THE DEATH GROUP

Hello and a top of the mornin' to ya laddy! Yesterdays Euro matches in the Group of Death where just as they where said to be! The Denmark vs. Portugal game  was very exctiting and one of my favorites from the tournament so far. The game started with Portugal having a lot of the possesion and a few chances. Then on a corner kick in the 24 minute the Portugal defender Pepe headed in a goal. 1-0 Portugal! Portugal really needed a win here if they wanted a chance to escape the Group of Death. Later on in the match Luis Nani recieved the ball and then played a beautiful pass to the foot of striker Helder Postiga. Postiga calmly put it into the top right corner with a good finish. Portugal had seemed to have taken the game over! Or did they? About five minutes befor halftime the greatest striker in the world (or so he thinks) recieved a great pass that was delivered via header by Michael Krohn-Delhi. Nicklas Bendtner headed it in and the game was now 2-1 Portugal. Then in the 79th minute the best striker in the world returned again with another headed goal! Denmark had now tied up Portugal 2-2!!!!!!!!!!!!! But the game was not yet over. In the 86th minute a goal came from an unexspected hero for Portugal, Silvestre Varela! The game ended 3-2 Portugal, leaving the standings in the group Germany 3 points, Denmark 3 points and Portugal 3 points. The Netherlands with a surprising 0 points.

That leads us into the second game of the day in the death group. Germany vs Netherlands! Netherlands, after a very dissapointing performance to Denmark in their fist game, really needed a win here. That dream started looking very bad for them when in the 23rd minute the VERY VERY HAPPY Mario Gomez put Germany up 1-0. Then to make things worse for the Netherlands, in the 37th minute Mario Gomez put another one in the back of the net to make it 2-0 for Germany. The Germans had surely won it now!!!! The Germany side had a way way way way better first half then the Netherlands. After the first half, Germany really did deserve to win the game. The bright orange Netherlands left the field with their heads down. In the second half Germany was still much better then the Netherlands. Later on though in the 68th minute the Netherlands, started to look like their old selves again and in the 72nd minute the Arsenal man, Robin Van Persie struck in a goal with his "weaker" right foot. This good spell for the Netherlands lasted very short and Germany soon took control again. Arjen Robben still wanted to play when he was subbed out, but he did make a quick exit by jumping over a electronic board so Kuyt could come on quickly. Then he walked his way to the bench. At some point late in the game, the goalie for the Netherlands, made a horrible play and almost let Germany's Klose put one in. Later Boetang got a yellow card for time wasting and will be out next game for getting two yellow cards in two matches.

In transfer news the American International player Terrence Boyd has left the Bundesliga champion team Dortmund. He could not place a spot in their first team, but did score 20 goals and 5 assists to help Dortmund's reserve team to a division win! He is now going to play in Austria for Rapid Vienna. To me, since I'm from the United States, it is good to see that some of our national players are playing outside of the United States and not just in the MLS. Also like I said yesterday Arsenal is going to sign the French striker Olivier Giroud. The BBC Football page just picked up on this story yesterday, so I'm happy that I got to the story before them!! If Van Persie stayed at Arsenal, this would leave our front three all left footed, Podolski, Van Persie, Giroud.

Well that about wraps it up for todays Just Plain Football (soccer) blog!!Oh by the way Mesut Ozil had a great first two games for Germany and so did his teamate Schweinsteiger!!