I decided after the final Group A games that I would wait until all matters in all groups had been resolved so that I could give you a complete overview of the World Cup group stages and the last 16 matches. I didn't write a blog concerning Wimbledon during this time either as I thought if I did write a blog, I wouldn't be able to fight the temptation to write about the World Cup and so there's some Wimbledon chat lumped in to this one for you aswell. With all that to get on with, and the fact that I still have to pack up my room to travel home tomorrow, I better blast on through.
Group A: The situation as we started the day was that South Africa and France both needed to win their final group game as they faced one another, but if Mexico and Uruguay managed to hold each other to a draw, then neither the hosts or the dissident French could qualify. Let's start with the Uruguay-Mexico game as this would be the one that would determine whether the South Africa-France result would have any bearing on the final face of the group. In what was a tense game, but one that really no-one was looking at as a make or break game for either team, Uruguay prevailed through a Luis Suarez header towards the end of the first-half. The player who has been linked heavily with Manchester United this summer showed great awareness to guide his header into the goal and make sure that his team would avoid Argentina, a team who many people, including myself, have tipped to win the tournament. That then added some importance and spice to the game between South Africa and France, and incredibly, it was the hosts who took the lead after just 20 minutes. A corner was played into the French area from the right and Bongani Khumalo rose heighest above the French defence to power in a header that sent the home nation into raptures. Then just 17 minutes later, Katlego Mphela doubled the lead for the host's and it looked like the South African's could actually overhaul the Mexican's, who at half-time in both games were trailing, and set up a last 16 tie against the Argentinians. When, however, Florent Malouda scored the first French goal of the World Cup and destroyed the South African's dreams. At the end of play then, the South African's tasted the delight of victory, but then also the heartbreak of going out of the World Cup purely on goal difference. That means that from Group A, the qualifiers are: Uruguay and Mexico.
Swiftly moving on, we have Group B. Going into the final fixtures, this group could be fairly easily predicted as Greece needed to beat Argentina to go through, a result which never looked likely, and South Korea just needed a better result than their Group B rivals. Firstly we'll start with the Argentinian's, who, despite a spirited performance from their Greek counterparts, ran out as 2-0 winner's on the night with the goals coming from Martin Demichelis and Martin Palermo. That result not only confirmed Argentina as Group B winners, but also made them the first team at the World Cup to win all 3 of their group games. That meant that if South Korea could either beat Nigeria, or scrape a draw against the African's, they would be through to face Uruguay in the next round. The Nigerian's could've technically still qualified for the knockout rounds if they could come out and thrash the South Korean's, although the way they've played at this World Cup, that seemed unlikely. The final result was however alot closer than had first been predicted as Nigeria managed to hold the South Korean's to a 2-2 draw that ended their campaign but put the Asian side through. Surprisingly, it was the Nigerian's who took the lead as Kalu Uche struck his second goal of the tournament after just 12 minutes. That was something I don't think many people would've predicted, but, perhaps predictably, the South Korean's scored 2 goals, either side of half-time through Lee Jung-Soo and Park Chu-Young to give themselves every hope of making the last 16. The Nigerian's did strike back through a Yakubu penalty, and could've even had a win if the Everton man had put the ball in the net as it was played to him a couple of yards from goal. That miss is quite possibly the worst of the World Cup so far, and I don't think we'll see many worse. Qualifiers from Group B are as follows then: Argentina and South Korea.
Onto Group C. This, as some of you may know, is England's group, and the nation watched on tensely on Wednesday as they played a make or break game against Slovenia. I saw some of it, but I have to admit, it was hardly a classic. England finally triumphed through a Jermaine Defoe goal after 22 mintes from James Milner's superbly delivered cross. The Slovenian's did have numerous chances throughout the match, but couldn't take advantage of any of these chances to deny England their last 16 berth. For a few minutes after the game, it seemed as if the United States apparent failure to beat Algeria would send Slovenia through behind England, but in a cruel twist for both Slovenia and England, Landon Donovan sealed the USA's place in the last 16 after 92 minutes of play against the dogged and determined Algerian's. That meant that England would go through in second place of Group C, with the US topping the group. Cue an agonising wait for the English players to see if they would have to face the old enemy (i.e. the German's) in the last 16, and hence face a tricky tie to get to the quarter-finals. Group C qualifiers were as predicted then: USA and England.
England didn't have to wait very long to find out their opponent's in the last 16 as Group D came to a conclusion on Wednesday night. Whoever triumphed between Germany and Ghana would earn the right to play England on Sunday afternoon and possibly have a tricky task against the somewhat reborn English player's. They learnt on Wednesday night that they would indeed have to face the old enemy in the ultimate last 16 showdown on Sunday at 3 pm as Mesut Ozil's stunning volley ensured a 1-0 victory for the Group D pacesetter's in Johannesburg. That victory also meant something more in the context of Group D, as Serbia could gain qualification if they managed to beat Australia in the other final Group D fixture. Surprisingly though, the Australian's produced an absolutely stunning performance against a decent Serbian side to knock them out of the competition. Unfortunately, the Socceroo's 2-1 win was not enough to carry them into second place of the group and thus into the knockout rounds of the tournament. The 2 goals came in the space of 4 second half minutes as first Tim Cahill headed in and then Brett Holman unleashed a stunning long-range strike to double their lead and effectively end the Serbian's chances. They did pull one back through Marko Pantelic, but the result was not enough for either team to gain progress to the last 16, and thus, the qualifier's from Group D were: Germany and Ghana.
