A splendid display of football over the past few days of World
Cup. Apart from all the comments, I had made some interesting
observations from the matches played in the past few days.
Substitute Goalkeepers
In the match of Sweden VS Trinidad and Tobago, the first-string
Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper, Jack, was injured minutes before
the kick-off. As we could see from the broadcast, he sat on the
benches with a towel over him, looking heartbroken in missing out
Trinidad and Tobagofs debut World Cup match. However, the
substitute goalkeeper performed so well to put out so many
dangerous balls from the Sweden side, denying Sweden of the full
three points and created World Cup 2006's biggest upset in the past
few days. He was certainly the hero of Trinidad and Tobago. He was
almost godlike, with most of the attempts put forward by Swedish
players rolling right into his hands. He was only a substitute, but
he fantastically displayed his goalkeeping skills, proving himself
to be the hero of Trinidad and Tobago's successful debut match. He
was the savior for Trinidad and Tobago and the nightmare of Sweden.
Now we had seen the true heroic performance from substitute
goalkeeper of Trinidad and Tobago--Hislop Shaka.
Another great performance from substitute goalkeeper of
Paraguay-Bobadilla Aldo.
England was hot favourites in World Cup and Beckham forced an own
goal from a Gamarra Carlos in only three minutes of play. It never
rain but pours for Paraguay, in spite of their nervous start and
the early concede of goal, Paraguay's first-string goalkeeper
injured himself when he tried to save a ball. Watching him limping
off the field, we thought that Paraguay was bound to face more
embarrassment from England. However, the substitute goalkeeper who
came up proved us wrong. He put the Paraguay side back into rhythm
by keeping the goal safe and indirectly giving Paraguay chances to
push forward than just staying at her own penalty area, defending
the bombardment from England.
In the second half, his confidence grew and produced two beautiful
saves from the two beautiful long shots by Frank Lampard. Apart
from these two shots on target, England was unable to create any
good goal scoring chances. With the confident goalkeeper and the
vigilant defenders, England found no chance to bring forward a
second goal and let to the final score line, England 1 Paraguay 0.
It was definitely a great performance from Bobadilla, a substitute
goalkeeper with no recognition from the fans. However, when the
time comes for him to do something for the team, he did it well and
saved Paraguay from further embarrassment by England.
Nervous and small wins from the favourites
England, Argentina, Holland and Portugal, certainly the hot
favourites in this World Cup, only managed to produce a small win
against teams which are not as good. England and Argentina and
particularly nervous in the second-half and did not played out
their true strengths. England's performance in the later part of
the game was definitely not satisfactory as the team was passive
and relied mostly on defence to secure a 1-0 small win over
Paraguay. In the match by Argentina and Cote d'Ivoire, when Drogba
scored for Cote d'Ivoire in the last ten minutes, bringing the
score to 2-1, Argentina was seen most nervous and panicky.
Argentina wasted as much time as possible and waited for the final
whistle by just passing the ball around. Holland, as compared to
England and Argentina, was much more confident in their match
against Serbia and Montenegro. However, it was still not a very
easy win as Holland was pressured by the Serbia and Montenegro side
heavily in the second-half. We saw the wonderful display of
football by Robben of Holland in the match. I watched him with awe
as he was certainly a football prodigy. Portugal too, relied on an
early goal, just like England and failed to net once more in the
next 85 minutes.
We also saw the upset from Poland and Sweden. Poland, was the
favourites in Group A to get into the last 16 together with
Germany, but received a heavy blow from South America's Ecuador,
which greatly hindered their progress to the next stages. Sweden,
Sweden, draw over Trinidad and Tobago. Many certainly would be
awestruck by the 0-0 score line of the powerful Sweden and the
small Trinidad and TobagoCthe biggest upset in all the matches of
World Cup 2006.