Sunday, June 22, 2014

The best match of the tournament

I joined some great friends to watch Ghana versus Germany in the small Danish town of Viborg. It was not coincidental that it was the same friends with whom I had gone on a Ghana roadtrip in 2006 (http://footballfanaticos.blogspot.dk/2006/07/world-cup-road-trip.htm), when Ghana for the first time took the world with storm.
Ghana were under pressure for a result against Germany, who had looked almost invincible against Portugal. However, one should not forget that Germany faced an awful Portuguese side, where Ghana has quality. And it really turned into one of the best matches of the tournament with two teams that played good technical football and with heart. Both had confidence and wanted to win, and there were many chances. 2-2 was a fair result, although one was left with the feeling that Ghana did not sufficiently keep their head cool towards the end when they had a couple of counter-attacks.
Germany were not bad, but looked less awesome than they had done before, and certainly are not unbeatable. The most memorable moment was when Miroslav Klose equalized for Germany with his 15th World Cup goal, equalizing Ronaldo, and on the verge of becoming the most scoring player in World Cup history.
Ronaldo also scored his 15ht goal against Ghana.

I hope Germany and Ghana progress from this group. They want to play football. Ghana could defeat Portugal, but I fear that Germany and USA may have a small agreement in place, similar to the infamous West Germany-Austria match of 1982.
I hope not. The world deserves to see Ghana in the next round.

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