The stadium in Brasilia is surprisingly a sea of red and yellow in support of Belgium. It was expected to be filled with blue and white in support of Argentina, since Argentina is so close to Brazil locationwise, but since Brazil and Argentina are rivals, maybe all the Brazilians in the stands were dressed in red, hoping Argentina would lose.
Personally, I’m glad most are supporting the Belgians. Argentina is the better team and if Belgium manages to beat them, that means there’s less competition for the countries I’m cheering for, Brazil and Germany.
And even though a lot of other people are wishing for a south American final between Brazil and Argentina, I’m not. I’d love it if Germany and Brazil didn’t have to worry about Argentina’s quick feet.
Belgium has done really well this World Cup though. They have a history of never making it past the round of 16, except in 1986 when they made it to the semi-finals, so making it to the quarterfinals this year is a huge accomplishment. Argentina, on the other hand, have been champions twice before in 1978 and 1986.
The game begins and Belgium gets the ball first. However, in as early as the eighth minute, Argentina takes possession and their forward, captain and star player, Messi, passes over to the centre and Argentina’s other forward, Higuain, takes the ball and scores in the left side of the net, putting Argentina up by one.
In my opinion, that goal partly happened because of poor defence by the Belgians. The defencemen were all there and standing in the right places; they just didn’t move or make any effort to get the ball out of there. They all just turned around and watched the ball go in the net. Seriously Belgium. It’s time to wake up. Argentina are the ones dressed in the blue and white striped pyjamas, not you.
The other Quarterfinal matches started off in the same way as well. Each game had goals early on in the match and those were the goals that helped win the game. Right now, it’s looking like Argentina is heading for the same fate because of their goal early on.
Belgium has a few shots on net, but are unable to score. They’re also the first to get a corner kick. Instead of scoring, they just get pushed down a lot.
I love the shots that Argentina take on net. The Belgians just stand there and watch. I wish someone would just shake their shoulders and scream, “Don’t you know you’re supposed to be the PLAYERS and NOT the spectators?!”
Argentina are the reason for a lot of fouls, mostly because of Messi’s intense play. Messi plays messy. Haha, okay that was bad.
Bad jokes aside though, Messi is playing really well. Every time he gets possession of the ball, he runs it up and has no problem dancing his way around defenders while keeping the ball in his possession. If I were the Belgians, I would be scared when Messi messes with the ball. … Okay, I’ll stop.
Di Maria, one of Argentina’s forwards, keeps getting hurt and knocked down. Eventually, the coach decides to pull him off and sub someone else in his place. I’m not really sure why they decided to pull him off. He didn’t look like he was in that much pain since he was walking easy enough, but maybe they wanted to take him off before he got even more hurt.
Argentina receives a free kick right in front of the net because the Belgian defenders tripped Messi in a frantic effort to kick the ball out of the penalty box. Messi takes the shot, but it’s too high and too wide. It soared up and over and he misses the net completely.
Belgium takes a really good shot on net by a header but misses just to the left. You can only turn your neck so much, I guess.
Argentina get their first corner in the 42nd min, but Belgium boots it out of there.
Two minutes of additional time is added and the first half ends with Argentina in the lead.
The second half begins and Argentina gets possession first. The first yellow card of the match goes to Hazard, one of Belgium’s star players for pushing. It looked like it was just an accident though in his haste to get the ball.
Higuain of Argentina gets an amazing breakaway. Somehow, he’s able to get past four Belgian defenders. He shoots and the ball just misses the net by hitting the crossbar. Seriously, it was so close.
Belgium has a few really good shots on net, but are unable to score. They seem to really be fighting to tie up the game.
Alderwiereld, a defender for Belgium, gets a yellow card for tripping and now he misses their next match. Biglia of Argentina gets a yellow card for just standing in the wrong place. The Belgian player ran into him and fell by himself but the referee thought that Biglia pushed him I guess.
In the five minutes of additional time, the game gets super suspenseful. Belgium is scrambling to score and they take a shot on net, but unfortunately it was just too high.
The game ends and Argentina wins 1-0! Surprisingly, Argentina had only 48 per vent possession and they still were able to win. Argentina had only 11 fouls, while Belgium had 14.
Even though I really wanted to eliminate the competition and have Belgium win, Argentina truly did deserve to win. I’ll admit it. They were constantly focused, on the attack and now I’m scared for the futures of Brazil and Germany. Okay, I’m gonna go wallow in my bitterness now.
