July 01, 2010

Zonal Marking looks ahead to tomorrow's Argentina vs Germany game.

A fascinating piece for me is the almost throw away line at the end about Phillip Lahm.

Germany will want Lahm free to go forward, but will Lowe tell his fullbacks to switch sides if necessary to put Boateng on Tevez and remove Lahm's shackles? And if he does, will Tevez have instruction to continually switch flanks to whichever side Lahm is on?

Could be 90 minutes of cat and mouse there.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:29 AM on July 01, 2010

For me, day two of no WC matches to watch - and I'm hurting. When the end comes, I will be sad.

And I've gotten totally acclimated to the vuvus.

When the matches load on my computer, the sound comes on before the video, so the buzz of the vuvus announce the imminent arrival of the picture. It's become a familiar friend, the tournament's signature badge of recognition.

I walked into a sports facility for a phys. therapy session on Weds., and I heard the sound of the vuvus somewhere in the building as I came in the front door. Spain v Portugal was on. Instead of checking in at the PT office, I scooted around the hallways to see where the TV was, and once I found it, had to be dragged away for my PT session.

posted by beaverboard at 04:26 PM on July 01, 2010

And I've gotten totally acclimated to the vuvus.

Me too, and for the same reason. Their incessant buzz is the first thing that hits my brain to tell me the World Cup is being watched. I thought I would hate them.

posted by rcade at 06:06 PM on July 01, 2010

The other replay (probably not available) showed Capdevila getting elbowed.

posted by yerfatma at 08:01 PM on July 01, 2010

LeBratwurst??? how can he pass that up?

posted by dviking at 01:26 AM on July 02, 2010

I had the game on DVR still and watched it yesterday. ESPN had three angles for the red and it's really hard to tell what's going on with certainty.

The closest view is from behind Spain's goal but it starts too late - Capdevilla is already throwing himself to the ground. You can't see the beginning of the incident.

The "high" angle shows Costa get in front of Capdevilla as the ball comes over and on this one I was fairly certain Costa and thrown something at the Spaniard.

Then the third angle, pointing toward Spain's goal I watched again and again on frame advance, but you don't have a perfect view as if Costa did hit Capdevilla, it was with his right arm which is on the other side. From this angle it does look as if Costa's arm is high, but it also looks as if Capdevilla also has his right arm up a bit, so if he got elbowed anywhere it was in the armpit or upper arm.

My feeling is Costa threw an elbow which either missed, or caught Capdevilla on the arm. This comes from a mix of the second and third angle and adds in Costa's mindset - he got dragged inside on the goal leaving a winger, Simao, to deal with Villa and from there on Costa gets increasingly chippy, going in slightly late and slightly strong. Just before the sending off he follows through on David Villa, gets into a shouting match with Villa and then does it again a minute or two later, prompting commentator Efan Ekoku to say something like "Costa's spoiling for a fight here."

Capdevilla's response - roll, look at the ref, roll again - reminds me of Busquets peeping at the ref in the Champions League Semi-Final against Inter, but intent counts more than contact and Costa's mindset certainly seemed to be building to boiling point.

Ideally I would have liked to have seen a red for Costa for intent and then a yellow for Capdevilla for being a prat, but this one where if three people watch the event you'll get nine opinions about what happened.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 08:03 AM on July 02, 2010