It's nil-nil, but...

2006-07-10T22:29:00.000+01:00

Time to say goodbye

This blog has been up and running for about two months now. It was primarily set up for the World Cup and now that the tournament is over, it is also time for me to wrap it up.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing the blog, just as much as I enjoyed watching the tournament. I must thank malaysiakini for giving me this opportunity to put into words what I have been saying about football all these while.

I must also thank all my guest bloggers for sharing their thoughts with me. Thanks too to all those who commented on the writings – either in the blog itself or through emails.

And finally, thanks to all for visiting this blog.

Now that this blog is officially closed – perhaps until the next big football tournament – please visit my other blog, Ruth Square, to continue reading my ravings and rantings.

Cheers and Goodbye.

K Kabilan

2006-07-10T22:24:00.000+01:00

The roll of honour, according to me

Now that the World Cup is over, we can start looking back to see who did what better than the others. Below is a list of my favourites:

Best player: Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)

Although Zinadine Zidane was voted as the tournament’s best player, for me it is Cannavaro without a doubt. He was superb at defending and marshalling the Italian backline. Never once did you see him simply kick the ball out of the danger area. He always found space to wriggle out of danger and then pass the ball to another teammate. Though his immediate future with Juventus is in doubt due to the match fixing scandal besieging his club, he didn’t allow that to interfere in his game. Superb player with excellent attitude and deserved to lift the trophy for Italy.

Best goalkeeping moment: Richard Kingston (Ghana)

There were a handful of good keepers on parade at the World Cup. Italy’ Buffon was outstanding in several matches, Holland’s Edwin van Der Saar was superb against Portugal and Germany’s Jens Lehmann finally proved himself as his nation’s number one keeper. However for me, Ghana’s Richard Kingston was truly outstanding in the match against Brazil, especially in the final 20 minutes when he thwarted so many chances created by the Samba boys. If it wasn’t for him, Brazil would have had thrashed Ghana that night.

Goal of the tournament: Esteban Cambiasso (Argentina)

The tournament started on a bright note with the excellent goal by Phillipp Lahm for the Germans in the opening match against Costa Rica. This was followed by another thunderbolt by Torsten Frings in the same match. After that we saw some amazing long range goals. Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden was a beauty, so was Steven Gerrard’s strike against Trinidad & Tobago. The two Italian goals in their semis against Germany were superb and for Portugal, Maniche and Deco scored four amazing long range goals. Zidane’ solo effort against Spain was outstanding, so was Torres’ goal for Spain in the match against Ukraine. And then we had smart free kicks by the South Koreans and two from Beckham for England. Arjen Robben scored a wonderful individual goal against Serbia. Germany finished it off with two amazing long range strikes through Schweinsteiger against Portugal in the third place match.

But two goals remain a class above the rest. The first is the goal scored by Maxi Rodriguez from Argentina against Mexico in the second round. And the goal of the tournament has to be the one scored by Argentine Cambiasso against Serbia. That goal was a superb team effort, ending into the net after 24 passes and a cool finish.

Best inspirational player in the World Cup: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)

This will remain a World Cup in which no single player shined. We had some players having one good game and then going missing in the next. In the second stage onwards, perhaps Zidane made the difference for the French. And as I mentioned above Cannavaro was superb for the Italians. Cristiano Ronaldo had a good tournament for Portugal but disgraced himself by falling down too easily. Riquelme was the Argentine conductor and they did well whenever he player well. For Brazil, surprisingly the most effective player was the unassuming Ze Roberto. Apart from these well-known names, no one else managed to get a hold of the World Cup and claim to be the best player around. Biggest disappointment has to be Ronaldinho and Kaka from Brazil and Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard from England.

For me, two players caught my eyes in the first round. One was Stephen Appiah, the Ghanaian captain. He was everywhere in the field, He led by example and I think had a good World Cup.

The other was Didier Drogba for Ivory Coast. This player single-handedly sparked an amazing comeback in their matches against Holland and Argentina. He played as though he was possessed. He led the field and was hell bent in proving his team can play football. And he did that very well. Ivory Coast was unlucky to be in such a difficult group and they didn’t lose easily too. They came close in upsetting both Holland and Argentina as well, thanks to the amazing performance by Drogba.

Underachievers: Spain

Need I say more? They started well, played some good football but still managed to get kicked out. Argentina came a close second. They too started the tournament on fire, playing like champions, only to be kicked out on penalties.

Over-hyped team: England

Less said better about England They came into the finals as joint favourites but never showed us what they are capable of. Played some insipid football and went out on penalties to Portugal. The other one has to be the defending champions Brazil. They never looked like they can reproduce their magic here. Star players looked over-confidence and never really showed their talent. The only good thing to come out for them is Ronaldo’s record breaking goals.

Best match: Germany v Italy

With more teams playing with one striker, goals eventually dried up in the World Cup. We did however had an entertaining first round where teams played more of an open game. After that, it was a matter of teams playing not to lose and defensive mindset came into the picture. Still we had some entertaining clashes throughout the tournament.

So my choice of the best match of the tournament is the semifinal clash between Germany and Italy. Both sides were hell-bent in attacking and looking for that one goal that will take them into the finals. In the end however Italy managed that with two wonder goals in the dying minutes. This should have been the final instead. There were also other interesting matches earlier in the group stage. Holland and Argentina played a goalless match, but what a match that turned out to be. And let’s not forget the superb demolition job done by Argentina in their 6-0 thrashing of Croatia.

Worst match: Ukraine v Switzerland

This was a second round match and it nearly put me to sleep. No one wanted to attack, both keepers not tested and at the end Ukraine won 3-0 on penalties. Ukraine was involved in another boring match - against Tunisia in the group stages and managed to win 1-0 through a penalty. Earlier on Saudi Arabia and Tunisia almost played a similar boring match in the group stages, but still that match ended 2-2.

Worst refereeing moment: 16 yellows and 4 reds

That was the tally of cards dished out by referee Valentin Ivanov in the Holland versus Portugal second round stage. Close behind has to be Graham Poll who gave three yellows cards to a Croatian player before finally producing a red.

Sore losers of the tournament: Argentina

They were beaten on penalties by the Germans and they decided to go out fighting (literally) with the German after the match.

Surprise package of the tournament: Australia

Newcomers Ivory Coast and Ghana did well but I thought it was Australia which actually proved to be the unlucky one this year. They came from behind to defeat Japan, matched Brazil before losing out at the end and battled hard against Croatia for a draw which put them in the second stage. There, they held Italy until stoppage time when a dubious penalty sent them packing.

2006-07-10T12:04:00.000+01:00

Italy 1 - 1 France (PEN 5:3) - a video highlight

If you had missed the drama of the World Cup finals last night, here is the video highlights for you - with all the goals, misses, red card, penalties and jubilation.

2006-07-10T00:01:00.000+01:00

A moment of Zidane madness

In the final against Italy earlier today, Zidane will be remembered for using his right foot once, and his head twice. On the first occasion, he scored a clever penalty to give France the lead over Italy.

Then when the match was drawn level, he almost put France ahead with a beautiful header which was saved superbly by the Italian keeper Buffon.

And then finally, perhaps the one moment Zidane will be remembered for, now that he is retiring after this, he used his head to butt into Marco Materazzi’s chest. It was an ugly and brutal assault on the Italian player and Zidane deserved to be red-carded.

Sadly, that was to be Zidane’s last move for the night, his last act in international football for the French, now tainted by this one moment of madness.

Television replays showed that Zidane was provoked by Materazzi who had said something as Zidane ran past him. Still, there is no excuse for such an experienced player to lose his temper.

We all have seen Zidane in this mood – remember 1998 World Cup match against Saudi Arabia? As well for both Juventus and Real Madrid?

But you would have thought that for a player who is back to his best and playing for the last time for his country, and within striking distance of that all-important trophy, he would show some form of self control.

For me, I think his best moment in this World Cup must be his excellent performance against Brazil in the quarter finals. That came after he had an excellent game and scored a memorable goal against Spain in the second round. Tonight, he started brightly and was almost there to achieve the dream.

Then he lost it all by not using his head in the proper manner. How sad.

2006-07-09T23:40:00.000+01:00

Italy – the new world champions

Who would have thought that the Italians will win the World Cup? They did tonight, and I think they thoroughly deserve it for they were the most consistent team in the tournament from the first match.

Unlike the Italian teams of the past, this team showed more flair than just relying on their defending strength. And tonight against France, when they needed it most, they showed us again, how to defend properly.

No doubt the attacking flair was missing today. In fact Italy’s skilful playmaker Totti was totally out of the game. And what we saw was the tenacious defending passed on from past masters to the current crop.

Fabio Cannavaro was everywhere. So was Gennaro Gattuso. And when they failed, their keeper Gianluigi Buffon was there. And he made one outstanding save to stop a Zidane header from going in.

There was nothing the Italian defence could do against the French goal. In fact, I thought it was not a penalty at all. Still Zidane was ultra composed to chip the ball in, giving Buffon no chance at all. It took the Italians 12 minutes to draw level and the remaining 101 minutes saw the ball being played in the midfield area, giving us a clear clue that this match was heading to penalties.

Once Zidane got sent off on the second period of extra period – for a stupid moment of madness – Italians did look to have an upper hand for a moment. Mind you, that was a period when France were without Zidane (red card), Thierry Henry (substituted), Ribery (substituted) and Vieira (injured).

Still nothing came about. So at the end of the World Cup this year, the script will read that Italy won it – for the fourth time - on penalties. Never masters of the penalty kick, the Italians tonight scored all five.

Now these triumphant players will have to return home to the daunting task of facing the match fixing scandal involving some of the big clubs in their country.

2006-07-08T23:53:00.000+01:00

Goodbye divers, adios Figo

For Portugal, the 3-1 defeat against Germany was the swansong for their talisman Luis Figo. He is retiring from international football after today and was given a 15 minutes run towards the end of the match to show the world what we will be missing from him. Also retiring is striker Pauleta.

We will miss Figo no doubt, but I am sure we are all happy to see the back of a team which had so many cheats and divers in them. Don’t get me wrong, Portugal is a good team but some of their players are just rotten.

The way some of their players went down during their semifinal clash against France was outrageous and a disgrace. Their reputation for diving has now preceded them that even when they have been genuinely fouled, they will be not believed.

Mind you, their knack for falling over has totally blinded the simple fact that Portugal can actually play good attacking football. I liked the way their midfielders controlled the games, playing neat passes, and scoring beautiful scorchers (stand up Maniche and Deco), just as I enjoyed watching their defenders doing a proper job.

Portugal has some young, talented and skillful players. In time, they might learn to use their football ability, and not their diving skills, to win matches.

2006-07-08T23:32:00.000+01:00

It has been a good WC for the Germans

Germany took the consolation prize of the third spot in the World Cup by soundly beating Portugal 3-1 today.

