FIFA World Cup 2014: The third European team eliminated

10. Ronaldo wrote “Welcome to the club #Klose”, after the German scored his 15^th goal in World Cups. Now the German has got up to five matches to leave Ronaldo out of “the club”.

 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Official Book

 9. Argentina – Iran 1-0: As the coach Sabella said after the match, everything is possible when you
have Messi in your squad. It is impossible to find a sentence describing the match better. Iran had shown some great defensive performance in the first match, but no one expected them to do the same against Argentina. But they did it anyway. For exactly 90 minutes of the match Leo Messi and his teammates were unable to break the seal. Iran was compact, disciplined and never lost the concentration. They even started to counterattack in the second half, being involved in at least two attacks ending with great saves by Argentina goalkeeper Romero, and an episode, where they asked for a penalty but were not awarded. The South Americans possessed the ball 71% of the time. What wonders the most is that they knew how Iran was going to play, but were not ready to find solutions anyway. Thanks to Messi’s fine shot inside the injury time Argentina earned the ticket to the next round.

 Defence: 1,5 – 2
 Midfield: 1 - 1
 Attack: 1 – 0,5
 Interplay: 1 - 1
 TOTAL: 4,5 – 4,5

 15. Montazeri (IRI) – 1,5
 12. Haghighi (IRI) - 1
 14. Andranik (IRI) - 1
 21. Dejagah (IRI) - 1
 23. Mehrdad (IRI) - 1
 5. Sadeghi (IRI) – 1
 4. Hosseini (IRI) – 0,5
 6. Nekounam (IRI) - 0,5
 10. Messi (ARG) – 0,5
 7. Di Maria (ARG) – 0,5
 1. Romero (ARG) – 0,5

 8. Germany – Ghana 2-2: One of the best matches of this World Cup so far, where both of the teams were only interested in a win and wanted to get it as early as possible. Ghana had nothing to lose any more after a loss to USA earlier in the tournament. Coach Appiah changed the goalkeeper, trusting Dauda the post number one from the beginning of the match. It was also Harrison Afful together with Kevin-Prince Boateng to appear in the starting line-up, compared to the first match. The first two changes turned to be smart decisions, while Boateng had to leave the play in the second half after some passive performance. We saw much better teamplay, where the defence didn’t give much space for the German attackers to play their quick passes. The wingbacks, especially Harrison, were also good in helping the attackers. The improved self-confidence and attacking accent brought two goals in the second half, but Ghana could have scored many more. The German confidence held only until the first conceded goal. Then the defence went from bad to worse. Joachim Loew could only hope for the 90 minutes to pass quicker. But the front showed what was expected. The Mueller-Oezil-Goetze trio, supported by Kroos from behind, was able to create several good chances. For the first time in the tournament Loew needed a striker. Miroslav Klose was brought in and scored the historic 15^th World Cup goal only after two minutes of play. Germany saved the match, and is surely going to get far in the tournament, however, the new tactics of Loew, where he doesn’t use strikers is going to be criticized sooner or later.
 Defence: 1 - 1
 Midfield: 1,5 – 1,5
 Attack: 1,5 – 1,5
 Interplay: 1,5 – 1,5
 TOTAL: 5,5 – 5,5

 21. Boye (GHA) – 1,5
 23. Harrison (GHA) - 1
 1. Neuer (GER) - 0,5
 16. Dauda (GHA) – 0,5
 11. Muntari (GHA) – 0,5
 3. Gyan (GHA) – 0,5
 18. Kroos (GER) – 0,5
 13. Mueller (GER) – 0,5
 8. Oezil (GER) – 0,5

 7. Nigeria – Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0: A typical World Cup 2014 match, where we witnessed some ridiculous decisions by the referees, and saw a really tired European team unable to come back for more than a whole half. This was the match for Bosnians to win or at least earn a point, if their first ever World Cup appearance was going to become a success. After around 30 minutes of play the Balkan side had already a clear goal disallowed and a controversial Nigerian goal allowed. Besides several half-chances created for Edin Dzeko, Safet Susic’s side was too sloppy to score. The coach tried several substitutions, changing formations a couple of time, but the attitude never improved. Deep inside the injury time Dzeko hit the post, thus confirming the Bosnian elimination from the World Cup. Nigerians were lucky, patient and organized. They had their super goalkeeper Enyeama to take all the balls reaching his goal, and the powerful striker Emenike, to keep the opponent’s defence awake. Stephen Keshi’s team masterfully defended their 1-0 lead and are great favourites to reach the Play-offs.
 Defence: 1 – 0,5
 Midfield: 1 – 1
 Attack: 1 – 1
 Interplay: 1 – 1
 TOTAL: 4 – 3,5

 1. Enyema (NGA) – 1,5
 9. Emenike (NGA) – 1,5
 10. Mikel (NGA) – 0,5
 1. Bregovic (BIH) – 0,5
 11. Dzeko (BIH) – 0,5

 6. Not as impressive as expected, Belgium managed to win the first match against Algeria though. It is not a fact that Russia is going to play a more attacking football than Algeria, therefore Marc Wilmots may make a couple of changes in the starting line-up, to put some pressure already from the beginning of the match.

 5. Fabio Capello and his Russia have only earned a point in their first match, but they are not going to risk everything for a win in the match against Belgium. It is more important to concentrate on the psychological condition of the team after a nervous first match, and not to lose. The Play-off tickets can be won by a win in the third match against Algeria.

 4. South Koreans will meet group favourites Belgium in the last match, so they would rather defeat Algeria. The Asians can be showed themselves to be a good disciplined team, with a couple of players from top European leagues. Hong Myung-Bo, a defender in the past, will need to risk a little more to earn more points.

 3. Algerians had all the chances to take points away from Belgium. They scored first, managed to hold the score for quite a while. Why not try the same or an even riskier strategy against South Koreans? Vahid Halilhodzic announced his retirement from the post after the tournament, so the team must do it for the coach.

 2. Jurgen Klinsmann’s huge work with the US national soccer team gave its results in the first match. A team almost without any players from top European clubs managed to show some mature football, scoring right in the beginning and right before the match. This is a character that might work against the under-pressure Portuguese, too.

 1. Paulo Bento’s Portugal doesn’t have too many stars in the squad this year. And three of the remaining stars are not going to play against USA, as Pepe is disqualified, while Fabio Coentrao and Hugo Almeida are injured. But they have Cristiano Ronaldo, who simply has to win this match for his country.   The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Fact Files