Drama, thy name is Neuville

Man.

Eloquent, aren’t I? But in fact, I hadn’t planned on staying up all night to watch the three games, and just couldn’t stop watching after the Spain/Ukraine game. Well, here we go anyway with the rundown.

Spain 4:0 Ukraine

I have to say I never expected quite this lopsided of a scoreline, what with the Ukraine’s excellent qualifying run in such a difficult group, and Spain’s notoriety for choking and poor-finishing. But I have to give credit where credit is due. The Ukraine were caught offside maybe 10 times, and barely got any shots on goal worth remembering. Was Schevchenko shut down? Well if never getting a feed or even a rebound constitutes a ’shut-down’, then there you have it. Voronin did his best to put a few chances in at the end, but after the red card, an already fruitless attempt to equalize was made ridiculous. Besides, Villa, Torres, and even old-man-Raul were a little too speedy for the inert Ukraine defense.

Saudi Arabia 2:2 Tunisia

This is the game I was really looking forward to, as I’ve got Saudi Arabia (a much maligned pick, it seems–boy, a lot of you guys are cynical!) progressing through the group in second place. It turned out to be quite a thriller, with the Saudis down one goal, obtaining a sweet chip-in equalizer, only to take the lead with veteran Al Jaber’s little tap in, then to lose two points when Tunisia heads in the ball in injury time. This game should serve as a definition of ‘heart.’ You either got it or you don’t.

Germany 1:0 Poland

The pundits (and I haven’t read the reviews yet) will probably say that Germany was less effective here than against Costa Rica, but in their defense, I don’t think this was the same Poland that played Ecuador. Losing 2-0 must have lit a fire under their asses, for they came out strong on the counter-attack and were unlucky not to net one in before the break.

Ballack, for all the hoopla, wasn’t as impressive as he should have been–maybe it was the leg injury? Schweinsteiger, Podolski, and Klose were likewise below par–particularly Bastian, who couldn’t dummy a single defender all night, yet was causing all sorts of havoc against Costa Rica. Klose missed a handful of great chances including that crossbar finish near the end. I think Klinsmann would have been content with a tie based on how the game was going, but two questionable subs (Neuville and NKOTB Odonkor) combined for a phenomenal last minute Cinderella strike to steal two points from poor Poland, and in all likelyhood, sent them packing back to Krakow. I would have sent in Asamoah in place of Odonkor, but what the hell do I know?