The game only turned into an entertaining event in the second half after a couple of spectacular long range shots from Bastian Schweinsteiger, sandwiching an own goal from Petit, sealed Portugal’s fate.

Portugal did start the match brightly and offered more than a token resistance to the hosts but I thought Germany deserved this win for the way they have played throughout this tournament. They have been entertaining, full of goals and showed good sportsmanship from their first match.

Much has been said about their young, inexperienced defence but to their credit the green defenders have done well. In fact, I can’t find fault in any of the German players for their professionalism in this tournament. Many of them will now establish themselves as household names not only in their nation but in the international arena too.

They started the tournament as a bunch of no-hopers. Home fans thought a quarterfinals place will be good. But these players exceeded the expectations of all and came very close to the final prize itself.

It was not just the third spot which Germany took home today. They have also earned their reputation as a good host and have rekindled the love for the game in their country. With so many young players in the team, the future of German football looks good indeed.

On top of that, they have got the best young player in the tournament in Lukas Podolski and Mirosav Klose might just win the Golden Boots award. In all, it has been a good World Cup for the Germans.

One just final thought - I have always believed that the third-fourth place kickoff was a waste of time. No one remembers the third place winners. FIFA should just scrap this one match. Otherwise, what is there to stop FIFA in the near future from having classification matches for third to say eight placed teams?

In the place of this third spot match, it will be good if FIFA can organize a charity match involving the best players of the tournament (except for players from teams in the final). It will not be a competitive match but instead one that can drive home the FIFA message of fair play and unity in the game. How about it?

2006-07-07T12:10:00.000+01:00

Young Podolski wows FIFA Committee

Lukas Podolski is the choice of FIFA as the Best Young Player of the tournament. He is the first winner of this new award.

Podolski, 21, formed a lethal partnership with Miroslav Klose for the hosts Germany in their spectacular run in the World Cup. Their partnership was a joy to watch and both benefited from each other. Klose is in the run for the Golden Boots award with five goals and Podolski has three goals to his tally.

Unfortunately this duo could not help Germany progress any further as they lost to Italy in the semis and now face Portugal for the third spot tomorrow.

Coming back to the man-of-the-hour Podolski, he was selected from a shortlist of six talented youngsters who played at the tournament. In all 40 players had competed for the title of Gillette Best Young Player.

Podolski, known as Prince Poldi, played a key role in Jurgen Klinsmann's starting line-up. He came into the tournament with a reputation of a prolific striker - 15 goals in 31 games for his country.

Many pundits will say that Podolski, who was born in Poland, had his best game for Germany in the second round match against Sweden. He scored two goals in that match to round up a hardworking performance.

The other youngsters in the short list were Cristiano Ronaldo (POR), Luis Valencia (ECU), Lionel Messi (ARG), Tranquilo Barnetta (SUI) and Cesc Fabregas (ESP).

Personally I think this award was for Messi to take if his country had progressed further. Unfortunately Argentina was kicked out by Podolski’s Germany and with that went Messi’s hope of shining in the tournament.

I suppose Portugal’s Ronaldo would have given Podolski a close run too. He had been amazing for Portugal. He has become such an integral player for them. I enjoyed watching his mesmerizing runs, but not his propensity to fall at the slightest of touch. Sometimes, you need not touch him at all for him to fall over in agony.

Perhaps that was why the FIFA Technical Committee overlooked him and chose Podolski.

These two will come face to face tomorrow in the third place kick off. Let’s see who does better on the field.

2006-07-07T11:45:00.000+01:00

If only Roberto Carlos had paid attention to Henry

Thank God Roberto Carlos has announced his retirement from international football. It is about time too. Age must be catching up with him. A friend had sent me a series of photos which showed how Carlos had been slow in tracking Thierry Henry which resulted in the sole goal for France to dump out Brazil.

Here are the photos, as sent to me, for your perusal. Notice how Henry runs pass Carlos and has so much of free space in front of the goal.

p/s Thanks Paul!

2006-07-06T12:26:00.000+01:00

Italians and French in jubilant mood

The photos below show a snapshot of ecstatic Italian and French fans after their respective teams made it to the World Cup finals this Sunday.

This photo above shows Italian fans celebrate in front of the Colosseum in Rome after their team had beaten hosts Germany 2-0 in the first semifinal.

And this photo shows France fans waving flags on the Champs-Elysees in Paris to celebrate their semifinal win over Portugal.

2006-07-06T11:33:00.000+01:00

This IS a funny one...

Saddam Hussein has been found guilty and sentenced to be shot.

His last request was to name his own firing squad.

He chose Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher from 12 yards.

2006-07-05T23:05:00.000+01:00

Portugal losses out in diving competition

History was against Portugal in their match against France today. These two nations have never met in the World Cup but in the last six international meetings between them, France has won all.

France has also been the stumbling block for Portugal in the European Championship, twice denying Portugal a place in the finals. In both 1984 and 2000, France emerged winners after dramatic periods of extra time.

So Portugal went into this semifinal today with the determination to break this cycle of losing and gain revenge over the French. As for the French, it was just a matter of continuing where they left off against Spain and Brazil in the World Cup.

Sadly for Portugal, this wretched record continues. France beat them yet again, this time through a Zidane penalty in the 33th minute, just as how his penalty sent the Portuguese home in the 2000 European Championship semifinals.

Apart from that goal, France however did not contribute much in this dull match. It was Portugal who had all the possession and did all the attacking. They tried everything to get level in this match. They tried the long shots, putting the ball into the French penalty box, crossing from either sides and diving everywhere in the pitch.

As the final minutes drew closer, their dramatic divings and falls happened very often in the French penalty box – they were all at it, none guiltier than Cristiano Ronaldo, Pauleta, and Helder Postiga.

If only they had stood firm on their feet and tried to shoot the ball! They also had one splendid opportunity when French keeper Fabien Barthez fumbled a Ronaldo freekick, giving Figo an opportunity to head into the open net. Figo headed wide.

Thankfully the referee was never conned by the Portuguese theatrics but still the match was decided on a dive which resulted in the French penalty. I thought Thierry Henry fell in a dramatic manner when his leg was caught unintentionally by Carvalho. The referee thought it was a foul and Zidane made no mistake from the spot.

So as it happens, Portugal now play Germany for the third spot while France will take on Italy on July 9. However the French will have to improve tremendously if they want to be a worthy world champion.

2006-07-05T15:42:00.000+01:00

Mindless creatures called the WAGS

One sideshow from the England contingent at the World Cup has to be the antics of the WAGS. Who you ask? Surely you have heard of the WAGS. They are as important as the players themselves, perhaps even more popular at times. Still don’t know? Okay, I am talking about the wives and girlfriends of the footballer (aka the WAGS).

I don’t think in the past they have been in the limelight as much as they have been this summer. British newspapers had a number of reporters to cover them – to see what they were doing when their partners/husbands were busy preparing for the matches.

And these WAGS didn’t disappoint anyone. At times, the UK dailies, especially the tabloids, gave them more coverage than the players. The Sun and The Mirror were trying to outsell each other by dedicating pages and pages with photos and snippets of what these WAGS were up to.

So we had stories of these girls boozing and shopping daily. In fact that was what they were up to throughout their stay in Baden-Baden, which was the HQ for the England team. Media reports spoke about daily long night drinking sessions costing some 4,000 pounds and shopping sprees involving amounts equivalent to the GDP of a small third world nation - designer dresses and sunglasses top the list.

They still made it to the frontpages even when they did not go out shopping. On July 3, these WAGS had other plans and the British papers screamed: “England WAGs give the shopping a rest!”

And then you will also see them in the stadiums, cheering their men. You won’t miss them at all. These are the girls who wear big shades, tiny dresses, well made up and give that prompt cheers when they know the cameras are zooming on them.

Another common trait in them is that they are all dressed up to the nines. They’re all highly competitive - each one wants to out-glam the next.

The England WAGS are divided into at least two groups. In one corner, we have the first lady of WAGS Victoria Beckham. She was always seen with singer Cheryl Tweed (fiancée of Ashley Cole). (pix above)

And then we have the clique involving the others - Coleen McLoughlin (Wayne Rooney), Carly Zucker (Joe Cole), Alex Curran (Steven Gerrard), Elen Rives (Frank Lampard), Michaela Henderson-Thynne (Stuart Downing), Lisa Roughead (Michael Carrick) and Toni Poole (John Terry), and others.

In the beginning the novelty of these WAGS took pressure off the team, but after weeks of almost identical behaviour the thrill just faded away.

So much so, the Daily Mail said that “their charm has waned…They possess no curiosity about anything other than clothes, champagne and their reflections. Empty days, mindless nights”.

After the woeful performance of the England players, the British media is now slowly coming round to lay the blame on the WAGS – for being such a distraction to the players!

On the day after England’s defeat to Portugal, these WAGS were jeered and booed off by angry England fans.

For once, we didn’t not see them posing for the media photographers and doing things openly. These WAGS were now into hiding, waiting to get back to England!

With their reputations tattered, one of them, Cheryl, now further strains the image by trying to maintain a distance from the rest. She claimed that she was shocked by the vanity of the other WAGS. She further invited the wrath of the rest by labeling them materialistic.

This is surely not the end of this matter. I am waiting to see how the other WAGS will react.

2006-07-04T23:55:00.000+01:00

Italians gatecrash Germany’s ‘living room’

What a game! Italy and Germany most probably played one of the best games in the World Cup. It was an end-to-end action with both teams showing their propensity to attack throughout the normal time and the extra period. I thought the Italians were a shade better and justified that by two glorious goals in the final minutes of extra time to step into the finals on Sunday.

But first some statistics to ponder:

The match was played at Dortmund, a stadium which the Germans call as their “living room” for they have not lost in the 14 matches they have played there – 13 wins and one draw.

And on the other hand, in the six previous World Cup matches they have played against Italy, they have won none – four defeats and two draws.

As such, the match today could have broken either of the records, or it could have gone as a drawn game, to be decided by penalties.

One more statistic for you now – when it comes to penalty kicks, the Germans are the kings. They have taken part in four penalty shoot-outs and won all of them – scoring 17 out of the 18 strikes.

So when the match started today, most of us thought there had to be a winner at the end of the extra period, failing which Germany would win the shoot-outs. The first 15 minutes of the match indicated as much – that this was heading towards penalty kicks.

But to the credit of both teams, we had a sufficient supply of attacking football and clever defending. And again, when the extra period started, both teams came out firing on all cylinders, trying to score that single goal which would be enough.

Italy started better in the extra period, twice going very close with only the German woodwork to deny them. Germany too had an outstanding opportunity to score through Lukas Podolski who headed wide.

