Confederations Cup, Brazil 2013

[ripper]

It has surprised me how many goals have been conceded by Italy in their group matches. As you say, they used to be so negative and defence-minded.

Two very tasty-sounding semi-finals. I suppose the betting would be for a Brazil-Spain final.

[erebus]

Damn ! A footy thread and I never saw it. Turn my back for a few weeks and one pops up. Ah well to late to get involved now. Entertaining as always Dem

[dem]

Jun 26, 2013 12:53:51 GMT erebus said:

Ah well to late to get involved now.

far from being too late, mr. erebus, a tasty tournament could get even tastier when the first semi-final kicks off in just under an hour. FIFA's nightmare scenario: if Brazil fluff their lines tonight, how will it impact on the demonstrators? Much as the home fans would hate for Spain to land yet another trophy, far, far worse that fierce rivals Uruguay should pull off consecutive improbable victories and swan off with the thing. To date, the Sky Blue's have looked far from world-beaters - Napoli's £50+ million-rated goal machine, Edinson Cavani resembles something San Marino would only bring off the bench as a last throw of the dice - but you can bet they'll come out rabid for this.

Meanwhile, ahead of tomorrow's clash with the European & world champs, Italy, have already lost the suddenly eminently sane Super Mario for the tournament (thigh), and Signor Prandelli is only "moderately optimistic" that human dynamo Pirlo will recover from the calf injury that ruled him out of Saturday's Group A decider. Spain look nailed on, and yet - had Nigeria a clinical finisher, they'd have done them at the weekend. I still reckon Pedro has a foul of the tournament performance in him.

[Craig Herbertson]

Confess I only saw the Spain V Mexico game where it made Scotland V England look like tiddlywinks. In fact, we'd have a chance at tiddlywinks.

[dem]

Brazil 2 Uruguay 1

FIFA get out the cigars, champagne and Viagra, but Uruguay so threatened to spoil the party, especially in a feisty first 45 when the hosts failed to show and somehow still found themselves ahead, Fred misfiring home from close range on 40 mins. It could all have been so different. The Alice Band Assassin was temporarily demoted to "just the Alice Band" when Cesar saved his tame spot kick after Monster Nose transgressed once too often in the box. The interval. Edinson 'The Fifty-four Million Euro Man' Cavanii, whose sum contribution to CC!3 had been a hack at Neymar, loped off to the dressing room, not a care in the world - until Sky blue's coach Oscar Tabarez brought him up to speed on Vault's EXCLUSIVE coverage of the competition (motivation). Second half, he's a changed man! He runs! He helps out the defence! He tackles back!! He makes a nuisance of himself and nabs an equaliser! But Brazil, too, had woken up and, while not quite a knicker-gripper on a Italy-Japan scale, the last twenty minutes were far from bereft of excitement. With extra time looming, Paulinho settled it, leaping like Spring-heeled Jack to nod in Neymar's corner at the far post.

Brazil in final, Uruguay left only to contest third & fourth place with tonight's losers ....

[franklinmarsh]

Now that's what I call a penalty shootout.

[dem]

Italy 0 Spain 0 (a.e.t. Spain win 7-6 on penalties).

Jun 28, 2013 10:01:41 GMT franklinmarsh said:

Now that's what I call a penalty shootout.

Bah! I reckon this match was decided by the man who wasn't there - Italy's injured Mario Balotelli, on his day arguably the one world class finisher in the current squad. In short, the blues did to Spain what they did to England in last years Euro quarter final: turned them over for an hour, missed a sitter or several, eventually settled for the lottery of a shoot out. Spain, for their part, did what they did to Portugal in semi-final of same tournament; Played rubbish for 90 minutes then battered them in extra time. When Howard Webb blew for the end of open play, it was a case of who had the best twelfth man - the italian's with deafening local support, Spain with diminutive Colombian pop princess Shakira - i.e. "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble/ So you don't confuse them with mountains," etc. - cheering on fiance Gerard Piqué, who obliged with an all action display. Antonio Candreva outdid even Pirlo with his spot kick, deftly chipping the excellent Iker Casillas to get Italy off to a winning start. All square after six each, and then, Bonucci's nightmare miss. The Spanish were celebrating even before Jesus Navas completed the formalities. If the world champs play like that again in Rio rio on Sunday, Neymar, Fred and Hulk the human battering ram will settle their hash good and proper.

