TEN TACTICS THAT HAVE MADE THE WORLD CUP EPIC SO FAR

Nobody would have imagined spain would be knocked out and few thought costa rica would be leading the group of death.Anyway these are some of the football genius tactics that have made this world cup

10.Valbuena getting the free role undisputedly for france-The dimunitive attacking midfielder was normally played at right wing but after being shifted back to the centre he has put in a huge effort in most of the 8 goals the French have scored in their first 2 games at the world cup.

9.pirlo in the number 8 role against England -the midfield maestro was left roaming and dictating the game by a youngish raheem sterling who was good going forward but did not quite mark the legend to full satisfaction.

8.The Ibarbo effect -Colombia’s replacement for falcao ,few took notice of the burly forward,two games down the line he has taken to the team like a duck to the water and his physical presence,pace and good rapport with James Rodriguez,Victor Ibarbo is the embodiment of a good replacement by all standards

7.The introduction of the Drog of war (Ivory coast vs Japan)-The japanese were resting on the early lead and then sabri lamouchi pulled the ultimate trump card. With Drogba in ,Bony felt the heat and scored a goal,gervinho added a second and Cote d’ Ivoire realised that they were saved again by the one and only.

6.The great wall of Iran(Iran vs NIgeria)-The AFCON champions were held by the brave iranians and were even almost caught out on the odd counter attack .It was truly a good game for the asians.

5.Blind influence(Daley blind,NED vs SPAIN)-Everybody was busy praising robben and van persie nobody noticed how blind pulled the strings and stabilized the game even after the Oranje had gone down from a xabi alonso penalty.

4.Mexico shutting Brazil out of their own house-In a realistic point of view Mexico had the option of attacking and being susceptible to goals ,or closing the Selecao in and making it hard for them to find space.They chose the latter and that,coupled with the fact that their Goalkeeper Ochoa was in superb form  was enough to earn them a precious point against the hosts.

3.Excellent fighting spirit from the Yanks-The USA mens team was not expected to defeat Ghana and draw against portugal,Their fighting spirit has turned them from underdog to top dog as only Germany is ahead of them so far in the Group of death.

2.Algeria going ballistic-Nobody had given Algeria much chance against south Korea but they came in with all guns blazing and playing very openly unlike the conservative approach they took to the game against Belgium.Coach Vahid Halihodzic risked a lot by choosing high power attacking soccer and even converted defensive midfielder nadil bentaleb into a winger due to his pace.

1.The playing of Messi in a bold 4-3-3 tactic -this change at halftime against Bosnia has brought out the true Messi and influenced his scoring of the two goals whic have arguably sealed qualification for the Argentines 

IRAN!SERIOUSLY NIGERIA?

It was a match we all expected Nigeria to win and by margins akin to a rugby match considering this was an Iranian side that had neither the talent nor the resources to compare to the Super Eagles.One thing they did have was the will and led by Fulham’s Ashkin Dejagah they held a full strength Nigeria side for the whole 90 minutes and even managed to force one or two good saves out of the evergreen Vincent Enyeama as his defenders left him exposed during counter attacks.The Nigerian fans initial joy turned into impatience and later into consternation as they watched Emenike shooting wider and wider and Abu Azeez losing possession during a supposedly easy wing swap .Stephen Keshi said his boys did not score because they had no patience.A positive pointer though is that Shola ameobi did look considerably sharp but not enough to get a goal in his second half cameo appearance.Credit to Iran though for their defensive discipline .But for the super eagles , they have to beat Bosnia and avoid defeat against Argentina.I doubt many are envying Stephen keshi’s job,I for sure am not…

IVORIAN TO WATCH IS NOT DROGBA, ITS DADDY COOL!

So the great Didier Drogba is still going strong at 36.Coach Sabri Lamouchi had nothing but the nicest things to say about the legend who made a super sub appearance agains the japanese and somehow propelled his team to glory in a day where little went right for the elephants and even the usually immaculate Yaya toure was looking rusty .But the drog of war is not the man we need to watch .Wilfried bony or as the more humorous would call him ‘daddy cool’ due to his  uncanny resemblance to musician boney m of hit song Daddy cool plies his trade for swansea and he really needs a good world cup to top his good season.His pace and excellent hold up play has impressed many a manager and his yearning for european cup football may make Bony the unstoppable force the ivorians need.

WILL ENGLAND HANDLE THE PRESSURE?

Lets all admit it ,England from tournament to tournament has always had a penalty crisis.They always have a good squad but in the end someone always misses a penalty.The English FA this time are leaving nothing to chance and have even brought in a psychologist for the players.Even the fact that Rickie Lambert was drafted into the squad solely for his penalty scoring abilities shows what extent the problem is rooted in the national team setup. Even captain Steven Gerrard admits that they train penalties ‘alot’.Will it count ,Will they finally break the norm?Only time will tell as the 2014 FIFA world cup Brazil starts…..