Wrapping up our World Cup quarter-final light-bulb moments, we dilute David Villa’s undoubted class with a double dose of negativity.
By Shane Breslin & Conor Hogan
1. David Villa is the most dangerous striker in world football.
The prospect of David Villa linking up with Messi, Ibrahimovic, Xavi, Iniesta and who knows, maybe even Cesc Fabregas, at the Nou Camp next season is an alluring one to any football follower.
Villa has founded a reputation as a stellar talent at Valencia, to all intents and purposes a provincial side on the periphery of the elite in Spain, never mind Europe as a whole. Until next season, his only real chance to shine on the world stage has come at major international tournaments, and shine he certainly has.
He scored three goals at the 2006 World Cup, top-scored with four at Euro 2008 despite missing the last hour of the semi-final and all of the final through injury and has now scored four in four games at this tournament.
In this World Cup he has had 19 shots, with 12 of those on target. With Fernando Torres struggling for top form, Villa has shouldered virtually the entire goalscoring burden – he has scored 80 per cent of his side’s goals – and against Portugal he eventually came out on top after a one-man war with goalkeeper Eduardo .
Now 28, he is likely to spend his peak years at Barca, during which time he can become the undisputed top striker in world football. To us, that title is already his. And who cares that he doesn’t score many with his head?
2. Carlos Quieroz is an obscenely negative coach.
You have, in your midst, a player who many – not least the player himself – believe is the most gifted attacking talent in the world. You have Fabio Coentrao, one of the most highly-regarded young left backs in the tournament, whose forward runs have been a vital element in your World Cup campaign to date. You have a midfielder, Raul Meireles, who is deemed good enough to warrant the attentions of Manchester United this summer. Your nation has a reputation for fluid attacking football.
What do you do? You adopt the most negative possible approach.
By all means, Carlos Quieroz was well within his rights to give respect to Brazil and Spain in this tournament. But by attempting to turn Portugal into a poor man’s Switzerland Quieroz robbed the tournament of a couple of potential classics, and ensured that Portugal exit the tournament with their only goals having come against the worst team in the tournament, North Korea.
The Portuguese negativity was borne on a defensive record which had seen them keep eight consecutive clean sheets. Thankfully, for the love of football, the approach died a death after David Villa’s exquisitely taken winner in Cape Town.
Spain, for their part, can look forward to more of the same against Paraguay in the quarter-finals. Speaking of Paraguay…
3. Paraguay are to 2010 what Ireland were to 1990.
Anyone who has watched any of Paraguay’s matches at this World Cup will admit that they are not a team for the neutral.
Their four games have featured a grand total of four goals and none of their strikers have scored a single goal in the tournament so far. A deserved win against Slovakia was sandwiched between a joyless draw with Italy, and a desperate 0-0 with New Zealand.
Their second round match against Japan was another 0-0 and one of the worst matches of the World Cup so far. As a result of their shoot-out victory over the Japanese though, they are in the quarter finals. And they are unbeaten.
There always seems to be one team though that manages to scrape through to the quarter finals unexpectedly and usually undeservedly. Ukraine managed to get into the second round of ’06 with wins over Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, before scraping past Switzerland on penalties after a 0-0. Ireland did the same in ’90, after three draws and a victory on penalties (again after a 0-0) against the Romanians.
Like those two teams, every neutral will be hoping that Paraguay get their comeuppance in the quarter finals.
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