Some random observations after the third group fixtures:

Chile 1-2 Spain: Chile’s manic attack played quite compact in the midfield to start things off, hoping not to let any easy goals from the creative Spanish. Spain played the same, with Fernando Torres as the target man up top and David Villa the withdrawn forward on the left. Chile had the speedy players that moved the ball very quickly but not very organized, while Spain sustained their attack a lot better with combination passes. Chile’s rearguard looked a lot less organized from the beginning, losing their shape and discipline on several Spanish services in the box. Chile’s attack was not so much direct as much as it was long, sending very long passes behind the Spanish defense hoping somebody would run onto the ball, but they did see more of the ball early on. Three yellow cards on Chile in the first 20 minutes made defending a chore from then on. A fatal error by the Chilean goalkeeper coming way too far out of the penalty area to defend a long Spanish pass got Spain off the schneid when Villa sent a 50-yarder into the empty goal. After that Chile’s attack got more frenetic and less organized (hard to imagine since it wasn’t that organized to begin with), and when that happened they lost any semblance of discipline in the back, resulting in another fatal error and a beautiful Spanish goal by Andres Iniesta on combination passing ending with a divine assist from Xavi. On the score Chilean Marco Estrada was given his second yellow of the game, resulting in a sending off that put Chile down to ten men for the last 54 minutes, a hole they just couldn’t overcome. Amazingly, after halftime Chile got more disciplined in attack (where were they hiding that), becoming more compact in the center, putting passes together and scoring a goal in front of the penalty area on a deft shot from substitute Rodrigo Millar. Not sure what happened but Spain began to get sloppy in possession. Spain still had the better possession and better chances on goal, but Chile did put several scares on them with some direct shots on the Spanish goal. Despite the loss, Madd Props to Chile for winning two games in this group and getting through to the next round; and Big Ups to Spain for getting past the upset to Switzerland and winning the group.

Switzerland 0-0 Honduras: No surprise that Switzerland started out with no offensive urgency whatsoever. Honduras actually showed more adventure in attack to start the match than the Swiss, infrequently getting the ball on the flanks and sending service into the box, but as has been the case all tournament long the Hondurans just couldn’t get on the end of anything. As usual the Swiss were a closed vault door in the back; even with Steven Lichtsteiner in the center of the backline instead of Philippe Senderos the Swiss just would not give up their defensive discipline. Switzerland’s inability to establish anybody up front that could finish for the past two World Cups was evident today. On several occasions Honduras lost their shape in the back but neither Blaise N’Kufo, Eric Derdiyok nor Alexander Frei could finish anything. Hard to imagine a team that has 56% of the possession could be this stultifyingly unimaginative going forward, but this has characterized the Swiss for their last seven World Cup fixtures. Honduras didn’t play with much better creative imagination but looked good the few times they had the possession because of how bad Switzerland was when they had the ball. As a result, Honduras almost stole a win in the 71st minute, but keeper Diego Benaglio denied a wide-open Edgar Alvarez with a brilliant one-handed save. Only after that did Switzerland play with any urgency, and they finally began to pound the ball upfield on the flanks. Still, the better chances were taken by Honduras because in the last 20 minutes Switzerland were pushing forward in numbers, leaving the back vulnerable. In the end it was the inability for both sides to do anything in attack all tournament long that cost both teams a satisfying result. A very winnable game for Switzerland went begging because they couldn’t turn its domination of possession into quality scoring opportunities. Arguably the best defense the World Cup has ever seen (1 goal allowed in seven World Cup matches) is going home because they haven’t been able to find a reliable finisher in more than 24 years.

-daveydoug