The final fixtures in Group E were kind of void as far as places in the last 16 were concerned, but still, let's take a brief look at them. The Netherland's faced off against Cameroon in the groups dead rubber, but the game was actually worth a watch, although not if you wanted to see both team's fighting for their spot in the last 16. Holland eventually came through as 2-1 winner's and also preserve their 100% winning record at this year's World Cup. The goals in that game came from Robin Van Persie (36 mins), then a Samuel Eto'o penalty (65 mins) levelled proceeding's for a while until Klaas Jan Hunterlaar's last gasp effort (83 mins) confirmed the Dutch victory. As stated above, the other match in this group was the big game that really mattered in deciding who would get a place in the last 16. The team that managed to secure their last 16 place were Japan as they beat Denmark 3-1, after two wonderful free-kick's and many brilliant performances from an enterprising Japanese side. Keisuke Honda's free-kick early on was absolutely stunning, almost Ronaldo-esque one could say, and nobody thought we'd see better than that in this match. Step up then, Yashuito Endo. His free-kick halfway through the first half was arguably better than that of his team mate Honda as he managed to get the ball up, around the wall, back down, and bend it in. It was a-la Beckham '98, and it showed what a good side Japan are that two of their players scored such beautiful goals. Jon Dahl Tomasson scored a late consolation after he followed up his missed penalty, but that would not be enough to save the Danish World Cup dream as Shinji Okazaki completed the scoring late on after some more beautiful Honda skill. That leave the qualifiers as: Holland and Japan.
Group F came to a very exicting conclusion on Thursday afternoon as Paraguay played New Zealand, and Italy faced Slovakia. Although New Zealand played very well and deserved their draw, the real excitement came in the Italy-Slovakia game. Slovakia managed to go and beat Italy 3-2, hence knocking the holders out of the competition and springing the biggest surprise of this World Cup so far. It was a pulsating game that captured the imagination of the World Cup fan and the skill and ingenuity shown by both team's was superb. The best goal of the game came when Quagliarella chipped Slovak keeper Jan Mucha to make it 3-2 late on. I think the biggest surprise of this game was that at one point, Slovakia actually led 2-0. I really couldn't do any of the goals justice if I described them on here, so just trust me, they were all absolutely beautiful. Final Group standings then: Paraguay in first, then Slovakia, then amazingly, New Zealand, and bottom of the group were the World Champions. They, as well as the French, will have to take a serious look at themselves before European qualifying and analyse exactly what went wrong at this tournament.
Group G I believe we're at. The big game in this group was the meeting of Portugal and Brazil, but in reality, it was that poor, I don't think I'll bother writing anything about it here. If anyone saw that game, they will understand why I don't want to write about it. Nothing happened, nobody tried anything and there were no goals. Disastrous. That result meant that Ivory Coast were going out of the World Cup no matter what they did against North Korea. They did in fact dominate against the North Korean's and run out as 3-0 winner's, but the dead rubber of the match between the two heavyweights meant that that result was pretty much null and void, but it was at least entertaining. The 3 goals came from 3 different players as first Yaya Toure netted early on, swiftly followed by a Romaric goal which gave the West African's hope. Unfortunately for them, their 3rd goal didn't come until the 82nd minute as Salomon Kalou met a brilliant cross into the box to at least send the team home with a smile on their face having won 3-0. Final Qualifiers from this group are as follows: Brazil and Portugal.
So, finally, we reach Group H. This group had alot of potential at the start of the evening as any one of the 4 teams looked to cement a place in the last 16. It was highly unlikely that Honduras (my team) were going to make it, but I was very happy that we at least got a point on the board as we played out a scrappy goalless draw against Switzerland. I have to be honest, when I pulled them out of the hat, I expected nothing, so I am ecstatic with a point, and would like to send my sincerest congratulations to the Honduran football team for their fantastic efforts at this World Cup. That result meant Switzerland's hopes relied on a decent-looking Chile side defeating Spain in the final fixture of the group, but unfortunately, that didn't happen as the European champions ground out a 2-1 victory over their South American rival's which then saw Spain top the group and Chile take the second qualifying spot. Qualifier's from this group then are: Spain and Chile.
So a round-up of your last 16 macthes. They are as follows, Uruguay will face South Korea, Mexico play Argentina, USA lock horns with Ghana, England re-ignite the rivalry with Germany, Holland take on Slovakia, Brazil come up against Chile, Paraguay face off against Japan, and the big rivalry of the second round as Spain take on Portugal. That one will be one you won't want to miss.
Some quick Wimbledon chat as I really need to pack my stuff, John Isner is out of Wimbledon after losing 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to Thiemo De Bakker despite coming through the epic against Nicolas Mahut. If you hadn't heard, it went to a final set, and the score in games of that final set eventually stood as 70-68 to John Isner in a match that reached its conclusion in a little over 11 hours. That was stunning, and I just wanted to mention it as it a record. Also congratulations to both Isner and Mahut for giving us such a wonderful game of tennis, that's why we love the sport. In Murray news, Andy has already come through two matches at this year's tournament, with comfortable win's in both, and crucially last Thursday, a win in front of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II. Murray beat Jan Hajek in his first round match coming through 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 to seal his date in front of the Queen against Jarko Nieminen, a match he also won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Tomorrow, Andy takes to Centre Court, around 5 pm, to play his 3rd round match against Gilles Simon, a man he has beaten on each of the last 3 occassions they have happened to play each other.
Right, sorry it was so rushed, but I really need to pack. I realise I haven't done a World Cup drinking rule this week, but I promise I'll give you 2 tomorrow. I'm sorry about that but packing has to come first. Hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow night for another deliciously scintilating blog post! Love you all, and hope you are enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Peace out
Friday, 25 June 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
What we saw yesterday, and what we're looking forward to today
With only 40 minutes to go until the final Group A fixtures, I realised that I neglected to do this blog for you guys last night. Might aswell do it now seeing as how I don't really like the fact that I have to watch ages of pointless build-up otherwise.
