{"id":209,"date":"2014-06-12T21:28:24","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T02:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2014-06-12T21:28:24","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T02:28:24","slug":"world-cup-group-h-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Preview – Group H (and thoughts on Brazil\/Croatia)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, after all that talk, we’ve finally seen some real, live soccer.\u00a0 And it was… interesting.\u00a0 Brazil wound up meeting pre-match expectations with a 3-1 win, but that score isn’t indicative of how close the match really was.\u00a0 Brazil was sweating, for sure, and they’ll know that they’ll need to improve if they want to go deep into this tournament.\u00a0 I thought Oscar was their best player, and Neymar scoring twice is obviously a good sign for the home team.\u00a0 On the flip side, Julio Cesar looked shaky, Hulk and Paulinho were poor, and most of the others were anonymous.\u00a0 I suppose the biggest compliment I can give them is that beat a good team by two goals, despite not being anywhere near their best.<\/p>\n

Croatia will feel like they deserved a draw here, and it’s hard to argue with them.\u00a0 They did everything they wanted to do, making things difficult for Brazil, and getting that critical early goal (or, rather, letting Brazil get it for them). \u00a0 Giving up the lead before halftime didn’t help, but I thought they were managing the second half pretty well until the penalty against Lovren undid all of their good work.\u00a0 It was a ridiculous call, as the Croatian defender did nothing other then watch Fred fall over in front of him.\u00a0 The referee missed it completely, and the Croatian players were rightly enraged.\u00a0 It happens, though, and the Croatians will need to get over it.\u00a0 At the end of the day, they’re no worse off than they probably expected to be at this point.\u00a0 Their tournament was always about beating Mexico and Cameroon, and that hasn’t changed.<\/p>\n

One last word on this match – I usually stick up for goalkeepers, and I’ll stick up for Stipe Pletikosa here.\u00a0 I don’t think he saw Neymar’s first goal until late, and Oscar’s toe-poke caught him off-guard.\u00a0 Funny enough, I thought the one shot that he probably should have saved was Neymar’s penalty.\u00a0 It was at a comfortable height, Pletikosa guessed the direction correctly, and he got two hands on the ball.\u00a0 He probably should have managed to keep that one out, but it’s hard to blame a goalkeeper for a goal scored via penalty kick.\u00a0 On the other two, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

GROUP H<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I mentioned Belgium in my Group G Preview<\/a>, as an example of a nation that’s undergone a complete restructuring in their approach to the game.\u00a0 Now, they’re reaping the rewards for the work they put in, and the talent at their disposal is impressive.\u00a0 Thibaut Courtois was the hottest goalkeeper in Europe last season; Vincent Kompany was a mainstay on defense in Manchester City’s title-winning team; teenager Adnan Januzaj was one of the few bright spots at Manchester United; Eden Hazard was Chelsea’s leading scorer; and Romelu Lukaku was a big part of Everton’s climb to a Europa League place.\u00a0 The list goes on, too:\u00a0 Witsel, De Bruyne, Dembele, Mirallas… these guys are loaded.<\/p>\n

They have also been blessed with the tournament’s weakest group.\u00a0 The only real threat here will be Russia, but their hopes have been dealt a blow by the absence of their captain, Roman Shirokov.\u00a0 Former Chelsea man Yuri Zhirkov will take his place on the left side of the Russian midfield, and fifth-grade boys all over the country will snigger every time he touches the ball and the television announcer says something that sounds an awful lot like “jerkoff.”<\/p>\n

Belgium is probably more talented, but Russia has a very experienced manager in Fabio Capello, and they will certainly be ready to pounce if the young Belgians falter.<\/p>\n

South Korea is another team that I can’t pretend to know much about.\u00a0 Their starting striker, Park Chu-young, plays for Arsenal.\u00a0 Or, more accurately, he doesn’t play – he’s appeared in a grand total of seven minutes<\/em> of Premier League action over the last three years.\u00a0 They also made a hash of qualifying, using 45 different players and barely getting through against less-than-stellar opposition.\u00a0 Finally, they were absolutely steamrolled by Ghana in their final pre-tournament friendly.\u00a0 If these guys have a reason to be optimistic, I must be missing it.<\/p>\n

Word is that Algeria has improved, and that they actually look to play quickly and attack, at least some of the time.\u00a0 That would be a departure from past practice (they scored zero goals in three games in 2010), and, if nothing else, they should be more watchable this time around.\u00a0 Not sure it’ll help them get any results, though – they seem outclassed, once again.<\/p>\n

Group H Winner:\u00a0 Belgium
\nGroup H Runner-Up:\u00a0 Russia<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, after all that talk, we’ve finally seen some real, live soccer.  And it was… interesting.  Brazil wound up meeting pre-match expectations with a 3-1 win, but that score isn’t indicative of how close the match really was.  Brazil was sweating, for sure, and they’ll know that they’ll need to improve if they want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-cup-2014"],"yoast_head":"\nWorld Cup Preview - 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