Chapter 106: Confusion and Clarity (1)
At present, the two rounds of Group B, the qualifying situation has been completely clear, Belgium and Argentina, who have won two consecutive games, have advanced to qualify, and the last round of direct dialogue will determine who is the first in this group, while South Korea and Nigeria, who lost both games, will say goodbye in advance, and the last game can only fight for honor.
In the second round of the next few other groups, some directly made the qualifying situation clear, while others became more chaotic.
In Group C, after the first leg, Slovenia, who won the victory, ranked first, the United Kingdom and the United States were second and third, and Algeria, which lost to Slovenia, ranked fourth in the group.
In the second round of the competition, the first match was between the United States and Slovenia, and after 90 minutes of fierce battle, the two sides ended in a 2:2 draw.
The venue of this match is no stranger to the Americans, who lost the title of "champion of champions" in last year's Confederations Cup final with a 2-0 lead by Belgium chasing three goals in a row.
After a year, the old place was revisited, and before the game, various media also reminded the United States many times, and the head coach of the American team, Bradley Sr., only had one sentence: "We will not let history repeat itself, and we will not make the same mistake twice." ”
However, the situation in the first half made people feel that history was playing tricks on the Americans again, 0:2, which was a result that the United States would not have thought of before the game.
It is not for nothing that Slovenia call themselves "superpower killers", they have beaten Russia in the European qualifiers, and the 0:2 at half-time makes the Americans faintly feel that their prospects for this World Cup are shrouded in a dark cloud, and this is destined to be the death of American football?
However, the brave American showed his ambition and courage in the second half, Bradley's substitution was unusually decisive, Donovan's furious shot made the Slovenian goalkeeper so shocked that he had to dodge, and Bradley Jr. saved his father with a goal.
If it weren't for the final controversial decision, Uncle Sam would have topped the group, but 2:2 is acceptable for them, a year ago they could only swallow the bitter fruit of being reversed, from being reversed to fighting back, the Americans reversed the tragedy left by history and regained the chance of qualifying from the group in their own hands.
Although it was a draw, but this game is the most exciting draw so far, there are few goals behind in the history of the World Cup, and there are three goals in a row, the United States team almost made the whole field boil, but everything stopped in the hands of a Malian referee, at such a critical moment, he accidentally ruled that the United States team a goal was invalid, in hindsight, I don't know what foul he saw that had to be blown, and I don't know what standard he used to stifle the ball.
This ball is a set-piece, the two sides grabbed together, Edu came out of the crowd and pushed the goal, but the Mali referee in this game blew the whistle to signal the foul first, the whole team of the United States team was inexplicable, and the slow motion afterwards showed that when the set-piece was driven out, many players on both sides were together, and the scene was quite enthusiastic, but it was obvious that it was basically the Slovenian players pushing out the shots of the American players, such as Dempsey, the whole person was going to be squeezed out of shape, if this is a rugby wrestling confrontation, The Slovenian team obviously had the absolute upper hand, but the Malian referee probably sensed the Americans' eagerness to score a goal, and then predicted that there would definitely be some small moves or something, so he took it for granted that the American team fouled.
The loss of this scoring opportunity also deprived the United States team of a good opportunity to achieve a big reversal, and combined with the referee's many inexplicable blows in this game, the coach of the American team will never criticize him at a low decibel level after the game.
If the score is finally fixed at 3:2, the Americans will have a great comeback to completely rewrite their qualification situation in the group, but despite this, the Americans, who already have two points, can wait for the result of the match between England and Algeria.
In this game, the most attractive topic is undoubtedly the good show of the son saving his father!
When Bradley Jr.'s stab changed the score to 2:2, I believe that his father, the coach of the U.S. national team, Bradley, was already excited and couldn't be suppressed.
At the critical moment, his son proved the correctness of his choice with his actions, a key goal, a key point, although this is not enough for the United States to qualify for this group, but in the face of Algeria, the African weak team, the United States can still firmly grasp the initiative in its own hands.
Compared with the reserved Chinese, the American thinking obviously does not have so many rules, let their son play in his own team, but also play the main team, this is in China, unless the coach thinks he has been in charge for too long.
Because once his son makes a mistake on the field, everyone will come to torture the coach's selfishness, and everyone has various reasons to prove that a coach with bad character is not qualified to coach the team.
Therefore, the "suspicion avoidance" of Chinese coaches is still very serious, such as Wang Liang and Wang Hongli father and son played in Liaoning at the same time, which is rare in Chinese football.
