German Goals Galore, Brazil Embarrassed

 1-7 

The story coming into today's World Cup semi-final is the absence of Neymar and Thiago Silva for Brazil as they face Germany.  Brazil have been carried into the semi-finals by the spirit of the nation and the overwhelming support from the home crowds.  Meanwhile Germany reached the semi-final with a dynamic offense and a confident keeper.  Neymar has been a shinning star for Brazil, but today the absence of Thiago Silva played a much bigger role in the outcome of the match.

Brazil came out with a very high tempo and looked to use speed to get past the German defense.  However, it was their defense that slow and, more importantly, hopelessly disorganized.  Germany scored early in the match on a poorly defended corner-kick.  Toni Kroos played the cross into the box and Müller was left unmarked at the far-post.  With a free volley, Müller hit the cross first-time to beat the keeper (11').

Brazil had no chance to get back into the game as their defense completely collapsed and Germany took them to school.  First Klose scored an historic goal for Germany when Müller set him up in the box.  Klose had time to shoot twice, the first shot saved by Julio César and the second finished on the rebound (23').  This goal puts Klose at the top of the all-time World Cup scoring leaders with sixteen.

Then in the blink on an eye Kroos scored two more for Germany.  Lahm played a cross into the box that came to Müller.  He whiffed his shot though, and the ball continued on to Kroos who did not miss and found the net (24').  Immediately after Brazil's Fernandinho gave away possession and Kroos came away with the ball.  He linked up with Khedira who set him up with a return pass for another easy finish (26').

Khedira scored one himself shortly after when Hummels made a run out of the back.  Hummels passed to Khedira who then passed to Özil.  Özil gave the ball back to Khedira in space and he finished the last goal of the first-half (29').

By half-time the match was essentially over as Brazil were looking at a five goal deficit.  Hulk and Fernandinho were taken out for Ramires and Paulinho in the second-half.  The two gave Brazil a bit of a spark and soon after coming into the match Paulinho forced German keeper Neuer to make two good saves.

Germany further stretched the lead when André Schürrle came in for Klose later in the half and scored two more goals.  Lahm played a square-pass across the face of goal and Schürrle hit the shot first-time for his first goal of the match (69').  He scored again when Müller played a ball for him inside the box.  Schürrle had to control a tricky pass which he did well to setup a shot.  His shot was also taken well as it caught the crossbar on its way to the net (79').

Brazil, who had nothing working for them today, scored a consolation goal at the very end of the match.  A long ball over the top put Oscar behind defender Boateng.  With just the keeper to beat, Oscar scored rather easily for the last goal of the match (90').

The result of today's match is not surprising, though the actual score is a bit shocking.  Brazil have not been very convincing leading up to this semi-final and loosing Neymar's spirit as well as Thiago Silva's leadership was a recipe for disaster.  Germany will wait and see if it is Argentina or the Netherlands that face them in the final.  They should be full of confidence after this blowout, but surly their next opponent will put up more of a fight.

Germany Fends Off Algeria

 2-1 

Germany and Algeria played the second round of 16 match today for a place in the quarter-final against France.  Nigeria were dispatched earlier in the day and Algeria would be the only African team left if they could knock out the European giants.

Algeria had a much better start to the game and had the German defense scrambling to cover their counter-attacks.  Germany did not look sound in the back, but did enough to stop the Algerians.  The German offense eventually settled into the match late in the first-half, but could not break through.

André Shürrle was introduced after half-time in place of Mario Götze who started the match.  Shürrle was more effective offensively and more willing to help defend.  Germany as a whole played better in second-half with Shürrle on the field and his influence was crucial later in the game.

Algeria's offense started to look less and less threatening as Germany started to build momentum.  Neither scored in regulation though, and extra-time was required for the third time in six matches.  The first two extra-time matches did not produce a winning goal and were settled by penalties.

However Germany were quick to score in extra-time when Müller linked up with Shürrle.  Müller rolled into the path of Shürrle inside the box that was played just a bit behind the substitute.  Shürrle was able to drag his back leg and get his back heel on the ball to beat the keeper (92').

