Special Edition: The Golden Nuggets World Cup 2010 - Semi Finals

By Sports Magician

And so we are down to the final four. The World Cup is almost at an end and I'm already beginning to experience post-World Cup depression, and not just because my own nation now have no chance of winning in 2010. After living on a diet of three/four matches a day we are now waiting days just for one match a night. It’s tough. Holland and Uruguay meet in the first semi-final with the general consensus being that the Dutch are too strong for the South Americans. Holland full-back Gregory van der Wiel and midfield enforcer Nigel de Jong miss the match through suspension. Uruguay are without one of their stars - Luis Suarez - who literally saved Uruguay from elimination in the last eight. On that note, I find it absolutely pathetic that Suarez has been lazily labelled a “cheat” by more than a few people. It has to take a very real lack of competitive understanding to not recognise that (a) Suarez was acting instinctively in a split second of action and (b) there are offences in football that carry a punishment, Suarez committed an offence and was appropriately punished. He was sent-off, he will miss a game through suspension and his side had to survive a penalty. The fact that Asamoah Gyan missed the chance to send Ghana through is his and their problem.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t feel any sympathy for Ghana - they were Africa’s great hope in what was a poor tournament for the continent. However, my sympathy lies in the fact that a team has to leave football’s greatest showpiece via a penalty shoot-out, which is a cruel fate for whichever side that loses. My sympathy certainly doesn’t extend to them missing a golden chance to move onto the last four.

Now that’s out of the way let’s get back to the respective semi-finals. As well as the absence of Suarez, Uruguay will also miss left-back Jorge Fucile - who was lucky not to break his neck after a vicious fall during the quarter-final. Nicolas Lodeiro broke his foot during extra-time and is out for the remainder of the tournament, while captain Diego Lugano won’t know until the last minute if he can lead his team against the Dutch after being forced off in the first half of the quarter-final. The good news is that Diego Godin is back in training and is expected to take his place at the back, but whether his captain will be there remains to be seen.

With so many key absences and potential absences it’s understandable why the Dutch are favourites to go through, but not as heavily as forecast. Diego Perez has been one of the stand-out centre midfielders in South Africa and his tussle with Mark van Bommel will be a heavyweight contest, in which I expect both to see yellow at some point. Uruguay are very solid defensively and despite the talent of the Dutch going forward they won’t be easy to break down. Holland themselves are quite suspect defensively in my opinion, although they were able to get away with it against Brazil - who completely lost their composure when they fell behind.

In the other semi-final we see a repeat of the Euro 2008 final as tournament favourites Spain meet Germany. Spain began the tournament as favourites but were shocked 1-0 by Switzerland in their opening game and haven’t really hit their straps despite recording four victories since. The Spanish were fortunate to win in 90 minutes against Paraguay, although both sides had cause for complaint with the South Americans having a debateable goal disallowed and should have been allowed to retake Oscar Cardozo’s missed penalty. Spain, on the other hand, can justifiably ask why Xabi Alonso had to retake his penalty and how on earth they did not get another penalty immediately following Alonso’s miss as Cesc Fabregas was sent flying.

Fernando Torres is clearly not match-fit or sharp and if anything has got progressively worse as the tournament has gone on. The clamour to have him replaced by Fabregas - with Spain adopting a 4-5-1 formation - now seems to have reached new heights. Torres scored the only goal of the Euro 2008 final with David Villa being forced to sit the match out, the roles could well be reversed this time around, as Villa is in scintillating form.

Germany came into the tournament with plenty of question marks - a young side that had lost key players over the course of the domestic season through injury and tragedy. I was quite happy to write them off, despite their outstanding history at world level, because as well as missing key players, some of the players they relied upon had experienced awful club seasons. Lukas Podolski was a joke during the club season and even resorted to threatening a reporter after his performance was ridiculed against Argentina in a March friendly. Miroslav Klose had barely featured for Bayern Munich, who did the double without him near enough, and reached the Champions League final. To their credit, Podolski - bar a poor game against Serbia - has been consistently impressive and Klose is now set to become the top scorer in the history of World Cup football!

After easily disposing of England 4-1, the Germans went one better against Argentina in a 4-0 win. Both teams knew how the other wanted to play and it was a case of who could impose their will, and it was the Germans who won that battle. An early goal meant Argentina had to chase the game while Germany could keep men behind the ball, and a great sense of agitation seeped through the Argentine players, it was clearly visible. Germany were able to play the game they had planned and hoped to, while Argentina were forced into a series of individual displays. Germany were so good at making sure no Argentina player had time and space on the ball in the final third, and when they were unable to do so, the final pass wasn’t coming off for the Argentines.

Germany were on the back foot in the second half, and might have been left to rue a series of missed first half chances, until Klose scored the goal that broke Argentine hearts. From that point on the confidence in the Germans and the despair of the Argentines was evident in the play that followed. And now what began as a tournament of uncertainty has become a very real chance for Germany to win their fourth World Cup. Thomas Muller, who along with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philip Lahm, were the stars of the show against Argentina, misses the match through suspension and his absence will be keenly felt. Germany still have plenty of creative masterminds, for example, Mesut Ozil, but Muller has been in sparkling form in the knock-out stage, whereas Ozil has done his best work thus far in the group stage.

It should be a very entertaining game, not in the sense that goals will be a plenty, but in that both sides are technically gifted and are so adept at creating and using space. Semi-finals are invariably close affairs, rarely do we see more than the odd goal separating sides, and this week may be no different. Uruguay are overpriced to oust the Dutch and Spain - although not yet at their best - can sneak past Germany as they did two years ago.

PICK: 3*SPAIN/URUGUAY WORLD CUP FINAL @ 7.00 (BET 365 / BWIN)

Sports Magician