Goals in the last four World Cups... Miroslav Klose: 15 - England: 17
22/06/14 02:38
Day 10 in the Footcall house...
Well aren't you lucky Footcallers, two reports in one day! First up was the return of Messi and his Galaxy of Argentinian stars as they took on Iran (I wonder if the Apple Corporation were to buy Iran would thy rename it iRan?) Anyway on paper and looking at your predictions, Iran had no chance and Argentina would canter through to the Knockout stages. Well maybe the Iranians hadn't read the script. They defended like Lions in first half but with the dominance of the South Americans it looked like they were just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. But you know what they got through the first half onslaught and came out after the break the better team. This was madness, the Argies were not ready for this and Reza Ghoochannejhad went unbelievably close with a header. Soon after Dejagah moved like a Weeble and so nearly won a penalty for a foul in the penalty box. The ref didn't give it and a replay showed the faintest of touches on the ball from the defender to prove the official had got lucky. The Iranians were all over them which was such a surprise after their dull first game. Dejagah once again went close and Reza once again went one on one with the keeper but was thwarted by the Romero's block. Maybe a 0-0 result would have been fitting but genius that is Lionel Messi stepped up one more time in the 91st minute to show us his class with a stunning Curly Wurly shot that dipped into the corner of Iran's net to send the Argentinian fans to the Milky Way and back. This shot had more action on it than a Phil Mickelson hook and equally as wonderful. I think what this World Cup has taught us is, never count out the world class players!
Next the mighty Germans went head to head with Ghana. Just like the earlier game, the odds were this was a one horse race but with the performance from the underdog still fresh in the memory we knew not to count anyone out. Astonishingly the first half was goalless and this was principally down to resolute defending of the Black Stars. However after the break Germany broke the deadlock as Thomas "Hitman" Muller floated in a perfect ball for Mario Goetze to head it on to his knee and straight into the net. From here on it in it was cakewalk right? Wrong! Ghana sprung to life and over the next 40 minutes every player in their team became a Star, Bar one or two that got cramp! Three minutes after going a goal down they were level with a delightful Ayew header. Ten minutes later the unthinkable happened as Gyan put Ghana in the lead, who predicted that? Well if Mr Messi had taught us to expect something from the big players, the German veteran super sub of Miroslav Klose and his Go-Go-Gadget leg stretched to put the ball in the net and tie scoreline once again, and that was first touch of the game! Queue the traditional somersault celebration from Klose, which didn't quite have the full rotation it used to as he fell back on his arse. Well who cares about the fanfare, Mr Klose had scored his 15th goal in four World Cups and was the joint goal scorer with Ronaldo and now he's only two goals behind England in the last 16 years on the world stage. Well it finished two each and quite fitting bearing in mind all that had gone on.
Finally we saw another African team, Nigeria take on Bosnia-Herzegovina. A potentially decisive game for Group F. After being the other half of the only real dull game of the tournament so far we weren't holding out much hope for this game. But once again we were treated to a bit of magic now and then. Bosnia's (and Man City) front man Edin Dzeko was denied a perfectly good goal for being offside when the replay showed otherwise. Soon after Eminike broke free down the right clambered over the defender Spahic and cut it back to Odemwingie who nutmegged the keeper and go one up. In the second half it was end to end as they took it turns to score. Ibisevic had a good header denied and poor old Dzeko's downward header went straight into the keeper's hands. In the dying minutes of the game Dzeko was once again robbed as he turned in the six yard area and poked the ball towards the net only to see it bounce off the keeper and onto the outside of the post. The whistle blew and it was all over and Nigeria were on cloud nine.
And so to the Footcall league...
The first match awarded a ton of one pointers but like me, most of you thought Argentina would thrash Iran. Well not Emma Wakefield, Anne Herring, Amaia Borges Clark, Jonathan (I need to win Footcall to pay for my wedding!) Hill and Richard Goodwin!
Well the Germany score of 2-2 was about as popular as Brucie saying he'd like to give Strictly one more year! A string of nul pointes apart from Ric Robinson who guessed it would be a draw to pick up one. Amongst it all two people had it spot on, Jack Hennebry and Aaron (Footcall legend) Sutcliffe whose red squares stood out in the sea of zeroes!
Nigeria to win 1-0 proved more common, including David (not sure what he's doing) Bourne, Colin (didn't I just score a 3?) Jessop, Gavin (I must be dreaming') Day, Grant (better than Sean) Broad, Sam Ford, Jennifer Joslin Wood, Simon Dudson, Patrick Ferguson, Gary Thorp, Simon (suspiciously similar predictions to Jen) Clark, Jack Wakefield, Christopher Lane, Jonny (not again?) Hill, Richard (show me the points) Goodwin, Clive (I need to win Footcall to make my next mortgage payment) Gigney, Dan Nicholls, Gemma (hoping Bolton will sign Messi this summer) Simms, Paul (just getting set for the KO stages) Wakefield and finally our new leader, all hail our new leader, Kelly (Matt you can think again if you want a cut of my prize money) Sains.
I am going to award two people the POTD award, the first being Rob Hatch who has been propping up the foot of the table since the start and Hannah (Little Miss Footcall) Wakefield both of whom bagged their first red square and must be over joined with their new found league position. Well done!
That's me done for today, just like the Nigerian midfield I'm going down with cramp (writer's cramp!)
David
PS. Email me back or join the Footcall Facebook group and let us know what you think of Footcall, we have a thread running to find out who you are supporting now England have left the competition (we do realise that many of you weren't supporting England in the first place!)