Now to the goals by the Italians – and what beautiful goals they were. The first came in the 119th minute as a result of an excellent through pass from Andrea Pirlo, who after collecting the ball from a corner, waited and waited at the edge of the Germany penalty box to find a free Fabio Grosso. The defender lashed an unbelievable, curling left-footed shot beyond Jan Lehmann's outstretched finger-tips into the far corner.

(119’) Italy 1- Germany 0

And just under a minute later, following a barrage of German attacks, the impressive Fabio Cannavaro (pix) ran outside of his D-box with the ball, and then leaving Alberto Gilardino to take the ball to the edge of the German penalty area.

Gilardino kept his composure, took his time and rolled the ball to Alessandro Del Piero who ran the entire length of the pitch to finish off the Germans with a clinical shot into the roof of the net.

(121’) Italy 2 – Germany 0

And just then the match came to an end. What a game! For me the match turned into Italy’s favour with the introduction of Del Piero, Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta as substitutes.

As for the Germans, I think they have exceeded everyone’s expectations by coming thus far and they have had a good tournament. Full credit must go the their coach Jurgen Klinsmann for bringing a bunch of young players and motivating them to play such attacking football.

2006-07-04T12:25:00.000+01:00

Falling in love with the Italians

I have never enjoyed watching the Italian national team play. My earliest memory of the Italian game is from the 1982 World Cup when they famously defeated the much fancied Brazil. I was disappointed that night, and that somehow influenced my non-passion for the Italian way of play.

Then eventually I started to admire them, if not for anything, it was for their superb defending skills. Their mantra was to stop the opponents from scoring and they have raised this principle to a high art.

As such, it is no wonder that Italy is renowned for its great defenders. Over the years names like Giacinto Facchetti, Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini, Claudio Gentile, Giuseppe Bergomi, Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini have all shown us the beautiful art of defending.

And that legacy continues in this World Cup with amazing defenders like Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi, Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso. These new batch of defenders – minus the injured Nesta, but we know his pedigree – have defended excellently just like their glorious predecessors. The matches against the USA and Australia are testimonies to that.

Still, this time around, this Italian team is not just about defending. In fact they have surprised me with the enterprise to attack! In the quarter final match against Ukraine, the early goal would usually mean the team getting into defensive mode and merely protecting the one-goal lead. What actually happened was very different – the Italians continued attacking and played for more goals. They played through their midfield, sometimes with some wonderful one-touch passes, to get into the opponent’s D-box.

This is one of the most important changes implemented by coach Marcello Lippi. He has turned a defence-minded team to one that can play positive football.

In this new scheme of things, we can see the importance of midfielders like Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo. The positive play also allows the half-fit Francesco Totti to show us what he can do at the highest level. And the biggest beneficiary of all these could just be striker Luca Toni, who has scored 80 goals in three years in all competitions for club and country.

I have enjoyed watching this Italian team play so far and who knows, when they come up against Germany later today, they might just continue converting the neutral fans with their entertaining and positive football!!

2006-07-03T16:44:00.000+01:00

German fans on a prayer

Suddenly the whole of Germany thinks they can win the World Cup. The supporters have been swept away by the team’s performances right from the first game against Costa Rica. And the dramatic victory in the quarterfinal against Argentina has just added more self-belief to these fans.

The German team takes on Italy in the first semifinal on Tuesday, boosted by a strong defence, attack-minded midfield and on-form forwards. On top of this, they have a keeper (Lehmann) who is playing exceptionally well, a captain (Ballack) who is leading by example and a striker (Klose) who is closing in to become the golden boot winner – he now has five goals.

The home support has been vital for the Germany team and as they continued progressing, the support too continued climbing. And now the whole nation is holding their breath, praying for a famous win against the Italians – and then it really is a touching distance to the final.

2006-07-03T16:30:00.000+01:00

The day after…(3)

The magnificent Zinedine Zidane slayed Brazil for the second time in eight years in the World Cup tournament. He was the man-of-the-match in the 1998 finals when he scored twice and made the third to ensure France won the World Cup for the first time.

And on Saturday night, once again, he gave a performance of a lifetime to kick out the defending champions. His masterful display even earned rare reviews from the Brazil players.

Now he says the aim is to try and win the tournament and in his present form, you shouldn’t doubt him.

On the other hand, of all the big name players in the Brazilian team, one midfielder stood out for me. He is Ze Roberto. I understand his anguish after the defeat to France (pix). In all the previous matches, he was the player who held the Brazil midfield together.

He tidied up, attacked and defended, chalked up two man-of-the-match awards, and scored a cool goal against Ghana in the second round. I just hope we will see more of him for Brazil in the future. If only the other bigger names had the same level of commitment as Ze Roberto, I am sure they would have progressed further.

2006-07-02T16:25:00.000+01:00

The day after…(2)

Steven Gerrard’s season started last July and came to an end yesterday. Throughout this period he had on many occasions come to the rescue of Liverpool, ending the EPL season on a high. As such, there was no doubt that he will be a star in the World Cup.

Somehow things did not work out that way. Either it was the formation which England played or it was just exhaustion as Stevie G failed to reproduce his magic for England. But still, mind you, it was not due to the lack of trying. And he did end up as England’ top scorer at the World Cup with two goals.

The weight of the entire England supporters were on him when he went to take the penalty kick and as soon as he missed, you just knew, it was all over for England.

He is now one of the favourites to replace David Beckham as the England captain following Beckham’s decision to step down today. I am sure he will be a better leader on the field than Beckham was.

2006-07-02T16:20:00.000+01:00

The day after…(1)

Cristiano Ronaldo is now being vilified in England for the manner he ran towards the referee as soon as Wayne Rooney left his boot marks on Carvalho. Many believe it was him who influenced the referee to flash a red card to Rooney. In a post-match interview Ronaldo denies this, saying that he just told the ref that ‘my friend’ Rooney has committed a foul.

Rooney has given an interview saying that he will “stick one” at Ronaldo when they meet up again at Old Trafford. I am sure fans across England will also do their bit in giving the stick to Ronaldo whenever he plays for Manchester United – that is if he still remains a Man Utd player. There are speculations that he is trying to maneuver a move to Real Madrid.

And as for those who think it was Ronaldo who got Rooney sent off, just stop being daft. Rooney got sent off for being stupid and for lacking the proper temperament.

2006-07-02T01:14:00.000+01:00

Why England failed?

England came into this World Cup with so much of hype and self-belief that they can win it this year. Somehow when they played, their performance on the pitch did not reflect that. They were poor in the group stages, but still managed to win two and draw one.

Then against Ecuador in the second stage, again it was the same tale of poor play and woeful performance.

They once again started the game against Portugal today with Wayne Rooney playing alone upfront. The idea was that the excellent midfield players will somehow find through balls for him to score a handful of goals.

This was the strategy against Ecuador and then it failed. Today, once again, that strategy failed big time and left the England management team with a lot to answer for.

I thought today they let Rooney isolated upfront and started pumping long balls to him, hoping that he could somehow get the ball and then run straight at the Portugal goal.

In reality, Rooney was not getting anything and he had to chase for the ball most of the time. Think about this okay. Here we have a player who has just returned from injury, playing just his second full game and yet the manager plays a system where the player is expected to run around on his own, win the ball and score a goal. Sven Goran Eriksson must be dreaming. Rooney is good , but he is not that good!

So what happened next is easy to predict. Rooney is bound to get frustrated. We all know his temperament and the Portuguese players were there to wind him up. You get the picture surely. I am the least surprised Rooney was red-carded in the 62nd minute.

Mind you, the England players showed so much character in defending stoutly and playing counter-attacks for the remainder of the normal time and the extra time. And I thought Owen Hargreaves was simply superb tonight.

And when it came to penalties, once again we somehow knew that the English never had the luck of the grass to win a shoot-out. So they have crashed out of the World Cup now and I am sure expert pundits will start to conduct post-mortems on the team performance.

In that line, here are my two cents worth of what went wrong and why England never looked like winning the World Cup. My conclusion is simple. The fault lies with Sven and here’s why:

He should not have picked Rooney after he had broken his foot. Instead he could have taken with him at least two or three other proven strikers. Names like Jermaine de Foe, Darren Bent or even Dean Ashton will surely ring a bell to most England fans. I think the England players started to believe that they can play better only when Rooney is in the team – that was a wrong perception.

Okay, since he had taken Rooney along, he should not have put so much pressure on the striker by playing him as a sole front man. Any player returning from injury is not going to be sharp and Rooney proved that. He never had the time to settle into the team. I think he was pushed into the firing line too soon.

Sven should have stuck to his 4-4-2 formation. I don’t understand why he was experimenting at the World Cup. He should have known his best formation and his best team even before the tournament. The 4-1-4-1 obviously did not work for England. All along England had played in the 4-4-2 formation and the players were comfortable with that. When Sven changed his formation, I thought the players were simply confused. Just look at today’s game. Hargreaves was supposed to be the holding midfielder but then time and again we still saw Gerrard and Lampard coming back to defend when they should be up front helping Rooney.

I think the formation changes were made to cater for Owen to play alongside Rooney and then when Owen was injured, the system was in place to suit to Rooney’s game.

The flaw here is that Rooney is not a striker. He plays well to feed another striker but with Owen out injured, did we have another natural striker to partner Rooney? Peter Crouch is not one but at least he does the job for you.

If that is the case, why wasn’t Crouch playing alongside Rooney in the last two games? Well that’s because some fool had been telling Sven that the team plays long ball with Crouch in the team. Hey, did you watch the game today? Or the one against Ecuador? Crouch was not in either of the matches, but England was still punting the ball up towards Rooney!

Finally, why did Sven take Theo Walcott and Jermaine Jenas to Germany? Walcott is a striker and even with some striking problems, he never played. Surely some other proven striker could have done the job alongside Rooney tonight.

These are just some of the issues that I have with Sven. Sadly however he will not be answerable as he is out of the job now. We will never know why he made these strange decisions. Was he trying to be different to win the World Cup or was he influenced by some powerful player lobby? Perhaps an autobiography in the future will reveal more.

2006-07-01T23:23:00.000+01:00

Magician Zidane makes Brazilian trickery disappear

Both Brazil and France started the World Cup in a slow fashion. They both failed to impress in the group stages. For Brazil, the promise of their beautiful game never arrived. Whatever glimpse we had of that was only in bits and pieces and that too against teams of lower pedigree.

When they were up against France, Brazil looked very normal, failed to show us the fluent play they are known for. They were playing functional football and were doing it badly as well.

On the other hand, I guess France started to believe in themselves after the great comeback against Spain in the second round stage. They continued that self-belief in today’s game against Brazil. Their passing was crisp, their control of the midfield was superb and above all they had a magician in the middle of the field, pulling all the strings.

Sadly that magician, Zidane, will be retiring after the World Cup. His performance today gave us a clue of what we will be missing from him.