However, the elder Bradley dared to send his son to play in a major tournament like the World Cup, and he was a starter, and he was also in such an important position as the midfield.
However, Bradley Jr. did show competitiveness, he was the most capable player in the American team, and in last year's Confederations Cup, the image of Bouna Jr. did make a deep impression on fans around the world.
Bradley Jr. also knew that his father was under a lot of pressure, and his sensible son also supported his father with practical actions.
And this is just the beginning, in these two games, Xiao Bu's performance is remarkable, in today's game, his goal at a critical moment pulled the United States back from the death line!
Bradley Jr.'s performance in this game was worthy of his father, and even more worthy of his motherland, and he also made the old saying "loyalty and filial piety dilemma" completely ghostly.
The virtuous did not shy away from relatives, and went into battle as a father and son soldier, and the old Bradley's lack of suspicion in exchange for a life-saving point.
The other match in the group was played as England, who had drawn with the United States, faced Algeria, the weakest opponents in the group.
It was originally an asymmetrical game, but after 90 minutes, everyone was shocked, 0:0, the England, who threatened to win the championship before the game and were favored for the first time in the recent World Cups, failed to win Algeria.
The 0-0 score did not help Capello to achieve, and the good wish to win the opponent and qualify early in the mouth before the game helped the Algerians create a new history.
The Desert Fox's embarrassing record came to an abrupt end in all seven appearances in his previous World Cup finals appearances, coming to an abrupt end to the Englishman.
Who should we be most thankful for?
It looks like Capello has a lot of credit.
Back-to-back World Cup goals conceded were something the Algerians were ashamed to mention until they met England who were sleepwalking today.
In fact, England could not be said to have had no chances in the second half, but manager Fabio Capello's substitution seemed to be long overdue, and if Crouch and Defoe could play an extra 20 minutes, perhaps the English could still have a glimmer of hope for the goal.
The high goal conceded rate in England after Capello took charge was originally the source of media criticism of the team, and in the previous 25 official international matches, Capello's team could only barely guarantee that the goal would not be lost when facing a team with a belly of the fish.
But who would have thought that the attack was not good, but it became the biggest crux of England in the World Cup, the Three Lions' goalscorers, two games almost more than 180 minutes, no results. And their ugly performance in the first half has crossed the bottom line of any poor performance by any strong team in this World Cup.
Spain had at least laid siege to their opponents before the loss, and the Englishman pressed all the way up today, probably not even counting 10 minutes.
The Brazilians were similarly inactive in the first 45 minutes of their battle with North Korea. However, it is not difficult to find that the Samba Army still did not lose ground when it could not open the situation.
But if you look at today's half-time statistics for England and Algeria, you will be surprised to find that the English have completely fallen behind on the field.
The most important thing is that the Brazilians found a way to break through the opponent's goal in the second half, although the win was a little ugly, but after all, there was no danger, and the players also had the idea of saving their strength in the end, and their attention was not concentrated, although it was a small victory, but it was also reasonable to win the opponent. And England's poor performance today really can't find any excuse to console themselves.
After the game, although Capello insisted that it was the huge pressure that led to the collective abnormality of the strong England team, but also in the face of the weak team, the same half-time goalless, heart-to-heart, the Brazilian could not break the door of the North Korean team in 45 minutes, and the pressure in the midfield was definitely no less than that of the England today.
It's just that the Samba Army finally found a breakthrough to solve the problem, while the English were in a hurry, playing more and more impatiently, and finally pushed themselves to a dead end.
According to the general assumption, after entering the second round of the group stage, the teams from all walks of life can really enter the state, and the game will inevitably look good.
But today's game, England vs. Algeria, and beat people back to the sleepy first round, the two sides can't play anything that can be called a routine, and finally squeezed around the opponent's penalty area, which has long become the end of the strong crossbow, England players can only rely on a few long shots that are better than nothing to vent, is this the championship division created by Capello?
There is no doubt that after this campaign, England will become a laughing stock if they talk about winning the title again.
Speaking of the world's most valuable Spanish team, it was defeated in the first round, which shocked fans all over the world, but on the other hand, it must be admitted that the situation on the field of the Spaniards is very well controlled, the midfield operation has not collapsed, and the strength is not bad, and the Swiss team, which knows Spain well, can only rely on sneak attacks to survive in the game.
Looking at England in two games, the content shown by the two games and two points is far less positive than the 0-point game in Spain.
