A tale of two captains

The first of the two semi-finals is underway and it's no surprise that the early pressure comes from Netherlands as Uruguay rely on counter attacks to push upfield.

The first half had four interesting incidents. The first was an attack deep into the Dutch right back position. As the ball approached the goal line, it was stopped but the momentum of the attacker and defender carried them over the goal line, where they both fell to the ground. As the defender tried to get up and back on to the field of play, the attacker held him, so the referee stopped play and awarded a direct free kick to the defender. The ball was originally positioned about one yard upfield from the goal line but was then pushed 5 yards before the kick was taken. I wonder if the offence had been the other way around, would the referee have given a direct free kick to the attack, if necessary, awarding a kick from the penalty mark???

Shortly after this an overhead kick by a Careces of Uruguay, close to the edge of the Dutch penalty area, saw him kick De Zeeuw hard on the jaw. There was a brief coming together of players from both sides but it dissipated within a handful of seconds. A couple of cautions later, the game settled back into its intriguing contest.

We then had one of the finest goals of the tournament as Von Bronckhorst moved in from the left wing, from an amazing 41 yards from goal and let fly with a vicious shot which the goalkeeper could only stroke with his fingertips as the ball flew into the top corner of his goal (actually striking the inside of the goalpost on the way in).

This rocked Uruguay back on their heels for a few minutes and then they gathered themselves. Diego Forlan, who already had 3 goals from previous games picked up the ball around 30 yards out and hit a dipping, curling drive which deceived the Dutch goalkeeper, who was wrong footed, and he only managed to flap a hand at the ball before it crashed into the goal. So the game is well balanced and we might see more of the same in the second half.

A brief mention of the coverage of the game by ITV ... Adrian Chiles is an absolute gift to ITV and seems to have a cheery quip for every situation, not least when footage was shown of the crowds in Amsterdam and Montevideo celebrating the goals by their respective teams and some large bass drums appeared from nowhere in the middle of the Uruguayan fans. Fantastic to see ... roll on part two.

The second half took a little while to get going but then another four exciting incidents. The first was a through ball which drew the Dutch goalkeeper out of his penalty area meaning his goal was untended when Uruguay took their shot on goal. Fortunately Von Bronckhorst headed the ball clear.

A Forlan free kick was battered away by the Dutch goalkeeper before Netherlands swept back upfield. A clever interchange of passes saw a good attempt on the Uruguayan goal but then a moment of debate ...

Sneijder took control of the ball on the edge of the Uruguayan penalty area and his shot took a deflection from a defender's shin on the way through. It then passed very (and I mean very) close to the foot of Robin Van Persie, who was standing just about in an offside position when Sneijder took his shot. The assistant didn't adjudge him as interfering with an opponent and I tend to agree with that considering how far out from goal he was (about 8 yards), so he wasn't obscuring the goalkeeper's line of sight. The referee was right behind the shot as well so could also make a good call on that.

Then we had the killer blow for Netherlands as just 3 minutes after Sneijder's goal, a cross from the left was met by a cushioned header by Arjen Robben, which saw the ball spin away from the Uruguayan goalkeeper, stroke the base of the goalpost and nestle gently in the back of the net. So at 3-1 you would expect the Dutch to hold the ball and sit back but no, with just 4 minutes of normal time to play, Arjen Robben has just outrun the Uruguayan defence only to hook the ball into the outstretched hands of the goalkeeper from a couple of yards out.

Hmmm, could we have some excitement at the death? In the second minute of three added minutes, Maxi Perreira has just slipped a low left footed shot through a crowded penalty area to take the score to 3-2 and then we had another couple of minutes added by the referee. We had a period of pinball in and around the Dutch penalty area before the referee, Ravshan Irmatov blew the final whistle.

And there we go, we have the first of the finalists as Netherlands

There's a little something going on ...

... in South Africa as the FIFA World Cup finally kicked off with a game for the hosts against Mexico.

The game passed off reasonably quietly with a goal early in the second half for the Bafana Bafana but a late equaliser saw the game finish 1-1. The British media were gushing in their praise for the referee, Ravshan Irmatov from Uzbekistan even though he issued 4 cautions.

The second game between Uruguay and France was a slightly less exciting not nonetheless enjoyable game. No goals but the Japanese referee, Yuichi Nishimura found valid reasons for early cautions for Evra and Ribery of France. More cautions followed, 5 altogether excluding the ones leading to the tournament's first dismissal when Nicolas Lodeiro received a second caution in the same game.

So now we're on to South Korea vs Greece. From the radio commentary, Greece are struggling to make any kind of impact and just after half time, they are 2-0 down. The next game is Argentina and Nigeria. This is one of the games I've been looking forward to as the Argentinians always play exciting football and with the legendary Diego Maradona as their coach, there will be another reason to watch, to see how he behaves in the technical area.

Finally tonight is the opening game for England against USA. I've forecast a 3-1 win for England. If it finishes that way, then I might buy an extra lottery ticket for Wednesday!