Every time he had the ball, you just wish there were some music in the background because it was such a delight to watch him play. He was poetry in motion. His ball control, first touch, distribution, vision and penetrating passes were the key for the French win today.

On the other hand, the Brazilian midfielders were not in the game at all. They were totally out-played by a compact trio of Vieira, Ribery and Makalele. This tight formation allowed Zidane to orchestrate the French attacks.

He did that all through the night, floating past the Brazil midfielders, finding Henry or other players with a chance to score. Finally the goal, when it came courtesy of Henry, was also from a Zidane freekick.

I thought Brazil only woke up after that goal which forced a change in their system. In came Cicinho, Adriano and Robinho and with the speed they brought, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho started to stir. Still, it was too late for the defending champions.

Having won a record 11 successive games, the 12th just proved too hard.

I hope they blood in more younger and newer players in time for the next World Cup so that they will be hungry to win as well as to replace the many veterans who are to retire after today.

As for Ronadinho, I guess he had a woeful World Cup. Not one which he will remember fondly for his excellent plays.

The only consolation must be the fact that the fat boy Ronaldo broke the World Cup scoring record. I bet he will be around for the next World Cup, and perhaps score even more.

So now France will play Portugal on Wednesday for a place in the finals.

2006-07-01T23:17:00.000+01:00

England and Brazil booted out

I don’t know if I am sad for the Brazil defeat or the England’s, or for both. Brazil has always been a team which I supported from young and over the years I have come to cheer the English too.

Coming into the World Cup, I didn’t rate England as a potential World Cup winner – even if they had had a fully fit Wayne Rooney from the start. I just thought that they were overrated and overhyped.

As for Brazil, it was the way they played the beautiful game but I said to myself at the beginning of the World Cup that it would be bad for world football if they were to retain their title.

I was determined to watch both the quarterfinals today as a neutral supporter, wishing that the better team will progress to the semis.

But still, there was a tinge of sadness when England first lost out on penalties to Portugal. Then came the second quarter final involving Brazil and France and even when the French scored first, I thought Brazil will conjure some magic to pull level.

As the time went off, I realized that my heartbeat was beating a little faster and at the end of the play, Brazil was truly and fully beaten.

To think about it, I think both the results today were obtained on merit. Portugal did play better than England although their victory was a result of a penalty lottery. And as for France, they were simply magnificent and deserved to win.

As such, I guess, its only fair to be happy as a football fan for two better teams on the night are in the semis now and they can only improve the level of entertainment.

As for England and Brazil, its back to the drawing board again and start preparing for the future.

2006-06-30T23:12:00.000+01:00

Clinical Germany versus classy Italy

The most recent match between Germany and Italy (in March) saw the Italians thrashing the Germans 4-1 in a pre-World Cup friendly. In the immediate aftermath of the match, German media and ex-footballers were calling for the sacking of manager Jurgen Klinsmann.

However today, the Germans made it against all odds to kick out Argentina on penalties and will meet the impressive Italy in the first semi finals on Tuesday. Tonight, Klinsmann is a national hero.

Germany has never beaten Italy in the World Cup and the last time they met at this stage (in 1970), Italy defeated the then West Germany 4-3 in extra time. Tuesday's match will be their first World Cup meeting since the 1982 final which Italy won 3-1.

So will it be different this time? The German are playing good football, carrying on their tradition of doing well in tournaments and inexplicably has the good luck in winning penalties.

As for the Italians, they are no pushovers. They are in a 23-match unbeaten run just now and today they totally dismantled Ukraine 3-0.

The Italians have sound defenders and compact midfield. They were missing the first choice central defender Nesta (injury) and his replacement Materazzi (suspension) but their fourth choice Andrea Barzagli did very well alongside captain Cannavaro. They were ably supported by Grosso and Zambrotta, who scored the first goal. And behind them, Buffon stood firm.

I thought both Pirlo and Gattuso had a superb game in the middle of the park. They will surely give the Germans a tough fight.

As for Ukraine, they were hopeless. They ended their World Cup just as they started it against Spain – outplayed, outfoxed and thrashed.

BBC pundit and ex-Celtic manager Martin O’Neil said Ukraine played as though they had a plane ready and waiting to take them back home.

In the second half, they did improve a little but Italy was simply too good for them.

I did not watch the first quarter final between Germany and Argentina as I had to be in London to attend a students’ journalism award ceremony. By the time I reached Sheffield, the match was over. So I missed it all – all the drama, the penalties, Lehmann’s heroics and the handbags and all.

However I was kept up to date by the wife and friends over the phone on the match. When Argentina scored first, I thought they will maintain pressure to win but I suppose with the loud and strong crowd support for the hosts, it was inevitable that they will strike back.

I did manage to catch the match highlights later on and thought Germany was good and clinical. They had progressed well as the tournament goes and have. Their defence, long criticized for being slow, stood firm today and what a goal from Klose, who incidentally has five goals now and looks likely to be the golden boots winner.

As I mentioned earlier, the Germans are showing a true tournament form (as usual), do very well when it comes to penalties, and have been lifted by the outstanding home support. Few thought they had any chance of doing well but here they are, just a game away from the finals.

Before the tournament began, I felt Argentina will do well and they started the tournament with such fire and entertainment value.

Sadly however, even with so many talented players on the team – along with the many so-called new Maradona’s on display – their journey comes to an end at this stage.

Naturally Jose Pekerman has quit as team manager and I was quite puzzled by his decision to take off Riquelme in the 72nd minute. Soon Germany leveled and Argentina had no flair to take the lead again.

And they must be ashamed to be such sore losers, picking a fight with the German bench, showing utter lack of professionalism.

2006-06-30T00:10:00.000+01:00

Lack of Unpredictability

(Guest blogger Sri Shanker Krishnan tells us why this World Cup has become so unpredictable)

The second round of the World Cup competition is complete and the usual suspects have all safely negotiated their paths onto the next stage. Six out of the eight remaining teams are winners of the competition and all the so-called smaller teams have been taken care of.

This World Cup will certainly go down as one of the finest in the history of the competition. For me personally, the benchmark are the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, both held in Mexico. I can recite almost all the players names from the 1970 Brazil team and who can forget Maradona’s exploits in 1986? In fact the years 1970 and 1986 only bring wonderful memories of the World Cup competition for me and nothing else! One of the reasons for the huge popularity of the World Cup is the surprise element – the giant killing act, an audacious piece of skill to finish off a game, brilliant solo goals, etc. The competition is littered with many giant killing acts since its inception.

North Korea beating Italy in 1966, Cameroon beating Argentina in 1982, Senegal beating France in 2002, are some of the more memorable ones. This is what it is all about – the romance of the World Cup! This brings me to the one aspect of the current tournament that has let me down immensely. If there is one complaint I have about Germany 2006, then, this is it. Apart from Ghana beating the Czechs 2-0, all the other results have pretty much gone as expected. Never mind the upsets, there is very little unpredictability even in the style of play, particularly from the more fancied teams. I have yet to see real flashes of individual brilliance, the kind that can change the nature of a game in a split second or commanding individual performances ala Maradona in 1986.

The Brazilian team of 1970 and 1982 are prime examples of this. You never know what to expect from these two teams, there is always a possibility of someone producing an outrageous piece of skill or a commanding performance. Speaking of commanding performances, for me Maradona single handedly (pun intended!) taking Argentina to the cup in 1986 stands out as the most outstanding and influential performance in the history of the World Cup. Pele was surrounded by a wonderfully gifted bunch of players in the 1970 team compared to Maradona.

The closest I have seen to brilliance is the Argentinian team, who have performed with aplomb both as a team and some fine individual performances from players such as Riquelme, Rodriguez, Messi and Saviola. Ghana has been refreshing with their direct attacking style of play and it was lack of international experience that let them down against the Brazilians. Ronaldo’s opening goal against the Ghanaians was a real eye candy! The shuffle of the feet to beat the goal keeper, that itself was worth the ticket money! Then the Brazilians decided to go one better over the Argentines by stringing together 25 passes to score their 3rd goal in the same game. Sadly such outrageous pieces of play have been lacking somewhat in this tournament. Where are the famous step-overs, flicks and trickery? Maybe the pressure of having to win has got into the players? Or is it the coaches who pressure the players to play safe?

The English, Swiss, Ukrainians and Italians have been the major culprits for me. Collectively these so called top teams are guilty of putting many people to sleep simultaneously! Fortunately the Swiss are already out of the tournament. One of the remaining three will be definitely going home soon with the Italians and Ukranians facing each other in the quarter finals. Coming back to the topic, I think apart from the pressure of winning, there are several other reasons as well for the lack of unpredictability.

One of the key reasons is that the game has become very much global now, with almost all the teams having players playing in leagues all over the world, particularly in the major European leagues. This automatically provides teams with greater exposure and experience meaning no more huge rugby score lines! Other than that, players have become familiar with each other having played or faced each other in league matches, meaning greater wariness amongst themselves. Huge expectations and demands are also inhibiting individualism and gung-ho approach. Even the African teams, re-known for out and out attacking play and outrageous displays of individual skills, have become more cagey now as more and more African players start plying their careers in European leagues.

This brings me to the final theory – the European influence. Today more than ever, we see so many South American, African and Asian players plying their trade in European leagues. Naturally the European tendency for discipline, organization and methodical approach has rubbed off on these players while diminishing their natural flair and prowess for exhibitionism.

However all is not lost. Causes for optimism were found in the Brazil v Ghana and France v Spain matches. Ronaldo and Zidane produced fine individual displays and some fine dribbling, back flicks and sharp passing were seen. Jurgen Klinsman has promised that his German team will continue with their swashbuckling (by German standards at least) style. Jose Pekerman has said that his Argentina team cannot play defensively. With the French team also showing improvement and promise of more flair to come, we may yet see some unpredictable results and displays.

The only ones who have been unpredictable so far are the referees – almost all of them have displayed a liking for controversy, intentionally or otherwise. Speak of individualism – this World Cup has probably produced the most number of controversial referees and questionable decisions. Probably the refs have decided to take the limelight seeing that none of the players seem to do anything about it.

Finally, with the quarter final round fast approaching, dare we hope for an individual or a team to go out there and produce a totally unpredictable result? There are more than enough capable individuals out there, so come on gentlemen, seize the day! I remain optimistic.

(Sri Shanker Krishnan is desperate for his Brazil team to start showing the world how the game should be played)

2006-06-29T10:41:00.000+01:00

The fun begins now

Forget early rounds - this is where heroes are made, says Gabriele Marcotti from the Sports Illustrated magazine.

He adds that fans of teams which stuttered in the early stages need not be too worried (England fans take note!) as the competition's early phases are largely irrelevant. There are lots of examples in the World Cup to show how the eventual winner had actually come through bad early rounds. Marcotti goes to the extent to say that it's entirely possible to wake up halfway through the tournament and win it all.

