Quarter Final
Netherlands vs. Russia
Preview - Guus Hiddink is looking to continue his fantastic run at major tournaments. He took the Netherlands and South Korea to the last four at World Cups in 1998 and 2002 and Australia to the last sixteen two summers ago in Germany. If he can take his young Russian side to the last four at Euro 2008 it will be a match for any of his previous achievements.

To reach the semi final Russia has to beat the Netherlands and players that Hiddink has more than a passing knowledge of. The teams have reached this stage in very different ways but both could be regarded as surprises based on their preliminary qualifying performances.

Russia seemed to have lost their chance when they lost away to Israel after hitting the post late in the game and then conceding a devastating winner to Israel only seconds later. They were left having to beat Andorra in their last game and praying for a win by Croatia at Wembley.

Despite having already qualified Croatia did beat England and Russia stumbled to a 1-0 win against tiny Andorra. Eighteen goals in twelve games was not overly impressive considering that the group included the likes of Andorra and Estonia. First and third place Croatia and England scored considerably more goals.

The Netherlands qualified as runners up to Romania and only a point ahead of Bulgaria. However, the one point gap is not a fair reflection of the degree of difficulty as the Dutch wrapped up a qualifying spot with two games to go.

But a lacks of goals was a common connection between Russia and Netherlands. The Dutch only scored fifteen goals in 12 games and struggled to 1-0 wins over Luxembourg twice.

There was no hint of the type of football we have seen over the last two weeks from either of these sides. Goals have flowed from the Dutch through devastating counter attacks executed at speed combined with lethal finishing.

Ruud van Nistelrooy has led the attack magnificently while Sneijder and van der Vaart who have generally operated just behind him have both enjoyed spectacular tournaments.

The defense has confounded critics having only conceded one goal to date. Based on their three performances and pedigree the Dutch come into this game as strong favourites.

Few would have thought that Russia would be in this position after an opening game loss to Spain. But the 4-1 scoreline was not a fair reflection of the play. Russia was severely punished (particularly by David Villa) for some sloppy defensive play while they were unable to take advantage of some less than stellar defending by Spain. In truth the game could have finished 5-3 or 5-4.

Since then Hiddink has tinkered with his back four (or back two as the full backs push forward) but has remained commited to Russia playing an aggressive, attacking and entertaining form of football. The return of Arshavin for the third game against Swede and his performance garnered the headlines but there were a number of other fine performances that day that bode well for the fixture against Netherlands.

Denis Kolodin has settled down at the centre of the Russian defence after a disasterous start against Spain. Zhirkov playing has a left back (he can play anyplace on the left side) is a fantastic player to watch while the other full back Anyukov seems to spend more time in the opposition penalty area than his own. In midfield Semak, Zyryanov and Bilyaletdinov have all caught the eye.

However, Russia does seem to missing a reliable striker. Roman Pavlyuchenko came on to score twice against England in Moscow and has scored twice at Euro 2008 but he does not score enough given the chances that come his way.

Referee: Lubos Michel, assistants: Roman Slysko, Martin Balko (all Slovakia), fourth official: Massimo Busacca
(Switzerland)


Netherland 1-3 Russia (After extra time)
I know it’s not new or original but I’m going to say it anyway “the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming.” And in the process they are playing some fantastic football. We got to see an additional 30 minutes of it today but in truth Russia was so far ahead of the Netherlands that it should not have needed extra time.

The Dutch that had being so lethal in the group stage was blunted by a Russian midfield of Zyryanov, Semak and Semshov but this performance had nothing to do with negating Dutch strengths.  It was about Russia playing to their own strengths.

And their strengths where a pleasure to behold. No frightened through football here. Composure on the ball, constantly working hard to provide an option to teammates in possession, beautifully timed runs and craftily struck passes. It was all on display and you were left wanting more. The only thing that was missing was a ruthless streak in front of goal during the first 90 minutes.

