World Cup Mania

Its been a while since i last posted anything here but have been too caught up with work and then ofcourse - World cup. The last 19 days were too filled with watching so many games of football. I am sure i have never watched so much football as much as i have in the past 19 days or so!!
After a long time - the heavy-weights of football -(read as Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, England and France) - have made it into the last eight together!! This is quite unlike the scene in the previous world cup in Japan/ S.Korea!! These 6 together with Portugal and Ukraine make up the bandwagon!! Clearly Ukraine are the flag bearers of the underdogs at this point of time. It remains to be seen if they can follow in the foot-steps of S.korea (in last world cup) and make it the last 4.
So far - the 3 teams that captured my attention with creative, attractive football were:
1>Argentina
2>Germany
3>Spain

Esp Argentina has been awe-inspiring. Their range of passes is amazing - its a treat to the eyes to watch them play. To sample what I am blabbering, check this out, especially the second goal where Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a flowing 24-pass move, finishing from 12 yards - which many rate as the one of the best, if not THE BEST, goals ever scored in the history of the world-cup.
With a bench squad consisting of Messi, Tevez, Aimer and their likes, this is one team that could go a long way...
Germany - Out of their 4 games so far, i saw them play against Sweden only. Missed the other 3 courtesy my work timings:( But that one game was enough to raise my confidence in them. What a whopping of the swedes. I would not have been surprised if the germans didnt score more. Klose and Podolski (surprisingly both Polish originally) kep the swedes busy through out hardly giving them any kinda chance to counter-attack!!
Its a pity that 2 of the best teams (so far) have to meet each other in the quarters itself and even more disappointing is the fact that they playing at 1600 GMT- I would be at work:( Will have to try rushing back home to watch atleast the second half. Personally I would want the Argentines to win. Have been an anti-german since the 1990 finals between W.Germany n Argentina where again i was supporting the Argentines courtesy one man - Diego Armando Maradona;).
Hoping this time the results are reversed.
Its a pity that Spain have yet again lived up to their reputation of NOT delivering on the big stage. This time they seriously looked like going a long way but then amazingly they were thrown out of the race by a team of veterans - read as Zidane, Viera, Makelele - I am sure this was the biggest upset of the tournament. A lacklustre , just managed to qualify for round of 16 France defeating the amazing fantastic free flow game of Spain. What a pity. Seeing the form that the Spanish were playing, i was even forced to believe (to an extent)the Nostradmus prediction would actually correspond to football - it went something like this "At the end of the 6th month of the 6th year, The King of Spain and his men will cross the battle fields of Central Europe and win the Holy Grail" - the interpretation was "In the beginning of month of July of year 2006, the Spanish Coach and his team will go to Germany and win the World cup" - What blasphemy!!! Holy grail = World Cup? Someone should have send the forward to Dan Brown - and i am sure he would have build up another great(??:P) story surrounding the Holy grail and how actually it is the world cup which the teams are fighting for every 4 years and how the number 4 has a link some kind of feminism and how the actual Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen once and for all in 1983 by the Knights etc..etc.. lol - (I should probably give him the idea):P
And now comes my favourite team - England. Somehow every one seem to detest the England team!! I would attribute that to probably the English Media which hails the team as winners & heroes well before the world cup and derides every other team/ coach as losers. No wonder the world unity in the hatred-for-England team. Brazil have been playing unattractive football but none complaints. In fact the match against Ghana, i felt Ghana played fantastic football but ultimately they lost -Thanks to the clinical finishes by Ronaldo, Adriano & Ze Roberto!! How come the England team are always blamed of under performing. Scolari plays 5 different formations in the same game in the last world cup and everyone praises him for changing the team play as per the situation (playing according to situation) - whereas Sven changes his game plan from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 over one game and the pundits are slamming him left and right for experimentation during the world cup - how hypocritical!! Agreed Lennon is much better than Beckham in terms of dribbling and speed and piercing through the defence and the youngster might prove vital to the team, provided he is given more time on the pitch rather than just couple of minutes or 5 minutes of game every match. If you watched the England v/s Ecuador game - the coach and his staff were all set to bring out lennon n crouch instead of Becks (who has suffering from dehydration and was plying on par) and Rooney (i think) around the 59th minute and then Beckham delivers -THE free-kick just before he was being taken off and voila - its the beckham of the past -a wonderful curled in kick - fantabulous goal.
Tell me which coach would have removed the goal scorer, the moment he is scored the goal?? I dont think even the most-daring of coaches would have tried esp when the player in question was someone of the status of Beckham . I surely do hope that this time around - Eriksson gets on top of Scolari for a change. Eagerly waiting for the matches to kick start tomo.............