Mesut Özil added another goal near the end of extra-time to reinforce Germany's victory.  Algeria could not afford to keep numbers in defense and Shürrle pushed forward with Özil to get behind that weakened defense.  First Shürrle fired a shot on goal that was blocked.  The rebound fell to Özil who smashed the shot in from close range (119').

That second goal proved to be huge for Germany as Algeria surprisingly had a late goal in them.  With their last effort Algeria pushed forward and a cross to the far post was played right into the path of Abdelmoumene Djabou who scored (120 +1').  There simply wasn't enough time to even try to get a second goal and Algeria will follow Nigeria out of the World Cup.

Germany will face France in the quarter-finals and will need to sort out some defensive problems.  Mertesacker is getting beaten offen by faster players and keeper Neuer was forced off his line time and time again to snuff out attacks.  It is likely the Hummels will return to the line up for the next match after missing today's game which will be an improvement.  But will Klose be involved is another question that remains uncertain.

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.

Chelsea Pull Off Unlikely Comeback

 2-0 

Paris Saint-Germain enjoyed a two goal margin over Chelsea as the two met at Stanford Bridge for the second-leg of this Champions League fixture.  Winning 3-1 in Paris last week, P.S.G. came into today's match knowing that they needed another strong defensive performance to advance in the tournament.  Chelsea, on the other hand, knew that they must score two goals if they had any hopes of staying alive int the Champions League.

Eden Hazard was in the starting line-up for Chelsea, but lasted less than twenty minutes.  He was replaced by Andre Schürrle who found himself in the right place later in the first-half.  A long throw-in for Chelsea came into the P.S.G. box and David Luiz was able to get a flick header on the ball.  The flicked ball fell for Schürrle right in front of goal and he scored with a free volley (32').

Still needing more attacking presence, Chelsea inserted Demba Ba into the offense in place of holding midfielder Frank Lampard in the second-half.  Torres was also brought in for the final ten minutes of the match in a last-ditch effort by manager José Mourinho.  It was Ba though that managed to get the final goal to put Chelsea in front.  Azpilicueta fired a low shot towards goal that P.S.G. were unable to clear.  Instead Ba was able to get a sweeping left-foot on the ball from close range to score (87').

With just a few minutes left in the match, P.S.G. could not respond and thus eliminated from the Champions League.  That precious away-goal last week in France proved to be the deciding factor for Chelsea as the Blues advance to the semi-finals.

Late Winner From Torres Downs Manchester City

 2-1 

This weekend's marque Premier League matchup was between Manchester City playing at Chelsea.  Three points separated the two clubs with Chelsea ahead of Man. City before today's game.  Both clubs came out with a lot of intensity and three yellow cards were issued in the first-half alone.

Chelsea were first on the scoreboard after Torres setup Andre Schürrle.  Torres was able to beat defender Clichy to the endline and play the ball across the face of goal.  Schürrle was crashing the net and finished with an easy tap-in for the only goal of the first-half (33').

Manchester City's Sergio Agüero was very active throughout the match and scored the equalizer in the opening minutes of the second-half.  Samir Nasri played the through-ball to put Agüero behind the Chelsea defense and the striker ripped the shot inside the near-post (49').

Around the hour mark, both teams began using their substitutions and after the numerous changes the pace of the game noticeably declined.  A one-one draw looked to be the inevitable conclusion, but Chelsea caught a break and capitalized on a costly mistake.

A long ball from midfield was misplayed by defender Nastasić to give Torres a scoring opportunity.  Nastasić was looking to head the ball back to his keeper, but he did not notice that keeper Hart had come off his line to collect the ball.  With the errant back-pass heading towards goal and the keeper way out of position, Torres had an easy finish on the winning goal (90').

Chelsea are now in second place in the league table, tied with Liverpool and two points behind Arsenal at the top.  Arsenal and Chelsea meet this week for a Capital One Cup match and Manchester City play Newcastle in the same tournament.