Russia took the initiative right from the kickoff and had the Netherlands on the back foot for most of the first half. It to the Dutch almost half an hour to mount any kind of sustained pressure and ironically it nearly cost them a goal.  Russia was able to counter attack and the end result was a magnificent save by Edwin van der Sar from an Andrei Arshavin (does he remind anyone else of Michael Ladrup?) shot. The Dutch goalkeeper was called into action again shortly after and made another fine save this time after a long-range effort from center back Kolodin.

As half time drew near there was some encouragement for Dutch fans as Russia started to give away the ball more frequently. Nevertheless half time arrived without a goal. But within 10 minutes of the restart Russia was a goal up.  Russia had been relentless in attacking down the left side and this time the ball was fed out to Semak alone on the left wing.

He swung in an inviting cross and Pavlyuchenko timed his run beautifully to beat the Dutch marker and Russia was a goal up. The Dutch were forced to push forward but Russia looked like the team more likely to score on the counter. But despite numerous chances and as the game appeared to to be entering the closing stages there was still only a one goal separating the teams.

The most consistent threat from the Netherlands had come from set pieces and from a free kick out on the left side they scored the goal that forced extra time.  A deliciously inviting cross from Sneijder was swung in, Ignashevich was caught on the wrong side of Ruud van Nistelrooy and the Real Madrid striker stooped low to head home.

It was a goal that must’ve brought contradictory feelings to the neutrals watching. On one hand a Russian win that was truly deserved had been hauled from their grasp; conversely we had another 30 minutes of wonderful football to look forward to.

In the past Russian teams would have folded in the face of such adversity and injustice but not this one. They continued to dominate the extra 30 minutes and not surprisingly it was Arshavin who finally killed the Netherlands off.

He set up the winner for substitute Torbinski and then administered the coup de grace as he drilled the ball through the legs of Edwin van der Sar. A deserved win for Russia and the Netherlands again prove the early accolades to be premature.

Note: As the media jump on the Arshavin bandwagon regular readers of the blog will not be surprised at his impact. Back in the fall(?) I think it was craigy_f who first brought him to everyone’s attention when Zenit St. Petersburg played Everton in the UEFA Cup.


Comment of the Day
“Much has been made of Van Basten's Holland rediscovering the joys of total football, but that is misleading. Yes, they are fluid and good to watch, but they are a more direct, counter-attacking side than their forebears of 30 years ago. Russia, arguably, given their commitment to attack, are rather closer in ethos to Michels' side, but the resemblance is largely superficial.

For one thing, neither side operates with a libero; for another, neither plays in the 4-3-3 (or, more accurately, 1-3-3-3) shape Johan Cruyff always insisted was essential for total football.

The context, equally, is very different. Part of the reason for the impact of Michels' and Lobaonvskyi's sides were that they were pressing and playing an aggressive offside trap in an era when nobody else was.

Everybody presses now. In their commitment to fluidity Russia and the Netherlands can probably claim to play a form of the game as close to total football as is possible in the modern age, but it should not be forgotten that for Russia that means pursuing their own tradition as much as adapting their approach to suit the heritage of their manager.” – Jonathan Wilson.

Prediction Update
Not many picked Turkey while a good number of you had Croatia reaching the semi final. I have a feeling that the prediction league is going to be very close at the conclusion of the quarter finals.

It looks as if the Heskey and Owen partnership has reached the iconic stage. The statistic of 14 goals in 14 starts or 12 starts together (and that was before Russia and Israel)  crops up in almost every article about them. It seemed to me that given that both of these players started their careers in the late nineties and that Owen has 85 caps and Heskey 45 that 12 or 14 starts together seemed very low.
I might be missing something (and it certainly becomes difficult to track appearances because of substitutions) but this is what I have come up with in terms of starting together and goals.

