A real shock in Port Elizabeth with Serbia’s win over Germany that will leave many people talking about the dismissal of Miroslav Klose, although the tackle that brought Klose his first yellow seemed a bit tame, he had already been spoken to by the referee. The second foul on Stankjovic was a stupid one from a player on a card already. The Serb’s punished Germany almost straight away with a lovely half volley from Jovanovic of Liverpool after a knock down from the giant Zigic. Before half time Khadeira hit the bar from twenty yards with a clean strike but it bounced to safety. After the break Podolski failed to convert from two good opportunities before his looping cross was stupidly handled by Vidic, he barely got a touch but it was enough for the Spanish ref to blow. Podolski hit the penalty into the ground and Wigan’s third choice keeper, Stojkovic saved easily down to his left.
Serbia had two great chances to wrap things up, Krasic’s jinking run led to Jovanovic hitting the post and Zigic guided a header over the bar just before time.
The USA can feel very hard done by, that they didn’t take all three points, despite having had to pull back a two goal deficit. The Malian referee, who can hardly ref at a decent standard week in and week out, had a shocker in disallowing a US winner near the end. I saw three fouls that he could have blown up for, all by Slovenians but mysteriously he blew for a foul by the Americans. Slovenia went into a two goal lead before half time with goals from Birsa, with a magnificent 25 yard left footed effort, and Ljubijankovic who slotted a through ball away calmly passed Tim Howard. The USA made a perfect start to the second half when Donovan lashed the ball high in to the net from an acute angle, the keeper had a bit of a mare here and turned his back! Any queries about manager Bob Bradley’s selection of his son, Michael, were quashed following an excellent strike from Altidore’s knock down.
We suffered another major disappointment to follow that of the USA game. Capello brought James and Barry back into the fold and both did well on a night where frustration really should have been the overriding emotion. The Algerians came, not to be beaten, and sat there with two banks of four and made no effort to threaten the England goal. Sadly we were unable to unlock them, which was poor bearing in mind the supposed talent we had at our disposal. Early on Gerrard hit a looping through ball for Heskey that he overhit but it caused concern for the Algerian keeper who misjudged it initially. Skipper Gerrard had another effort from 25 yards but tamely stroked the ball rather than striking it with confidence. The best chance fell to Lampard following a good run and cross from Lennon. The ball sat up nicely, just back from the penalty spot but Frank hit the ball into the ground and it lost power on its way towards goal. In the second half Gerrard crossed, but behind Heskey and Lampard when he seemed better placed to shoot. Another cross from Lennon seemed destined fro Rooney’s head until it was touched behind by a defender. Had we managed to convert any of those chances I firmly believe we could have run out comfortable winners but that’s football. The boos at the end didn’t help the team’s already flagging morale and Rooney let his thoughts be known, I was disappointed to see him apologise the next day. I know which of the two statements he meant and the one made in a press conference wasn’t it!
Predictions
Still no 100% correct predictions, just eight times I predicted who’d win.
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