World Cup 2014 – Group F Update

After the first round of games, Argentina’s pre-tournament status as strong favourites had been reinforced.  Not so much because they had played well, but because Nigeria and Iran looked poorer than expected.

On to the second round of games, where it looked like a straight forward game against Iran for Argentina, and a tight, possibly decisive game between Nigeria and Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Argentina 1-0 Iran

• Mineirao, Belo Horizonte – Attendance 57,698
• Referee – Milorad Mazic
• Argentina goal – Messi (90)
• Bookings – Nekounam, Shojaei

It is hard to disagree with the argument that Lionel Messi is rather one-footed. But he can do impressive things with his left peg.  We had to wait until injury time of this game for him to prove it, but it was some goal.  A change of pace, a touch to wrong foot the defender and a lethally accurate curling shot from nearly twenty-five yards.

Brilliant but cruelly unfair for Iran.  Iran had been unimpressive in a dull 0-0 draw with Nigeria, but were very good indeed in this game.  They played in a formation familiar to Palace fans, with two deep lying midfielders just in front of the back four, inviting crosses in from the flanks but set up to avoid conceding through the middle.

In the heat of a Brazilian afternoon those tactics could not have been as successful for as long without the ability to make two or three quick passes out of defence and create pressure at the other end. For almost all the game Iran were able to do this.  Fulham’s Dejageh had a fantastic game, acting as the conduit to enable Iran to put genuine pressure on Argentina.  He had a great header well saved by Romero and was robbed of a penalty from Zabaleta’s clumsy challenge.

Argentina weren’t bad, certainly not as bad as Italy who twenty-four hours earlier had to take on opponents with similar tactics in similar energy sapping conditions, but they created few clear-cut chances.

Very few teams have had two performances out of two (maybe only Costa Rica and France) and no-one else has Messi.

Bosnia-Herzegovina 0-1 Nigeria

• Arena Pantanal, Cuiaba – Attendance 40,499
• Referee – Peter O’Leary
• Nigeria goal – Odemwingie (28)
• Bookings – Mikel

A quick look at the ‘Ladybird Book of Football Clichés‘ before the game inspired me to think that Nigeria could not be any worse than the first game.

And to start with that was the case, as they played at a higher tempo forcing mistakes from the Bosnian defence. Musa was pacy and direct down the right, Odemwingie from a free kick and even John-Obi Mikel both came close in the opening exchanges.

As in the opening game Bosnia looked at their best when Besic and Pjanic broke with pace and accurate passing from midfield.  But manager Susic had avoided the temptation to bring in Ibisevic who scored from the bench against Argentina, and so Edin Dezko was left looking for scraps up front, until being wrongly denied a goal, disallowed for offside, then bringing out a good save from Enyeama.

But just as Bosnia began to impose their game, Nigeria broke and Emenike burst past (or straight through) Spahic and crossed for the pantomime villain Odemwingie to slide home past his Stoke City team mate Begovic.

Into the second half, Bosnia faced the dilemma of whether to become more direct to avoid a defeat that would send them home.  Ibisevic entered proceedings after 55 minutes.

The ‘Ladybird Book of Footballing Clichés‘ suggested that this would be an ideal opportunity to use a Pjanic based pun as the Bosnian situation became more desperate. Pjanic remained the best player on the pitch, but Dzeko and Ibisevic couldn’t get on the end of his clever passes.

Nigeria were able to reduce the tempo and challenge Bosnia to shoot from distance or thread through the perfect pass.  Emenike remained the most direct player on the pitch and his physical, pacy style was the Nigerian’s most effective outlet, even more so when Shola Amoebi came on.

As the game entered the final twenty minutes, the players visibly tired and Bosnia resorted to a long ball game which was almost all capably dealt with by the Nigerian central defenders Yobo and Omeruo (one of the 147 Chelsea players out on loan).

In time added on, Dzeko got a shot away in the penalty area but it hit Enyeama’s leg and then the outside of the post.

And so, Bosnia go home, despite playing some excellent football. No doubt the Bosnian TV analysts were in apoplexy after the offside decision and the Emenike run for the goal.

It’s a cruel game.

Looking Ahead

With only Argentina safely through to the second round it is Nigeria and Iran fighting it out for the other spot with Bosnia sadly out of contention.

Iran will need a win against Bosnia and hope Argentina find some form to beat the Nigerians for them to progress. It will be quite an achievement if it happens. At the moment, you just don’t know what you will get from Argentina but they will likely want to win the group to avoid facing France who are the expected winners of Group E.

As It Stands