Russia Sept 12/07                   Owen 2,  Heskey 0.
Israel Sept 8/07                        Owen 1,  Heskey 0.
Croatia Aug 20/03                    Owen 1,  Heskey 0.
Serbia & Mont. June 3/03       Owen 0,  Heskey 0.
South Africa May 22/03            Owen 0,  Heskey 1.
Liechtenstein Mach 29/03      Owen 1,  Heskey  0.
Slovakia Oct 12/02                   Owen 1,  Heskey  0.
Portugal Sept 7/02                   Owen 0,  Heskey  0.
Brazil June 21/02                     Owen 1,  Heskey  0.
Denmark June 15/02              Owen 1,  Heskey  1.
Nigeria June 12/07                  Owen 0,  Heskey  0.
Argentina June 7/02                Owen 0,   Heskey  0.
Sweden June 2/02                   Owen 0,  Heskey 0.
Cameroon May 26/02              Owen 0,  Heskey 0.
South Korea May 21/02           Owen 1,  Heskey 0.
Italy March 27/02                       Owen 0,  Heskey 0.
Albania Sept 5/01                     Owen 1,  Heskey 0.
Germany Sept 1/01                  Owen 3,  Heskey 1.
Greece June 6/01                     Owen 0,  Heskey 0.
Mexico May 25/01                      Owen 0,  Heskey 0. 

I make that 20 starts together with Owen scoring 13 and Heskey 3. Still a decent strike rate but not what has been widely reported.
In all it appears to me that they have played in 32 games together although they may not have been on the park at the same time when one has replaced the other.
I used the FA archives as a source and I would be more than happy to admit an error if someone can come up with support for the 14 goals in 14 or 12 starts statistic. I did rattle this off quickly.

 

 

Oh what a weird and wonderful game football is. While Poland made the headlines with the opening game win over Brazil in the FIFA under-20 World Cup, the USA was lucky to escape with a point from a match against South Korea. Three days on and Poland was on the wrong end of a 6-1 thrashing from a rampant American side.

What’s more it was the Poles that took the early lead from Dawid Janczyk. But rather than providing the foundation for a second win it was, apart from a shot in the second half that struck the USA post, the last thing of any consequence generated by Poland.  Less than five minutes after the Poles took the lead Danny Szetela arrived in the Polish penalty box and finessed a header past Bialkowski of Southampton.

Ten minutes after that and Freddy Adu provided a glimpse of the talent that is so often hidden when he curled a beautiful left shot past the Polish keeper. Zizzo was the creator and just on the stroke of half time the same two teamed up for a killer goal.

While most players would be looking to run down the clock until half time Zizzo picked the ball up in is own half and drove past numerous Polish players and into the penalty box before laying the ball back to Adu. Adu curled another left footed shot past a helpless keeper.

If the Poles were to recover they needed to strike early in the second half. Instead it was Svetela taking advantage of terrible marking by the Polish central defenders to slip through and drill home the fourth goal for the USA. After good work down the left side Altidore scored his first of the tournament with twenty minutes to go. The scoring was completed when Adu was fed in by Rogers and despite an attempt to “Beasley” it the USA captain completed his hat trick and a famous route.

So why the turnaround? To start with Poland gave the USA much more room than they had given the Brazilians. The Americans were able to find space behind and in front of the Poles back four. The Poles never gave up that space to the Brazilians. The same was true of space on the wings. Against South Korea Rogers and Zizzo were forced inside to help out a central midfield that was under threat of being overrun was much of the game.

The Poles were never allowed to put Svetela and Bradley under the same pressure and the pair were able to play balls into Adu up front or wide to Zizzo and Rogers. With four points in the bag and a plus five goal difference it would need some exceptional circumstances for the USA not to move on to the last sixteen.

Freddy Adu will garner the headlines but there were a number of excellent performances throughout the USA team. The back four was caught square on the Poles goal but apart from that the defense was rarely troubled. Szetela made it three goals in two games and Zizzo put in a terrific shift on the right side of midfield.