No wonder some media sarcastically Capello brought an ancient team, this team is unlikely to have any changes, such remarks were confirmed again in the second game, although it is not excluded that some media are interested in taking the old-fashioned, not good at catering to reporters Capello for fun, but as a long-term football expert, there is also a seventy or eighty percent of the head, this England team is almost characterized as a team that cannot be expected too much.
England's full-game impression was that the lack of a strong continuous multi-point attack could not break up the opponent's defense at all, resulting in the last ball in the box always on the Algerian side, even if the ball came in the box.
On the other hand, the England team is very bluffing in the middle and long distances, and this game is either played high or played as a "mopping lawn ball", and the back attack on the side is difficult to even shoot.
As for possession, England are even more sorry for the fans who appreciate them all over the world, and after the game, the team actually fell behind the cabbage army Algeria.
If the English want to continue like this, it is not difficult to imagine the next scene, in the last game, England can only fight in the way of small corps, play some very simple cooperation, and can't hit the periphery to fire, no wonder some media want to say that English football is retro, modern football should have entered a dense and complex, dazzling offensive system, and the England team played a three-board axe tactic, which is a strong team to win the championship? !
Neither of the two games played the familiar feeling of exuberance, England and France were very close to each other, and England fans would rather believe that it was a nightmare, believing that it was the Scottish team and Northern Ireland team who wore the English shirt and impersonated it, but sadly, it was a cold truth.
Don't ask what's going on now, fans just want to see that England, which is full of tens of millions of superstars, can grit its teeth and beat Slovenia, provided that Slovenia is played as Germany and Brazil, maybe it can force the players to feel that they are strong, so that the game may not be weak in momentum, and the offensive attitude will be more positive, of course, this is just wishful thinking.
A similar scene was seen at the World Cup in Germany four years ago, when England always had a man who stepped up to play the role of savior, always breaking the deadlock for the team, but now, although he was also there, he couldn't help England's plight.
David. David Beckham!
Throughout the game, he could only sit on the bench and do a hurry, he gave a thumbs up to his teammates, yelled at the referee, and looked at the final scoreboard at a loss, Beckham is no longer a member of the main team in England, but he is still the Beckham who has attracted countless eyeballs, and England, which no longer has Beckham, is really in the quagmire.
The relationship between Beckham and England has always been "dialectical" and there have always been two views of "dialectic". Some say David Beckham's brilliant passing and dangerous free-kicks have supported half of England's attack.
In addition, some people said that Beckham had no speed, did not break through, and having him on the scene actually limited the threat of surprise on the right side of England, and it was useless to just pass a few balls, and he was actually a drag on the overall attack.
The debate over Beckham will continue, but one thing is for sure, if Capello can give Beckham a few minutes in this game, even if he really will only pass a few balls, what a rare luxury for England in this game, Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard and others really have to have someone who can pass so many good shots, why is England's attack so embarrassing?
As for Beckham's corner kicks and free kick threats, it is a magic weapon to break the deadlock, and none of the 10 corners taken by Shuangde in turn pose a threat.
Back in the 2006 World Cup, David Beckham almost single-handedly sent England to the quarter-finals. The opening game of the group was a stalemate with Paraguay, and Xiaobei's free kick created an own goal for the opponent; In the second game, Trinidad and Tobago were helpless, and it was Becky's cross that assisted Crouch to break the deadlock; In the 1/8 finals against Ecuador, Beckham scored a free kick to send the team a ride, and in the 1/4 finals against Portugal, Xiaobei fought until he vomited and witnessed the team's exit in tears on the sidelines.
For four years, the English have been trying to get rid of the protection of "God Beckham", hoping to throw away this right crutch and learn to walk independently, but the result of repeated attempts has been to find that he is more and more inseparable from him.
McClaren stripped David Beckham of his captain's armband and expelled him from the national team at one point, but in the critical moment of European Championship qualifying, he did not hesitate to break his promise and called Beckham back to save his life.
Capello began his presidency looking around for new answers from the right. Phillips, Theo Walcott, and Lennon all brought fresh excitement, but in the end, the Italian coach also discovered the truth, England could not live without Beckham, but the stubborn Capello still did not give Beckham a minute of playing time in this game.
So much so that after the game, the atmosphere of Deegan said: "Capello should knock his head open to take a good look, it is clearly filled with David. Beckham, but he has to fool himself into choosing to forget, if England goes home in the group stage, then the person who should be responsible, there is no need to look for it, it is Capello's old bastard! ”