FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Then of course, there are the games that have been entertaining for reasons other than being competitive. This includes:

* The incredible way in which Uruguay kept wasting chances against Uzbekistan. Not only did the Uzbek keeper make at least half a dozen fantastic saves, but Uruguay also hit the post 5 times, missed a penalty and had three shots cleared off the line by defenders. This wasn???t a case of poor shooting (like Paraguay), but rather an almost unbelievable string of bad breaks. Of course, Uruguay still scored 3, but they should have easily had more than double that.

* The three spectacular Honduran goals against Hungary, all of which are worthy of being on the tournament???s highlight reel.


The worst game of the tournament so far? Brazil-Czech Republic. The Europeans put up an impenetrable defensive wall, but also were not capable of countering effectively. The result: almost no scoring chances for either side.

Overall, the Latin teams have once again been dominant. So far, the only Latin team to lose to a non-Latin team was Honduras against the UAE (and they dominated easily throughout, but just couldn???t find the net).

Biggest disappointments so far: Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa and Australia. Once again, the Sub-Saharan African teams (with the notable exception of Ghana) have been somewhat disappointing. For all the individual potential of their players, most of whom are already in Europe; they just can???t match the tactical sophistication of the Latins. As for the Aussies, the ease with which the Ticos walked all over them (and should have won by even more than 3-0) makes you forget that in the past they have been something of a force in youth soccer.

Finally, I really don???t know what to think of this US team. They looked so pathetic against Germany, but then really turned it around against Cameroon. I guess soon I can head home and find our how they did against Korea.

Favorites to win based on form up through yesterday: Spain, Ghana and Brazil.

Nice work.

The US is an enigma only until you consider that a good portion of the guys are not even full time players. We have students on the team. And anyone who knows anything about football knows the major flaws in the college game. Most of the college soccer I had experience with was unwatchable.

I haven't seen much of the tourney. But wow! That goal that Uruguay the win over England was amazing!

The second round has proven to be a perfect illustration of the unpredictability of youth soccer. Not only did the underdogs win 5 of the 8 games, but two of the favorites who did win (Ghana and Germany) really struggled to do so. Perhaps all this should not have been so surprising in a cup characterized by teams winning big one game only to get trounced the next.

Within all this unpredictability, you can still find some noticeable trends. The South American teams all started very strong and, with the exception of Brazil, steadily declined as the tournament progressed. On the other hand, teams like Hungary, Korea and Costa Rica all started with big losses and have steadily improved to the point where all three were quite impressive in this last round.

Korea and Brazil's victories over Paraguay and Uruguay had the winners dominating from beginning to end against two sluggish looking opponents who were unrecognizable compared to the way they played in the first round.

A summary of the other six more competitive games:

Italy 3, Spain 1
A typical ugly Italian win. Despite going down a man midway through the first half (on a rather drastic direct red card from the ref), Spain were clearly the better team for much of the game, dominating possession and creating more scoring chances. But after Spain failed to put away those chances, Italy finally got its counterattack working against a tiring defense being asked to cover too much ground. The game turned on an incident late in the second half when the Italian keeper saved a penalty that would have tied things up at 2-2 and Italy immediately ran down the field and scored their third to put it away.

Players to Watch: No Italian player has consistently shined throughout the tournament, but Mustacchio (Ancona) was absolutely deadly on the counter against Spain. .
Spain's Fran Merida (Arsenal) fully justified his reputation as the next "Fabregas" during the first round, but was neutralized effectively by Italy. Still, I expect we'll be hearing a lot about Merida in the future.

Ghana 2 South Africa 1 (overtime)
Both teams wasted numerous chances in a pretty wide open and exiting game. South Africa clearly had the edge through most of regulation but began to visibly tire during the second half. They had no gas left by overtime. The game really came down to fitness.

Players to Watch: Ghana's Ayew (Marseille) may be the best all around player in this tournament not from Brazil and is a future star in the making. Adiyiah (Fredrikstad) has been on fire, with four goals so far.
South Africa's Erasmus (Feyenoord) was very impressive in their last two games as neither Honduras nor Ghana could stop him.

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Costa Rica 2, Egypt 0
Costa Rica pulled off a perfect game plan to take advantage of Egypt's complacency (the hosts even left their playmaker Afroto on the bench to protect him from a second yellow). The key was that the Ticos finally provided sufficient support for their subpar central defenders by dropping playmaker Guzman back into DMF and keeping their two attack prone fullbacks from going forward as often. As a result, while Egypt dominated procession, they only really looked dangerous during the 15 minutes after the first Tico goal (forcing a couple of tough saves). Meanwhile, beginning late in the first half, CR's speedy technically gifted attackers repeatedly cut through the Egyptian defense like a hot knife through butter and the Ticos really should have scored at least one or two more.

Players to Watch: Costa Rica's diminutive left midfielder Diego Madrigal had already impressed with a goal, two assists and drawing a penalty in the first round. Against Egypt he was all over the field, instrumental in denying Egypt space to attack up that side and simply unstoppable going forward. He toyed with Egyptian defenders at will (as he had with the Czech and Aussie defenders), often breaking through even when double and triple teamed. His play reminds me a lot of Sevilla's Diego Capel, who was a standout at the last U20 World Cup. The Ticos two fullbacks (Gamboa and Oviedo) have been outstanding throughout the tournament and are both already fielding offers from Spain.
Egypt's Afroto has impressed me to no end. He has a very unique style: emotional and scrappy by nature, but capable of gliding forward with deceptive speed to launch the perfect defense splitting run or pass (imagine Gatusso and Kaka all rolled into one). Unfortunately for Afroto, CR had things well under control by the time he came in to the game. But he did almost score with one of his trademark free kicks.

Hungary 2, Czech Republic 2 (4-3 on penalties)
An even entertaining match that could have gone either way and was decided when Hungarian keeper Gulacsi blocked three penalties. It matched up Hungary's great shooting from outside against the Czech strength in the air and effectiveness inside the box.

Players to Watch: Gulacsi (Liverpool) was not the only great keeper in this game. Vaklic (Vitkovice) seems to have the potential to become the latest in a long line of top notch Czech goalkeepers. The two Czech central defenders were perhaps the best duo in this cup; impassable for the Hungarians and the only ones so far able to completely neutralize Brazil's Kardec and Teixeira. They only really had trouble in the second half against Costa Rica when Madrigal kept pulling them out of position, getting fouled for a penalty in the process.

UAE 2 Venezuela 1
Another evenly matched entertaining game that could have gone either way. Venezuela had trouble with the UAE's speed in midfield in the first half, but their forwards looked more dangerous when they did get the ball. The game was decided very late as just when it looked like Venezuela had finally worn down the UAE and was in control, their right back gifted the Arabs with the winning goal completely against the run of play.

Players to Watch: UAE midfielder Theyab Awana really looks like the complete playmaker: fast, technically gifted and a great passer.
Both Venezuelan forwards Rondon (Las Palmas) and Del Valle had exceptional tournaments.

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Germany 3 Nigeria 2
Easily the best game of the tournament so far. The scoreless first half was entertaining enough with a lot of goal to goal action. But it was followed by a scintillating final 45 minutes that had just about everything: five goals as the score kept going back and forth, a stirring comeback while a man down, and the best individual performance of the cup.

Players to Watch: After having been little more than solid in the first round, German left midfielder Bjorn Kopplin (Bayern) pretty much single handedly won this game; with two goals he created himself and an assist. The winner came at the end of injury time and may have been the goal of the tournament. As 10 man Germany desperately tried to defend the draw and make it to overtime, Kopplin stripped the ball from a Nigerian just outside his own box and promptly took off all the way down the field, faking out a couple of Nigerians along the way before slotting the ball past the keeper.


As we look ahead, everything seems lined up for a Brazil-Ghana final. But in a cup this unpredictable, nothing is certain. They both face tough opposition in the next round (Germany and Korea respectively).

The other two quarterfinals look too close to call. Italy might normally have an edge over Hungary. But so far the Italians have not really played even one really good game and Hungary is clearly on the rise.

As for UAE and Costa Rica, I might normally give a slight edge to UAE based on the Tico's weak central defenders. But the Tico midfield is much faster than either Venezuela or Honduras (the two UAE victories) and should not be quite so easy to run past. Furthermore, the UAE will be missing its playmaker Awana and their game really suffered when he ran out of steam and had to be subbed against Venezuela.

Candidates for player of the tournament: Brazil's Giuliano, Teixeira and Kardec. Ghana's Ayew and Adiyiah. Much will depend of course on who ends up winning.