What a contrast it has been weather-wise to the happy days two years ago. I can remember that it was a horrible May in 2006 and my boss at the internship I was doing back than was never tired of announcing his weather forecast for the upcoming World Cup. "I say this, when the tournament starts we will have sunshine all the way". And he was right. It's been completely this year and today it seemed like the end of the world when the rain came down. The humidity is aweful and I#m sweating like I played two hours in the sun.
Everybody seems to have fallen in love with Russia yesterday, the reactions have been jubilous. Whoever will win tonight's game will face a very tough task.
Meanwhile in Germany everybody's focused on Torsten Frings' rib. He suffered an injury in the game against Austria and was out for the quarterfinal tie with Portugal. Now everybody's wondering whether he will miss yet another semifinal clash. Although I don't see any problems if he can't join the action on Wednesday. His replacements Simon Rolfes and Thomas Hitzlsperger did just fine. Still, all this is the top headline on the news all day. Sometimes this country feels like a looney bin.
Spain vs Italy 4-2 pens (Quarterfinal 4)
Everybody was talking about this one to be the most promising match-up of all quarterfinals, but honestly I didn't see it that way. One always had to remember although Italy has all the skill it needs to put up a brilliant performance, their first and foremost aim is to destroy. Their defending is superb and they know what their strengths are. Also when you look at Spain in this tournament they were showing great stuff but still they were always very calm and controlling. The German commentator was complaining about the quality of the game but I was thrilled about the passing of the Spanish team. There were times when there was only Spain and no Italian player had a chance to get close to the ball for minutes. It is highly entertaining to watch this young squad put up their game. David Villa and Fernando Torres worked great up front, the midfield with David Silva always looked like they knew what they were doing and what luxury it is when you can replace Xavi and Andres Inesta with the likes of Cesc Fabregas.
On the downside Italy fell back into their acting abilities with the players falling down like they had been struck by lightning. I hate to see this, especially when they do this to stop a counterattack. And when you have a crappy referee like Germany's Herbert Fandel who always wants to be the centre of attention a game can become rather disgraceful.
Italy just looked old, very old. It just isn't enough to have a top striker like Luca Toni up front, you need to feed him the ball. That just didn't happen.
Spain will now face the formidable Russian side who were less destructive than the Italians today. This might be a killer game. I'm really looking forward to this.
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