SPAIN VS. PORTUGAL IN SEMIFINAL

[Roy Hersh]

What do you think? Will Ronaldo be enough to keep Spain at bay? This is going to be one tough futbol game, it all begins in 5 minutes.

[Eric Menchen]

While I hate to see a game decided on a shootout (why do the insist on still calling that part penalty kicks? I understand they are from the penalty kick spot, but there is no penalty here. Or is the penalty of not winning in regulation time?-) ), it seems Spain was the dominant force even before the shootout.

[Roy Hersh]

For the entirety of the 90 minutes of regulation time; Portugal matched Spain lick for lick. In OT, the first period was about even too. But the 2nd 15 min. OT period was significantly dominated by Spain which did not bode well for the penalty kick segment. I question the Portuguese coach for two things:

a. allowing Spain to kick first during the penalty kick phase (yes, a misnomer for sure!).

b. Holding Cristiano back to kick the 5th ball. A plan that failed miserably. As soon as Spain's first kick was blocked, Ronaldo should have gone and likely would have scored putting Portugal in a critical advantage early on in that session and putting a TON more pressure on Spain. It is easy to second guess strategy of a coach, but I just did not understand his whatsoever.


I believe that he is going to be judged harshly in the Portuguese press.

[Ray Barnes]

I'm not an expert on this sport (or any other), but it looked like the Portugese side was drawing most of the penalties and yellow cards from the Turkish referee. When Portugal had a 3-on-2 break late in the game and failed to register a shot on goal, the fix was in for them (IMHO). Spain came very close to scoring in extra time, and had the game gone into sudden death first goal wins format past 120 minutes, Spain would likely have scored anyway. Nonetheless the game was well contested.