the Algerian 1982 reported they were not bitter at how West Germany and Austria contrived to play out a draw to guarantee their place in the Knockout Stages and deny the North Africans. That was thirty odd years ago and Algeria were here now ready to play and they were right up for it too. Germany were without question one of the hot favourites to win this tournament but for some absurd reason they played a different formation with a back line defence very high up the field. Maybe they were worked about the Algerian front men and they thought they'd play like George Graham's Arsenal. It really didn't take long for this new technique to get caught out and as the ball come into the German half, all four defenders were virtually standing on the half way line. The Nigerian striker Slimani broke free but fortunately Germany's man in the gloves, Manuel Neuer had run about 40 yards to make a sliding tackle almost by the corner flag. Time and again throughout the match Neuer was covering more ground than the forwards, I'd like to have seen his pedometer for this match!
Just like the earlier game the first half finished goalless but this game was far more exciting and the Nigerian keeper Rais M'Bolhi was also throwing his cap into the ring for man of the match. It was end to end at times but they went to break nil all. So back to the studio where Adrian Chiles mulls over the missed opportunities with Messrs Hoddle, Strachan and Dixon. Then a potentially career threatening Freudian slip of the tongue from Glenn Hoddle prompting the whole nation to cry in unison, "What did he just say?" Well poor old Glenn mistakenly referred to Algeria as Al Jazeera! If you don't believe me, see for yourself... https://vine.co/v/MFUOqt00YTz
Fortunately Chiles was on hand to remind him that it was in fact Algeria we were watching. It's "situations" like this that caused Mr Hoddle to lose his job as the England Manager, doh! I guess we can count ourselves lucky he didn't say Al-Qaeda or we would have come back after the adverts to find Gus Poyet sitting in his chair!
After the break, the teams returned ready to imbue the match with excitement and vigour. And they did! The Germans attacked at one end and Neuer defended at the other. Loads of last ditch tackles and saves at either end and Thomas Muller could have sealed it if it was for that pesky M'Bolhi. The final whistle blew and it was still without a goal. Extra time kicked off and within 90 seconds of the restart Schurrle put the Germans on the map. Algeria pushed for an equaliser but it didn't come and then the Germans went two up from the boot of Mesut Ozil, who, to be fair, had a shocker until this point. We were now into the 120th minute, players were collapsing all around with cramp (I'm getting it now!) and a last ditch attempt saw a wonderful cross from the fantastic Brahimi saw Djabou power it in for the goal of the match. Sadly there was no more time left and once again 90% of Footcallers screamed "YES!" at their televisions as it finished...
Germany: 2
Al Shearer: 1
And so to the Footcall league...
Richard and the 53 players below him all chalked up another point. You have to look at 55th to see the first zero for this result. The fight for the Vuvuzela is hotting up at the other end. Let's take a little look at the Divisions shall we?
Richard is heading up Brazuca obviously, but maybe Kelly Sains' predictions might see her overtake him at some point soon?
Stuart Acott is just ahead of Andy Brunt and Harry Hitch in Etrusco, Dan Wilks has a narrow lead on David Wootton and Gemma Simms in Fevernova, Russell Morris is the man in command of Jabulani but only by a point from James Vallender and Jack Wakefield, in fact this is the closely contested division.
Thomas Baus is just one ahead of Matt Clark in Questra, Clive Gigney has some catching up to do. Young Kane Vanns leads division Tango but only by the fact he had one more Group Stages Point than the even younger Amaia Borges Clark.
Robert Pritchard and Dan Scroeck are going toe-to-toe in Teamgeist division with Tim Jennings hot on their heels.
Barry Smith (Footcall's least mentioned player) is top of Telstar but David Hitch is fighting it out with Nathaniel Ridley and Keith Firmston.
Finally, Neil (I don't believe it) Jefferis is top of Tricolore division whilst Jo Mackenzie, David Ginger and Sean Ellis might well give him a run for his money.
That'll do for today, another amazing contest, how on earth are the Argentinians gonna top this?
David