USA V Belgium World Cup 2014

USA V Belgium Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Round of 16 Beer World Cup:

http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-last-16/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Samuel Adams came out of Group G while Hite Lager pulled of a shock to come out of Group H. 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!

Samuel Adams V Hite Lager: 2-0 to Samuel Adams. The American craft beer classic beats the Korean lager comfortably enough. Strong flavours, from the hops and malt, well balanced, with hints of caramel that lingers in the tongue. This is a delicious beer that looks great, golden with a good sized frothy head. Smell of malts and a bit of floral hops. This is a good all round package, good taste, smell and, of course, taste. Easy to like and enjoy. Hite lager is a nice, pleasant tasting beer, but I am looking for more than session beers at this stage of my beer world cup. Sweet, clear and crisp is all good but it will need a bit more to beat Samuel Adams. Hite is perfect as a session beer, as it goes down well, is pleasant and refreshing, and I would recommend it as a beer when having a nice meal.

PreGame:

USA: Jurgen Klinsmann, has a very tough choice to make today. Keep with the team that got him this far, or bring back Jozy Altidore after his two-match absence from a hamstring injury. It really is a very tough choice, and if I was in his position I don’t know what I would do. Difficult. I guess Altidore does offer more options up front and he is great at keeping the ball, but then you could argue the team are bonding together into a strong enough unit, and to change it now might disrupt the rhythm. It looks like Jurgen Klinsmann will go with the unchanged choice, but I wouldnt be surprised if he springs Altidore sometime during the game.

Against Germany the USA played poor, offering very little, and had no chances at all in the game, but there might be excuses to that. The weather was awful, and the team were virtually assured of going through so maybe the performance levels dipped a bit. The USA are the type of team that plays when they are under intense pressure, no pressure then not so good. They don’t dictate games, better at chasing down a result.

Tonight they can make some history, with a huge TV audience back home watching, lets hope they do, as anything that makes football (real football) more popular in the States should be welcomed, that and the fact they are a decent honest hardworking team. Go USA!

Belgium have yet to perform as well as expected in this years World Cup. They have won their games, yes, but only after relatively poor performances and getting late winners. For a team that was seeded its disappointing stuff, also when you take into consideration they have only score four goals in a very weak group.

Will they miss captain Vincent Kompany and Thomas Vermaelen who are both a solid defensive unit in the team?

At the last game it was another late late show from Belgium who scored with about a quarter of the game left. Vertonghen striking the rebound in the 77th minute after Kim Seung-gyu couldn’t hold onto Origi’s shot. Another win, another average performance. Belgium trundle on, without dropping any points. They say if you are winning ugly, you are still winning, so I guess once they do hit a purple patch in a game they might actually start showing us why they are the dark horses of this tournament. But I haven’t seen anything as of yet to suggest that will prosper in this competition.

Belgium now have a second round tie against the USA, in a game where both teams look evenly matched, and to be honest it could go either way. The two teams have a very laboured approach going forward, and don’t seem to have that striker that can pick a goal at will. Can see this match going all the way to extra time and penalty kicks.

This 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 game 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 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 this 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. (should have scored though, as George Best once said, good players don’t miss simple chances, ever!). 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. A memorable performance, that will be talked about for years to come.

The rest of the USA team, were also very hardworking, but unlike Howard they lacked skill and composure. Bradley was poor going forward, and it looked like he had lead in his boots. Had a great chance near the end when on his left there were 4 American players, but he turned right and tried to beat the Belgian defence on his own, didn’t work of course! Fool. He did set up the goal to be fair, but that’s the law of averages in a game that lasted 120 minutes. Dempsey, likewise, had a lot of decent chances that he fluffed throughout. And when it was 3 v 3 he did the glory and messed up the attack. Also had an excellent opportunity near the end but his first touch was very heavy and Courtois in the Belgium goal made an easy save. Remember, I always bang on about the small percentages in games, well……? And what about Wondolowski’s miss in the end? Wow, he wont live that down for a while. He should retire really, as if you cant hit that on target, give up ffs. Wasn’t offside, and even though the linesman had his flag up, the ref didn’t blow for the free. So it could have stood!

The substitutions made a big change in this game. 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, This time Howard didn’t have a chance to save it. 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.

But the USA didn’t give up. They came back magnificently, and got a goal back when Green scored with a lovely volley with his first touch of the game from a clever chip into the box by Bradley. The USA were right back in it. But alas it was too little too late.

Belgium will now play Argentina on Saturday in a game where they might conceivably be favourites judging by both teams previous games. The USA go home with their heads held high, a good World Cup considering the path they had to take to get to the last 16. They will come back from this stronger, and in four years time they wont be the team that people will dismiss so easily.

Music to get you in the mood

Madonna V The Glimmers