He adds: “Whoever wins will be anointed a genius. The winning players will become household names, their fame will far surpass their ability or contribution. And the losers will be chastised as incompetents, as cowards as men of little worth.”

Read his full article here.

2006-06-29T10:27:00.000+01:00

Sven, bad football and legacy

England coach Sven Goran Eriksson today said he wouldn’t mind playing bad football if that means winning the World Cup.

He said: “To win the World Cup, I am prepared to do whatever. If that means to play bad football all the way, okay, come on, who cares?”

His last remark is very telling. He is right. Who cares if at the end of the day England do win the World Cup, after 40 years? Surely the England fans will be in delirium with the victory that they are not going to talk about the manner the victory came about, or about how they played in the earlier matches.

The only ones to talk about it immediately will be the non-England fans. But then again, who cares about them?

Maybe in the future, people might talk about the boring England team which won the 2006 World Cup, but hey, who cares about that when your country’s name is etched in the famous trophy. These detractors are just jealous, the England fans will say.

Anyway Sven is adamant that he knows what he is doing, all in the effort to ensure England wins. He roars: “Don't tell me I don't know what to do. I know exactly what to do."

Who are we to question him then although we are perplexed by his team selection so far, making small tinkerings here and there, but then again, who cares, as long as his team is winning.

Sven stressed his attitude with examples as well. He pointed out that Ghana, Ivory Coast, Holland and Spain all played wonderful football but were still kicked out of the tournament.

So against Portugal this Saturday, Sven is again prepared to play bad to win this quarter finals. And at the rate his players are playing, they might just put the Portuguese players to sleep and then score a goal to win. Who cares right?

But one thing that Sven has overlooked is that people are talking about Ghana, Ivory Coast, Holland and Spain with admiration for the way they played, even when they looked to be on the way out. These teams have won the hearts of the neutrals. Many football fans were sad to see these teams going home.

However, for England, one more defeat will come with a chorus of ‘I told you so’ remarks with everyone giving their two cents worth of how they went wrong. The fingers will be pointed at Sven and I bet you no one will be sad to see them dumped out.

It takes so little for the England fans to turn around and start lambasting their team, especially in the face of a bad defeat. At least for this, Sven must ensure his team wins the tournament.

2006-06-28T20:01:00.000+01:00

The record breaking Ronaldo

So much for a player said to be tubby and unfit. Media pundits were lambasting him for being overweight and me included had questioned his lack of mobility in Brazil’s first game against Croatia.

In the second match against Australia, he once again looked rather heavy with his first touches being almost comical. I had said that he deserved to be dropped.

But then Ronaldo has come into this World Cup as his country’s modern day World Cup talisman. He has always performed well whenever he pulled in the yellow jersey of Brazil – the exception being the fateful night in Paris in 1998 when he looked totally absent-minded in a match that was won by France.

Ronaldo was an unused squad member in the1994 tournament. Even then he had a high reputation as a goal poacher. The 1998 World Cup was supposed to be his World Cup. He scored four goals before a mysterious illness robbed him of his usual game in the final.

Then came the 2002 World Cup and this was definitely his tournament. He scored eight goals and silenced all doubters who said he would not be able to perform at the highest level as he was just returning from serious injuries. More importantly he laid the ghost of the 1998 final by scoring two in this one to win the World Cup for Brazil for a record fifth time.

Ronaldo was again injured and lacked match fitness coming into the World Cup this year and once again there were murmurs if he could play to his own high standards. The first two games somehow vindicated these doubting armchair critics – including me

But then, hey, we are talking about Ronaldo. In the third game against Japan, suddenly there were some signs of the old predator who struck fear in the opposite defence. Still most of us were unconvinced as he continued to lack the old speed and trickery.

He went on to score two goals against the Asian team. The first saw him surpass the great Pele as Brazil’s highest World Cup scorer with 13 goals. Then he scored a second beauty – this time it saw him equaling Gerd Muller’s record of 14 goals.

On Tuesday, the so-called unfit and fat Ronaldo inscribed his name into football's history books by scoring a record-breaking 15th World Cup goal against Ghana. Now he is the one with the record. And he scored that record-breaking goal in a trademark manner, with the step-overs and sudden burst of speed and all.

Not bad, I think, for a star who is supposed to be in the spotlight for his weight and lack of fitness. I have always liked Ronaldo and am happy for him for his amazing goal-scoring record but still think he didn’t look as sharp as he should!

Come on now, I am sure many will still agree with me that he does look flabby, still has a bad first touch and looks disoriented at times.

But then, to score three goals in World Cup matches with all these going against him, and in the process breaking the record, is not a small matter.

And he wants more. He says: "More, more and more. I want to keep scoring, as I still have much left to give.”

I just can’t help thinking if he could have broken the record much sooner in this World Cup if he had been fitter, or on the number of goals he will go on to accumulate in the coming matches.

While we ponder on this, here is a list of the goals which Ronaldo had scored in the World Cups since 1998, and still counting.

2006-06-28T19:19:00.000+01:00

Round of Sixteen round up

(The World Cup moves into the crucial stage now. Guest blogger Raam Shanker gives us a brief round up of all the games played so far in the knockout stage.)

Author’s note: I have not covered the Switzerland-Ukraine and Italy-Australia games, as I was not able to see them. Please accept my humble apologies.

Piquant Podolski Fires Germans Into The Last Eight

Two sensational goals by the heavily criticized Lucas Podolski saw Germany make mince-meat of a Swedish side that came back twice from behind to salvage a draw against England, a few days back! If youth and inexperience were mistaken for incompetence and mediocrity, please reserve the analogies to the English team alone as the sensational Germans blended youthful flair, sophistication and the aspirations of a nation into yet another match winning performance, to gatecrash into the quarterfinals.

They took on the punters, wizards, traditionalists and the practitioners of the old school and proved them wrong by defying all odds in the game against Sweden at Leipzig, which will be the last game of the tournament to be played there. Managed by a young coach Klinsmann, performances like this may spell the renaissance of German football and what better place to start than home! However their captain Ballack failed to find the net, despite numerous efforts and even lost his cool towards the end. The highlight of the game was the beautiful synchronization between Klose and Podolski up front and their seamless integration with the rest of the field.

Truly Deutschland Uber Alles!

Elsewhere…

It Takes Two To Tango As Argentina Devour The Mexican Tortilla Wrap

The odds were certainly against Mexico going into this game against Argentina, but a peach of a goal by captain Rafael Marquez saw them take the lead from a set piece. Any other team would have crumbled but not the Argentines for they came right back, firing on all cylinders with Crespo equalizing within minutes. The remainder of the ninety minutes was end-to-end and action packed, but no more goals meant we would play for another half an hour. A goal made in heaven, eight minutes into extra time was enough to see the Argentines through and reinforce their position as joint favorites, much to the delight of Jose Peckerman and the legendary Diego Maradona.

As the irony of life would have it, they now face the not-so-gracious hosts who have been unbeaten in this tournament so far. Will the German Blitzkrieg decimate the Argentines or the will the Argentines take the lead as they show the Germans how to Tango? All will be known in a few days from now!

Coincidence, That Lions Belong To The Cat Family?

The Three Lions played like three frightened cats against classy Ecuador, as mediocrity prevailed. Being an ardent supporter, even I was yawning much to the surprise of my gracious host, Kabilan. Long balls and lost chances; doesn’t get simpler than this, does it? And then a record tumbled. David Beckham scored out of a free kick and became the first Englishman to score in three different World Cups. His two earlier strikes were against Colombia in 1998 and the match-winning spot-kick against Argentina in 2002, when he redeemed himself after taking stick for England’s defeat to Argentina in 1998.

Records Will Tumble, When You Shove, Push and Head-Butt!

The clash between Holland and Portugal would have been a classic, except for the fact that the players showed no class. Instead they behaved like a bunch of juvenile delinquents and class dropouts pushing, shoving and head-butting their way into the record books. This game saw a record eighteen yellow cards and four red cards being shown. The ones to leave the party early were, Costinha of Portugal, followed by Boulahrouz of Holland, then Deco of Portugal and his Barca teammate Gio of Holland. Phew, truly everything is fair in love and war! The only high point of the game came from Maniche, who netted the early winner for Portugal. I really don’t want to take the names of all the players who entered into the referee’s book and the record book, as I don’t have the patience, to be honest!

Spain One and France Won; Brazil Still Unstoppable!

If experience is the best teacher, I am sure the young Spanish team would have learnt the lesson of its life, on the biggest stage in the world. The veteran French stormed into the quarterfinals to meet reigning champions Brazil with strikes from Ribery, Vieira and Zizou! The Spaniards took a lead through a penalty by David Villa but France was quick to respond and Ribery equalized in style, taking them on par into the break. Back from the break, it was push, push and push for both sides. In a contest of hard-earned experience versus youthful fervor, it was a matter of time before we would see the triumphant.

Zidane opting out of retirement must have been a blessing in disguise as he showed his class in a set piece that was converted by the former Arsenal skipper, Patrick Vieira. Deep into injury time, Zizou again proved why he is what he is as he drove the final nail on the Spanish coffin by blasting the third goal after leaving Puyol stranded. It was like Les Bleus were back with a vengeance and they face their old nemesis! This should take us back in time eight years where Zidane rocketed into stardom with two wonderful headers and Petit pouched a third, crowning themselves Champions of The World. By the way, today’s game extended France’s unbeaten streak to I think twenty-four games on a trot!

This time though, Ronaldo looks in good shape and seems to be in great form and scored as early as the fifth minute against minions Ghana. From there Brazil showed the stuff champions are made of, Sambaing their way into the quarterfinals with further strikes from Adriano off Cafu’s cross and Ze Roberto after leaving the opponent goalkeeper in tatters. Brazil, though have not met a competitive team of reputed quality and still it remains to be seen if they can keep the momentum going. I must say though that Ronaldo silenced most critics, me included.

Now the draw looks invigorating and I only hope we see positive attacking football and not the tame game that Ukraine and Switzerland played out for the heck of it.

The Draw for Quarterfinals:

Germany v Argentina
England v Portugal
Italy v Ukraine
Brazil v France

A few questions however need to be answered;

Will we see the return of Trezeguet, as Henry was not effective in solitude?
How will Brazil handle the pressure of being reminded of that fateful night in Paris?
Will England for Queen’s sake start playing the way they played the first half against Sweden, at least…?
Will England and Sven redeem themselves by outplaying Portugal or will the ghosts of Lisbon, 2004 come back to haunt them?
Will German Blitzkreig prevail over Argentine Tango?
How far can Shevchenko take Ukraine as he lines up to face his former Milan mates?

(Raam Shanker is still hoping that his team England will win the World Cup)

2006-06-28T00:02:00.000+01:00

Perennial underachievers fail again.

