Another World Cup blog

So yesterday I went down to the big screen in Swansea to watch the England-Algeria game in the evening and then when I got back one of my mates had come back after being away for a couple of days so I went over to see him and ended up staying over their til quite late and hence not doing a blog post for you guys out there to read and hopefully enjoy.

That hence means I have two full days of World Cup football to get through, which includes an England game and a Germany game. The first game of Friday was a big one in Group D as the pace-setters Germany took on a decent Serbian outfit who will have looked at the group at the start of the World Cup and thought they had a good chance of progression to at least the round of 16. Having lost their first game to a Ghanain squad who, despite a brilliant effort from their player's, will have felt especially lucky to have got all 3 points from that game after the Serbian's essentially gave them a penalty and hence the 3 points. Many people must then have been looking at this game and thought that it was an absolute given that Germany would take the 3 points and almost guarantee their place in the second round. Cue another World Cup shock then after a Milan Jovanovic goal sank the unlucky German's who unfortunately lost striker Miroslav Klose to a ridiculous red card for 2 yellow's. It has to be said though that I, and many other commentator's would agree, didn't think either of the challenges deserved a yellow card as both were ridiculously innocuous. The Serbian striker, who apparently is a Liverpool target over the summer, took his goal with aplomb, and after the goal, the Serbian's always looked more likely to score the next goal and really did deserve to get the win and the 3 point's at the end of the day.

That blew Group D wide open, but neither the Ghanains nor the Australians could claim the chance to capitalise on Germany's failure until today (Saturday) as we then followed on from the brilliant shock of Serbia, with the USA trying to go one step further than they did against England last week and get a win, 3 points and try to take a firm grip on Group C and give them a good chance of qualifying for the last 16 against the Slovenians. It was an absolutely thrilling game between two very good sides and for the first time at this World Cup, I was on the edge of my seat for every single minute of the 90+ minutes that were played. The Slovenians were the first to strike as Valter Birsa curled a stunning effort into the US net past the despairing Tim Howard. It was an absolutely brilliant goal and one that, given the fact that the ball has come in for such criticism during this tournament, I didn't think we would see for some time. We've seen the way that long shot's have curled and moved so far, and I didn't think we would see a goal of genuine quality from that distance. The second goal was also very well worked and left the United States 2-0 down going into half-time and they looked like they would struggle to get anything at all out of the game. However, after half-time, the US came out needing to show something about themselves in order to salvage their own hopes of qualification through this group, and they did that very, very well. In the 48th minute, Landon Donovan, the man who looked so impressive during his loan spell at Everton last season, found himself in bundles of space down the right hand side and calmly strolled into the box before blasting a shot past the helpless Slovenian goalkeeper. That pretty much set the tone for the second half as the American's went on the attack to try and haul themselves level which, amazingly given the first half performance, they eventually managed to do in the 82nd minute though Michael Bradley, son of American coach Bob Bradley. It was a very well-taken goal as well and the joy on the faces of the American player's was there for all to see as they celebrated jubilantly in front of the cameras. You'd be forgiven for thinking that that was the last action of a pulsating game, but you'd be very wrong as very late in the day, the American's felt sure they'd scored through Maurice Edu, only for it not to be given by the referee as he was convinced he'd seen a foul committed by one of the American's as the ball was drifted in, but to me it looked more like the Slovenian's who were doing all the pushing and pulling. That meant the final result was Slovenia 2-2 USA meaning the US just need to beat Algeria next week to be sure of their place in the final 16.

I don't even know what to say about the shambles of a performance that England put on Friday night. They were an absolute disgrace against an Algerian team who most people had seen as the "whipping boys" of Group C, and I genuinely thought the game itself was terrible, not just the result. No-one in a white shirt looked like they wanted to win the game last night, and the Algerian's must have been thanking their lucky stars as they came up against an England side seemingly devoid of all ambition and technical nous. How is it that a team like Slovenia broke the Algerian's down and yet England, with all it's star players and brilliance never seemed like they even has an opportunity?? Fabio Capello needs to seriously look at his team before next Wednesday's crunch meeting with Slovenia if he wants to avoid the embarassment of going home early with a team full of flops. The final score in this game was England 0-0 Algeria and to be honest, I don't think I need to say much more than that, not that there is actually anything else to say about this game.

