Sunday, June 22, 2014

The best of group H: Algeria

There have been big expectations to Belgium for this tournament. But the team has not lived up to the expectations despite winning their first two matches. Today Belgium and Russia combined to play one of the dullest matches of the tournament. It looked like a boring 0-0 until the last five minutes when Belgium finally decided to play some football, and Divock Origi scored the winner for Belgium.
Belgium are now certain to make it to the next round. Very unimpressive though.
Russia is another disappointment. Their first 1-1 against South Corea was a bore, and today they were as boring, uncommitted and poor as bowling pins.
Expectations were not big to South Corea-Algeria, but here was, for the first time in group H, a team that actually wants to play football. Algeria were stunning in the first half, 3-0 up against a Corean side that arguably gave the worst performance of the tournament in the first half. Knowing that they could not look their countrymen in the eyes for such a performance, Corea played with different commitment and scored two goals. But this was not enough, as Sofiane Feghouli and Yacine Brahimi combined in to score a beautiful fourth for Algeria.
For many, Algeria's victory is a surprise. But truth is that they are the true champions of a group H where they are the only ones who have wanted to play football. They deserve to be in the next round, and if they play like today, I can see no way that they could not defeat Russia. It would also be a victory for football.
Thank you Algeria!

1 comment:

Miloud said...

Thank you Eric for your comments, yes indeed It was a joy to watch Algeria playing