The first game of yesterday's World Cup action was the second Group G game for Portugal and North Korea. I would love to tell you about each individual goal, but Portugal actually scored 7 (yes seven) against the lowly North Korean's. That was as much a surprise as if North Korea had gone out and won the game after their brilliant performance against Brazil a little over a week ago. I thought, as I'm sure most people would've having seen that game, that the North Korean's would come out and give the Portugese a real go and even possibly get something from the game. The first half kind of followed on in this pattern - it was very tight and compressed with both teams creating chances, but at the break, Portugal went in a goal up through Raul Meireles' strike midway through the first half. After the break, the North Korean's came out looking to get a goal as the knew that if they lost, their World Cup challenge would be over, but the mere fact that the North Korean's went all-out attack meant that they were vulnerable to the counter-attacking football that the Portugese began to play. The 6 goals in the second half actually came from 5 different player's - Ronaldo, Simao, Hugo Almeida, Liedson and Tiago - and all were taken absolutely beautifully with a ball that has been described as "not conducive to beautiful play". If the rumour's are true about North Korea censoring the games from the public, I'm thinking they may show the first half of the game and subtley neglect to show the second half. I also heard a joke that their may be less North Korean footballer's by this time next week, or at least less member's of that footballer's family. Before everyone accuses me of being racist and all that, it is just a joke, and in no means am I having a go at North Korea. I, in fact, will stand up and applaud them on Friday for giving us such a memorable World Cup as they ran Brazil close and then got thrashed by Portugal. Congratulations for not being scared to actually have a go.
So that result meant that North Korea are out, and that the Ivory Coast need to absolutely slam North Korea if they hope to qualify for the last 16 because of Portugal's excellent goal difference. With all outstanding issue's in Group G dealt with, let's take a look at Group H. The first game of the day in this group was Chile-Switzerland, two teams who had both won their opening games and would be looking to win this one as Spain took on Honduras in what was sure to be a win for the Spanish. I have to say, with what was at stake in mind, this was one of the DULLEST games at this World Cup. I know why it was so terrible, and that is because of the ref. Possibly the softest ref we've seen so far he gave a yellow to you if you happened to breathe on your opponent, and the red card he gave to Valon Behrami was absolutely ridiculous. If the Kaka foul wasn't a foul, then neither was the Behrami one. Absolutely pathetic refereeing and I just can't understand how he thought that it deserved a straight red. The Mark Gonzalez goal was one that was good enough to win this game, but that doesn't say alot about the goal to be perfectly honest. Chile then are in the driving seat and look like a good bet to progress to the next round.
Then it was my team's (Honduras) turn to come out and try and give the World their own Wolrd Cup shock as they took on one of the tournament favourites in Spain. The Spanish welcomed top striker Fernando Torres back to their ranks and looked like they were determined out to re-establish their claim as one of the World's top sides. Unfortunately for me, they did that with consumate ease and some style along the way as they cruised to a 2-0 victory that easily could've been 9 or 10. Villa scored both goals and could in fact have had a hat-trick if he'd been able to convert the penalty won by Jesus Navas late in the second half. Honduras looked terrible though and I honestly can't wait until my team leaves the competition as we have just been terrible in every game. I've essentially thrown away a pound, but ahh well it was interesting to see my team fail so miserably. Both goal's were the highest quality you could wish to see and it was a good game, despite my disappointment at the poor showing of my team. Spain then have to beat Chile in the last game to be sure of qualification to the knockout rounds of the tournament as Switzerland are still in with a shout, as are Honduras, but then again that is highly unlikely!
I would go and give you some Wimbledon chat, but there wasn't much on yesterday. The big story of the day was the fact that Alejandro Falla took the first 2 sets against Roger Federer in their first round match at the All England Club. With British glasses on, Andy Murray starts his campaign today on Court One. That match is probably on right now, but I think I'll keep my eye over the World Cup for now and let you know about it all in due course.
My housemate is pestering me to stop writing this blog so he can watch the World Cup on my laptop so I will give you 2 drinking rules later on when I do my daily post. TTFN guys
The first game of yesterday's World Cup action was the second Group G game for Portugal and North Korea. I would love to tell you about each individual goal, but Portugal actually scored 7 (yes seven) against the lowly North Korean's. That was as much a surprise as if North Korea had gone out and won the game after their brilliant performance against Brazil a little over a week ago. I thought, as I'm sure most people would've having seen that game, that the North Korean's would come out and give the Portugese a real go and even possibly get something from the game. The first half kind of followed on in this pattern - it was very tight and compressed with both teams creating chances, but at the break, Portugal went in a goal up through Raul Meireles' strike midway through the first half. After the break, the North Korean's came out looking to get a goal as the knew that if they lost, their World Cup challenge would be over, but the mere fact that the North Korean's went all-out attack meant that they were vulnerable to the counter-attacking football that the Portugese began to play. The 6 goals in the second half actually came from 5 different player's - Ronaldo, Simao, Hugo Almeida, Liedson and Tiago - and all were taken absolutely beautifully with a ball that has been described as "not conducive to beautiful play". If the rumour's are true about North Korea censoring the games from the public, I'm thinking they may show the first half of the game and subtley neglect to show the second half. I also heard a joke that their may be less North Korean footballer's by this time next week, or at least less member's of that footballer's family. Before everyone accuses me of being racist and all that, it is just a joke, and in no means am I having a go at North Korea. I, in fact, will stand up and applaud them on Friday for giving us such a memorable World Cup as they ran Brazil close and then got thrashed by Portugal. Congratulations for not being scared to actually have a go.
