Don't cry for Argentina

Better player, but not while wearing Albiceleste

Germany V/s Argentina,  Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium.

Is it divine providence or devilish ploy!? Argentina or the Albiceleste(whatever it means with respect to this team) has crashed out without even lifting a finger, I mean, scoring a goal against a junior team. German team with captain Lahm(age 25) and  Schweinsteiger(age 26), Pudolski(age 24)-who continues to be perfect center forward for the team in absence of Micheal Ballack, Mueller(age 22), Khediera (age 23), Oezil (age 22)-who will be the player to watch out for in the years to come; all overcame the team which everyone said was the best(scoffing the rankings, as usual). The star player Lionel Messi, who was goalless in this entire tournament(whose only goal came 4 years back against a hapless Serbia-Montenegro) was nowhere near the magical words being written about him. It is a very sad state of affairs to see the team so disorganized and before the 3^rd goal itself, seemed to have lost the will to fight. Only one person still carried on fighting, Tevez, the player who is not eulogized like Messi but is far better on field. I wish I could see him(Tevez for those who don't understand) play more.

I was traveling during first half. Missed a train which might have allowed me to see that also – and to catch it I ran all the way up the over bridge and after the retreating(for me, it was so, because I was shouting to the inanimate beast to stop and fight me) train. After missing that, next train was an hour after that, and I was too tired even to move that I slept off inside one of the passenger scheduled to go after 75 minutes. I decided that since I will be losing first half, it was better to go nicely, and see the second half. After all, I had a friend who would give me updates. Match started while the train was speeding up, and running to make up the delayed journey. Minutes later, Germany was 1 up. I was not worried because previous messages told about some brilliant moves by Argentina. I thought they had it them to score at least 3. What a mistake! When I came 7 minutes into the second half, I was not seeing anything remotely resembling the moves in the messages. Everything was being controlled by Ze Germans. They were routing the Argentinians like lambs in slaughterhouse. It is shameful to see Messi struggling to finish the attacks. Higuain was also dumb. Why didn't Maradona bring Aguero and Milito earlier. The powerful Aguero would have supported Tevez better. Schweinsteiger's move for the third goal of the match was superb, coolly moving past the defenders(Higuain was there!) and foxing Romeiro and slipping it inside for Freidrich to put it in. Pudolski's pass was superlative, finding the foot of unmarked(!) Klose who collected another goal in his march towards golden boot and all time top scorer. This guy is a goal machine, better than any other striker in the world at present. I hoped that Pudolski would get man of the match but it was Schweinsteiger who got it. Never mind.

It is the the year which will be remembered as the dark one for South American football as well as all the fans in the world. The beauty of the game won't be seen except if Spain marches into the finals. Only team which has enough skill to match the South Americans were the Germans. Netherlands got their win by fluke. Ghana didn't want to win, so they didn't score on penalties. Japan was the team which should have won. They played heroically, still lost. It was a steely nerved Paraguayans who won on 5-4. That was arguably the match of the tournament. I still can see the face of Japanese coach after each penalty kick, which didn't change once, even when one missed. He was the one who carried the team. The players should be proud to have a coach like that. If I miss any players, then it would be Tevez, Honda and Kaka. They are the players who shown in this world cup.

So in the end it is Germany in the semis.

Germany 4(Klose[2], Freidrich, Mueller) – Argentina 0

PS: I reiterate that there will be only one Maradona, and no one else who can bring the world cup on his own for his country. This will never happen in a hundred years again.