Category — World Cup

Group H:

Honduras 0-1 Chile
Spain 0-1 Switzerland

Spain dominated the pitch with the exception of the net. Switzerland took advantage of one of the few times they managed to get in range, while Spain never converted any of their opportunities into a netted ball.

The first round of Group play is over.

In Group A second round: South Africa 0-3 Uruguay

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
	C	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
	D	3	1	1	0	0	4	0	4
	D	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	-4
	E	3	1	1	0	0	2	0	2
	H	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	1

In Group F:

New Zealand 1-1 Slovakia

Group G:

Côte d’Ivoire 0-0 Portugal
Brazil 2-1 PDR Korea

New Zealand scored in the injury time to draw against a skilled Slovakia side, which was their first World Cup goal.

Group G has no weak teams. Four continents represented and the four sides all came to play.

This is how the teams I follow are fairing:

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
	C	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
	D	3	1	1	0	0	4	0	4
	D	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	-4
	E	3	1	1	0	0	2	0	2
	H	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

In Group E:

Netherlands 2-0 Denmark
Japan 1-0 Cameroon

In Group F:

Italy 1-1 Paraguay

Italy had to come from behind to take a draw which is not what you expect from the defending champion. The South American teams all come ready to play, so it’s hard to believe that Italy wasn’t prepared.

In Group C:

England 1-1 US
Algeria 0-1 Slovenia

In Group D:

Serbia 0-1 Ghana
Germany 4-0 Australia

Goalies are having problems. Both Robert Green of England and Faouzi Chaouchi of Algeria lost control of balls that you would expect them to handle. Some people have complained about the new ball acting weird. Both goals were late in the games but that shouldn’t affect people good enough to make their national teams.

Another goalie in pain, this time physical, is Tim Howard of the US who may have broken ribs. He stayed in the match after the injury, but may have to be benched.

Group A finished the first day with draws all around:

South Africa 1-1 Mexico
Uruguay 0-0 France

Group B had winners and losers:

Republic of Korea 2-0 Greece
Argentina 1-0 Nigeria

Group C action started at 1:30 PM CDT with England already a goal up on the US.

Update: the US equalized, final: England 1-1 US

Thirty days of football [soccer to most Americans] begins to today in South Africa, but I’ll try to keep it down.

If you have never been involved with the Cup, there are 32 teams chosen after three years of games placed in 8 groups of 4. The initial round involves playing the other three teams in your group, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the final round that is a single knockout competition.

2010 World Cup draw

• Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
• Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece
• Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
• Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia
• Group E: Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark
• Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia
• Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
• Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland

[OK, so sled dog racing, the Tour de France, and the World Cup is a weird mixture, but you have to remember I was a military brat and veteran at the time when sports were even marginally important. These were the “big deals” when I was growing up.]

2010 World Cup draw

• Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
• Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece
• Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
• Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia
• Group E: Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark
• Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia
• Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
• Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland

Group G looks nasty, but the US has a good chance to advance.

I know full well and good that almost no one who stops by actually cares about this, because they think that football is a game in which the pointy-ended “ball” gets picked up and carried, but the New York Times reports that the US national team has qualified for the 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa.

Hopefully they won’t get dismissed in the first round, as happened in 2006 in Germany.

Update: Final Spain 1-0 Germany. Just past the 30-minute mark Fernando Torres took a pass from Cesc Fabregas Xavi Hernandez, out-moved a defender and chipped it in over the German goalie, Jens Lehmann.

It’s time for the UEFA Cup finals of real football, the version that requires you to use your feet, so nothing else will happen in Europe during the match, and there will be either celebration or commiseration afterward, depending on how your side made out.

Pierre at Candide’s Notebooks is planning to live-blog the event starting at 2:30PM EDT [he’s in the other part of Florida].  It is scheduled to start at 8:45PM local in Wien/Vienna which prime-time for European audience.

The BBC will have a ‘Net feed, but it will be nearly impossible to log in, even if they don’t restrict it, which I suspect they will.

The German side are having some injury problems, but I will still give them the edge.

I expect they will both wear their first kit, which is white over black for the Germans and red over dark blue for Spain.

World Cup official shot himself: Juergen Kiessling, the man who organized the World Cup in Germany, attempts to commit suicide at 65?

Materazzi denies terrorist insult:

The BBC’s Ten O’Clock News also called in experts to study the television footage of the incident and determined the following:

Materazzi’s first word to Zidane was “no” before he then told him to “calm down”.

He then accused him of being a “liar” and wished “an ugly death to you and your family” on the day the Frenchman’s mother had been taken to hospital ill. This was followed by “Go f*** yourself”.

How rife is taunting in football?

Fifa investigates Zidane red card. This is a bit touchy. If Fifa determines that Materazzi used a racial slur of any kind, ownership of the World Cup could come into question as he scored one of the penalty shots and should have been ejected for race baiting.

It’s a game, people. It’s kicking a ball around a yard. It is supposed to be fun. It is supposed to provide exercise and teach teamwork and sportsmanship. It is not supposed to involve autopsies, courts, and lawyers.

Update: new transcript of the exchange discovered.

Italia

The Azzuri win.

[cat daddy and dr squeeky called it.]

Italy v. France

The US had a draw against Italy in the Group stage.

An all UEFA final.

Germany v. Italy and Portugal v. France

My surviving sides for the quarter finals.

The Netherlands loss was a sloppy game for all concerned, including the referee. The Swiss loss was pathetic – missing all of your penalty shots while being unable to stop any from the Ukraine was just bad football.

The Black Stars of Ghana showed a lot of class only losing by 3 goals to Brazil.