There are moments in a World Cup semifinal that define careers. For Tottenham Hotspur's Pedro Porro, this was one of them.Spain are now two goals to t...
There are moments in a World Cup semifinal that define careers. For Tottenham Hotspur's Pedro Porro, this was one of them.Spain are now two goals to the good against France inside a raucous stadium, and the architect of their second goal was a full back playing with the swagger of a seasoned striker. It was a sweeping move, a beautiful exchange of passes that opened up a French defence that suddenly looked porous. The ball arrived at Porro's feet in the box, and he did not hesitate. With the poise of a centre forward and the technique of a man who practices that exact finish every day, he thumped the ball past Mike Maignan. The net bulged. The Spanish bench erupted.But let's talk about the defending. Or rather, the lack of it. While Porro's finish merits all the slow motion replays and hyperbolic praise on social media, the real story for France is the alarming lapse in concentration from a Premier League defender who, frankly, went to sleep. You see it occasionally at club level, a momentary switch off, a failure to track a runner. But in a World Cup semifinal, with the score at 1. 0, there is no room for such sloppiness. The full back in question let Porro drift into that dangerous area, failed to sense the danger, and by the time he realised his mistake, the ball was already nestling in the corner. This is the kind of error that gets you dropped. This is the kind of error that costs you a place in the final.It is harsh to single one man out when the entire French defensive structure was caught ball watching, but the truth is often brutal in elite football. France had been enjoying spells of possession, trying to find a way through Spain's disciplined low block, but that goal has knocked the stuffing out of them. You can see it in their body language. The shoulders have dropped. The urgency has gone.Can France find a way back Of course they can. They have world class players all over the pitch. But when you gift a side as tactically flexible and ruthlessly efficient as Spain a two goal lead, you are asking for trouble. The second half is going to be a test of character, a real squeaky bum time for Didier Deschamps and his players. Porro, meanwhile, has just written his name into Spanish football folklore. And that Premier League defender He'll be watching the replays for weeks, wondering what the hell he was thinking.
