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| James is too good |
1. Appetite for Self-Destruction
Luis Suárez needs to not be playing soccer for a long, long time. Today was the third time he’s bitten an opponent. The third time! How stupid to do you have to be to do that? Given that he’s served 17 games’ worth of suspensions for the first two times he did that, you think he would get the message. The Dutch and English FAs had to deal with him previously, but now he’s messing with a far bigger and badder dude on the block with FIFA – and FIFA doesn’t like to be embarrassed. Which is precisely what happened. On the pitch, it could be argued that this has been the best World Cup of all time, with lots of beautiful, free-flowing play and a lack of cynicism and thuggery. But now you have to deal with a P.R. nightmare, because the ultimate enfant terrible in the game did something this utterly disgusting and revolting. And he did it FOR THE THIRD TIME! Who can protect him, at this point? Liverpool has had to deal with his biting and race-baiting already. As good as he is, is Suárez really someone they can count on, or even want to count on? And If I’m one of the Uruguayans, I’m furious. They just scrounged out a 1:0 win over the Italians to live another day, only to have their best player decide to play Dracula in front of God and all humanity. Uruguay did very well to repair its’ somewhat dubious reputation in 2010 with a 4th-place finish achieved through resourceful and spirited play – but that was the classy Forlán’s team, as he ran the show and they went along with him for the ride, and even then it was somewhat checkered by the Suárez handball v. Ghana. And now, thanks to Suárez, Colombia is going to have an awful lot of fans come Saturday.
2. IT MUST BE A CONSPIRACY!
I think it was all of about :10 after the final whistle that I first started seeing the Italian conspiracy theorists come crawling out of the woods. The nation that first added the flop in the box to the game’s repertoire don’t make for very sympathetic figures. They lose 0:1 to a Latin American side in a game with a Latin American referee and OH MY GOD IT MUST BE MATCH FIXING!!! The Mexican referee certainly had his hands full, given that this game pitted a pair of pudgy divas falling easier than a tomato can bought off to take a dive at the Friday Night Fights. Clearly, he blew it on the Suárez thing – one guy has teeth marks on his shoulder and the other guy is holding his teeth. The red card to Marchisio was the other Italian point of contention, and that’s a difficult one. Given the situation and the spot on the field – a 50-50 ball just outside the Uruguayan box in a 0:0 game – the play looked more clumsy than malicious. It certainly didn’t rise to the level of the red card in the Croatia-Mexico game yesterday, where Rebic just decided he was going to take someone out for the fuck of it. But having said that, you still have to be in control of your body out there, and by the letter of the law, a studs-up strike to the knee area deserves a red card. I think it might have been a harsh decision, myself, but I can understand the red. The black-and-white of the rules always fades to grey during the speed of the play, and it’s too much to ask referees to judge intent. One thing I’ve noticed in pretty much every sport, however, is that if you make a bad play, you should never expect the official to bail you out.
And now a moment of noise ...
After this game was over, the Azzurri had a resign-off: first coach Cesare Prandelli resigned at this press conference, then the head of the Italian FA said he would resign in August and that he hoped Prandelli would reconsider. Prandelli’s interesting, dual playmaker passing game looked great at the Euros in 2012 and the Confed Cup in 2013, but as we’ve seen throughout the tournament, possession football is getting swept aside in favour of athleticism in the middle and speed on the wings. Once DeRossi got hurt, and Pirlo was by himself in that playmaker role, the system stopped working, Balotelli couldn’t get the ball (and didn’t do much when he finally did), and the Italians could do little more than revert to some of the same bad habits that saw them off early in 2010. This feels like the wrong team at the wrong tourney at the wrong time. And sure, the Brazilian climate seems to be wearing out everyone from a northern latitude in this tourney, but the Italians had a taste of it last summer at the Confed Cup. They had to have some idea what was coming. They spent the last two games looking like they were stuck in quicksand. In the end, they seemed wofully ill-prepared for the conditions they faced, so maybe the resignations aren’t uncalled for.
3. Sorry about the locusts
Greece scored two goals, so clearly the apocalypse is upon us. I really didn't think it was possible. The fact is, however, that they were the better team in the game today, and the win was deserved. And yes, I’m surprised to write that. They hit the woodwork three times and kept the Ivorian keeper busy. If anything, the Ivorian equalizer was due to a moment of very un-Greek sort of play where they got caught too far upfield. I have to give them some props when it’s due, and this bodes pretty well for the Costa Ricans in the 16s. The Ticos have running circles around slow, plodding opposition all tourney, and the Greeks certainly fall into that category.
And now a moment of noise ...
Of all the early exits from Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire is probably the biggest waste. This team got caught in difficult groups in 2006 and 2010, but Group C was set up just perfectly for them, and they still couldn’t capitalize. Even worse, they self-destructed: Les Elephants gave up five goals in Brazil, two of which were due to giveaways by the backline and a third being the crushing, last-second penalty today v. the Greeks after they’d chased down the game and equalized, which was the needed result to advance. There was a lack of focus and lack of attention to detail, plain and simple. I have no doubt that everyone involved is going to be getting fired after this – apparently no one involved like the coach, not the players nor the media nor anyone else, so he’s surely gone. [EDIT: He resigned promptly after the match.] Côte d’Ivoire has had far and away the best talent in Africa for a decade, but that doesn’t mean squat if you don’t play as a team, which they seemed to do for all of about 20’ in three games in Brazil, and now that run is pretty much done. Disappointing. And this is an old team, a team which should’ve had enough experience by now to know better.
4. Instant Offense
The Colombians were playing for nothing today, and it showed in the first half, as they put out a rather lazy 45’ and really got outplayed by Japan. But all it took was a flash of play here or there from James & Co. in the second half and that settled that. Quick strike capability can be hard to come by in soccer and, as has been shown by Messi and Ronaldo over the weekend, there really is no way to answer it. The Colombians are like lightning out there, able to seemingly turn nothing into something at any instant. I would like to think that talent is going to win out over pragmatism in the 16s, because a Suárez-less Uruguay is almost certainly going to rely upon guile and defensive tactics to stay afloat. For the good of the game, let us all hope Los Cafeteros hammer them. After that, the prospect of a Brazil-Colombia quarterfinal is awfully appealing.
And now a moment of noise ...
Japan needs a striker. Get this team a striker, please. Losing 1:4 to Colombia was something of an unfair scoreline, given that they really did play a good first half. Colombia gave the Japanese space to operate, which is a very bad idea, and the result was a very pretty goal manufactured by Honda and Okazaki. The Japanese are great technicians and if they can keep the game on the carpet, they can really thrive, but they lack any sort of physicality up front. Their attempts to unlock the 10-man Greek wall were laughably awful. With a serviceable striker up front, this team would really be a threat. As it stands, they can chew up pretty much anything put forth in Asia, but they’re still being held back.