Group E and Australia's crunch Group D game against Ghana was the main focal point of Saturday, and I woke upto enjoy the action as Cameroon looked to try and stay in the tournament. The first game we had was Holland-Japan from Group D and yet again we had another uninspiring, overly mundane game at this World Cup. The only bright spark was Wesley Sneijder's long-range effort which was fumbled into the back of the net by the Japanese keeper. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that it was a Rob Green-esque fumble, but I'm here to tell you that it was actually a hundred times more spectacular. As the shot fizzed in from Sneijder, the Japanese keep inexplicably went to punch the ball away and it skewed off his gloves into the opposite corner of the goal. We've heard alot about the ball being ridiculous and all the criticism of it, and to be honest I think that the criticism could be well placed in this regard as a normal ball wouldn't have skewed off in that angle regardless off whether the goalkeeper had decided to ludicrously punch or not. Final score: Holland 1-0 Japan. That result means the only two teams to have won both of their opening games at this year's World Cup thus far are Argentina and Holland.

As you can probably guess, that mean's the Ghanain's didn't defeat Australia in the second game of the day. The result of the game was in fact 1-1 which was surprising given the fact that the Australian's had first taken the lead through Brett Holman and then had Harry Kewell sent off all in the first 25 minutes. Kewell's sending off was for a blatant handball on the line as he tried to defend against a Ghanain equaliser, and yet, he gave them the perfect opportunity to claim an equalising goal and get back in a game they looked so desperate not to lose. As happened in the first game against the Serbians, Asamoah Gyan stepped up to tuck the penalty away and pull Ghana back into the game. Despite only having 10-men, the Australian's managed to restrain the Ghanain's to half chances and shots from distance and put in a brilliant defensive display to give themselves an outside chance of qualification for the next round when they play Serbia in their final group game, although the Australians will know they have to go out and win that one, as will the Ghanian's against the German's. After all, with 4 points, the Ghanian's now top Group D and realistically stand every chance of going through, but they can still be denied their place and will be wary of this going into their final game.

Saturday's last game saw Cameroon fighting for their World Cup place against Denmark. If the Danes won the game, Cameroon would be out of the running as they'd have 0 point with Denmark and Japan both on 3 yet they would still have to play each other. After their dismal performance against Japan in the first game, could the Cameroonian's wake themselves up in time to stop themselves from falling our of the World Cup, or would the Danes, ravaged by Holland in their first game, be able to put their West African foes to the sword?? Well the Cameroonian's certainly started the brightest as they scored their first goal of the 2010 World Cup through Samuel Eto'o in the opening 10 minutes. It was a brilliant move well finished by a striker who many people would agree is absolutely world class and has been for much of his career, and it showed that how much the Cameroonian's wanted to be in this World Cup. I genuinely thought that after the goal, they would push on and destroy a Danish team that had looked short of quality in their opening games, but surprisingly the Danes managed to get a goal against the run of play through Nicklas Bendtner. Then, in the second half, Dennis Rommedahl finished a brilliant run very cooly to give Denmark a 2-1 lead and shock the Cameroonian's. It wasn't long before they started to throw everything at Denmark, but unfortunately, they couldn't secure a way back into the game. This mean's that Cameroon are the first team to exit the 2010 World Cup and Paul Le Guen, Samuel Eto'o and Co. will have some big question's to answer in the Cameroonian media over the next couple of day's.

So, drinking game time again. As usual, one will be provided. I know this is a culmination of two days football, so technically I should do two, but I do have reasons why I'm not which I shall divulge to you now: 1. I'm about to watch a film and the people I am watching it with will not want me typing away. 2. I don't want to run out of rules for you guys. 3. This post has gone absurdly long for some reason. 4. Most people won't be still reading, hence these reasons don't really matter. The drinking game for today is the "BECKHAM!" rule. Whenever a team win's a free kick in the opponent's half, everyone playing must shout "BECKHAM!" outloud and the last person to shout it must do the assigned drinking punishment that was agreed before kick-off. Fairly simplistic, yet hugely enjoyable.

That's it folks. I have come to the end of another blog post and although this has taken me the better half of 2 hours to finish, I'm glad I did it as I know you guys will enjoy reading it. As I said above, if you're still reading at this point, you must be hugely dedicated and I cannot thank you enough for continuing to read through all the waffle. Cheers for reading, we'll defo have a post up tomorrow night and so I'll see you then. Thank's guys