So that result meant that North Korea are out, and that the Ivory Coast need to absolutely slam North Korea if they hope to qualify for the last 16 because of Portugal's excellent goal difference. With all outstanding issue's in Group G dealt with, let's take a look at Group H. The first game of the day in this group was Chile-Switzerland, two teams who had both won their opening games and would be looking to win this one as Spain took on Honduras in what was sure to be a win for the Spanish. I have to say, with what was at stake in mind, this was one of the DULLEST games at this World Cup. I know why it was so terrible, and that is because of the ref. Possibly the softest ref we've seen so far he gave a yellow to you if you happened to breathe on your opponent, and the red card he gave to Valon Behrami was absolutely ridiculous. If the Kaka foul wasn't a foul, then neither was the Behrami one. Absolutely pathetic refereeing and I just can't understand how he thought that it deserved a straight red. The Mark Gonzalez goal was one that was good enough to win this game, but that doesn't say alot about the goal to be perfectly honest. Chile then are in the driving seat and look like a good bet to progress to the next round.
Then it was my team's (Honduras) turn to come out and try and give the World their own Wolrd Cup shock as they took on one of the tournament favourites in Spain. The Spanish welcomed top striker Fernando Torres back to their ranks and looked like they were determined out to re-establish their claim as one of the World's top sides. Unfortunately for me, they did that with consumate ease and some style along the way as they cruised to a 2-0 victory that easily could've been 9 or 10. Villa scored both goals and could in fact have had a hat-trick if he'd been able to convert the penalty won by Jesus Navas late in the second half. Honduras looked terrible though and I honestly can't wait until my team leaves the competition as we have just been terrible in every game. I've essentially thrown away a pound, but ahh well it was interesting to see my team fail so miserably. Both goal's were the highest quality you could wish to see and it was a good game, despite my disappointment at the poor showing of my team. Spain then have to beat Chile in the last game to be sure of qualification to the knockout rounds of the tournament as Switzerland are still in with a shout, as are Honduras, but then again that is highly unlikely!
I would go and give you some Wimbledon chat, but there wasn't much on yesterday. The big story of the day was the fact that Alejandro Falla took the first 2 sets against Roger Federer in their first round match at the All England Club. With British glasses on, Andy Murray starts his campaign today on Court One. That match is probably on right now, but I think I'll keep my eye over the World Cup for now and let you know about it all in due course.
My housemate is pestering me to stop writing this blog so he can watch the World Cup on my laptop so I will give you 2 drinking rules later on when I do my daily post. TTFN guys
Sunday, 20 June 2010
A wonderful Sunday full of football
I am currently typing this on my mates computer and it has a broken s button which is superb to be brutally honest. I will try my best to bring you my blog at the high quality I usually pride myself on, but I wanted to let you know the circumstances I am working with so that if it is rubbish you know why.
Today saw another wonderful football feast to which we've become accustomed to during the World Cup. I am gutted it only happens once every 4 years as I'm sure you lot are, but thats what makes this competition so brilliant. We started the day with a match from Group F as Slovakia took on Paraguay. Brilliantly, at the start of the second round of group matches in Group F, every single team was in the same position after two 1-1 draws in the opening games. That meant that both teams in this match had the chance to enhance their position before the Italian's met the All Whites (or New Zealand for any of you who are not comfortable with the nickname) in the second Group F game at 3 o'clock. In the end, it was the Paraguayan's who ran out as comfortable winner's in this game after two absolutely stunning goal's first from Enrique Vera and then Carlos Riveros. At the start of the day, I'm sure the Paraguayan's would have taken that result and its even better when you consider that they only really have to go and beat New Zealand in their final game to be sure of their last 16 place which many commentator's including myself would've said was an absolute must given the other teams in their Group at the start of the World Cup. However, the All Whites and the Italian's could've made it tense for the South Americans as they took to the field at 3 o'clock.
Now, you may be forgiven for thinking that this game was just a case of how many the Italians could put past their lowly opponents, but as has so often been the case at this World Cup, there was a surprise in the offing. Indeed, as early as the 7th minute, the All Whites showed that they're not just in South Africa to make up the numbers as Shane Smeltz sent the Kiwi's, a team ranked 78th in the World, into a shock early lead against the World Champions. That was in fact his 20th goal in 37 internationals, an impressive scoring rate by any countrys standard. After that, however, the Italians absolutely dominated their Group F rivals and it looked set to be the drubbing we'd all expected at the start of play. This seemed ever more likely as the Italians were handed the perfect opportunity to equalise after 29 minutes thank to Ipswich Town defender Tommy Smith' tug on Daniele De Rossi's shirt in the area. The penalty was duly converted by Vincenzo Iaquinta, a man who is once again being coveted by English clubs over the summer, and anyone watching the match who wasn't Italian or devoid of all sentiment towards the Kiwi's feared the worst for the team from down under. They did however, do exceptionally well in the face of their apparent adversity and even had a chance to snatch all 3 points from their Italian rivals but unfortunately for young Chris Wood, he pulled his brilliant effort just a few inches the wrong side of the post. Final reult then, Italy 1-1 New Zealand. That is an absolutely brilliant result for a country who doesn't even have a professional football league and whos internationals are not all full-time football players. They in fact only have one domestic team, but they play in the Australian A-League. Andy Barron, one of the players who was introduced late in the day actually had to get time off his regular bank job in New Zealand to come and play at the World Cup, which I think is an absolutely sensational story.
