Very disappointing. This is what happens when you don’t play to finish off a team that you’ve beaten. There are few things I despise more than a team that has complete control of the ball, but is content to just take the occasional half-hearted chance here and there rather than bear down and finish off the weaker opponent.
Champions are killers. People who try to win games by holding on are failing to understand that they are planting the seeds of their own future failures. If dropping the two points in the 95th minute cost the Swiss a place in the knockout stages, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
The USA played a much more aggressive, much more impressive game in taking apart Paraguay 4-1. But it’s obvious why Pele’s prediction about African success in the World Cup never came to pass; many, if not most of their best players have been stolen by the European teams and the USA.
I don’t think this is a healthy development. The games already don’t sell out. How long are people going to care if Nigerians in one jersey can beat Nigerians in a different jersey? If you’re going to do that, why not just watch the Champion’s League?