 |
|
|
Germany and Argentina progress, Australia and Tunisia show heart.
While the victors may have been expected, all four matches in group A of the Confederations Cup have been far from easy for Germany or Argentina. In saying that, Australia can feel hard done by thanks to the standard of refereeing in their encounter against Argentina.
Australia burst out of the blocks against Argentina, with Josip Skoko and tim Cahill's efforts early made sure keeper German Lux was awake. And while Argentina were on the backfoot, it didn't stop them from creating and scoring the first goal. Argentina's inspirational playmaker Juan Riquelme played a ball to Mario Santana who passed to Luciano Figueroa. A quick one-two later and Figueroa was through, in space and firing home his first of three for the night against Mark Schwarzer.
The goal forced Australia's hand as Scott Chipperfield broke down the wing and crossed, catching a deflection off Fabricio Coloccini to foce a save from Lux. From here Argentina took control and Australia found themselves in their own half for quite a while. The preassure lead to a dubious penalty as Santana flighted a ball into the box for Javier Saviola to run onto. Lucas Neill was adjudged to bring down the striker in the area. You didn't have to be able to read lips to tell Neill told the referee "He had my shirt mate!" but his, and his teammates protests fell on deaf ears. Riquelme put away the goal and a solid two goal lead for half time.
Half-time saw the introduction of Mark Viduka at the expense of Kevin Muscat. A striker for a defender and a change in the formation showed Australia's intention to take the game to the South American world cup qualifiers. Argentina played somewhat into Australia's hands by defending deep.
Viduka had a penalty claim denied when he beat Coloccini only for the defender to stick a leg out and bring the attacker down. Australian claims for a penalty waved away. Replays showed Viduka had a very good case. The resulting play however saw Argentina swiftly move down the field and some poor clearing by Australia's defence gave Figueroa his second for the night.
Australia didn't wilt however and another attack finally reaped rewards. John Aloisi made a venture into the box, finding some space before Coloccini cut him down on the 6-yard box. This time it was paid and Aloisi scored on the hour, despite a strong deflection off Lux's hand. Ten minutes later Aloisi jumped on a poor defensive mistake by Gabriel Heinze. Heinze tried trapping the ball with his chest, but pushed the ball across goal. The bounce left Lux helpless and Aloisi only a metre away to smash the goal into the roof of the goal.
Australia, only one goal behind, found their second wind as they attacked the Argentine goal. However it was Argentina that had the better attacks. Javier Zanetti went close with a ball that just cleared the crossbar. Figueroa didn't make that mistake when a cross from a dead ball play found him in space and he drove the ball away for his hat-trick.
Australia fought valiently but it wasn't enough to bring Argentina down. Argentina 4-2 victors.
Germany had a tough contest against Tunisia before scoring three goals in 15 minutes to deflate the African champions.
In a match that went end to end, Germany had the first opportunity when Gerald Asamoah broke through on 4 minutes however his hesitation allowed Ali Boumnijel ample opportunity to prevent a goal. Tunisia also had their chances when Ziad Jaziribroke through but skied his shot over the crossbar.
Clayton almost scored direct from a corner when his curling ball went over the top of some poor near-post defending until Jens Lehmann pulled back and kept it out.
The second half saw Germany attack with tunisia holding them out. The decisive moment came however in the 74th minute when Michael Ballack went down in the box thanks to Wissem Abdi. Ballack brushed himself off and scored the opening goal.
Tunisia threw caution to the wind but Germany enjoyed their play as spaces opened up. Bastian Schweinsteiger took advantage of it when he scored in the 80th minute, deflating tunisian hearts with an easy goal. Mike Hanke chipped in with a goal to seal it after he latched onto a spilt ball by the keeper in the 88th minute.
Tonight sees one match that will affect the order of the top two and the order of the bottom two. Australia takes on tunisia in a match both will want to win to take something from the tornament. The big match pits heavyweights Germany against South American giants Argentina in what is the most anticipated match of the group.
21 June, 2005 |
