I must start by apologising to the English fans for my choice of blog photo for this post. I just wish to remind the English FA of the money they wasted on Sven Goran Erikson & the 5 million pound a year they are paying Capello! I have news for the English FA! Erikson & Capello at very hefty sums achieved what other major footballing countries do on a regular basis, i.e. qualify for the World Cup! They were both hailed as geniuses for simply managing that! Both flopped during the tournament because they failed to get their individual stars to become a unit!Let's hope footballing mastery & not refereeing errors & FIFA's gutless administrators decide the results of the quarter finals. Here are my picks for semi finals, having (once again) been surprised by Ghana, I picked 7 out of the 8 quarter finalists correctly. Picking the semi finalists is a much harder task though. However, I am going for the underdogs & my picks will surprise many of you:
Uruguay, Holland, Germany & Spain!
I would love to see an African country in the semi finals & Ghana have already proved me wrong twice! But I am impressed with Uruguay this year & Forlan & Suarez are leading the team very well.
I think Holland are picking at the right pace. For the first time in many years players' egos are absent. With the great arrival of Robben in the last match, Holland are capable of surprising Brazil.
I believe Brazil have so far had a relatively easy path. Portugal vs Brazil was one of the worst matches of the tournament & the entertaining Chile side came up too short against Brazil. Holland are in a different class & are performing like a great tournament team with measured wins so far.
Although Argentina are the undisputed favourites to win the World Cup, I believe like Brazil, they have not played a strong team so far. The fearless young German side would cause a huge upset if they manage to sneak through & beat Argentina. The German players know a thing or two about the weaknesses of the Argentine (& Bayern Munich's) central defender Martin Demichelis! He is prone to lapse of concentration from time to time (e.g. he gifted South Korea a goal) & speedy players can turn him easily & score goals. At any case, there will be lots of very anxious German fans during that match because Germany are the underdogs.Spain are in the same dynamics as Holland & are peaking in a tournament style & in David Villa possess the right person to break down the stubborn & disciplined Paraguay defence!
Let's hope all four matches finish in regulation or extra time & penalty shoot outs are avoided, and let's pray referees & their assistants do not influence the results in a negative way by making mistakes!