Moving on from the stat attack, the late game was all set to be an absolute thriller as Brazil, with all its world-wide superstars, came up against a well organied Ivory Coast side who many thought stood a very good chance of progression from what was generally recognised as this tournaments Group of Death. We did have a thriller, but not in the manner that we expected as Brazil came through as 3-1 winners. Luis Fabiano got the first goal with a brilliant finish after the Brazilians had crafted some good passes to create the opportunity. There was absolutely no controversy about that first goal, but his second was slightly more-so as he appeared to handle twice in the build-up to the finish. I can forgive the referee for missing the first handball, but the second one was downright criminal and how the referee A) didn't spot it, and B) didn't penalise Fabiano for blatant use of the arm is beyond me. He even candidly asked Fabiano if he had used his hand as the Brazilian striker was trotting back after celebrating his goal. Terrible reffing if you ask me, but then again, I guess they weren't asking for my opinion. The third Brazilian goal was quite simply outstanding as Kaka played a brilliant ball across the box for Elano to finish after a brilliant flowing passing move from the excellent Brazilians. Moments after his goal, the Brazilian playmaker was hobbling down the tunnel after a poor challenge from an Ivorian. In the 79th minute, the Ivorians got a consolation which their play definitely did not deserve, but it was nice to see Didier Drogba finally open his account at a World Cup where he was tipped to be one of the star players. I then thought this game was over but I carried on watching in the hope that the Ivorians would produce one of the storys of the tournament thus far. It was worth the watch too as we had one of the biggest moments of controversy so far at this World Cup in the closing stages of the game. Kaka, who had been booked mere minutes before the incident, had a fairly innocuos collision with Abdelkader Keita, who went down holding his face earning the Brazilian a second yellow and an early bath. I'm not trying to be controversial with my views, but in my opinion, I though Kaka elbowed Keita in the chest and that it was hence a good choice by the ref to send him off. I appreciate most people won't agree with me on that issue, but thats how I saw the incident. This win means the Brazilians join the Agrentines and the Dutch as the only team to have won their opening two games at this years World Cup, and also join the Dutch in the next round of the competition.
So, only thing left is todays drinking game! I'm currently tossing up which one to bring you...OK, I'll go with the "PELE!" rule. This rule works much in the same vein as all the other rules I've bought you thus far, excpet you use this whenever a hat-trick is scored or there is a mention of the Golden Boot award. Last person to shout "PELE!" does the usual drinking punishment which you guys at home use. I'm not about to tell you a system you must use as everyone has their individual system they prefer.
That then is your lot for today my friends, hope you have enjoyed, and as usual thank you so much for reading. Tomorrow, we have the start of Wimbledon, which I personally am very, very excited about, and of course, we have more World Cup, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow when I have a computer with a working s button. Trust me, you have no idea how irritating that is when you're trying to write a blog! Once again, thank you so much for reading, it really means alot and it brightens my day when you comment on it, even if you say you thought it was all pretentious nonsense! See you later guys
Today saw another wonderful football feast to which we've become accustomed to during the World Cup. I am gutted it only happens once every 4 years as I'm sure you lot are, but thats what makes this competition so brilliant. We started the day with a match from Group F as Slovakia took on Paraguay. Brilliantly, at the start of the second round of group matches in Group F, every single team was in the same position after two 1-1 draws in the opening games. That meant that both teams in this match had the chance to enhance their position before the Italian's met the All Whites (or New Zealand for any of you who are not comfortable with the nickname) in the second Group F game at 3 o'clock. In the end, it was the Paraguayan's who ran out as comfortable winner's in this game after two absolutely stunning goal's first from Enrique Vera and then Carlos Riveros. At the start of the day, I'm sure the Paraguayan's would have taken that result and its even better when you consider that they only really have to go and beat New Zealand in their final game to be sure of their last 16 place which many commentator's including myself would've said was an absolute must given the other teams in their Group at the start of the World Cup. However, the All Whites and the Italian's could've made it tense for the South Americans as they took to the field at 3 o'clock.
Now, you may be forgiven for thinking that this game was just a case of how many the Italians could put past their lowly opponents, but as has so often been the case at this World Cup, there was a surprise in the offing. Indeed, as early as the 7th minute, the All Whites showed that they're not just in South Africa to make up the numbers as Shane Smeltz sent the Kiwi's, a team ranked 78th in the World, into a shock early lead against the World Champions. That was in fact his 20th goal in 37 internationals, an impressive scoring rate by any countrys standard. After that, however, the Italians absolutely dominated their Group F rivals and it looked set to be the drubbing we'd all expected at the start of play. This seemed ever more likely as the Italians were handed the perfect opportunity to equalise after 29 minutes thank to Ipswich Town defender Tommy Smith' tug on Daniele De Rossi's shirt in the area. The penalty was duly converted by Vincenzo Iaquinta, a man who is once again being coveted by English clubs over the summer, and anyone watching the match who wasn't Italian or devoid of all sentiment towards the Kiwi's feared the worst for the team from down under. They did however, do exceptionally well in the face of their apparent adversity and even had a chance to snatch all 3 points from their Italian rivals but unfortunately for young Chris Wood, he pulled his brilliant effort just a few inches the wrong side of the post. Final reult then, Italy 1-1 New Zealand. That is an absolutely brilliant result for a country who doesn't even have a professional football league and whos internationals are not all full-time football players. They in fact only have one domestic team, but they play in the Australian A-League. Andy Barron, one of the players who was introduced late in the day actually had to get time off his regular bank job in New Zealand to come and play at the World Cup, which I think is an absolutely sensational story.
