Mexico overcame Russia 2-1; Portugal beat New Zealand 4-0.

Some VAR decisions so far.

Mexico overcame hosts, Russia 2-1 and Portugal beat New Zealand 4-0. The Russians played very negative football from the onset, playing and throwing the ball back more often than forward.

New Zealand always had a mountain to climb, facing tactically superior European champions. What took centre stage in the two matches was the Video Assistant Referee. 

If I am kicked, or think so, in the 18 area, I should have the right to appeal, either directly or through my captain like in cricket.

I am sure these are some of the issues to get used to for the players, operators and referees. In fact, the procedure must be simple. Any such situation, must be referred to as early as possible, and the team in possession must play the ball outside immediately. 

If a decision is consistant with the initial human referee, then play must be sportingly played back to the team who had possession.

If the reviewed case seem like a total waste of time and unfair, then player requesting a review must get a yellow card, like in simulation. 

I think that will be fair. The teams should be allowed to appeal directly those match changing situations and the appeal must be very genuine.

By the way, Cristiano Ronaldo (14th in 9 for Portugal, 75th for country overall), Bernado Silva, Andre Silva and substitute Nani were on the score sheet.

The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup football results

(Wikipedia photo)

The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia football fixtures kicked off with Russia, the hosts overcoming New Zealand 2-1 yesterday.

Tonight's football results saw Portugal and Mexico drawing 2-2 while Cameroon lost 2-0 to Chile. 

The analysis and focus turned to the Video Referee Assessment (VRA), which made a few confusing decisions.

No immediate explanations or visuals were offered to public as to what was going on during change of decisions.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid was an ordinary self in his Portuguese side while Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal came off the bench to feed Vidal with a a campagne pass for the opening goal for Chile.

Russia will continue their preparations for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup by hosting the FIFA ConfeD Cup this summer.

The eight-team tournament is held the year before each Fifa World Cup to give the host country an opportunity to test their facilities and provisions ahead of the main event.


It features each confederatiion champions - Afcon, Oceania, European Championship and Copa America, Asian Champions, the World Cup hosts and the reigning world champions.

Portugal beat Ghana 2-1 in 2014 Fifa World Cup

Ghana and Portugal exited the 2014 Fifa World Cup despite Germany doing both a favour by beating the United States of America 1-0. Portugal scored in each half through a Ghanaian defender and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ghana had pulled a goal through Asamoah Gyan.

The Europeans’ goals were very soft and easy. Like many seen so far, they were generated from the left flank. They retreated too much and too often but managed a few dangerous counters. Cristiano Ronaldo struck a post with a cross due to lack of Ghanaian pressing on the right. He received a cross from the right and forced a great save from Dauda when he headed towards goal from point blank range.

The Africans had to execute a well orchestrate counter attack for their goal. Poor crossing from the right and the lack of quality on the final pass characterised the first half. Gyan forced an excellent save from Beto with a right-footed shot. Otherwise, the match became subdued and dull at the beginning of the second.

Ghana could have been punished harder as they were guilty of very short and square passes at the back. What makes this a cause of concern is the fact that Nigeria and Cameroon were found wanting in the same areas with the same behaviour. Cote D’Ivoire too, are not innocent.

 The match grew in stature after the goal. The counter attack on the left with Andre Ayew set up the goal. He played Kwadwo Asamoah who belted a left-footed cross with his outside of the foot to pick up Gyan’s run. Gyan headed the ball down past an air-borne Beto.

Portugal attacked the left flank and and delievered a cross that the defenders failed to clear. The headed ball went into a 12o’clock position and Dauda palmed it into the feet of Ronaldo who hit a first time shot to make it 2-1. Ronaldo had great chances but Dauda put a man-of-the-match performance. It was Waris who squandered the best chance as he head wide with a glaring goal after a Gyan cross from the left.

The goals were a result of poor marking, no pressing on the man taking shots or crosses.

Germany whitewashes Portugal 4-0 in 2014 Fifa World Cup

Portugal started the match very strongly putting the Germans on the back foot with their passing and creative play in midfield. Germany did well to absorb the pressure and stay composed. As Portugal found spaces in midfield and defence as they fought for and won the ball upfront. All the Germans could afford were counter-attacks as there were gaps on the right and left channels as the wingbacks got sucked into action.

Quick inter-passing on the right caught the Portuguese napping as their defence stretched to the limit and a desperate attempt to deal with the attack resulted in a very soft penalty awarded to Germany. Muller tucked the ball neatly into the left corner of the net.

If that goal was a fortunate gift, the second was almost a part of a ‘score one, get one free’ promotion. A similar counter-attack after a patient and composed football by Portugal, Germany sent a long ball to the right, played a cutback, took a deflected shot that went out for a corner. With the attention of three defenders, Mark Hummels rose majestically to powerfully head a Toni Kroos corner-kick past the goalkeeper.

Until then man-of-the-match, Pepe received a simple ball at the back and fended off Muller’s challenge, brushing his face with a stray arm. Muller theatrically fell, attracting Pepe’s wrath who confronted him while still seated and head-butted him. The referee took exception to that behaviour and sent the Real Madrid defender off.

It became a little too easy for the Germans as they cut through the outnumbered opposition like hot knife through butter. They enjoyed the better exchanges on the right, lobbed the ball over the centre to the left. Failure to pick the second ball became detrimental as that ball was centred to the penalty spot and the defender half-cleared the ball to Muller in a tight spot. Muller gladly doubled his goal tally with a hard and low shot.

Portugal had lost a man through injury, made a forced substitution as damage control for the sending off. They lost probably their second best player in Contrao through another injury. They tried to stay compact as Germany tried to stretch them further. To their credit, they created half-chances occasionally and chased every ball.

Poor ball handling by the goalkeeper gifted Muller with his hat-trick. The initial error of his poor clearance presented a good chance that the Germans squandered. The follow up attack came from midfield as the ball was fed to the right, crossed into the 12-yard box. The goalkeeper went down for it but only parried it to the feet of the German striker who directed the ball over the line.

Germany ran down the clock in energy-saving mode as the Portuguese hoped for a face-saver, employing a 1-4-3-2. They were pretty much pleased to deal with the pedestrian pace of the match in the second half.  Neur had to deal with a closing remark by Cristiano Ronaldo whose last minute free kick stung his palms to bring to an end a miserable occasion for Portugal.

Euro 2012; Enter Mario, Exit Torres.

It's official. Enter Italy and exit Spain. Spain can beat Italy in the final if they want, but they are said to be boring by mainstream international media. This information is actually 18 months in arrears. They should have realised Barcelona were faded when we said it. Barcelona is Spain. What we did not see coming was Andreas Pirlo. By the same window, exit Xavi Hernandez.

The Euro 2012 finals get to fold on Sunday after England surpassed many people's expectations and drew criticism from within of Roy Hodgson's tactics, as if Harry Redknapp could have done better. The English were undone by the ever overrated pair of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard. They could have done better without the duo.

It must be said that the Spain versus Portugal semi-final resembled a Barca against Real Madrid El Classico clash given the predictable tension and void tactics. The embarrasing amateur mistake by the Portuguese coach of leaving the best for last stole the show.

How noble it would have been for Cristiano Ronaldo to score the final and winning penalty. As he never lived to see the moment, all were reminded of always putting one's best foot forward. The least he could have done, was to let the showman take the 3^rd one.

Generally, the tourney put paid my fears I wrote about in one of my last articles; that international football is becoming extinct. Save for the few matches of smaller football nations and the Italy versus Germany semi-final, the Euro 2012 was a cold siesta.

For starters, how does any teams in the universe, boasting of Wesley Sneider, Robin van Pierse, Rafael van der Vaart, van Bommel and Nigel de Jong, to name but a few, fail to win or draw a single match?

National team football needs young and upcoming players of great ambitions. The overpaid experienced professional will keep wasting a lot of our time and money. One can only hope that Spain have seen their last victory in the tournament. As much I am not an Italian fan, it is a choice between a right-handed and left-handed devil.

Why Brazil Lost To Holland.

Brazilian Pele, the greatest football player ever, aside from the pretenders like Diego Maradona, called the game of football, "Jogo e' Bonito", that is to say, " The Beautiful Game". To the religious followers of Brazil, that is what the Samba Boys should play. It is well only when they win.

Dutch footballer, arguably their most popular son of the game, Rudd Gullit told us of "Sexy Football". Judging by what happened yesterday, Sexy Football rules. Brazil had moments of fulfillment of the beautiful game in the first half, and it was all we were going to see until 2014.

Tactically, Brazil lost their defensive shape. They came out trying to contain Arjen Robin and Wesley Sneijder. They tried to hunt the pair down. Dunga showed that he was a good captain like Maradona. They are both not coaches. He forgot Brazil are the real deal. The mountain. The mountain don't move.

Brazil usually defended as a tightly knit unit outside the 'D' of the penalty area, imposing a suffocating curfew. They made it a point to keep compactness staying 3-4 metres apart. This made them water tight. In their quarter-final encounter, they moved further up field. More spaces opened up, the distances between defenders increased. Whatever they were hunting for up field was slippery for them to catch. They actually lost shape for nothing.

The Dutch, for their part, did Brazil a lot of favours really. They did not trouble Brazil for their stupidity. They rarely probed hard and persistently enough in the penalty box. Goalkeeper, Julio Cesar, was not busy at all. I can not remember a save he made. The Dutch kept on the periphery, shooting from a distance and set-pieces, form where they scored.

The Samba Boys did not win balls in midfield. As a consolidation to the point above, personnel moved out of position in pursuit of swift and talented touch me not midfielders. As soon as the Dutch midfield attacked the Brazilians, the South Americans were in sixes and sevens. They started to concede a lot of free-kicks as a result, and boy were they so bad defending these, all watching the ball and not the man coming from the blind side.

Frustration of not getting to the ball first was even more evident when Fillipe Melo was sent off. That is the Brazilian way. They can not deal with situations they have no control over. They are only disciplined as long as it is their way. Their frustration ensured the Dutch sweated less for the victory. 

Brazil strayed lots of passes in midfield and attack. Fabiano and Robinho had hardly any clean passes. Whenever passes and movement were good, the Dutch did a good job to kill the moves.

Holland.

Holland were a lucky pack and they worked for that. They threw everything in attack especially in the second half. They remained composed under pressure, when Jogo e' Bonito was in town. After weathering the storm, they probed without ceasing.

The Dutch utilised half chances that came their way, because the scored goals were never clear-cut chances. They were so efficient, scoring decisive goals at crucial times.

Robin and Sneijder were the difference. They ran their socks off and fought for every ball. The more the Brazilians were frustrated, the happier became the two. The goalkeeper needs to be mentioned in denying Kaka a possible goal. Holland delivered their balls from a distance, by-passing the effective central defence wall, which had actually collapsed.

At the end of the day, Sexy Football was more seductive than The Beautiful Game.

Why Brazil Lost To Holland.

Brazilian Pele, the greatest football player ever, aside from the pretenders like Diego Maradona, called the game of football, "Jogo e' Bonito", that is to say, " The Beautiful Game". To the religious followers of Brazil, that is what the Samba Boys should play. It is well only when they win.

Dutch footballer, arguably their most popular son of the game, Rudd Gullit told us of "Sexy Football". Judging by what happened yesterday, Sexy Football rules. Brazil had moments of fulfillment of the beautiful game in the first half, and it was all we were going to see until 2014.

Tactically, Brazil lost their defensive shape. They came out trying to contain Arjen Robin and Wesley Sneijder. They tried to hunt the pair down. Dunga showed that he was a good captain like Maradona. They are both not coaches. He forgot Brazil are the real deal. The mountain. The mountain don't move.

Brazil usually defended as a tightly knit unit outside the 'D' of the penalty area, imposing a suffocating curfew. They made it a point to keep compactness staying 3-4 metres apart. This made them water tight. In their quarter-final encounter, they moved further up field. More spaces opened up, the distances between defenders increased. Whatever they were hunting for up field was slippery for them to catch. They actually lost shape for nothing.

The Dutch, for their part, did Brazil a lot of favours really. They did not trouble Brazil for their stupidity. They rarely probed hard and persistently enough in the penalty box. Goalkeeper, Julio Cesar, was not busy at all. I can not remember a save he made. The Dutch kept on the periphery, shooting from a distance and set-pieces, form where they scored.

The Samba Boys did not win balls in midfield. As a consolidation to the point above, personnel moved out of position in pursuit of swift and talented touch me not midfielders. As soon as the Dutch midfield attacked the Brazilians, the South Americans were in sixes and sevens. They started to concede a lot of free-kicks as a result, and boy were they so bad defending these, all watching the ball and not the man coming from the blind side.

Frustration of not getting to the ball first was even more evident when Fillipe Melo was sent off. That is the Brazilian way. They can not deal with situations they have no control over. They are only disciplined as long as it is their way. Their frustration ensured the Dutch sweated less for the victory. 

Brazil strayed lots of passes in midfield and attack. Fabiano and Robinho had hardly any clean passes. Whenever passes and movement were good, the Dutch did a good job to kill the moves.

Holland.

Holland were a lucky pack and they worked for that. They threw everything in attack especially in the second half. They remained composed under pressure, when Jogo e' Bonito was in town. After weathering the storm, they probed without ceasing.

The Dutch utilised half chances that came their way, because the scored goals were never clear-cut chances. They were so efficient, scoring decisive goals at crucial times.

Robin and Sneijder were the difference. They ran their socks off and fought for every ball. The more the Brazilians were frustrated, the happier became the two. The goalkeeper needs to be mentioned in denying Kaka a possible goal. Holland delivered their balls from a distance, by-passing the effective central defence wall, which had actually collapsed.

At the end of the day, Sexy Football was more seductive than The Beautiful Game.