Giant Killing 15

Note: You can skip to the last couple of paragraphs for actual thoughts and not ramblings.

The World Cup of surprises ended with victors that everyone expected from before the tournament. After the World Cup started and Spain lost their first game to the Swiss, they weren’t counted out, but compared to the unanswered four German goals they certainly didn’t look anything like winners. For anyone who doesn’t know I am a huge Liverpool fan, I’ve been a Liverpool fan since before I was born. Okay so not really but my Dad is a fan and I’m pretty sure he was around before I was and had a part in my creation, however that’s done, so I assume that I got it from him. I used to love watching Robbie Fowler, Jamie Redknapp and Steve McManaman on the tube and was ecstatic when Owen and Gerrard led our team to the treble. Needless to say I am a huge Fernando Torres fan, our season this year was crap and Torres, being plagued with injury, played a key part in this. It didn’t help that Xabi Alonso (another Spaniard) moved to Real Madrid at the beginning of the season which killed the moral of the team.

Tsubaki has found his Aniki!

Fernando Torres has very recently gotten off injury, and it shows. The games he’s played have hardly benefited from his presence and I don’t believe he ever played a full ninety minutes, but make no mistake; Fernando Torres is one of the best players in the world. However Spain does not need Fernando Torres, Spain is the ultimate team of the best players in the world. It is not by coincidence that something like seven players play for Barcelona (with perhaps another on the way), and it is certainly no coincidence that Barcelona won the Champion’s League this year. With a team made up of this kind of talent there was no doubt of them reproducing their Euro Cup performance and showing the previous finalists just what 2010 means to them. However it was not Spain that crushed two clearly aging teams. France and Italy both finished bottom of their groups, the previous World Cup Champions finished lower than New Zealand, a team who has only half a chance of making it to the World Cup, and have never in fact made it before.

With a different background, this could be a stag night.

I should pause to mention that New Zealand is the only team in this World Cup to not lose a game. While they didn’t get out of the round robin stage, I’d say that’s a cause of pride the Bass-like people can indulge in. I will state something clearly; I do not think the Spanish deserved to win the World Cup. Not that the Dutch deserved it any more, they played the game for just as long as Spain did. Arjen Robben had two perfect scoring opportunities that he missed, and it cost his side dearly. I had a conversation with someone after the game who said that they didn’t like the way the Dutch “played dirty”, I explained that the Dutch were only playing the kind of rough, aggressive football that teams like England and Brazil also play. I said that the Spanish were the ones playing “dirty”. For all their silk with the ball the Spanish not only won the World Cup of Football, but they also won the World Cup of Diving.

Natsu is a third wacky player to match our three serious ones.

If we rewind to the Euro Cup, Spain played Italy in a quarter final and won by penalties. In that game, Spain out-dived Italy, a feat that I didn’t think possible, especially for a team I was rooting for (the main team I was supporting was Russia, and later Turkey). In the World Cup final Spain dived like no other, a tap on the shoulder brought players down from the knees, and apparently Iniesta can be tripped by the wind and apparently the Dutch control the wind. I would have liked to see even one game without multiple dives from Spain and I simply didn’t see one, considering that Fernando Torres is renowned for not diving I was shocked to see him go down quite easily in a game, though perhaps his injury acted up as he was subbed. Torres set up Iniesta for what can be called the best goal Spain has scored in four games.

Yes, like this one.

Against Portugal Villa did what Villa does best, he scored off a rebound, something that he would do again against Paraguay. Paraguay arguably got the short end of the stick considering an offside goal call that could have gone either way (though the rules do state that the early flag was correct), however the penalty that Casillas caught should have been retaken because of the four Spanish defenders running into the box before the kick was even taken. Germany, who had just come off a four nil defeat of Argentina, the team that people thought would win the tournament after the round robin stage, underperformed and choked, giving Spain all they needed for their first World Cup final. Spain once again proved that in Football; one goal is more than enough. Paraguay is debatable, but Spain deserved to win their games against all three other teams, but the poor fashion in which the teams played is what makes me say that Spain did not deserve it.

Don't worry, Giant Killing is actually coming up!

There was a comment on my previous post that I didn’t publish where someone accused me of not knowing anything about modern football; if winning the World Cup in this fashion is modern football; then I don’t think I want to be a part of it any more. Germany should have done better, Netherlands should have done better and England certainly should have done better. It makes my skin crawl to think that England could have played Ghana and then Uruguay; two games that, arguably, even in their less than impressive state they could have won. Not because I wanted England to get anywhere, but because I wanted them to go nowhere. England, like Italy and France are in a desperate need of reorganization. In four years or even two years at the next Euro, these three need to come out strong with young players, especially since Spain will at that point be a more experienced, but potentially weaker team.

