ITALY - GHANA
THEY'RE NOT GHANA ADVANCE
ITALY 2 GHANA 0
The Lowdown: African teams go to 0 and 3 at the tournament, with only Ivory Coast netting a goal so far. Despite this, the African teams have looked fairly good going forward and Ghana was no exception here as they had several chances but few on target. Italy, as expected, were on another level, even though their second goal came on a silver platter courtesy of an egregious defensive blunder.
Match Rating: 4 out of 5. Both teams got forward very often. This Italy squad appears to be much more offensive-minded than prior outfits and some of their link-ups on the break were breathtaking.
Man of the Match: Any number of candidates here as Italy put in a superb performance, despite wasting a number of clear chances. Luca Toni lived up to the hype and was unlucky not to score on a rocket that hit the crossbar. I pity the fool that has to defend against him.
Disappointment of the Match: Ghana had some great attacks down the flanks but their finishing left something to be desired. Essien played his heart out but to no avail. Also, having to endure exuberant Italian fans at Nevada Smith's.
The Fallout: Group of Death 2 has already been decided in my opinion. Italy and the Czech Republic have a combination of firepower and discipline that the USA and Ghana cannot live with. Hasta la vista.
Extra: The regulation World Cup ball just might be the star of the tournament. My friend remarked after Rosicky's briliant goal today that the balls are "juiced," and in a way he's right. There have been several brilliant strikes from outside the box, as Pirlo demonstrated in this game. Fire away.
posted by Journo Blog at 9:16 PM
2 Comments:
It's not just that the balls are juiced, so far the tournament has heavily been about "power" in that fouls aren't being called either.
The bigger teams have a major advantage when the refs don't call fouls, and certainly when the ball is juiced, it helps the more physical teams as well.
Thus European teams are looking pretty good so far, and it's not surprising that Czech looked so good.
That being said, Poland lost, so that would be a good anecdotal argument against my theory.
Don't agree with you that fouls aren't being called. I haven't seen anything blatant go unpunished.
The new ball helps everybody, but particularly skilled players who can shoot well such as Rosicky of Czech Republic, Pirlo of Italy, and Kaka today. It still takes a lot of skill to place the ball properly from long range, you can't just heave it.
As Dan remarked, the better teams have won every match with the exception of Sweden-Trinidad.
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