Argentina V Belgium World Cup 2014

Argentina V Belgium Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Quarter Finals Beer World Cup:

http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-2014-quarter-finals/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Guinness Export topped their group and beat Feldschlosschen from Switzerland in the last 16 to make it this far, while Samuel Adams came second in their group and beat Hite Lager from Korea to get into the last eight of my beer world cup. Who will quench the thirst, set the mood, get me in the right spirit? Click on picture for a preview of the beers. Get the beer result after, much after!

Guinness Export V Samuel Adams. 1-2 Win for Samuel Adams in a close battle, that both beers held up well in. Guinness Extra Stout has its unique taste, with its famous black colour and tan whitish head, that smells of, well, Guinness! The smell is very strong on the nose, and is of dark cocoa, coffee and roasted malts. The taste is also quite strong, with a long bitter aftertaste, that had a bite to it. Overall a good strong stout, tasting of roasted malt with traces of coffee. Samuel Adams, on the other hand, had a great appearance, of a nice dark golden colour with a good sized frothy head that hangs around. The look of a decent beer. The smell was pleasant and not overbearing, of malts and a bit of floral hops. The Samuel Adams taste had a variety of strong flavours from the hops and malt which were well balanced, all tingling away at my taste buds. Caramel was one taste that stood out. The finish is strong with a long lasting heavy aftertaste. Overall a nice solid beer and a great delicious taste. I gave the victory to Samuel Adams for two reasons. One it had better flavouring, and the other factor was that it was much smoother, so hence more enjoyable than the strong stout.

PreGame:

Argentina were extremely lucky that they were playing a very poor Swiss team in the last round, as they played so bad they deserved to go out. A half decent team with some passion would have easily kicked them out for their performances in the last game.

Argentina played awful and they were so lucky that Switzerland were even worse. The game should have just had Messi and Shaqiri, one v one. Keep the goalies and ditch the rest.

Apart from di Maria and Messi, they had no one else showing for the ball or trying to win the game. Di Maria got some awful criticism from the BBC but I thought he played well. He tried all game, and he did get the goal in the end. I will even forgive his showboating, which was criminal, but if he scored the winner, he is allowed a pass. But Argentina don’t have a plan B. Plan A is easy, give it to Messi, and he will win the game for the team. He did that again, picking the ball from deep midfield, running right up to the box, skipping over a half hearted tackle, and picking out Di Maria on the edge of the box. Brilliant. And fair dues to Di maria for a nicely taken goal that nestled into the bottom corner giving the goalkeeper no chance.

Argentina play Belgium today in a game they might not win. Belgium have looked vary good in parts and could give the Argentinians a really good go of it. They have the players to cause that defence real problems. Other players on that Argentinian team will have to step up to the plate and at least try and relieve some of the pressure off Messi’s shoulders. It is getting beyond a joke now how much he is expected to save them time and time again. But I doubt we will see any difference today.

Belgium came up against the might of Tim Howard in their last game against the USA. He saved a grand total of 15 shots that made the Belgians having to go into extra time to finally get the better of him.

That match was basically the Howard V Origi show. Origi getting many good shots on target, Howard effortlessly saving them. What a great game, with what seemed like hundreds of chances both ends, in a match that went right to the wire. Brilliant stuff from both teams, Belgium with that extra piece of skill, the USA with that never say die attitude.

Origi had got off to a good start when he shot from a tight angle early on. Howard making the save. This was to be a regular theme for the next hour and an a half. Origi had many chances to win that game, but he came up against a player who was having one of those special nights. Howard saved everything that was thrown at him. Origi header: saved. Origi low shot: saved. De Bruyne from a 4v2 attack: saved. Hazard to Origi who magnificently puts Mirallas in. He must score: saved! Brilliant run from defence by Kompany, can he score? No: saved. That was pretty much how it went for Belgium in the 90 minutes of the game. Without the brilliant Howard in the nets, the Belgians would have ran up a cricket score against the USA. Get those chances today and they should progress.

The substitutions made a big change against the USA. Once again Wilmot did his thing, and brought on the temperamental Romelu Lukaku, who had an immediate impact in extra time. First, his amazing burst of speed brought him down the right side of the pitch, taking a shot which was blocked but De Bruyne pounced on it to fire in a shot into the corner of the net. Within a few minutes Belgium were two up and it was that man again, Lukaku, who this time got on the score sheet, with a brilliant finish in off the post. 2-0 and the USA looked buried.

With the way the Belgians have played so far in this world cup I put them favourites for the game today against Argentina. They are unbeaten, have scored some well taken goals, have the players to do some damage, and play well as a team. They also have Wilmots, a coach who isn’t afraid to make the tough decisions and so far in all of Belgium’s games he has shown some inspiring substitutions, that seem to work with immediate effect. They definitely can beat Argentina, and as good as Romero is in goals he isn’t Tim Howard. If they can get half of the chances they got against the USA they will go through today. And don’t forget to double mark Messi!

Argentina got through against Belgium in the end. Another one nil victory in a pretty dour game, where both teams managed to muster only three shots on target between them, the lowest tally in a World Cup knockout game since the dark days of Italia 1990. And it was also back in 1990 the last time the Argentinians had made it as far as a World Cup Semi final. Then they had Diego, now they have Messi, and the similarities don’t end there.

Like Maradona, Messi is carrying his team as far as possible. He was once again brilliant, showing great agility and skill to outwit four Belgian defenders who did their best to bring him down, to play 40 yard passes with pinpoint accuracy, and to help set up the move for the only goal of the game. His forward pass was deflected onto the path of Higuain, who brilliantly volleyed it past Courtois in the Belgium goal.

That early goal should have set up the match for an all out attack for Belgium. But it didn’t. They huffed and puffed and didn’t really threaten the Argentinian goals too much. Sergio Romero had a save to make, one from Kevin de Bruyne but it was shot straight at him, comfortable in the end. Belgium also had a few near misses, Mirallas heading just wide from a Jan Vertonghen cross and late on Fellaini also headed just over again from another Vertonghen cross. And at the very death, Lukaku passed the ball across the goal but no one could get on the end of it. And that was about it from Belgium. Yet Wilmots in his post match press conference was criticising how bad Argentina were! Thanks for telling us the blind bleedingly obvious. Buffoon. Argentina did very little in the game, Belgium did nothing!

In fact Argentina did have two other great chances in the game. Higuain nutmegged Kompany and hit a shot that rebounded off the crossbar, and Messi somehow managed to miss a one v one against Courtois, who to be fair did pull off a great save, but you would have bet your money on Lionel scoring from that position. He is human after all!

Argentina now go on to play Netherlands in the semis, a game which might be their first true test in this years World Cup. They will be without di Maria, who does provide width and pace to their attack, and they might need to score more than one goal if they want to be able to beat the Dutch and get to their first final in 24 years.

Music to get you in the mood

Tren Loco V Köhn