Saturdays games

Saturday saw both Group F games as well as one of the Group G games.
  In the morning game, Argentina struggled with Iran for 90 minutes before a Messi strike from the top of the box gave the South American team the win. To be truthful, it was not a very impressive display from Argentina. They showed a lack of width in the forward third. They had only one point of attack and that was through the middle. They are extremely adept at this, but it does not work when a team packs in the middle on defense. Argentina will have success against offensive minded teams, but against teams with strong disciplined central defenders, it will be a struggle. We also saw Iran have some success on the break. The Argentinian defenders lack of speed was shown. Watch for this to be an issue as the tournament progresses.
  The second game saw Bosnia fall to Nigeria, and thus out of the tournament. While I picked Nigeria to advance, and it looks like they will, I must say that I felt Bosnia was the better team on the field. They had a beautiful goal disallowed for a poor offsides call, and they have an argument that the Nigerian goal was the product of an offensive foul. I am sure they feel cheated, but these things happen in soccer. Over time, the fates balance out, but on any given day, it can be cruel. Nigeria will have to show more than speed to get results in the knockout round.
  The other  game on Saturday was half of Group G. Germany played Ghana in a tremendously exciting back and forth match that saw Germany score a late goal and earn a tie. The Germans looked the better team for most of the first half but failed to score. In the second half they got an early goal, and just when it looked like they might take charge, Ghana struck twice on the counter and took the lead. For the rest of the match Ghana showed that a good offense was the best defense. They outplayed Germany, but a couple substitutes on the deep German bench turned momentum a the tied was deserved.  For the US, this was a good result, because now a win against Portugal guarantees a spot in the second round. Ties and loses , also leave a chance, but why make it so difficult? They need to take out the guess work and secure the 3 points. We shall see.