So what is new with Spain? Haven’t they been like this forever? They have always failed when it mattered in major tournaments. I am not sulking here but I really thought they would go far this year and their 3-1 defeat to France today was a major disappointment for me.

They started the tournament in a superb form and hit rock bottom against a French team which seemed to have found their own good form finally.

I thought the Spanish midfield trio of Xabi Alonso, Fabregas and Xavi were totally overshadowed by France’s Zidane and Vieira. The two French midfielders were more composed and imposing in the middle of the park. And they were ably assisted by the youngster Frank Ribery and veteran Claude Makalele.

As time progressed, you could see the French team gaining confidence and despite being a goal down, they showed some character to come from behind and win easily, I should say.

So at the end, we have a Spanish team which has never beaten France and that unwanted record continues for them, and they again lived up to their reputation as underachievers. In their favour however stands the fact that this is a young team who should do better in the coming years.

As for France, they gave a majestic performance today to win this game and set up a quarter finals meeting with Brazil. They have shown tremendous improvement in their game. I was especially impressed with Ribery who came under fire for missing chances in the earlier matches. Today he took his goal beautifully to announce his arrival at the big stage.

French maestro Zidane, playing his last few matches before retiring, again impressed us with his wonder show. He capped an excellent night with a beautiful goal.

Just one sore point from me as far as the French team is concerned. Actually it doesn’t involve the whole team but one individual player – Thierry Henry and the way he fell holding his face in the 82nd minute after a clash with Puyol.

To start with, I didn’t think the tumble warranted a foul and a yellow card for Puyol. And more importantly, the ensuing free kick resulted in a goal from France. They led from then on and with Spain trying to push forward, saw an opening through Zidane to finish off the game in the 90th minute.

My point is that a player of Henry’s stature need not have done that to win a free kick and a card for a fellow player.

2006-06-27T23:47:00.000+01:00

It is no surprise that Brazil won

Are we surprised by the Brazil victory over Ghana? I am not and am sure many other football fans too thought this game was a foregone conclusion even before the ball was kicked.

In the end Brazil scored three times, with Ronaldo now officially the leading World Cup scorer with 15 goals. He just took five minutes to latch on to Kaka's through ball and rounding Ghana’s keeper Richard Kingson to slot home.

Adriano tapped in Cafu's cross and Ze Roberto ran through to wrap it up while Ghana's Asamoah Gyan was sent off.

Again, Brazil was unimpressive but did just enough to win. This was by no means a comfortable win for them as Ghana had many chance to score, only to fumble it at the end.

However other teams can take note on how the Africans managed to breach the Brazilian defence time and again. They did it so frequently that you just wanted them to score a goal for their temerity in running rings around Juan and Lucio.

In the last quarter of the match, Brazil gave us a short peep show of what they are truly capable of. First there was this exquisite through pass from substitute Ricardinho which found Ze Roberto who flicked it past Kingson, ran round him and rolled into an empty net.

Then in quick successions Ronaldo, Cafu and Juan – following some sublime passes - had their shots saved by Kingson

The 3-0 scoreline suggests an easy win for Brazil but it was anything but that. And then again, Brazil has been winning their games in this World Cup without hitting top gear. They have now scored seven goals in two games and they do look like they are slowly getting into top form – at least Ronaldo is.

Next comes France and we will see how Brazil handles that test on Saturday.

2006-06-26T22:43:00.000+01:00

Lack of ambition, enterprise and entertainment

Switzerland and Ukraine came into this second round tie with a game plan – to defend stoutly, have all the players behind the ball and not to unnecessarily throw players forward. As such, throughout the game we saw the ball being played in the middle of the field and whatever attacks from either team, came from long shots or set pieces.

The forwards for both the teams were anchored in the midfield area and none made any runs into the penalty area of the opponent at any time of the match. On either side of the half, both the teams struck the post from long distance shots and that’s about it. There were no offsides in the normal time – that explains a lot - and thus it was not surprising that the game went into extra time without seeing any goals.

At the end of 90 minutes, this is what timesonline wrote in its game tracker: Please let somebody score, anybody. Just to put an end to this turgid monstrosity of a game.

And the same sad tale continued in the extra period as well. We saw so much of the ball being played from one defence to another. Neither teams showed any ambition to win the game with a piece of magical play. Not a single stroke of genius from a special player in the pitch.

You would think that Ukraine would surely know all about the Swiss defence – after all the Swiss had not let in a goal in their group matches – and have some game plans accordingly. Unfortunately not and they looked as though they were only relying on Shevchenko to win them the game.

Sadly it doesn’t work that way and after another dull extra period, the match went to penalties – the first in the series of the World Cup.

After both teams continued their shyness in front of the goal by missing their opening penalties, Ukraine took the lead in the second penalty, consolidated their lead by scoring the third and won the game with the fourth. The Swiss hit the post with their second and wasted the third.

Finally after a long, long hour of uninspiring football, Ukraine get into the quarter finals to meet Italy.

2006-06-26T19:31:00.000+01:00

Its game over for the Aussies

What a game! Australia came so close to make history but at the end it was the Italians who managed to sneak into the quarter-finals, and how hard they had to work for that.

There were three phases in this match. In the first phase, contested in the first 45 minutes, it was an evenly played game, with perhaps the Italians having a slight edge. They controlled the game better at this phase; they threatened to score and as usual defended as they always do.

Then came the second phase of the match which was enhanced by the sending off of Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute. I didn’t think the offence warranted a straight red card for Materazzi but still the Italians were down to 10 men.

Thus began the most crucial period of the match as the Australians saw more of the ball and created more chances while the Italians showed their mastery in defending and yet proving that they can be dangerous in counter attacks.

This is the phase which finally revealed the true limitations of the Australians who had had a reasonably good run in the tournament. In the group stage, their win against Japan came after a ferocious fightback, against Brazil, they did show some glimmer of their potential but still came out losing and finally against Croatia, they were in the back foot and were fortunate to win with a last gasp goal.

In all these three matches, they did not exactly set the world on fire with their performance. No doubt they are a hardworking team and a team with good players and many of my friends thought they will show their credentials and make the world take note of their football. I disagreed with that and after today I am more than ever convinced that they are still a few years and few players away from joining the big boys.

Playing against a 10-man Italy, Australia time and again could not find that killer instinct to finish off the game. They simply did not have the calibre, knowhow and guile to end Italy’s challenge. All they did were trying all day to play that crucial final ball to their strikers to score.

That didn’t happen against the masters of defending. Despite being a man down, Italy showed us how to play a defensive game. They soaked up all the pressure, allowed the Australians to keep coming at them and then still found pockets of space for lightning attacks. And where their defenders failed, they had an outstanding goalkeeper who kept the Australians at bay.

And then we come to the final phase of the game – the introduction of Francesco Totti in the 75th minute. This player then started orchestrating the Italian counter attacks and they very nearly went close to score a few times.

The fourth official indicated that three extra minutes were to be played and after that if it remained goalless, we would be going into extra time. The big question was could the 10-man Italians manage to play another 30 minutes.

The climax of this third phase then came when the match clock was showing 92 minutes and 53 seconds. The Italians who had managed to keep their slyness and divings in their pockets all the while finally plucked out one which eventually won them the match – a blatant penalty.

I thought the referee fell for the dive and just as Totti successfully dispatched his beautifully taken penalty into the net, the game was over.

Australians go home now, desperately kicking themselves for being naïve in not killing off the game when they could. As for the Italians, they will now attempt to bury the ghost of 2002 World Cup by progressing even further than the quarter-finals.

2006-06-26T13:41:00.000+01:00

Sea of red anger rises in S Korea

What you see above are thousands and thousands of South Korean football fans. They had gathered in Seoul to watch a live TV broadcast of the World Cup group match between South Korea and Switzerland on a giant screen on June 14.

This was an important game for the Koreans. If they had won, they could have progressed to the second round stage, and play Ukraine tonight. However they failed to live up to the expectations of their fans, losing 2-0 to Switzerland.

Some of these fans accepted the defeat gracefully while there were also others who blamed everyone but their team for the defeat. Some has even taken the matter to FIFA – by blaming poor refereeing for their defeat.

It seems more than 4.2 million South Koreans flooded the official World Cup site with emails in an organized protest. Luckily for FIFA, it caught the email attack in time and blocked all incoming emails from South Korea.

2006-06-25T22:59:00.000+01:00

Cards aplenty as Portugal dump Holland

Before the kick-off, this match had the potential to be one outstanding game between two in-form teams. Both teams had players who could win the game with a moment of magic.
In one corner you had exceptional players like Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Mark Van Bommel. At the Portugal corner there were, among others, football legend Figo, Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo.

And then in the middle we had a Russian referee - Valentin Ivanov, who had so much influence in the game that he single-handedly spoilt it. He dished out 16 yellow cards, four red cards and failed miserably to stamp his authority in at least three tussles between the players, let alone the match.

I must say that he majestically failed to control the game and turned it into a farce. In fact his first yellow card came out of his pocket in the second minute and by the eighth minute, the Dutch had two players on yellow.

In between, we had a superb goal from Maniche in the 23rd minute which proved to be the winning goal for Portugal. Their prize for that is a quarter finals meeting with England next Saturday.

Portugal defender Francisco Costinha was the first player to be ordered out, right at the stroke of halftime. At that point it looked as though that was the second stroke of bad luck for the Portuguese as their winger Ronaldo limped out injured earlier in the game. We didn’t know what was to come in the second half courtesy of the referee.

The Dutch then started the second half as expected, passing the ball swiftly around, trying to catch the 10-men Portugal short. Sometimes they tried too hard, to the extent of falling down for the simplest contact (read: diving). The Portuguese players too got into the act by doing their part to make this a really stormy affair.

All this while, our referee tried his best to keep the match in a fairplay mode by dishing out the yellow cards. The second red card for the night came in the 62nd minute for a Dutch player, then 16 minutes later Deco was sent off after getting his second yellow for time wasting.

Then 11 yellow cards later, we had the final sending off of the night with Dutch player Giovanni van Bronckhorst taking the walk.

This was a record breaking game as far as the disciplinary aspects are concerned – the 16 yellow cards equaled the worst record set in the last World Cup while the four red cards are a new record.

I hope no other game in this World Cup will be as badly officiated as this.

At the end, it was a wasted chance for us to see some good football being played by two countries that are capable of playing such football.

As for the game itself, I thought Portugal coach Scolari (pix)deployed better tactics than his Dutch counterpart van Basten. His team selection, and the players he brought in after injury to Ronaldo and the red cards, was perfect in choking the Dutch game. It is also a record breaking night for him for no other coach has managed a team to win 11 straight games in the World Cup. He achieved the first seven with Brazil in 2002 and the feat now continues with Portugal.