Moving on from the stat attack, the late game was all set to be an absolute thriller as Brazil, with all its world-wide superstars, came up against a well organied Ivory Coast side who many thought stood a very good chance of progression from what was generally recognised as this tournaments Group of Death. We did have a thriller, but not in the manner that we expected as Brazil came through as 3-1 winners. Luis Fabiano got the first goal with a brilliant finish after the Brazilians had crafted some good passes to create the opportunity. There was absolutely no controversy about that first goal, but his second was slightly more-so as he appeared to handle twice in the build-up to the finish. I can forgive the referee for missing the first handball, but the second one was downright criminal and how the referee A) didn't spot it, and B) didn't penalise Fabiano for blatant use of the arm is beyond me. He even candidly asked Fabiano if he had used his hand as the Brazilian striker was trotting back after celebrating his goal. Terrible reffing if you ask me, but then again, I guess they weren't asking for my opinion. The third Brazilian goal was quite simply outstanding as Kaka played a brilliant ball across the box for Elano to finish after a brilliant flowing passing move from the excellent Brazilians. Moments after his goal, the Brazilian playmaker was hobbling down the tunnel after a poor challenge from an Ivorian. In the 79th minute, the Ivorians got a consolation which their play definitely did not deserve, but it was nice to see Didier Drogba finally open his account at a World Cup where he was tipped to be one of the star players. I then thought this game was over but I carried on watching in the hope that the Ivorians would produce one of the storys of the tournament thus far. It was worth the watch too as we had one of the biggest moments of controversy so far at this World Cup in the closing stages of the game. Kaka, who had been booked mere minutes before the incident, had a fairly innocuos collision with Abdelkader Keita, who went down holding his face earning the Brazilian a second yellow and an early bath. I'm not trying to be controversial with my views, but in my opinion, I though Kaka elbowed Keita in the chest and that it was hence a good choice by the ref to send him off. I appreciate most people won't agree with me on that issue, but thats how I saw the incident. This win means the Brazilians join the Agrentines and the Dutch as the only team to have won their opening two games at this years World Cup, and also join the Dutch in the next round of the competition.
So, only thing left is todays drinking game! I'm currently tossing up which one to bring you...OK, I'll go with the "PELE!" rule. This rule works much in the same vein as all the other rules I've bought you thus far, excpet you use this whenever a hat-trick is scored or there is a mention of the Golden Boot award. Last person to shout "PELE!" does the usual drinking punishment which you guys at home use. I'm not about to tell you a system you must use as everyone has their individual system they prefer.
That then is your lot for today my friends, hope you have enjoyed, and as usual thank you so much for reading. Tomorrow, we have the start of Wimbledon, which I personally am very, very excited about, and of course, we have more World Cup, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow when I have a computer with a working s button. Trust me, you have no idea how irritating that is when you're trying to write a blog! Once again, thank you so much for reading, it really means alot and it brightens my day when you comment on it, even if you say you thought it was all pretentious nonsense! See you later guys
Saturday, 19 June 2010
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
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
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Two days worth to get through...
As said in the title, we have 2 days worth of World Cup 2010 action to get through, including matches containing the hosts and a couple of the favourite's. With all that to get through and the new drinking rules I promised to provide as a treat, I guess I should stop dillying and get on with it.
We started Wednesday off with a bang as my sweep team, Honduras, came up against the dynamic South American's Chile. I foolishly held out some slender hope that we could get a result out of this, whether that be a win or a draw, and give ourselves a chance of getting through to the round of 16. I say foolishly as they've never won a match at a Wolrd Cup. The only other time that they qualified (1982) they held the Spanish and the Irish but lost to the Yugoslavians which meant that they were out at the group stages. Coincidentally, at this World Cup, we have also been drawn in the same group as the Spanish. If we can go and get something against them, and then somehow beat Switzerland, we may still be able to qualify for the next round. The performance against the Chilean's was, however, below dreadful and so there needs to be some improvement before the next Group H game if we hope to retain our slim hopes. The goal that defeated us was insanely sloppy as one of our defender's slid in to try and defend a ball that had been played in towards the striker, only to kick it against the attacker and hence into the net. So that was typical of the World Cup as a whole so far, but I have to admit I was kind of disappointed at the attitude of the Honduran player's.
The second game we had on Wednesday was Spain vs Switzerland. This game provided us with the biggest shock of the tournament so far as Switzerland came out and attacked a poor Spanish defence and, amazingly, came away with a 1-0 win. Yet again, you may say, we had another low scoring game, but, whereas I have lambasted many of the games at this World Cup for not being of a high enough quality, this was actually a very decent game. The Spanish looked much more likely to score, but after the Swiss goal, they seemed to feel as though they could go on and score more and looked very likely to add a couple more goals to their tally. This has given me hope considering that our next game is actually agaisnt the Spanish in Group H, so hopefully we can force a result there and then just play our hearts out against the Swiss for our last 16 place.
Wednesday night, I was with my mate celebrating his brithday, playing drinking games before we hit the town and had a really good night out. As a consequence of this, I missed pretty much the whole of the host nation's game against Uruguay. I did see the first goal, and although I'm pretty sure most of us would love to see more brilliant goals like that flying in in the World Cup, I couldn't help but find myself feeling very sorry for the South African's after the massive deflection off Aaron Mokoena that took it over Itumeleng Khune. Up until that goal, I thought the South African's had performed very noblely against the South American rivals, but that was not to be enough. In the second half, Itumeleng Khune unfortunately brought down Luis Suarez awarding a penalty to the Uruguayan's and securing himself an early bath in the process. This mean's he will miss the final game against France which is an absolutely massive game if the South African's hope to remain in their home tournament past the group stages. Alvaro Perreira also added a late thrid with a header, which leaves the host nation on only 1 point with a -3 goal difference going into their final group game with France. Incidentally, I will be commenting on the France-Mexico game towards the end of the post, but I feel I should go through the games in the order that they actually happened, so next we have Group B.