The animation on Akasaki makes him look hilarious.

Ghana and Uruguay were both impressive and Germany vs. Uruguay was my joint favourite game of the tournament. How I wish that could have been the final, how I wish Germany could have played like that against Spain. With equal goals but more assists Thomas Mueller should get the golden boot, which would be incredible for the twenty year old. Diego Forlan deserves man of the tournament having led his team to fourth place. By the way my other joint favourite games were Japan vs. Denmark and Slovakia vs. Italy. That Argentina vs. Germany game was also phenomenal and sits cozily in second. Despite my, completely unshared, bitter feelings about Spain; this was a good World Cup. Full of surprises and upsets that will shape how football will evolve from here. Hopefully my home nation of Ireland will surprise everyone come 2012, because when the Irish win the Euro the world will end.

Um....wrong anime; Kyokai is covering Shiki that-a-way.

Over one thousand words later, ladies and gentlemen, Giant Killing! This episode was what I expected from Giant Killing when I started it many weeks ago. Quick games followed by character development off the pitch. Right off the bat I really liked Natsu, only someone that Tatsumi thinks is weird could force their way into the ever improving ETU at this point. Sera’s fear over his position on the pitch was completely justified and certainly poked at my memories of playing football. It’s something that looms over you and just by thinking about it brings your game to a level that will get you benched. Sera had the right attitude but was overcome by his fear before the episode ended. Something that confused me about this episode was that one person mentioned that ETU used a lone striker, but that doesn’t make any sense since both Akasaki and Sera play up front.

Wait.......wasn't this from last episode? Nope, screened from this one....^_^'

Gino, Murakoshi and Tsubaki make up the midfielders that I know of; however there must be one more that doesn’t have a name yet. This maybe on purpose since ETU may well go for a three attacker and three midfielder strategy, playing Natsu up front and center with Gino as a dangerous attacking midfielder behind him, though it is more likely that Tsubaki would take the center midfield and Gino would play on the wing considering that curve of his. With Natsu replacing the unknown midfielder we would have a face to every player on the starting lineup (though not necessarily a name…). Natsu’s attitude was adorable; he’s a bit like a puppy, always happy and barking trying to get attention. While this is my longest Giant Killing post, it’s also the least I’ve written about Giant Killing, hopefully I can cure this by next week but when not much happens, there isn’t much to say. Also, Studio DEEN, would you be so kind as to stop the two minutes of recap at the beginning of each episode, it’s annoying. Kthxbye.

/ 3 Commentsleave a comment /

• Bass says:

  July 13, 2010

  Lolol nice read (yay NZ!)

  While I agree that Spain were nowhere near their best form, playing without a full-strength Torres and Silva seemed to have taken the silk out of their game, especially having to rely on that d-bag Busquets. They played too defensively at times (or is that conservatively?) and I wish they had the balls to rely on Fabregas more for some much needed directness. I'd say the lesser of two evils won today though, since Holland were clearly trying to kill for the win (which the players themselves admitted to -not killing, but aggressively fouling at least-).

  After following Spain since 2002, I'm happy that they've finally shed their "underachievers" tag in world football. While they were below-par in this world cup, it must say something to have them win while under performing. I guess we were just spoiled with the way they played the past few years. One bad tournament run doesn't change a team (even if they did win by beating their fair share of big names), and it was good to see that they stuck with their gameplan no matter what the opposition threw their way. Every team they played had to be more defensive minded than usual, so that's testament to the Spaniards incessant passing tiki-taka tactics.

  I've never been a fan of their diving (that's why I hate Busquets) and I wish they can change that in their approach (doubt it though), but I'm very happy to have predicted their wins in two tournaments running. Makes me proud to be a Spanish fan, even if they did also win the diving league.

  Oh, and lol Liverpool :P

  Reply
  • Flags says:

    July 13, 2010

    Oh yeh, I forgot to mention about the Spartan Kick. By the way, for anyone reading, I don't count that as just being "aggressive", that was straight up ridiculous. Not quite the Brazilian Stomp, but no picnic either.

    Reply
    • Bass says:

      July 13, 2010

      I love all the .gifs popping up :D

      It's like this finals version of the headbutt.

      Reply