2006-06-25T18:56:00.000+01:00

Boring , boring England limp into q/finals

This may upset a few England fans but England do not look like they can win the World Cup. They are not exactly putting out a tremendous, credible, or even entertaining performance. In fact, against Ecuador today, they conspired to play such a boring game.

I agree that captain David Beckham somehow answered his critics by scoring a long-overdue goal – a well struck free kick – and had shown some promising runs in the flank, but apart from that, neither he nor his teammates managed to tear apart a team which had struggled to win matches away from their home.

I, like many other watching fans, were waiting for England to get into a higher gear and start showing some World Cup credentials. We waited and waited and that change of pace never came.

Mind you, they were playing in a city where Porsche is made but England never played the part to look that classy, instead they resembled more of a meshed, second hand two-wheeler.

And this creaky England could have paid big if Ecuador had taken their limited chances well.

Sven Goran Eriksson started a team with a totally different formation. I thought Michael Carrick played well as a holding midfielder and Wayne Rooney was all running for every ball, without any real threat.

Some of the other senior players were seem to be taking things lightly too. I understand that Joe Cole had scored a great goal in the last match but that doesn’t mean he can underestimate the opponents by trying so many tricks and flicks that just didn’t work. And given the number of shots he had had, when will Frank Lampard finally score?

The central defenders – John Terry and Rio Ferdinand – still look shaky and do not inspire confidence at all. Twice in the first half they had gone to sleep, only to be saved by poor finishing and some tremendous defending from Ashley Cole.

Many England fans will say that what is important is the win which has taken England into the quarter finals stage. Again I agree, but no strong team left in the competition will be overly worried about this misfiring England team.

In the end Sven has lived yet another day to try his tinkering with the team but I am afraid he will be caught out real soon, and I mean real soon.

2006-06-25T12:39:00.000+01:00

Video: For those who missed Brazil v Japan

Check out all the goals in this entertaining match. Look out for Brazil's fourth - and Ronaldo's second - goal as that was the record equalising goal for the striker. He is now tied with German bullet Gerd Muller with 14 World Cup goals. Ronaldo's first goal on the night saw him overtaking Pele as Brazil's top World Cup goal scorer.

2006-06-25T12:03:00.000+01:00

Beleaguered Beckham vows to deliver

Today evening, David Beckham will lead his troops against Ecuador to fight for a place in the quarter finals. On paper, England should win. In reality however, Ecuador is not an easy pushover.

England will be looking up to senior players like Beckham to provide the goods today. As it is he has come under severe criticism in the British media for his performances in the group stages. British media commentators have singled out Beckham for England’s poor play so far in the World Cup.

Some point out that his work rate is inadequate while others question his leadership qualities, especially when England is directionless and under pressure from the opponents (as in the Swedish match). One even labeled him as more of a con than an icon.

Statistically, in the Sweden game, Beckham, playing in the right side of midfield, made just eight successful forward passes. In the second half, he made two – one of which didn’t make the halfway line.

As mentioned by a British media pundit, in the 90 minutes, Beckham made no tackles, had no shots, no dribbles and made two crosses. And he was at fault for the first Swedish goal for not picking up his man at the corner.

Yet despite this, he was never a candidate for substitution. England could have had better penetration through the right flank with the introduction of fresh-legged Aaron Lennon but Sven Goran Erikkson persevered with his captain.

Many would have noticed that Sven is not one to substitute his captain. Even in the Trinidad and Tobago game when he brought on Lennon to play in the right wing, it was not to replace Beckham but Jamie Carragher, who was playing as a right back. Where did he move Beckham then? Yup, to the right back position.

There were also reports of a training ground bust-up between Beckham and Steven Gerrard over the former’s penchant of kicking the ball up, thus by-passing the midfield. Interestingly while both the players have been quiet about this report, the FA had denied it.

Many pundits see Sven’s special relationship with Beckham as the reason for the coach still playing the midfielder no matter how badly he plays. Naturally both Sven and Beckham denied this special relationship.

Beckham has also reacted angrily to the negative reports about his game. He pointed out that he was man-marked by at least two players in the earlier matches but promised to raise his game as well as his teammates in defeating Ecuador today.

And above all, he still insists that he can lead England to win the World Cup this year. We will know how far they can go by watching their performance against Ecuador.

2006-06-24T23:28:00.000+01:00

Argentina see off Mexico in a wonder goal

Phew! What a game. Mexico matched Argentina right to the end of extra time but sadly they will have to head home after falling to a super goal from Maxi Rodriguez in the 97th minute. He took a pass off his chest and volleyed it into the top of the net and it was an excellent goal to settle an excellent match.

That wonder goal (left) deflated the Mexican hearts and finally for the first time in the night we saw the talented Argentineans freely passing the ball with skill and trickery, coming close on various times to breach the Mexican defence.

This was exemplified in the 114th minute when Lionel Messi, Pablo Aimar and Carlos Tevez started playing short, beautiful passes and ran rings around the Mexican defence. On that occasion they almost got Messi free towards goal but unfortunately he lost his footing at the vital moment for the Mexicans to clear the ball away.

To their credit, the Mexicans stood firm and even launched an attack or two of their own after going behind at the extra time. They however started the game very well, going ahead in the fifth minute when Rafael Marquez got on the end of a Mario Mendez free-kick.

It did not take Argentina long to equalize as just five minutes later Jared Borgetti headed into his own net under pressure from Hernan Crespo. Crespo was credited with the goal but I thought it was an own goal.

Then the game turned into an end-to-end action with both teams having enough goal-scoring chances.

I thought the introduction of Messi and Tevez in the 75th minute swung the game in the Argentinean favour. Now we saw them passing the ball with more directness and speed into the Mexican half. Still the normal time ended 1-1.

Twice in the normal time Messi and Tevez went very close to score and right in the end of normal time, Messi did put one in the net, only to be ruled off side. The referee got it wrong there.

Argentina started brightly in the extra time and took the lead they richly deserved in the 97th minute through that superb goal. They then continued to control the game and won comfortably in the end.

I feel sorry for Mexico as they have to be the losers here. They played their part in one of the best matches of the tournament.

As for Argentina, this match showed that they can also grind out results when needed. This victory was very different from the stylish wins they accomplished in the first round. But still they managed to play their beautiful game today and most importantly they won.

They now head towards Berlin to play home nation Germany in the quarter finals. That will be an entertaining and close match no doubt, but you do get the feeling that Argentina still has something left in the locker to go further in the tournament. Let’s see how it goes on June 30.

2006-06-24T19:38:00.000+01:00

Swedes swept away by Germans

Goodbye Sweden and in all honesty, they deserved to go out of the World Cup at this stage. They were soundly beaten by a German side which was better in all departments.

Two goals by Lukas Podolski in the opening 12 minutes were sufficient to kill off the Swedes, who had a man sent off in the 34th minute, and they had their keeper to thank for keeping the score down. In all, the Germans had about 20 shots on goal, including hitting the posts twice.

No one more than Michael Ballack was responsible for the onslaughts. The German captain totally took over the midfield, and orchestrated every German move. And I am surprised that he didn’t score a goal through one of his many long range shots. For me, without doubt, he was the man-of-the-match.

Up front, Podolski and Miroslav Klose linked well, creating many chances for each other. Their link up play for the second goal was just an example.

However again, a weakness in the German defence is quite apparent. Sweden could not make use of it but I think other teams – like Argentina whom they play in the quarter-finals – will.

As for the Swedes, I think their best performance at the World Cup has come in the second half against England when they scored two goals to draw level. I am disappointed with their strikers, especially Zlatan Ibrahimovic who came into the finals with such high reputation.

They could have done something in the game today when they were awarded a penalty in the second half but Henrik Larsson ballooned his kick – and that summed up their day. Everything was out of sorts for them today. Their players looked so average, their tactics very normal and their overall performance pathetic.

I disagree with the referee for the second yellow card which resulted in the Swedish player given the marching orders but even with 11 men and with the penalty scored, I still think Sweden would have lost this match.

2006-06-24T09:31:00.000+01:00

The show starts to get better now

The second stage of the World Cup starts today and this is where the big boys will start to show their credentials, for the right to be at the Berlin stadium on July 9. I don’t see any major shock results or upsets, except for one game maybe. Still, it will be good to see the big guns fighting it out for the quarter finals stage. Here are my predictions for the second round:

June 24

Germany v Sweden
The host nation did well in the group stage to win all three matches to get into the second round. The Swedes however had a stuttering start which resulted in two draws and one win but they showed promise in their final game against England. I think the Germans, buoyed by a good home support and excellent play so far, will win this one.
Argentina v Mexico
I don’t see an upset here. This game will go according to the form book. The Argentineans showcased excellent football at the World Cup and should continue to do so to win this game comfortably.

June 25

England v Ecuador
There could be a major upset here. England has yet to get into top gear and could face a massive task in coping with the fast and forceful Ecuadorians. Set-piece frailties could prove costly for England and even if they win, it will be a hard-earned one goal victory.
Portugal v Netherlands
I predict this to be a highly entertaining game. Both teams are having a good run at the World Cup and both have flair and entertainment value in their game. This will be a close one but I think in Arjen Robben, the Dutch have a speedy winner.

June 26

Italy v Australia
This is a game which pits patience against brawl. Italy, for all their technical superiority, will have a tough time playing against the robust Aussies. Still, I think they have too much class and guile to win this match. This is where the Australian dream will end.
Switzerland v Ukraine
This can go either way. Ukraine had a bad start to this tournament but then went on to win the other two matches and can only grow stronger as a result. As for the Swiss, they play well for an unglamorous side but can they continue to do it against Ukraine? I don’t think so.

June 27

Brazil v Ghana
This could be the game of the round. Both sides play attractive football, attacking at every opportunity. Brazil, despite winning all their group matches, is only beginning to show their magical form. This will continue against the African outsiders who may cause some trouble, but nothing grave. At the end, it will be a good win for the defending champions.
Spain v France
Spain is progressing well in the tournament. Their players are finally showing their talents at the world stage. They play good football and should not have any problems in dispatching off France. On the other hand, the 1998 champions are playing uninspiring football, with their strikers failing to find the way to the goal. I think Spain will win this match. They are just too classy for the French.

The 16 teams in numbers:

6 of the 7 World Cup champions
8 seeded teams from this year’s tournament
10 teams are from Europe, 3 from South America, 1 from CONCAF, 1 from Africa and 1 from Oceania
4 teams advancing for the first time - Australia Ecuador, Ghana, and Ukraine
2 teams that lost their first match in group play - Ukraine and Ghana
1 team that kept a clean sheet in group play - Switzerland
3 teams that scored 8 goals - Spain, Argentina, and Germany
1 team with 12 yellow cards in group play - Ghana, second only to Tunisia’s 14
2 teams with 4 yellow cards in group play, the least of any teams tournament - England and Germany

2006-06-23T23:39:00.000+01:00

Mindless passing and dour play

Poor South Korea! Semi-finalist in the last World Cup, this year they are out of the tournament in the first round itself. They did have the chance to proceed further. All they had to do was win their final game against Switzerland. They failed to do this, losing 2-0 and the result in the other group match meant it’s an early flight home for the Koreans.