The first match we had in Group B today was Argentina-South Korea. For me, Argentina are the favourites to go and win the tournament. With the stars that they have in the starting line-up and on the bench aswell, and the small fact that they have the brilliance and experience of Diego Maradona as their manager, I honestly believe that they have to be the favourites. I'm quite glad that I have been saying that for a while as the team justified my faith in them today with a 4-1 routing of South Korea, which incidentally started with an own goal from Park Chu-Young. The next goal came from Gonzalo Higuain, who actually managed to score a hat trick throughout the match. For me his best was Argentina's 4th and his 3rd which was a stunning move that involved the brilliance of Lionel Messi, who showed today how good he is when he can be and when he is motivated to be at his best. The South Korean's goal came right at the end of the first half, as Argentina were leading 2-0 and was scored by Bolton Wanderer's very own Young Chon-Lee. It was a very good goal, but in all honesty I can't see past Argentina for the World Cup and they are henceforth my prediction to win the tournament as a whole.
The second match of today was the game between Greece and Nigeria. This was potentially a massive game for both teams given the fact that the Argentinian's moved to within a point of the qualification in the early game against the South Korean's. The only way they won't qualify is if the South Korean's beat the Nigerian's, and the Greeks slam the Argentinian's. I've kind of given away the result a bit there, but I'll bring you the details as I always try to. The Nigerian's were the first to break through after Kalu Uche's free kick deceived everyone in the Greek defence and nestled in the back of the net sending the green-clad fan's in the stadium into rapturous delight as they looked to go and take iniative to get through their tough group. Midway through the first half, with the Nigerian's still a goal up however, we had the main incident of the game, which wasn't even actually an equalising goal. Far from an equalising goal, it was a moment of complete madness from Nigeria midfielder Sani Kaita, who lashed out at Greek playmaker Torosidis after both players chased after a ball that eventually went out for a Greek throw-in. Indeed, Torosidis made no threatening movement or remark towards Kaita, rather the Nigeria man just kicked out at his opponent for no reason. Personally, I think he should be absolutely disgusted with himself for what he did and be sent home immediately by the Nigerian hierarchy. After this had happened, the game opened up for Greece, and a heavily deflected shot from Salpingidis flew in before, in the 72nd minute, Torosidis managed to tap-in a chance that left the Greeks with their first ever World Cup win, and the Nigerian's wondering how they let a game they were in charge of slip away from them.
So, seeing as I have already given the state of that Group, I will now move onto France-Mexico and what was a stunning game for the gathered fan's tonight. Just like they were against Urugauy last Friday, the French seemed subdued and so determined no to lose the game that they couldn't or perhaps more potently, wouldn't stamp their offence on the game. As a result, an enterprising Mexico managed to come away with a 2-0 win, courtesy of a well-taken goal from new Manchester United signing Javier Hernandez and a penalty taken by seasoned veteran, Cuathemoc Blanco (sorry if I've spelt that wrong, but it is late). That result leaves the French hopes of going one better than they managed 4 year's ago totally out of their hands and dependant on a positive result for one of the team's in the crunch match between Mexico and Uruguay early next week. Unfortunately, the same can be said of South Africa, although for them to stand any chance of progression, they must go on to beat France in their final game in Group A which now becomes crucial for both team's. It's turning out to be an absolutely brilliant World Cup this one despite what we thought having seen the first round of games in these two groups.
I'm only going to do one drinking rule tonight for two reason's. A) I don't want to run out of rules for you beautiful people, and B) I am absolutely shattered! The rule I have chosen tonight is the "MARADONA!" rule. This essentially works along the same lines of the "tactics" rule mentioned in the previous post with one key difference. Instead of shouting it when you see a coach, this rule applies to handball's. So, whenever you see a handball in the World Cup, the rule is, last to shout Maradona, does the pre-arranged penalty set out before the game, usually recommended as a sip of one's drink.
Anyway, it's been lovely writing for you again and I did genuinely miss it while I was away Wednesday night. I shall see you tomorrow evening for a full round-up of games, which tomorrow includes England's crunch group game against Algeria. Enjoy the football tomorrow, and I shall see you in a bit guy's. Thank's for all the support, and keep checking back because it makes me exceedingly happy when you read this. Peace and love
We started Wednesday off with a bang as my sweep team, Honduras, came up against the dynamic South American's Chile. I foolishly held out some slender hope that we could get a result out of this, whether that be a win or a draw, and give ourselves a chance of getting through to the round of 16. I say foolishly as they've never won a match at a Wolrd Cup. The only other time that they qualified (1982) they held the Spanish and the Irish but lost to the Yugoslavians which meant that they were out at the group stages. Coincidentally, at this World Cup, we have also been drawn in the same group as the Spanish. If we can go and get something against them, and then somehow beat Switzerland, we may still be able to qualify for the next round. The performance against the Chilean's was, however, below dreadful and so there needs to be some improvement before the next Group H game if we hope to retain our slim hopes. The goal that defeated us was insanely sloppy as one of our defender's slid in to try and defend a ball that had been played in towards the striker, only to kick it against the attacker and hence into the net. So that was typical of the World Cup as a whole so far, but I have to admit I was kind of disappointed at the attitude of the Honduran player's.
The second game we had on Wednesday was Spain vs Switzerland. This game provided us with the biggest shock of the tournament so far as Switzerland came out and attacked a poor Spanish defence and, amazingly, came away with a 1-0 win. Yet again, you may say, we had another low scoring game, but, whereas I have lambasted many of the games at this World Cup for not being of a high enough quality, this was actually a very decent game. The Spanish looked much more likely to score, but after the Swiss goal, they seemed to feel as though they could go on and score more and looked very likely to add a couple more goals to their tally. This has given me hope considering that our next game is actually agaisnt the Spanish in Group H, so hopefully we can force a result there and then just play our hearts out against the Swiss for our last 16 place.
