Matt's World Cup Diary

Day 11 – Brazil v Ghana – Dortmund

So on to our last game and we were fairly hopeful about this one – Ghana had given both Italy and Czech’s good games and so maybe they could be the first team to make Brazil play at full stretch. Togo and Ghana border each other and their flags are fairly similar, but we decided against going in Togo regalia, just in case there was some civil war between the 2 countries we didn’t know about.

Another minor scare on the way in, firstly Simon got ID checked and this time it didn’t look like they were going to let him in. Luckily his ticket had my Dad’s name on it and as I waved a passport with the same surname at the security they eventually got so confused they let him in anyway. I then get stopped for the heinous crime of having a whistle (which I’d been given just outside) with a non-FIFA approved sponsors name on it – not quite sure how this was going to be seen in the middle of the giant South Bank at the WestFallen stadium but took it off for an easy life.

Any chance of a shock result deteriorated rapidly when Fat Boy got put through in the first couple of minutes and did his admittedly fine stepover shimmy thing to dump the keeper on his arse and score. This meant Brazil were happy to sit back and see what Ghana could do and although Ghana had plenty of possession, they tended to over-elaborate and never really got enough shots in. Still they were unlucky to concede a 2nd to fat boy B just before halftime, and were even more incensed when the video screen clearly showed the goal was offside and despite even the ref and linesman seeing it as well they were unable to change the decision. FIFA obviously had a word after that as the screen concentrated on close-ups of Brazilian women for the entire 2nd half.

Ghana continued to press without really looking likely to score and there misery was compounded when the centre-forward got a 2nd booking for diving, after this Brazil really could have scored at will, but kept mucking it up with the final ball after various flicks and flips. Three nil was a bit harsh on Ghana and we did think the immobile fat blokes upfront tactic might rebound on Brazil against a team who were able to pressure the midfielders a bit more.