Tumbangkan Swedia 2-0, Rusia Lolos

Rusia akhirnya berhasil melaju ke perempatfinal Euro 2008 setelah dalam pertandingan terakhir Grup D mengatasi Swedia 2-0 lewat gol Roman Pavlyuchenko dan Andrei Arshavin.

Karena merupakan pertandingan penentuan siapa yang berhak melaju ke delapan besar, maka laga yang dipanggungkan di Stadion Tivoli Neu, Innsbruck, Kami (19/6/2008) dinihari WIB ini, berlangsung ketat dan berimbang

Rusia akhirnya menjadi tim yang lebih baik setelah Pavlyuchenko menjebol gawang lawan di menit ke-24 dan Arshavin menggandakannya di menit ke-50..

Jalannya pertandingan
Menit 19, playmaker Rusia Andrei Arshavin nyaris membawa timnya unggul. Dari sisi kiri lapangan, Arshavin melepas umpan silang yang mengarah ke gawang. Dengan sigap, Andreas Isaksson menepis bola keluar dan sepak pojok diberikan.

Dari tendangan sudut, bola disambut dengan sepakan voli kaki kiri dari Yuri Zhirkov. Namun bola deras dari Zhirkov masih menyamping di sebelah kiri gawang Swedia.

Rusia akhirnya mencetak gol pembuka di menit ke-23. Gol ini bermula dari pergerakan Andrei Arshavin di sisi kanan yang kemudian mengumpan kepada Alexander Anyukov. Sodoran bola dari Anyukov disambut Pavlyuchenko dengan tendangan yang menaklukkan Isaksson. Rusia memimpin 1-0.

Menit 26, Swedia hampir saja membalas. Bermula dari crossing Mikael Nilsson dari sisi kiri, Henrik Larsson menyambutnya dengan sundulan. Bola hasil tandukan Larsson menabrak mistar gawang Rusia yang dijaga Igor Akinfeev.

Rusia seharusnya sudah memimpin 2-0 di menit 36. Namun sepakan kaki kanan Pavlyuchenko yang bekerjasama dengan Arshavin, membentur mistar Swedia. Bola mental yang coba disambar Zhirkov pun masih ditepis Isaksson.

Tiga menit sebelum jeda, sebuah peluang Swedia juga gagal menjadi gol. Fredrik Ljungberg yang mendapat operan pendek dari Zlatan Ibrahimovich di dalam kotak penalti, melakukan sepakan keras ke arah gawang. Namun Akinfeev bertindak cepat dengan menepis bola.

Di masa injury time babak pertama, Nilsson juga gagal mencetak gol. Berada dalam situasi one on one menghadapi Akinfeev, bola tendangan Nilsson ditepis oleh kiper Rusia itu dan hanya menghasilkan tendangan penjuru.

Lima menit setelah kick-off babak kedua, Rusia menambah golnya. Lewat sebuah serangan balik, Zhirkov lolos di sisi kiri daerah pertahanan Swedia dan kemudian mengirim umpan mendatar untuk Arshavin. Dengan satu sodokan, Arshavin menjebol gawang Isaksson. 2-0 untuk Rusia.

Menit ke-58, sebuah umpan panjang dari Petter Hansson diteruskan oleh Larsson dengan tendangan gunting ke arah gawang. Namun Akinfeev mampu mencegah bola masuk ke gawangnya.

Arshavin seharusnya bisa menambah koleksi golnya di menit 65. Dari serangan balik, Arshavin mengejar bola hanya dengan kawalan Fredrik Stoor di dalam kotak penalti Swedia. Arshavin kalah cepat karena Stoor membuang bola. Sepak pojok.

Menit 79, Konstantin Zyrianov gagal menyegel kemenangan Rusia. Menguasai bola di luar kotak penalti, Zyrianov menembak dan bola yang membentur kaki bek Swedia membentur tiang kanan Isaksson.

Bola muntah memang masih dikuasai para pemain, tapi serangan para punggawa 'Beruang Merah' gagal saat Arshavin terjebak off-side.

Dua menit setelahnya, dua peluang dari Pavlyuchenko gagal bersarang di gawang Swedia. Yang pertama, tandukan dengan memanfaatkan umpan silang dari kanan jatuh tepat di pelukan Isaksson. Yang kedua, menerima bola dari Ivan Saenko, Pavlyuchenko yang berdiri bebas tidak tenang dan terburu-buru. Akibatnya, tendangan Pavlyuchenko masih menyamping.

