Z/Web

A lackluster first half with no scoring led into a second half with two beauties. Alaves took the lead mid-way through the half, when a clever backheel gave the ball to an open player who put in a great cross which Ivan Alsono put away. As the game swung in Alaves’ favor, they pressured and twice nearly scored again except for terrific saves by Valencia’s keeper. One of these resulted in a quick counter by Valencia and John Carew took a splendid feed from Captain Mendieta and slipped the ball under the keeper to equalize. Final: 1-1.

On the low-end of South American soccer, I didn’t expect much, but was pleasantly surprised. Ecuador took the lead almost immediately with a terrific finish inside the box by youngster Kaviedes: he took a long pass down on his chest and slotted the ball past the keeper on his second touch when the ball dropped to his feet. About twenty minutes later, Ecuador got their second on a long bomb from Wellington Sanchez that the Venezuelan keeper magnificently bobbled. A few much contested free kicks for each side did nothing to change the scoreline, so Ecuador went into the locker room at the half two up. But in the second half, Ecuador’s poor defense let in a pass inside the box and Arango finished it. There were calls for a Venezuelan penalty kick moments later, but the ref didn’t call it. Then Venezuela hit the post, followed by a dangerous free kick opportunity that was blocked by the wall. The game got rough and extremely tense as the clock wound down, but in the end, Ecuador’s slim lead was all they needed. Final: 2-1 Ecuador.

I’d never even heard of Nijemegen, so I figured mighty Feyenoord had it in the bag, and I was right. Feyenoord had most of the offense in the early going, and a great cross in the 25th minute was mistakenly knocked in by the Nijemegen defense. Ten minutes later Emerton was left unmarked with the ball. He was a good distance from the goal, but he chipped the keeper perfectly, putting Feyenoord up by two. In the second half, Emerton was awesome: he took the ball at mid-field and ran through the entire defense and single-handedly put the ball into the goal! A bit later, Nijmegen did a little damage control with a header off a corner kick to cut the lead to two. But that was all they could do, so the game finished, as predicted, with Feyenoord easily winning.

Early on this game looked unpredictable as lowly Verona went up 1-0 on a penalty kick in the fourth minute. But Roma took over after that, with Candela scoring in the 32nd minute on a great curling shot through a crowd of defenders and into the goal, and Totti putting in an easy goal in first half injury time when he was left completely unmarked at the top of the box. The second half was more of the same for poor Verona as Roma dominated. Thirteen minutes in Batistuta scored on a terrific free kick, blasting it through the wall and into the upper corner. Amazing, and worth the price of admission right there. Suddenly, Verona came alive, pressuring Roma with a long period of shots, free kicks, and corners, but they couldn’t actually score. Then, with just minutes left, Batistuta finished them off with another goal, a simple tap-in from a cross just outside of the keeper’s reach. Final: 4-1 Roma.

Ipswich, promoted this year, has been leading a charmed life, and is high up the table. Coventry, however, is already fighting relegation. Today the trend continued. After a zero-zero first half in which Coventry dominated, both teams fought with more determination in the second, but neither could score. About the most exciting things to happen was when an Ipswich defender crashed himself into his goalpost making a diving header save and when Coventry hit the woodwork on a free kick. The score was still nothing-nothing when regulation ended, when suddenly, out of nowhere, Ipswich’s Wilnis knocked in a beautiful glancing header to win the game. Soccer’s a crazy, unfair game. Coventry lose at home.