itsbeautifuloutside

Match Report

IBO Reporter: thestartledsaint

Spoiler Alert there are no South American teams left in the World Cup.

Growing up we were so use to the South Americans going deep in to World Cup tournaments, well when I say South Americans I mean Brazil and Argentina; Uruguay have had their moments but this was back when Huddersfield were a First Division force. Huddersfield may be first division again but force they are not and so it seemed weren’t Uruguay, despite being the hipster’s dark horse. But Argentina and Brazil have been finalists twelve times and Brazil alone have been in the semi-finals eleven times, what I’m trying to illuminate with these stats is a world cup semi with out Brazil is a vegetarian sausage.

The World Cup has always been about South America versus Europe, the venue was on rotation for years until the FIFA big wigs under the guise of football expansion took the world cup to the football free but rich USA in 1994 and the closest another federation has got is with semi-finalists South Korea (I would have thought it was Mexico, but they have only made the quarters making them, in my book, the biggest national under achievers). However recently, since the European teams have thrown money at national centres of excellent the South American dominance has gone for a burton. France bulldozed Argentina and then comfortably beat Uruguay and this left Brazil in their familiar position as last man standing.

The verde-amarelo won their group after a slow start and easily beat Mexico in the last round and so remained on mission to right that semi-final loss to the Germans, there was just the small matter of getting past Belgium, a task that is not as easy as it once was. Belgium, being one of those countries that has flung a lot of francs at a National Centre in Tubize, has recently produced a bunch of brilliant players. They strolled through their group, albeit with a gimme in their last game, but they then made hard work of Japan. Nippon naivety handed Belgium one last chance which they took with Germanesque efficiency, however the task of hauling themselves back from two nil down should not be underestimated and this is highlighted by the fact that it hasn’t been done for fifty years.

So the stage was set to see two great sides from two great federations go toe to toe. The game was gifted an early goal with Belgium taking a lead within the first 15 minutes. Brazil started brightly and can keep the ball but so can Belgium and after a lovely move that saw a probing pass from De Bruyne to Fellaini, his snatched shot was blocked. The resulting corner whilst whipped in nicely should not have caused any problems as there was no real Belgium challenge after Kompanys attempted flick on, but two Brazilians went for the same ball and it ended up bouncing off the shoulder of Fernandinho past Alisson.

The first half was characterised by two skilful teams neatly passing the ball around, moving each others team trying to find an opening. With the pace and precision these good teams have in their locker it means taking a corner is now a risk for the corner takers and just like the Japanese game the corner was dispatched to the Belgium fluid attacking outfield. If that last minute winner was all about what Lukaku did with out the ball this move was all about what he did with the ball. He picked it up in his half from a brilliant Fellaini defensive header, he took a second to make up his mind what he was going to do with it and then a drop of the shoulder and a burst of pace he motored into the the Brazilian half and slid the ball to De Bruyne, he advanced with Marcelo backing off and then he unleashed the hardest straightest shot I’ve seen since the toe pokers of St Peters primary school. I know tactics change in football and the modern method is to try and block the ball whilst leaning out of the goalkeeper’s line of vision, but surely Marcelo’s ‘I’m a little teapot’ version isn’t what they are teaching on the sporting fields of Sao Paulo.

If you give De Bruyne that much space you are asking for trouble and that’s exactly where the Belgium’s second goal landed them because as we now know coming back from a two goal deficit is hard in the knock out stages. To do so Brazil needed to a great to drag them on and this generation’s nominated candidate, Neymar couldn’t do it. In contrast to his earlier world cup histrionics, this time he really was floored by a blow; he was shoulder charged by expectation and unlike your Ronaldinhos your Maradonnas or your Le Tissiers he couldn’t handle it.

Surrounded by brilliant players like Courtinho, Willian and Jesus; Neymar and the samba boys couldn’t break down the stella boys, they had chances in the first half but nothing that really threatened and this half was all about how a good team with a lead can boss a game. Brazil continued to press in the second half and there was a penalty shout as ‘guess who’ went down but it didn’t register a concern with the ref, this was followed by another incident where Jesus had nut megged Vertonghen, this time the ref reviewed the footage and declared Kompany’s intervention to be OK.

They did pull a goal back from a nice lofted ball to Renato Augusto who header in unchallenged, to reveal a weakness in the Belgium’s game. Coutinho missed the best chance to equalised when he uncharacteristically skied a straight forward chance. Neymars striking partners were changed but they still couldn’t find the equaliser they probably deserved and this was due partly to the big man in the goal. Maybe it was just a great having a great game or maybe he was fired up by the pressure he put on himself by knocking Pickford in an earlier press conference, either way his reaction at the end suggests he was pleased with his performance and so he should have been and that of his colleagues.

The narrative has been all about how Belgium’s golden generation will be denied their chance of greatness by an average manager, but the changes Martinez made proved he really is a steady hand on the tiller. So whilst in the World Cup lexicon B will always be for Brazil, at the moment it certainly stands for Belgium and whilst the footballing connoisseur are mourning Brazils early departure it’s a pleasure to see the Belgium team gelling together beautifully. So it’s all set up for a thrilling semi-final with France.

So whose up for an England v Belgium final?