You can send any information (fsr@mts.net) that you think might be of interest about the twenty-four countries and I will post a regular selection. If you have a FIFA Under-20 blog go ahead and post your link under comments.

You can also check out the National Post blog.

You can also use this blog to contribute your thoughts on the South Korea vs. Brazil game tonight. I have an Old-Timers game tonight so I will be taping the game and watching it later.

 

The USA came away from this game with what might be a vital point against a vibrant and exciting South Korean side. Despite having to endure extended spells of intense Korean pressure the Americans deserve credit for sticking to the task and pulling themselves back into the game particularly in the last thirty minutes.

The opening goal came from a fine cross from Zizzo that eventually found Danny Szetela at the pack post. A diving header gave us the first goal from open play of the tournament. The South Koreans stormed back and Shin Young Rok wasted two fantastic chances before he eventually made it third time lucky.

This under-20 squad is a carbon copy of the senior national team of World Cup 2002. Playing a 3-4-3 formation the Koreans were constantly trying to force the USA to play at a tempo that was not to their liking. US defenders and midfielders were repeatedly caught in possession and if it was not for some wasteful finishing (another trait of the 2002 WC side) South Korea could have had the game sown up by half time. As it was the Koreans again spurned second half chances although US keeper Chris Seitz pulled off a couple of excellent saves in the second half.

Dex McCarty’s arrival into the game in the second half was instrumental in helping the USA to hold on to ball and eventually create some chances of their own. If the USA was to nip a win it looked as if it was come courtesy of a Freddy Adu free kick delivered from the right side with his left foot. As it was both teams traded late chances but had to settle for a point each.

Lee Young Sung was outstanding for South Korea as was the back three. Chris Seitz looked good in the USA goal while Nathan Sturgis recovered from an early slip to help turn back the many Korean attacks. Zizzo and McCarty also played their part.

The next round of games is on Tuesday with USA vs. Poland and South Korea playing Brazil.

You can send any information (fsr@mts.net) that you think might be of interest about the twenty-four countries and I will post a regular selection. If you have a FIFA Under-20 blog go ahead and post your link under comments.

You can also check out the National Post blog.

It is always a temptation to project the present into the future and the history of the World Cup is littered with countries that treated the tournament as a sprint rather than a very quick middle distance race – league championships are marathons.

So although much of the hot money may have moved in the direction of Argentina, in particular, and Spain, it may not be worth considering some of the other countries who have had the look of Champion-in-waiting over the last half century or so, only to flounder.

1954 – Hungary won their first four games and scored an amazing 25 goals while only conceding 7. One of those wins was 8-3 over West Germany and they met again in the Final. Hungary led 2-0 but West Germany came back to score three in what become known as “The Miracle of Berne.”

1974 – A Johan Cruyff inspired Netherlands won five and drew one while destroying some good teams in the process. They scored from a penalty kick awarded in the first minute of the Final but eventually lost 2-1 to West Germany.

1982 – The best Brazil team since 1970 won their first four games convincingly before a Paulo Rossi hat trick saw them off.

1986 – Denmark won all three games in the “Group of Death” but disintegrated in losing 5-1 to Spain in the first knockout round.

2002 – Spain took a 100% record into the last sixteen and then defeated the Republic of Ireland on penalties. However, the quarterfinal was the end of the road as they lost to South Korea.

The Swiss deserved their win they controlled the tempo of the game and even though South Korea threatened on occassion they never built any momentum in this game.

The Swiss defense was solid even after Senderos went off injured.

It certainly sets up a dark horse quarter in one part of the last sixteen draw with Australia, Ukraine and Switzerland, all joining Italy.

The tournament will miss South Korea and its fans.

Apparently we will not have Tommy Smyth from here on in. It's a pity as I thought he was making good progress in his attempt to read to us almost word for word the entire World Cup 2006 Special Edition issued by World Soccer.

