Lack of ambition, enterprise and entertainment
Switzerland and Ukraine came into this second round tie with a game plan – to defend stoutly, have all the players behind the ball and not to unnecessarily throw players forward. As such, throughout the game we saw the ball being played in the middle of the field and whatever attacks from either team, came from long shots or set pieces.
The forwards for both the teams were anchored in the midfield area and none made any runs into the penalty area of the opponent at any time of the match. On either side of the half, both the teams struck the post from long distance shots and that’s about it. There were no offsides in the normal time – that explains a lot - and thus it was not surprising that the game went into extra time without seeing any goals.
At the end of 90 minutes, this is what timesonline wrote in its game tracker: Please let somebody score, anybody. Just to put an end to this turgid monstrosity of a game.
And the same sad tale continued in the extra period as well. We saw so much of the ball being played from one defence to another. Neither teams showed any ambition to win the game with a piece of magical play. Not a single stroke of genius from a special player in the pitch.
You would think that Ukraine would surely know all about the Swiss defence – after all the Swiss had not let in a goal in their group matches – and have some game plans accordingly. Unfortunately not and they looked as though they were only relying on Shevchenko to win them the game.
Sadly it doesn’t work that way and after another dull extra period, the match went to penalties – the first in the series of the World Cup.
After both teams continued their shyness in front of the goal by missing their opening penalties, Ukraine took the lead in the second penalty, consolidated their lead by scoring the third and won the game with the fourth. The Swiss hit the post with their second and wasted the third.
Finally after a long, long hour of uninspiring football, Ukraine get into the quarter finals to meet Italy.
Switzerland and Ukraine came into this second round tie with a game plan – to defend stoutly, have all the players behind the ball and not to unnecessarily throw players forward. As such, throughout the game we saw the ball being played in the middle of the field and whatever attacks from either team, came from long shots or set pieces.The forwards for both the teams were anchored in the midfield area and none made any runs into the penalty area of the opponent at any time of the match. On either side of the half, both the teams struck the post from long distance shots and that’s about it. There were no offsides in the normal time – that explains a lot - and thus it was not surprising that the game went into extra time without seeing any goals.
At the end of 90 minutes, this is what timesonline wrote in its game tracker: Please let somebody score, anybody. Just to put an end to this turgid monstrosity of a game.
And the same sad tale continued in the extra period as well. We saw so much of the ball being played from one defence to another. Neither teams showed any ambition to win the game with a piece of magical play. Not a single stroke of genius from a special player in the pitch.
You would think that Ukraine would surely know all about the Swiss defence – after all the Swiss had not let in a goal in their group matches – and have some game plans accordingly. Unfortunately not and they looked as though they were only relying on Shevchenko to win them the game.
Sadly it doesn’t work that way and after another dull extra period, the match went to penalties – the first in the series of the World Cup.
After both teams continued their shyness in front of the goal by missing their opening penalties, Ukraine took the lead in the second penalty, consolidated their lead by scoring the third and won the game with the fourth. The Swiss hit the post with their second and wasted the third.
Finally after a long, long hour of uninspiring football, Ukraine get into the quarter finals to meet Italy.
posted by Kabilan K at
10:43 PM
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