Yikes. Well these quarterfinals are a bit of a turd floating in the punchbowl of an otherwise outstanding World Cup. None of these games were good, and several of them were actually pretty terrible. These were almost certainly the two worst days of the tournament so far. Tense, yes. But also suffocating. It’s like we were right back in 1990.
Germany 1 – 0 France
After all that we’ve seen from Germany in the past few years, all the flair and excitement, it was pretty depressing to see this. It felt like a vintage Germany performance. Resolute, dull, stultifying. They scored on a headed goal by a defender off a set piece and otherwise basically closed up shop. Good for them, not as good for the rest of us.
Going forward, I do think it says good things about their chances. There was quite a bit of doubt going into this tournament whether they were solid enough to actually win this thing. Then, with the various injuries, it was all to easy to see them coming unraveled if they ran into a strong attacking team who could threaten them in the midfield. But France, who had been quite flamboyant up until now, showed basically nothing. You’d have to think that Löw will stick with this lineup. Having a genuine fullback did wonders for them, and the Khedira/Schweinsteiger/Kroos midfield trio seemed quite capable. Also: having Hummels back was huge. They were far more mobile than they had been against Algeria.
Brazil 2 – 1 Colombia
Possibly the most exciting of the quarterfinal games, though not necessarily in a particularly good way. The first half was reasonably good, with Brazil probably putting in their best 45 minutes of the tournament so far. They looked far more creative than they had previously and did a good job muffling the Colombian attack. All that said, it was a half marred by a lot of aggressive fouling, and completely lacking the stabilizing hand of a referee. And that problem only multiplied as the game went on. He was letting virtually everything go, resolutely refusing to take out the yellow card for countless offenses. So it’s no wonder that the game shifted from aggressive to horrible as time went on. Then, when he finally started trying to exert his influence, it was too late. His cards came out for some relatively minor offenses, while a number of other ones went completely uncalled. There was a great deal of tension in the midst of all this. But ultimately the story of this game is about the terrible refereeing job. And that’s never a good sign.
In the end, Neymar took a hard foul to the back, and will miss the rest of the tournament. I don’t quite want to say ‘you reap what you sow’ since it’s not really Brazil’s fault the ref was so wretched. But they had been fouling James Rodriguez up and down the pitch, so it’s not shocking that their own #10 got some harsh treatment too.
Once again, Brazil advanced as the better team. But once again, they failed to really impress. And now they’ll be missing Neymar and Thiago Silva (for the semifinals). So their chances have definitely taken a hit. Still, they’ve made it this far and remain a very talented team across the board, so you wouldn’t put it past them to win. It’s just that they’re no longer truly favorites.
I’m curious to see what formation they’ll employ going forward. One obvious move is simply to move Oscar forward and slot him in to replace Neymar. But they’ll have to consider that Oscar has been a huge part of their defensive success – he’s somewhat sneakily a pretty excellent defender and shuts down attacks before they even start by harrying, intercepting passes, and executing quality tackles. So moving him forward will mean relinquishing control over the midfield a bit. Add in the fact that their center forwards (both Fred and Jo) have shown basically nothing so far…and I’m really not sure what they ought to do.
Argentina 1 – 0 Belgium
Another dull 1-0 win for the favorites. This one had a bit more excitement in it than Germany-France, but not much. Most of that excitement came from Messi who was once again magical. But absent better support there’s just not that much that the little fellow can do. He is really wonderful to watch because he’s just so absurdly talented that he can seemingly do anything. My three favorites moments: 1) He gathers the ball, and makes one of those famous mazy runs toward goal, shucking defenders left and right, darting around and through them, with the ball somehow staying stuck to his feet the whole way 2) That pass. Oh my god, that pass. 3) A long ball cleared from deep in Argentina’s defense. Messi leaps and traps it with his foot, knocking it down just far enough away to elude the defenders, lands, gathers it up, and darts around the Belgian players who have descended on him. It was one of the finest bits of hold-up play that you’ll ever see. But it came from the tiny Messi rather than the hulking number-9.
Like Germany, Argentina will take joy from their success in shutting down a potent attack. After taking something like 750 shots against the US, Belgium barely managed one in this game. They spent most of the second half launching long balls into the box in the hopes that Fellaini could knock one of them into the path of a Belgian player who could then direct it on goal. While that wasn’t completely unsuccessful, Argentina never really looked especially threatened. And in the end, they saw out their victory fairly easily.
Netherlands 0 – 0 Costa Rica (Netherlands advance on penalties)
I have to admit, I didn’t see this one. I was busy floating on the Russian River. And it’s probably for the best I didn’t see it. I was really pulling for Costa Rica but just couldn’t see them holding out against the Dutch attack. I assumed that they would be better about beating the offside trap and would punish Costa Rica to the tune of at least a couple goals. But instead, with a great deal of luck it sounds like, Costa Rica held out for two full hours. If I had been watching, I would have almost started to believe that the dream could continue once it went to penalties. Which only would have made me more depressed to see them ultimately go out by the narrowest of margins.
The talk about the game mostly seems to have focused on van Gaal’s decision to use his third substitution to bring on Krul for the penalties. I plan to go back and watch that bit later when I’ve got some time, so I can’t really say anything about it specifically. But as a general idea, it makes enough sense to me that it passes the smell test. The third keeper basically never ever plays. I think Reina is the only one to see any serious minutes in the whole cup – and that’s just because Spain wanted to give their great servant a chance to play, after they had been eliminated. Colombia also sent out the 43 year old Mondragon for a few honorary minutes in their final group game, to give him one shining moment at the end of a storied career. But basically, the third keeper will almost never be called on. So why wouldn’t you have him focus extensively on practicing for penalties? If nothing else, it gives you a psychological edge. It makes it feel like you are prepped for this and can get into the head of the opposition.
Anyways, it worked, and it doesn’t sound like there was any obvious outfield substitution that desperately needed to happen which this strategy foreclosed. So the Dutch move on. And Costa Rica are done, after a truly valiant performance. It was a lot of fun to watch them. The offside trap isn’t exactly the most exciting way to play, but it was awesome to watch it executed so perfectly, and catching out some of the very best players in the world repeatedly.
Predictions:
Three of these four are the teams I originally predicted to reach the semifinals back before things started. And while Brazil is looking quite a bit weaker than I expected, I guess I’ll still go with my original guess: a South American final. In all honesty, I don’t see all that much between any of these teams, so no matchup would surprise me in the least. The only thing I’d actually want to put money on is for at least one (if not both) of them to go to penalties. It’s Brazil-Germany tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a wide open game to restore some of the excitement we felt before the quarterfinals!