So today we continued with Italy's Group (Group F) in the morning and then we had a full Group G schedule, the group commonly known as the Group of death.
Let's start as we did this morning then with the match between New Zealand and Slovakia. As I stated last night, the impetus was there for both team's to go out and try and win this game after Italy's 1-1 draw with Paraguay left the opportunity to take early charge of Group F in the 2o10 World Cup. It seemed very much like both teams knew this aswell, and for once at this World Cup, we had an open enterprising games in which both teams looked like they wanted to go and win it. The game didn't, however, really explode until the second half when, just after the 50-minute mark, Slovakia opened the scoring and seemed like they were going to go on to lead the Group at this early stage. However, 30 seconds before the end of the match, New Zealand secured a well-deserved point after a brilliant ball into the box was met by Winston Reid who glanced the ball into the bottom corner past the despairing Slovakian keeper. It's a brilliant result for both teams on the face of it as it still means that they both stand a chance of qualifying through the group. Let's be honest, Italy looked anything but secure against Paraguay and so they are not definitely through yet in what could be a very interesting group come the final group games.
The second game of the day looked set to be a cracker as Portugal took on the Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Ivoire if you'd rather, in the so-called Group of death. Unfortunately, neither team showed any real ambition and it was a very, very poor game. Both teams star players, Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, and Didier Drogba for the Ivory Coast, had very little impact on the game, although to be fair that may be slightly harsh on Drogba who didn't start the game and was brought on way too late to really affect the game in any way. For me now, both team's will be looking to score heavily against North Korea in their respective group games against them to stand any chance of going through to the round of 16. Neither of them look very likely to have an impact against many people's tournament favourites Brazil, and so it seems as though both teams will be looking at North Korea as the whipping boys. For Portugal it would be a relative disaster if they didn't come through the group stages and I am very, very surprised that they didn't show more ambition to go out and win the game. The one highlight I will say was Ronaldo's shot from distance that struck a post that many people thought would spark life into the game, but unfortunately it didn't.
The showpiece of tonight was the Brazil-North Korea game. Before the game, we knew very little about the North Koreans and it was quite embarassing for the studio presenter's and commentator's as they really didn't know what to say about the team. It says something about the most secretive nation in the world that we didn't even know anything about the team that they were sending out at a World Cup final's, and I actually found it quite funny that no-one knew anything about them. We soon did though. As the North Koreans stood for their national anthem, the camera panned to what is sure to be an absolutely iconic image of an over-emotional Jong Tae Se visibly crying with pride as he prepared to represent his nation in their first group game against the Brazilians. He was billed as their star player, and boy, did he live upto that tag. During the first-half, the North Korean's rarely looked overwhelmed and indeed at times looked almost equal to the skill and ingenuity of their Brazilian counterparts, with the aforementioned Jong Tae Se looking very, very good indeed. The second half was very similar to the first half, that was until Maicon finally broke the resolve of the brave North Korean's with a cross that inadvertently, it seemed, went in. After that, I truly expected the Brazilian's to go on and score heavily, but even after Elano added a beautifully worked second for the skillful team from South America, the North Korean's didn't simply lie down and let the Brazilian's roll them over. Far be it from that, they actually went up the other end and, sensationally, in the 89th minute, scored a wonderful goal that was cheered raucously in the pub that I was in. Indeed, the quizmaster was heard to remark, "North Korea have just scored. And it was a bloody beautiful one aswell." To me, I think everyone wanted to see them score after the heroic performance they had put forth. The man who scored was Ji Yun-Nam after the hero of the hour Jong Tae Se gided a beautiful header into his path for him to stride through and smash past Julio Cesar in the Brazilian goal. I have to admit, Portugal and the Ivory Coast must now be looking at their remaining games and cursing under their collective breath's. I am now predicting the North Korean's to progress from this group, even though I know that is an absolutely massive shout, but after tonight, I can actually see them beating both the other team's in the group. I guess there's always hope eh?
So now for the drinking ditty I promised you yesterday. I am going to try and bring you a new rule every day, well that is until I run out of any rules that I've made up or heard about. Tonight's special is the "TACTICS!" rule. This rule basically comprises of shouting the word "tactics" everytime you see a close-up of one of the team's coach's on the screen. As you can imagine, thus far in the World Cup, this rule has been highly influential in World Cup drinking rules as there have been many close-up's of team's national coach's during the many boring games we have had. The game obviously has a drinking facet which I will now explain. You must have two or more people to play, and the last person to shout it when there is a close-up, must drink. The usual punishment is 2 sips of a drink, but I'll leave you to judge it as and when you decide to use the rule.
I hope you have enjoyed today's look at the World Cup and indeed enjoy using the "TACTICS!" rule. Probably won't have a post tomorrow as it is my mate's birthday and so I will be getting slightly inebriated with him to celebrate, but I will be back Thrusday night with all Wednesday and Thursday's action, and possibly two drinking ditty's, depending on whether I think you guys deserve it. Obviously that's a joke as you always deserve it for taking the time to read this and be so very nice in your comment's. Catch you later guys and enjoy tomorrow's action. Come on Honduras (my sweep team, I don't hold out much hope of winning the £32 prize). Uhh so yeah, Cheer's and see you Thursday
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