I must firstly apologise as I said it would be daily, although the shrewd amongst you must have noticed this is the first for a couple of days. The reason for this is twofold. James Corden's World Cup Live has been entertaining to watch after matches, and after that, I have usually gotten a bit drunk with my mates doing our World Cup drinking rules to come over and chuck you guys a post. Apologies for that. Tomorrow I may do my blog as soon as the last match finishes so that I can then have a drink safe in the knowledge that I have done my bit to keep you up to date.
So, let's start with Saturday. We had Greece-South Korea, Argentina-Nigeria, and the big one, England-USA. There was very little to talk about in the Greece-South Korea match with the only real talking point coming in the form of the scoreline, which saw the Greeks floored 2-0 by their Asian Group B rivals. If I'm being honest, I expected to see a little more invention and guile than I saw from the Greeks, but nevertheless, the match was half-decent without any real big talking points. Argentina-Nigeria could probably fit into the same bracket as that match, a match which saw the Argentinians, led by Messi, Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain triumph 1-0 over the Nigerians in what I would describe as a so-so match. There were flairs of brilliance from Argentina's flair player's, but it wasn't anything to light up the imagination just yet. So, onto the main one in Saturday's line up, England-USA. After the smug way in which ITV appeared to build up to the game, I was very happy to see the US earn a hard fought 1-1 draw against their coloniser's. It was a match that most certainly lived upto it's billing as a high-profile match, but a match that will very much be defined by one man - Robert Green. The West Ham stopper, who was so instrumental in his side's fight against the drop last season, unfortunately made one very big mistake, fumbling the ball into the net for the United States equaliser after Clint Dempsey's tame shot. That is a mistake that could prove very, very costly throughout this World Cup, that is IF Fabio Capello deems it so bad that it could impact on his confidence. He did make a fine save from Jozy Altidore in the second half, but it remain's to be seen whether Green can retain his place in the starting line-up for the next game. One negative that has come from it is that apparently, having seen his fumble, FIFA have picked Rob Green to be one of the random drug test's that takes place during the World Cup. I think he'll be fine, but it could be hugely detrimental if FIFA find something untoward in Green's sample.
Sunday started with a very mediocre game between Algeria and Slovenia, where the possible prize awaiting the winner would be to take control of Group C after England's disappointing performance the night before. The game was eventually settled, in Slovenia's favour, by a Robert Koren winner, however the fact that it was a goal relied heavily on the mistake of Algeria keeper Chaouchi. It seemed like he msut save it, but as has happened at this World Cup, it simply went through him, and I wonder how many people are already looking to blame the ball for the bad form that has been exhibited. We then had Serbia and Ghana which looked like it was set to be an absolute cracker, but in reality was a bit of a snore fest. Ghana eventually won it 1-0 thanks to a Gyan penalty after a Serbian defender wildly handled the ball in the area, despite the fact that there was absolutely no danger whatsoever being posed by the Ghanains. I have to say, I think it looks like a HUGE task for Serbia to get out of this group now considering the other two teams they have left to play are Australia and Germany. Speaking of the Germans, they were in blistering form on Sunday night when they absolutely destroyed Australia 4-0, although I think the scoreline may owe heavily to Tim Cahill's dismissal early in the second half for what looked a fairly innocuos challenge on Bastian Schweinsteiger. There were actually 4 different scorers in the game aswell with goals for Lukasz Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller and Brazilian-born striker Cacau. They looked absolutely brilliant and to be perfectly honest, this was the first game of the World Cup that I can say I actually thorougly enjoyed. Long may it continue.
Or so I thought. The first game of the day today was between Holland, a team many people are looking at as possible frontrunner's for the competition, and Denmark. Unsurprisingly, Holland ended up as 2-0 winner's, and although I only managed to catch the last 20 or so minutes (yes I had a lie-in) my mates informed me that it wasn't really worth getting up for anyway. There was a very dodgy looking own goal in that game, Simon Poulsen incase anyone is asking, that I think may have been to do with the ball, because it didn't move like a ball would normally if someone had played that header, but maybe I just want to blame the ball, because no-one else seems to agree with me. Then we had yet another awful game of what is fast becoming the worst World Cup since Italia 90 in the 3 o clock kick off, as Asian qualifiers Japan took on a team many had tipped as Africa's best shout in this World Cup, Cameroon. We all know about the talented player's Cameroon have, boasting former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o, and former Chelsea playmaker Ndjitap Geremi. However, the Japanese somehow managed to sneak a 1-0 win against their West African opponents, and to me it looked very laboured from Cameroon. They looked totally devoid of idea's when their original tactic's seemed to be failing, and they will need to improve drastically for their final group games. The final game of today saw World Champions Italy, up against unfacied Paraguay. Surprisingly though, the Paraguayans, who started without Roque Santa Cruz, and Benfica hotshot Oscar Cardozo, took the lead in a sodden Cape Town. After a beautiful free kick was floated in, a Paraguayan head met the ball and nodded it into the corner of the goal to send the Italians reeling into halftime. They did however come out fighting, and halfway through the second half, won a corner. As the ball was played in, the keeper rushed out, only to completely miss the ball, which left Daniele De Rossi free at the back post to tap the ball in and give the Italians a well-fought draw. I was very surprised that Paraguay actually held them to a draw, and I hope the people of Paraguay are very proud of what their team acheived, because that is a big result in anyone's books. It is all set up for tomorrow morning's clash between New Zealand and Slovakia. If one of those team's can win, they will take control of Group F, and may even fancy themselves to progress.
I am actually shattered now, so I'm going to get to bed so I can be fresh for the game tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night, I will go over New Zealand-Slovakia, Portugal-Ivory Coast and Brazil-North Korea, as well as giving you a little drinking game you can play at home whilst you enjoy this summer's football. I'm thinking I'll give you a new rule with each new post, so keep checking back for those updates guys. As always, my whole-hearted thanks for taking the time to have a gander at my humble blog. It does mean a lot to me and I love doing it so cheers guys. Hope you're enjoying this World Cup as much as I am. Ciao for now
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment