mindless ramblings

Brazil vs Ghana
Chubby Ronaldo scored the opener for Brazil to become the all time leading scorer in World Cup finals history and led the Brazilians to a solid 3-0 victory over Ghana. Adriano doubled the lead in first half injury time and Zé Roberto added a third late on to finish the brave Ghanians off. They should be very proud of their achievements, having qualified from a group that included Italy, the Czech Republic and USA.

France vs Spain
For me this was the highlight of the round of 16. France looking to put the horrors of Korea/Japan 2002 behind them, and Spain looking to show that they can achieve great things on the international stage. Both teams were pretty cautious in the first half, until David Villa converted a penalty for the Spaniards. This spurred the French into action, and they got their equalizer four minutes before half time. Patrick Vieira’s through ball for Franck Ribéry was perfect, and he rounded the keeper to level the score. Luis Aragonés made a double substitution to change things up, but it didn’t really work. Instead, a Zinedine Zidane free kick found its way to an unmarked Viera, whose header took a cruel deflection off Sergio Ramos and into the net. Spain sent men forward to rescue the game, but this left the back exposed and they paid the price when Zidane beat the offside trap, beat two players before firing his shot into the bottom left corner.

Brazil now meet France in what promises to be the highlight of the Quarter Finals stage. It’s a repeat of the 1998 World Cup Final, in which Zidane scored two goals to lead the French to a 3-0 victory. Mark your calendars, this game will be good!