Problems for Portugal, Hat-Trick for Müller

 4-0 

Everyone already knows Christiano Ronaldo is the best player on the Portugese team.  Many would go on to say that he is the best player in the world.  Today Portugal played their first match of the World Cup against Germany and before Ronaldo could make any kind of impact, the Protugese defense completely let them down.

First rightback João Periera pulled down Mario Götze in the box and a penalty was awarded for Germany.  Periera also saw a yellow card for the offense.  Thomas Müller elected to take the penalty kick and scored from the spot to take the lead (12').

Soon after falling behind Portugal were dealt another blow when starting center forward Hugo Almeida came out holding his hamstring and went straight to the bench.  Éder replaced him in the offense and had a few close chances to score with headers, though none found the net.

Germany then added a second goal on a set-piece.  Toni Kroos delivered the corner-kick into the box and centerback Mats Hummels won the header.  Hummels was able to jump right over defenders Pepe and Bruno Alzes to get the header, putting Germany further ahead (32').

Things only got worse for the Portugese defense when a brash move by Pepe led to his dismissal from the pitch.  Pepe caught Müller in the face with a raised hand and Müller went to the ground.  Pepe felt that Müller went down too easily and had some words for him while on the ground.  However he didn't just have words for Müller, he also head-butted the German forward and the ref sent him off with a straight red card.

Just before half-time Müller scored his second goal of the match when he took the ball off Bruno Alves in the box.  Bruno Alves was attempting to clear the ball from his box, but Müller got in the way and managed to fire a snap-shot to again beat the keeper (45 +1').

The match was essentially over at half-time with Portugal behind three goals and playing a man down.  Unfortunately for Portugal their troubles were not over.  Leftback Fabio Coentrão went down with a groin injury and had to be taken off on a stretcher.

Late in the game Müller scored a final goal to complete his hat-trick.  Substitue Andre Schurrle played a cross into the box that Portugese keeper Particio got a hand to.  Particio did not get any power on his attempted clearance though, and Müller easily scored the loose ball left in front of the net (78').

It is somewhat difficult to determine if Portugal was really that bad, or if Germany was just that good.  Portugal was already losing by two goals when Pepe was sent off, but perhaps they might have made some kind of comeback in the second-half if they still had eleven players.  Next for Portugal is the United States and I would expect one of two things to happen.  Either they use today's loss as an excuse to give up and play two more heartless matches, or come out with a chip on their shoulders and punish the United States.

Real Madrid Win First Leg Meeting With Bayern Munich

 1-0 

The Champions League action continued today with Real Madrid hosting Bayern Munich in the other semi-final first leg.  The defending champions have been quite exceptional this season, particularly in the Bundesliga winning in a landslide.  Real Madrid, on the other hand, probably will not win La Liga, but did just come off a big win against rival Barcelona to lift the Copa del Rey.

Today Bayern Munich got off the a great start despite playing on the road.  By half-time the Germans had nearly eighty percent of possession!  However, Munich could not produce a goal and found themselves trailing at the break.

Similar to their last match in the Copa del Rey final, Madrid played against a possession driven team and had to rely on the counter-attack to get ahead.  Madrid scored on one such counter-attack when Rolando played the rightback Coentrão in behind the Bayern back line.  Coentrão was then able to roll a pass across the face of goal for Benzema at the back-post.  Benzema easily finished with a tap in to take the lead, scoring the only goal of the match (19').

The second-half was more of the same with Munich keeping the vast majority of possession, yet failing to score.  Even with fifteen corner-kicks by the end of the match Bayern could not produce an equalizer and Madrid keeper Casillas came away with a clean sheet.

Expect Bayern to score at least one goal in the replay next week as the two square off for the second leg in Germany.  It is rare for Munich to be held without scoring and Real Madrid will have to come up big to shut them out twice in a row.