Wednesday night, I was with my mate celebrating his brithday, playing drinking games before we hit the town and had a really good night out. As a consequence of this, I missed pretty much the whole of the host nation's game against Uruguay. I did see the first goal, and although I'm pretty sure most of us would love to see more brilliant goals like that flying in in the World Cup, I couldn't help but find myself feeling very sorry for the South African's after the massive deflection off Aaron Mokoena that took it over Itumeleng Khune. Up until that goal, I thought the South African's had performed very noblely against the South American rivals, but that was not to be enough. In the second half, Itumeleng Khune unfortunately brought down Luis Suarez awarding a penalty to the Uruguayan's and securing himself an early bath in the process. This mean's he will miss the final game against France which is an absolutely massive game if the South African's hope to remain in their home tournament past the group stages. Alvaro Perreira also added a late thrid with a header, which leaves the host nation on only 1 point with a -3 goal difference going into their final group game with France. Incidentally, I will be commenting on the France-Mexico game towards the end of the post, but I feel I should go through the games in the order that they actually happened, so next we have Group B.
The first match we had in Group B today was Argentina-South Korea. For me, Argentina are the favourites to go and win the tournament. With the stars that they have in the starting line-up and on the bench aswell, and the small fact that they have the brilliance and experience of Diego Maradona as their manager, I honestly believe that they have to be the favourites. I'm quite glad that I have been saying that for a while as the team justified my faith in them today with a 4-1 routing of South Korea, which incidentally started with an own goal from Park Chu-Young. The next goal came from Gonzalo Higuain, who actually managed to score a hat trick throughout the match. For me his best was Argentina's 4th and his 3rd which was a stunning move that involved the brilliance of Lionel Messi, who showed today how good he is when he can be and when he is motivated to be at his best. The South Korean's goal came right at the end of the first half, as Argentina were leading 2-0 and was scored by Bolton Wanderer's very own Young Chon-Lee. It was a very good goal, but in all honesty I can't see past Argentina for the World Cup and they are henceforth my prediction to win the tournament as a whole.
The second match of today was the game between Greece and Nigeria. This was potentially a massive game for both teams given the fact that the Argentinian's moved to within a point of the qualification in the early game against the South Korean's. The only way they won't qualify is if the South Korean's beat the Nigerian's, and the Greeks slam the Argentinian's. I've kind of given away the result a bit there, but I'll bring you the details as I always try to. The Nigerian's were the first to break through after Kalu Uche's free kick deceived everyone in the Greek defence and nestled in the back of the net sending the green-clad fan's in the stadium into rapturous delight as they looked to go and take iniative to get through their tough group. Midway through the first half, with the Nigerian's still a goal up however, we had the main incident of the game, which wasn't even actually an equalising goal. Far from an equalising goal, it was a moment of complete madness from Nigeria midfielder Sani Kaita, who lashed out at Greek playmaker Torosidis after both players chased after a ball that eventually went out for a Greek throw-in. Indeed, Torosidis made no threatening movement or remark towards Kaita, rather the Nigeria man just kicked out at his opponent for no reason. Personally, I think he should be absolutely disgusted with himself for what he did and be sent home immediately by the Nigerian hierarchy. After this had happened, the game opened up for Greece, and a heavily deflected shot from Salpingidis flew in before, in the 72nd minute, Torosidis managed to tap-in a chance that left the Greeks with their first ever World Cup win, and the Nigerian's wondering how they let a game they were in charge of slip away from them.
So, seeing as I have already given the state of that Group, I will now move onto France-Mexico and what was a stunning game for the gathered fan's tonight. Just like they were against Urugauy last Friday, the French seemed subdued and so determined no to lose the game that they couldn't or perhaps more potently, wouldn't stamp their offence on the game. As a result, an enterprising Mexico managed to come away with a 2-0 win, courtesy of a well-taken goal from new Manchester United signing Javier Hernandez and a penalty taken by seasoned veteran, Cuathemoc Blanco (sorry if I've spelt that wrong, but it is late). That result leaves the French hopes of going one better than they managed 4 year's ago totally out of their hands and dependant on a positive result for one of the team's in the crunch match between Mexico and Uruguay early next week. Unfortunately, the same can be said of South Africa, although for them to stand any chance of progression, they must go on to beat France in their final game in Group A which now becomes crucial for both team's. It's turning out to be an absolutely brilliant World Cup this one despite what we thought having seen the first round of games in these two groups.
I'm only going to do one drinking rule tonight for two reason's. A) I don't want to run out of rules for you beautiful people, and B) I am absolutely shattered! The rule I have chosen tonight is the "MARADONA!" rule. This essentially works along the same lines of the "tactics" rule mentioned in the previous post with one key difference. Instead of shouting it when you see a coach, this rule applies to handball's. So, whenever you see a handball in the World Cup, the rule is, last to shout Maradona, does the pre-arranged penalty set out before the game, usually recommended as a sip of one's drink.
Anyway, it's been lovely writing for you again and I did genuinely miss it while I was away Wednesday night. I shall see you tomorrow evening for a full round-up of games, which tomorrow includes England's crunch group game against Algeria. Enjoy the football tomorrow, and I shall see you in a bit guy's. Thank's for all the support, and keep checking back because it makes me exceedingly happy when you read this. Peace and love
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Trials and Tribulations of the World Cup, a shock goal, and a little drinking ditty
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
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
Monday, 14 June 2010
World Cup 2010, news and reviews so far
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
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
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