Lately, I have had several dinners with my friends. Most of them are complaining that they lost a lot, if not a fortune, on the Germany-Argentina match.
Some lost simply because Argentina went out. But most lost big bucks because they never expected the Germans to win by such a big margin.
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I had hoped Argentina would do better but Germany deserved the win.
The Argentines played terrible defense and allowed the Germans to counterattack with numbers. What began as dominance by South America - four countries reaching the quarterfinals as compared with three European teams - has become the European Cup. A day after five-star Brazil lost its composure against the Netherlands, Argentina was routed by a German team that had more speed, energy, quickness to the ball, determination on the counterattack and was relentlessness on defense.
Meanwhile, Spaniard David Villa is now poised to win the Golden Boot award after scoring off a rebound to beat Paraguay. The Valencia striker has scored a tournament leading five goals to date.
Frankly, Argentina was given chances, but failed to capitalize. It was heavily fortified up front. From the midfield to the front, the team was strong. But from the midfield to the defense it was weak, at least on Saturday night. The side was actually a little lucky to escape with a win against Mexico. If Mexico hadn't allowed the offside goal to affect it mentally, the result could have been different.
Also, Maradona and Co had it easy up to the match against Germany. Argentina faced Nigeria, Greece, South Korea and Mexico while Germany had a tougher road, including a revenge victory over England, and was much better prepared than Argentina.
Maradona boasted a handful of attackers up front such as Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Milito, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and also ionel Messi, who is more like an attacker playing in a withdrawn position, but the coach's lack of attention to defense was his downfall and his team was exploited. We usually say offense is the best defense but if you pressure the defense, then eventually the offense will be lost; as was demonstrated in Saturday's humiliation by Germany.
German legend Franz Beckenbauer said soccer is a simple game, all it takes is to score a goal more than your opponents.
Argentina learned it the hard way. Next will be the Spaniards. Spain has won two World Cup 2010 matches 1-0 and beat Germany 1-0 in Euro 2008 but the Germans, more disciplined and masters of set plays, have won 13 times at the World Cup by the scoreline of 1-0.
The second, third and fourth German goals against Argentina were demonstrations of ball movement, unselfishness and teamwork.
So, beware Spain. Coach Joachim Loew's brightest kid Mesut Oezil is ready to put on another stellar show in the absense of Thomas Mueller.
Octopus Paul has gone five out of five in predicting Germany to beat its opponent in all five matches at World Cup 2010. I am curious to know the creature's next prediction.
Anyway, the Argentina game is set to go down in history. And, thank God, the refs didn't mess it up.
History shows that no European team has won the World Cup outside of the European continent.The author doubts Uruguay can keep that record intact.