For those of you interested in France's progress Mr. Nick Webster will be following the action live from Germany.

I will be working at the match tracker but will be back at half time. I think this game is going to be a cracker.

I'm not sure whether I should watch and blog the France vs. Togo game or South Korea vs. Switzerland. I am tipping towards South Korea but I am willing to go with whatever is the popular will.

Any preference?

Croatia opened with a fantastic free kick goal from Srna. But after that it was all Australia.

The Aussies had a series of penalty appeals. When the penalty came it was another insane hand ball in the box.

Australian pinned Croatia back throughout the first half and looked like South Korea from four years ago.

There is a lesson here for other countries – Australia is not doing this by sitting back and defending but by playing a high pressure game. 

Kalac’s mistake on Kovac’s goal was the worst goalkeeping gaff of the World Cup so far.

Australia piled the pressure on but they couldn’t breakdown the Croatian back six – until Kewell struck, albeit offside.

Croatia finally threw players forward but couldn’t get the goal they desperately needed.

Simunic may have become the first player to collect three yellow cards in a game.

Finally a classic Tommy Smyth moment “it’s hard tell who has the extra man” – Adrian Healy “it is with 10 against 10”.

I don't think the commentators understand how inmportant it is for the Swiss to get another goal. They are talking about Switzerland needing to hold on to a 1-0 lead. Or do I not get it?

Frei off replaced by Lustrinelli - Frei looked spent.

Barnetta scores a massive goal for Switzerland with 2 minutes left. The ball was worked across the Swiss penalty area and Barnetta struck the ball very well.

Now the pressure will be on South Korea and France. A tie in the last game puts Switzerland into the last 16.

Switzerland was the better side but Togo will be upset at the penalty kick that they were denied in the first half.

Switzerland is dominating the second half so far but Togo is dangerous on the break. Agassa has just pulled off one of the best saves of the tournament from substitute Yakin.

With a little less than 15 minutes to go this one is interesting. Togo need at least a draw to stay in contention for a place in the last 16. If the scores stays as is then Switzerland needs to beat South Korea in order to qualify - if France can beat Togo by two. If they conceed an equalizer then they still need to beat South Korea unless France don't get the result they need.

It's all very confusing. Any way Streller - a striker for Cabanas - a midfielder would seem to indicate that Kobi Kuhn is looking for that extra goal.

 

The Koreans fitness told on the French in the last quarter of the game. For the second game Korea has come back to get a result so that has to say something. The French must be kicking themselves letting that one slip. Zidane picked up a second yellow so it is possible that we may have seen the last of the great man on a soccer field.

The Switzerland - Togo game tomorrow becomes very interesting and the French may have to rattle in a few goals against Togo if they mean to move on.

 

Man of the Match – Lee Woon-jae for no other reason than a terrific save from Henry, low to his left, in the second half.

This is a much improved performance from France. With Ribery dropped to the bench and Malouda operating mostly on the right it has opened up more space for Henry to operate in. Although he set up Henry’s goal it is still a bit of a mystery why Wiltord is starting ahead of Trezeguet or Saha.

 

Zidane is operating further up the field and that has helped. It looks as if France is maybe playing a 4-3-1-2 system. They might need another goal as the Koreans will just keep coming at them. Lee Chun-soo is looking particularly dangerous at times.

I'll be back at half time with some thoughts.

He might have played a part in the penalty call but Fernando Torres has had a quite game - until now.

 Puyol drives from the back playing a couple of 1-2's and it drops for Torres who strikes it beautifully into the bottom corner. Cracker!

4-0 is an official humping. I'm sure someone has the actual stat but this result must be up there with some of the worst World Cup debuts.

1954 South Korea lost 9-0 to Hungary, 1938 Dutch East Indies lost 6-0 to Hungary are a couple of  stand-outs.

The Ukraine is my pick as a possible dark horse. But based on that display it's a horse that may be off to the glue factory.