2010 FIFA World Cup – Week 3 Roundup

The first round of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup has now ended and something that has never happened in any previous World Cups has happened – both the defending champions *and* the runners-up have crashed out! Holders Italy were beaten 3-2 by Slovakia, perhaps not too undeservedly, as their creaking and aging defence crumbled against the sprightly Slovakian attack. France crashed out of what has been a dismal tournament for them after a 2-1 loss against hosts South Africa. With the home team also not going through to the next round, it has been a pretty disastrous world cup for the holders, runners-up and also the hosts!

England just about scraped through to the next round with a narrow 1-0 win against Slovenia but more dramatic was the USA’s last-gasp winner against Algeria – Landon Donovan tapping home in the 92nd minute to get a 1-0 win and top group C. Germany eked out a 1-0 win against Ghana and though Australia beat Serbia 1-0, earlier results mean that its Germany and Ghana which go through.

Argentina beat a defensive Greece 2-0 and The Netherlands came up 2-1 winners over Cameroon and they are the only teams with 3 wins out of 3 matches and hope to be continuing the good form into the knockout rounds. Japan and South Korea are also though to the next round after impressive results against Denmark and Nigeria respectively. Brazil versus Portugal didn’t turn out to be the classic we all hoped for, perhaps because both were already safe. Spain beat a dogged Chile side in the last match of the round as both progress through to the next round.

All that means that the line-up for the round-of-16 matches looks like this:

• Uruguay Vs. Korea
• USA Vs. Ghana
• England Vs. Germany
• Argentina Vs. Mexico
• Japan Vs. Paraguay
• Netherlands Vs. Slovakia
• Brazil Vs. Chile
• Spain Vs. Portugal

Some tasty ties in there, right? Its warming up quite nicely…

2010 FIFA World Cup – Week 2 Roundup

The second round of the group stage of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup ended as I’m typing this and the upsets and dramas just keep on coming. I think it’ll be fair to say that the tournament hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts and one hoped that the second round of matches would be much more exciting and enthralling. Well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it was the best but the second round clearly shaded the first round – both in terms of performances and in terms of goals. And Red Cards!

While we lauded the free-scoring Germany team and hailed them as the team to watch, they went ahead and lost 1-0 to Serbia, with Klose sent off (rather harshly) and Podolski missing a penalty! But that was not the only upset of the round as reigning champions Italy were held to a 1-1 draw by New Zealand – who don’t even have a professional league. France succumbed to a 2-0 loss against Mexico as their tournament went from bad to worse as striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home after a bust-up with the coach. Another unexpected result, that had more far-reaching repercussions was England’s dour nil-all draw against Algeria.

The quality of football played has risen a notch in the second round and so did the number of goals scored. The ball was set rolling by a free-scoring Argentina, who came out 4-1 winners against South Korea, with Gonzalo Higuain scoring a hat-trick. Brazil didn’t quite roll out the style but did get the goals as a Luis Fabiano brace helped them to a 3-1 win over Ivory Coast. Spain shook off the disappointment of a shock first-round defeat by cruising to a 2-0 win over Honduras, in a match that could – and should – have had more goals. But the score of the tournament thus far came in the second kickoff today as Portugal hammered 7 (yes, Seven!) goals past a hapless Korea DPR. Tiago scored a brace and Raul, Simao, Almeida, Liedson and Cristiano Ronaldo added a goal apiece to make it a truly crushing win, that comes in handy as well…since they get to play Brazil next.

Whilst the first round saw only 25 goals, the second round of 16 matches have produced 42 goals – at an average of 2.6 goals per game. There were a couple of nil-alls and close 1-0 wins but overall, it has been better. I expect the last set of the group stage matches to include both dull games – where both teams know a draw would be enough to see them through – and also some exciting football from teams with their backs-to-the-walls. So c’mon England and be wary France!!!

• Game of the Second Week: Slovenia 2 –2 USA
• Yawnfest of the Second Week: England 0 – 0 Algeria
• Surprise of the Second Week: Serbia 1 – 0 Germany
• Disappointment of the Second Week: England’s draw against Algeria
• Most Impressive Players of the Second Week: David Villa (Spain) & Gonzalo Higuain
• Howler of the Second Week: The Referee in the Brazil Vs. Ivory Coast match who Red Carded Kaka
• Goal of the Second Week: Diego Forlan (Uruguay) Vs. South Africa (told ya so )

2010 FIFA World Cup – Week 1 Roundup

Its not exactly a week but all 32 teams participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup have finished playing one match apiece and though it is far too early to judge who’s on top and who’s fading out, let’s cast an eye over the bygone five days of World Cup action.

Draws, and goal-shyness as well, seem to be the forte for the opening round, what with 16 matches producing 6 draws (2 of them goalless), 6 1-0 victories and just the 2 matches with 3 or more goals. And only 25 goals scored at an average of 1.5 goals per game!

Owing to the rather odd work hours (I work in the GMT shift), I rarely got to see the early and mid-day kickoffs but have caught few of the late kick-offs and though there were a couple of dour draws in there, I’m inclined to believe things will pick up soon. Of the matches that I’ve seen, France Vs. Uruguay pips the Italy Vs. Paraguay one to being the most dour one, mostly coz it was a nil-all! England Vs. USA was a nervy affair but I was ROFLing when Robert Green made than horrendous miss to gift USA the draw. Brazil Vs. Korea DPR was a lively affair too, but undoubtedly the pick of the round was Germany’s 4-0 drubbing of hapless Australia.