Sunday'sl fixtures

Third & Fourth place play off:

Sunday 30th June: Italy v Uruguay (BBC red button: 17.00)

Confederations Cup Final

Sunday 30th June: Brazil v Spain (BBC1: 23.00)

[ripper]

It could quite easily have been a Uruguay v Italy final, but it came out as FIFA were hoping in the end. It should be a great final; possibly a warm-up to what next year's World Cup final will be.

As Franklin said, a good penalty shoot-out between Italy and Spain. How come we--England--are so rubbish as penalty shoot-outs? The only one I can remember us winning is the one against Spain in the QF of Euro '96, after Spin had clearly been the better side. I hope it is settled in open play tonight, but as least we will not feel the pressure if it does go to penalties.

[dem]

Italy 2 Uruguay 2 ( a. e. t. Italy win 3-2 on penalties)

Jun 30, 2013 9:23:33 GMT ripper said:

As Franklin said, a good penalty shoot-out between Italy and Spain. How come we--England--are so rubbish as penalty shoot-outs?

Whatever it is, the Uruguayans seen to be copying our technique as they've just missed three of five to lose another wildly entertaining match. Both sides deserve huge credit for putting on such a commuted display in so pointless a fixture. First half dominated by Italy who went ahead on 25 minutes when Diamanti 's long range free kick hit the post, rebounded off the back of bewildered keeper Muslera head, and Astori prodded over the line. Second half, and Uruguay came out all guns blazing - they love a 3rd & 4th place play off (even though they invariably lose). Cavani, a changed man since Vault did him a favour by questioning his price tag, equalised on the hour, and the South Americans - who'd had an extra day's rest - looked the most likely. Buffon made a top double save to keep out Forlan on 70, and, three minutes later, completely against the run of play, Italy reclained the lead via a brilliant Diamanti free kick, only for Cavani to level with an even classier one. Ridiculously, we now had extra time. Montolivo picked up a second yellow for a tired trip on the Fang (who went through his entire histrionic repertoire), leaving the visibly exhausted Italians to hold out the second half of extra time with ten men. Penalties were the complete reverse of Thursday nights thriller, with Buffon guessing right three times to win it for his knackered colleagues. If Brazil and Spain can cram as much excitement into tonight's final, it will be a fitting end to what has been a super tournament.

[dem]

Confederations Cuo Final Brazil 3 Spain 0

further proof, as if any were necessary, that dem knows of which he speaks! We are not sure that this result would be repeated should the two sides meet again in next year's BIG ONE, but this was Brazil's night, and they thoroughly deserved their victory. As the wall of noise within the Maracana drowned out even the screams, explosions and gunfire outside, Fred scrambled the hosts in front on two minutes, and but for the odd spell of the world champs' trademark tiki-taka, tiki-taka, no-end-result domination, seldom looked in any great danger. When, on 39 minutes, the Spanish looked to have nicked an equaliser, the man whose nose expanded galloped to the rescue, blasting Pedro's goal bound effort off the line and over his own bar. This was as close as Spain came until the 50th minute, when Sergio Ramos amusingly blasted wide from the spot after Marcelo conceded a soft penalty. Not that it mattered overmuch, as the hosts were already three up by then, thanks to another Neymar net-buster - scorchio! - and Fred's daisy-cutter into the far corner shortly after restart. I thought Spain were fortunate to beat Nigeria, never mind injury-stricken Italy - here, they were found out by a team who looked like they believed they could beat them and set out to do just that. For once, the Iniesta mob looked washed out. Torres hooked for Villa on 58 - i.e., 57 minutes and sixty seconds too late - had the nerve to give Del Bosque his patented 'moody stare' - "How dare you sub me, the man who scored FOUR against Tahita!" - and, to add to the home fans' glee, Gérard Piqué walked on 67 for taking out Neymar. Cue Shakira, blubbing in the royalty suite.

What with the grueling Italy-Uruguay marathon earlier, a fab last day for what has been a brilliant tournament.

[ripper]

I can only echo Dem's assessment of the competition as being thoroughly entertaining. I thought the final would be closer than how it turned out to be, but Brazil deserved their win, and it was an excellent warm-up for the big one next year. Let's hope that England will be there. I would have liked to see how, say, Germany would have gotten on in the competition, but as Dem said, you gotta win something to play in it.