When I spent eight days inside Machida Police Station, Tokyo, I predicted every match - with one of my cellmate’s World Cup books as the only guide (which was in Japanese and impossible to read.) So here is the third instalment of Jimu’s predictions for Germany 2006. To read Parts 1 & 2 click here. Keep an eye out for the final instalment - coming soon!

Quarter-finals

England v Holland 2-1
A blinding game of passion and technique - the Dutch take a smart lead through Arjen Robben, but are eventually overrun by the pummelling might of the England midfield quartet. Ashley Cole equalises before that man Rooney takes us into the last four.

Czech Republic v France 1-0
A tiresome effort won by a contentious free-kick that cannons in off Franck Ribery’s shin. Absolutely nothing else of note to report.

Sweden v Argentina 1-3
The Swede’s have ridden their luck to reach this stage, and are justly undone by Juan Roman Riquelme’s only decent World Cup performance: he orchestrates a Messi brace and scores the third from the spot. Henrik Larsson marks his last game, in the copycat Brazilian jersey, with a yellow card and a missed sitter. Juan Pablo Aimar does not feature.

Italy v Spain 2-0
Massive Spanish hopes crumble as the efficiency and clinical finishing of the Azzurri take the blue boys into the last four. Spain dominate the first-half but Raul compounds a miserable season by fluffing a penalty, whereas the Italians score within five minutes of the restart through chunky Gattusso. Andrea Pirlo then hammers the coffin screws with a 30-yard peach.

Semi-finals

England v Italy 1-2
England run out of steam, luck and Swedish meddling as Filippo Inzaghi (after a so far meaningless World Cup) bags a brace to put the Azzurri into a seemingly unassailable two-goal lead. England reply in the 70th minute through Lampard after fine work by J. Cole, but it is inevitably too little, too late. The end comes down on another tournament of unfulfilled hyperbole.

Argentina v Czech Republic 4-1
An astonishing performance by the South Americans who tear the Czechs to shreds and wander about the pitch with Czech-flesh hanging from their incisors. The boy Messi is guaranteed a beautiful wife after scoring another pair, whilst Hernan Crespo and Carlos Tevez add to their weighty reputations with a couple of fluky headers. Juan Pablo Aimar again does not feature. At half-time, with the score at 0-0, Pavel Nedved announces his immediate retirement from international football.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 8:35 am and is filed under Postcard from Kawasaki. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Return to home page.