Di menit ke-88, Arshavin lagi-lagi gagal mencetak gol tambahan. Mendapat umpan terobosan dari tengah, Arshavin tinggal berhadapan dengan Isaksson dan dikejar Hansson dari samping. Bola pelan ditembakkan Arshavin, namun Hansson dengan cepat menghadang bola dan membuangnya.

Saat wasit meniup peluit panjang tanda usainya pertandingan, Rusia tetap berhak atas kemenangan 2-0 sekaligus memastikan langkah ke perempatfinal untuk bersua Belanda.

Susunan pemain:
Rusia: Akinfeev; Anyukov, Kolodin, Ignashevich, Zhirkov; Semak, Zyryanov, Semshov, Bilyaletdinov (Saenko 66'); Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko (Bystrov 89')

Swedia: Isaksson; Stoor, Mellberg, Hansson, Nilsson (Allback 79'); Elmander, Svensson, Andersson (Kallstrom 56'), Ljungberg; Ibrahimovic, Larsson.

Sumber: detiksport

Tekuk Yunani 2-1, Spanyol Sukses

Superioritas Spanyol berlanjut di laga ketiga Grup D. Menghadapi Yunani di Salzburg, Matador unggul 2-1 dengan Daniel Guiza menjadi penentu kemenangan.

Hasil ini menempatkan Spanyol mencatat rekor 100 persen, dengan tak sekalipun kalah ataupun seri dalam perjalanan mereka di babak grup, sekaligus memastikan diri menjadi juara grup.

Berbeda dengan Spanyol, Yunani malah tak sekalipun mencatat hasil memuaskan selama menjalani tiga laga di Grup D. Tidak satupun poin bisa didapat, alias tim besutan Leo Beenhakker itu selalu takluk atas lawan-lawannya.

Dalam pertandingan tersebut, Spanyol sempat tertinggal 0-1 lewat gol Angelos Charisteas di menit 42. Baru di menit 60 Reben De La Red bisa menyamakan kedudukan, sebelum Daniel Guiza menentukan sukses 100 persen Spanyol di menit 88.

Melangkah ke perempatfinal, Spanyol akan menghadapi juara dunia 2006 Italia untuk memperebutkan tiket ke semifinal. Rusia, yang menjadi runner up akan menghadapi Belanda di babak delapan besar. (Mohammad Yanuar Firdaus)

Sumber: detikSport

technorati

Technorati Profile

Obama Rebukes McCain Camp on Terrorism Criticism

A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

The rival camps engaged in a war of words Tuesday that echoed the 2004 presidential campaign in which President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans argued that Democratic nominee John Kerry was soft on terror, a claim that resonated with voters and helped propel Bush to re-election. Democrats complained that the GOP was using the politics of fear.

The Republican argument proved less effective in 2006 when then Bush adviser Karl Rove said the Democrats had a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world and Republicans had a post-Sept. 11 terror attacks perspective. In November of that year, Democrats captured enough congressional seats to seize control of the House and Senate.

On his campaign plane, Obama told reporters that Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because President Bush's strategy toward fighting terror has not succeeded.

At issue were comments Obama made in an interview with ABC News Monday in which he spoke approvingly of the successful prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Obama was asked how he could be sure the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies are not crucial to protecting U.S. citizens.

Obama said the government can crack down on terrorists "within the constraints of our Constitution." He mentioned the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees, contrasting their treatment with the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

"And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo," Obama said. "What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center — we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.

"And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. ...

"We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws," Obama said.

Obama agreed with the Supreme Court ruling last week that detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts. McCain derided the ruling as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

McCain aides criticized Obama for talking about using the criminal justice system to prosecute terrorists.

"Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation a September 10th mind-set ... He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face," McCain national security director Randy Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call.

Former CIA director James Woolsey, who is advising the McCain campaign, concurred, saying Obama has "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism ... and toward dealing with prisoners captured overseas who have been engaged in terrorist attacks against the United States."

The Obama campaign countered with its own conference call in which Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Richard Clarke, a counterterrorism official in Republican and Democratic administrations, argued the McCain campaign was emulating Rove.

"I'm a little disgusted by the attempts of some of my friends on the McCain campaign to use the same old, tired tactics ... to drive a wedge between Americans for partisan advantage and to frankly frighten Americans," Clarke said.

Kerry accused McCain of "defending a policy that is indefensible" by siding with Bush's policies, particularly with respect to the Iraq war.

Obama said Republicans could be counted on to do "what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as club to make the American people afraid to win elections." He said he didn't think it would work this time.

By NEDRA PICKLER and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
From: Yahoo