On Tuesday evening, the curtain was dropped in two groups of the World Cup. Quartets “A” and “B” finished their matches and determined the first pair of the 1/8 finals. England and Sweden played the first place in their company after signing this number in print. Germany, in turn, confirmed that in this championship it is quite capable of being not only the master, but also the champion. After victories in two starting matches, the Germans smashed the main sensation of the group stage - the national team of Ecuador.
“I have a screensaver on my mobile phone:“ If you can dream about it, you can do it ”- this is how Ecuador’s head coach Luis Fernando Suárez explained his desire to make history at the current championship. Going to Germany, the Colombian coach said that the Ecuadorian squad entrusted to him is capable of surprises, but no one believed him. They believed after the South Americans put pale red Poland (2: 0) on their shoulder blades, committed the predicted defeat of Costa Rica and secured their participation in the 1/2 round 8 fin However, the fact that in a match with the hosts of the tournament thoughts of a feat will have to be postponed became clear at the very beginning.
Miroslav Klose opened the score after a lengthy rally of the corner. Moreover, he himself earned this corner by pressing the Ecuadorian defender at the front line. Shortly before the break, the lanky forward scored a double after Michael Ballack's phenomenal pass.
Here it is worth briefly distracting and saying that in Germany it is impossible to watch TV for more than 10 minutes, so as not to run into an advertisement with Ballack. It’s clear that the World Cup, it’s clear that there is a stir, but all the other members of the “Bundestim”, including Bundestrainer Klinsman and spare Bundeshooter Oliver Kahn, flicker much less often. Ballack is everywhere. On street streamers, on book covers, on fans buying T-shirts exclusively with 13th number ... It's some kind of religion. It is completely incomprehensible to a non-native person and used to doing something different on the weekend than watching the German championship.
So the pass, given on Tuesday by Ballack, after which Klose doubled the score, clarifies a lot. The elegant movement of the toe - and the three defenders as it did; Klose pops up one on one. In the second half, the Ecuadorian player Luis Valencia almost tore off Ballac's leg: performing a tackle, he hit his lower legs with spikes, and judging by the video repetition, it was there that he methylated initially. Russian judge Valentin Ivanov - namely, he served this game - showed the offender a yellow card. No matter how the Germans would now blame him for excessive liberalism ... Ivanov, however, did justice with brilliance - this episode is unlikely to reduce his chances of working in playoff matches.
The hosts instantly punished Ecuadorians for being rude. Pass from the depths of the field to the flank (Schweinsteiger) - timely lumbago (Schneider) - effective completion (Podolski). Klinsman later said that it was this counterattack, simple in geometry and impeccable in execution, that pleased him the most. Mainly because, finally, the second striker from the main clip of Podolsky distinguished himself - an extremely important character for a successful performance in the playoffs.