Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Roberto Martinez blunders it up

Belgium made a number of strategic mistakes and passed up a great chance to win the World Cup. Romelu Lukaku was not up to heading the ball and would have been  better situated coming from the right. Dembele too was lacklustre and was not able to settle down into the high-stakes game.

As a result, France got the easy way into the Final, instead of having to really fight its way in. 

Monday, July 2, 2018

Japan bow out in spite of a powerful performance

Belgium edged Japan out in the last minute of the 90 minutes by scoring the winning goal in a 3-2 scoreline. From the time of kickoff, Japan were always showing interest in attacking while the Belgians too were not very much behind in attacking instincts. Romelu Lukaku was however not having a great day in terms of incoming service or in terms of a good first touch. For much of the match, Lukaku was somehow not getting the right touch which was somewhat reflected in the way he let the ball go past him for the winning goal to be scored by substitute Nacer Chadli.

Japan demonstrated a classy game with each player almost displaying uniform skills of deftness and discipline as if they had all been schooled in the same football academy. Japan went ahead by 2 goals before Vertonghen and Fellaini brought the scores level.

The Japanese game was a nuanced one with high quality which sometimes left the Belgians looking clueless and almost sub par. Such was the exquisiteness of the overall game displayed by the entire Japanese team. There were no rough tackles during the game which was a very classy display by both sides.

All credit goes to Belgium for coming back from two goals down to complete their victory with the last play of the 90 minutes. Just as Japan restarted after Belgium's third goal, the Senegalese referee blew the whistle. It was a poetic closure to the match as Japan had come in to the match after edging out Senegal in Fair Play with lesser number of yellow cards after the two teams were tied in points in the Group.