Switzerland topped the group and will now play Ukraine in the second round match. They will be joined in the second round by France, who managed to win their final match against Togo in a totally uninspiring manner.

The French went into the game knowing that they had to win by two goals or more. They laboured hard in the first half, missing so many chances and then suddenly found the net twice in the second half. They had luck with them too as Koreans were doing them a favour by playing poorly to lose to the Swiss.

At the end, a French team which had no flair, no imagination and just 90 minutes away from being kicked out of the World Cup managed to sneak into the second round to meet the impressive Spain.

Earlier in the day, we witnessed one of the most boring matches of the tournament – Ukraine v Tunisia. Entering into the game, Ukraine needed a draw while the Africans a win to proceed further. This should, by right, offer an entertaining game. Sadly not. We had mindless passing and dour play and Ukraine won the game on a dubious penalty. I clearly thought Shevchenko tripped on his feet to fall in the Tunisian D-box, the referee thought he was pushed. Anyway, he scored from the spot and out went Tunisia.

At the same time, Spain was entertaining Saudi Arabia to cement their top spot in the group. A confident Spain fielded an entirely different team to the one which won the first two matches comfortably and in style. This ‘reserve’ team did not rout the Saudis but still managed to win 1-0.

Their price is a second round tie against France. Looking at the French game, the Spaniards must be confident of further progression.

2006-06-23T11:06:00.000+01:00

The different sets of fans

Below is an English fan. He is one of about 14 arrested by the Cologne riot police just before England’s group match against Sweden on Tuesday. In the riot, at least 16 German police officers were hurt.

And these are Swedish fans. They obviously enjoy the message which the football authorities want to send out – that the game can conquer all, and its all about loving humanity.

So you decide which sets of supporters you want to support your team.

2006-06-23T10:50:00.000+01:00

The great Pele speaks

In an interview with FIFA’s official website, the great Pele talked about the ongoing World Cup and gave his frank assessment on the tournament, players who caught his eyes and the teams living up to expectations.

He said he was very impressed with Ivory Coast – although they are out of the tournament - and Argentina, and that he reckons Brazil had done the task of qualifying to the next round without any problems. He added that France has disappointed him.

And sadly, he said, not one player has really set the tournament on fire as yet, though he added that Philipp Lahm (the Germany full-back) and Argentinean midfielder Javier Mascherano have done well.

Read the full interview here.

2006-06-22T23:03:00.000+01:00

Super Ronaldo weighs in to equal record

Brazil 4 - Ronaldo (45)(80), Juninho Pernambucano (52) ,Gilberto (58)
Japan 1 - Tamada (33)

It was a special day for Ronaldo. He scored two goals to equal Germany’s Gerd Muller as the highest scorer at the World Cup. Both have now scored 14 goals.

Before the match against Japan, Ronaldo was tied with his country’s football legend Pele with 12 goals. Then at the stroke of halftime he scored Brazil’s first of the night and became the highest World Cup scorer of his country.

By then actually Japan had taken a surprise lead, but you somehow knew that Japan was never going to cause an upset.

Brazil turned up the tempo in the second half, fully controlling the match and looked like scoring every time they came close to the Japanese goal. The second arrived soon through a Juninho Pernambucano screamer in the 52nd minute. Then the leftback Gilberto scored a beauty on 58th minute before Ronaldo wrapping it up with his record equaling goal in the 80th minute.

And what a goal it was! Ronaldo exchanged the ball with Juan, took a deft first touch and slotted the ball in the low right end of the goal, and he didn’t even look at the goalie when he shot.

This was a better performance from Ronaldo but he still looks heavy. In fact his lack of mobility caused him at least two other goals. And he is not going to have the same freedom given by the Japanese against Ghana in the second round.

Brazil too as a team seems to be improving as well. I think they are getting into the second round with full of confidence and who knows, with more games under his belt, Ronaldo might just go on to overtake Muller’s record.

Kewell puts Aussie in Round Two

Harry Kewell scored an important goal for Australia to put them through to the second round after a grueling 2-2 draw with Croatia. However the Liverpool striker must consider himself lucky as TV replays showed that he was clearly offside when he scored that goal.

For Australia, it has been a wonderful World Cup so far. This is their second appearance after 1974 and the first time they are progressing further than the first round.

Their next opponent is Italy and as I mentioned earlier, Italy is difficult to beat and I don’t see Australia, despite all the hardwork, achieve that.

2006-06-22T22:56:00.000+01:00

Joy for Ghana, despair for Czech Rep

Czech Republic came into the World Cup as a dark horse. Their ruthless performance against the USA (3-0) underlined the fact that they could be a team to look out for in the tournament. They looked destined to join Italy from this group in the second round.

Then things took a wrong turn for the Czechs – they lost to a very good Ghana team (2-0) in the second match. That result meant today’s final game against Italy was one which Czech Rep had to win to proceed further.

Unfortunately, they failed to raise their game at all and crashed out 2-0 to the Italians who topped the group.

And who is in second spot? Yes, it’s the first-timers from Africa, Ghana. Many thought that they were out of their depth at the World Cup after that sound defeat to the Italians in the first game (2-0). But full credit to them, they gave an excellent performance against Czech Rep to defeat them 2-0 in the second match.

So coming into the final day of group matches, all they needed to do was win over the USA and hope that the Italians at least hold Czech Rep to a draw.

The results at the end went in their favour for they beat the USA 2-1, winning the match through a soft penalty, and at the other game Czech Rep capitulated to a well-organised Italy.

So what went wrong for the Czechs? They have had a bad World Cup. They came into the tournament with striker Milan Baros injured and he was out of the first two matches, although he played today. Then in the very first game, their main striker Jan Koller limped out injured and did not make it to the field today.

So this team was without its two main strikers throughout its group matches. And today, they also had their central defender Tomas Ujfalusi out suspended. And if you thought that was it, they were a man down in the 46th minute when defender Jan Polak was red-carded. By then, they were already a goal down.

To reorganize the team, the Czechs then took out wide attacking player Karel Probosky and relied heavily on Tomas Rosicky, Pavel Nedved, and the unfit Milan Baros to win the game.

They never had that chance against the Italians. I thought Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Gattuso were brilliant for the Italians today. However Francesco Totti was pitiful. His team-mates had to carry him for the full 90 minutes. He is obviously unfit and deserves to be dropped.

And as for Ghana, they played just well to edge out the Americans, winning 2-1, but disappointingly for them, they will be without their star midfielder Michael Essien in their second round game against Brazil.

So, at the end, one ranked outsider from Africa has disposed a form team from Europe and will join the technically superior Italy into the second stage. As I see it, I think Italy will progress further as they do look like a team difficult to beat – they play Australia in round two. Mind you, they have now gone unbeaten for 21 games in all competitions since October 2004. And they are still undefeated in normal time at the World Cup since 1986!

2006-06-22T12:43:00.000+01:00

Poor Michael, but England can still do well

What a bad year it has been for Michael Owen. Just until recently he was the darling of English football. He was the numero uno striker of the country.

Then late last year his troubles began. He was sidelined by an injury and played only a handful of games for his club Newcastle. He only made a come back towards the end of the season and Sven Goran Eriksson picked up for the World Cup based on his past success.

The World Cup started badly for this former wonderboy. He had bad games against both Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago. In both games he was substituted on the hour mark.

He then claimed that he was not getting a proper service from his team-mates for him to be on fire. Thus the team changed its game plan for Owen in the Sweden game and partnered him with the fit-again Wayne Rooney.

Sadly, Owen’s bad luck continued as he was struck down by a cruciate knee ligament injury in the 76th second into the game.

Now, more ominously for England, they are rather thin in their strike force. Peter Crouch, who started the World Cup as the third choice striker, now looks set to be top choice with Rooney in the coming games.

Once again, Sven’s selection of players will come into criticism. His only other recognised striker is the untested Theo Walcott.

In the days to come we will know more how England will put out their team against tougher opponents.

It is easy to say that Sven should not have overly relied on the injured Owen and Rooney but it is too late to change anything there.

What he can still do is let players like Steven Gerrard and even Joe Cole to operate with freedom to attack, and start the game with Rooney and Crouch, instead of what is being reported now that it may be just Rooney in front.

The England team can learn a lesson or two from Argentina, whose players, especially the midfielders, tend to inter-change their positions throughout the match. The advantage of this is great – your opponent would not know who to mark when and this gives greater flexibility for the team to attack.

So even without Owen, all is not lost for England as they can still progress further.

As for Owen, well, he is adamant of returning to Germany to pick up his World Cup winner’s medal on July 9. I reckon he should stop kidding and just concentrate on recovering from his latest injury.

2006-06-22T10:38:00.000+01:00

Another English multi-starrer fails to impress as Stuttgart beckons

(Guest blogger Raam Shanker came out wondering after the England-Sweden match on how the 38-year-old record in favour of the Swedes was still standing.)

Odeon is a place where they show movies, and this game of football between European giants England and Sweden was nothing less than a blockbuster for it had almost all the ingredients; comedy, drama, action, horror, suspense and tragedy. Of course not to forget, England’s Second-Half-Syndrome, as I like to call it, was back to haunt them (you can take it as the horror element) as they went 38 years and counting without a win against Sweden.

The tragic part in the game was, Rooney and Owen’s reunion being ended abruptly as Owen was stretchered off after twisting his right knee in the very first minute. There was enough and more drama with chances going amiss and personal confrontations involving Hargreaves, Ljunberg, Carragher, Lucic, Allback and Joe Cole albeit at different stages of the game, to name a few. Action, yes plenty of it at the goal mouth with four goals coming from Cole, Allback, Gerrard and Larsson in that order. Suspense was there right from the word go and the questions being asked from England’s point of view were:

Germany or Ecuador?
End of 38-year drought or a win at last against Sweden?

As ever, the answers were out there, and it will be Ecuador at Stuttgart and England could not end the drought! For a Swede, the only and all-important question was

Second round or home?

Answer was second round, but they had to take it with a pinch of salt as they face the hosts Germany!

However the suspense mounted as England took an early lead, courtesy of Joe Cole’s humdinger, which curled, dipped and dipped till it went in! England led by this lone goal at half time and so it was time to relax in the second half, business as usual.

The complacency cost them dear, as Ferdinand went to sleep, resulting in a corner, which an unmarked Allback converted despite Ashley Cole’ heroics at the line. More drama later on as Rooney made way for Gerrard and the frustration was evident in Rooney’s expression and body language. Well as Rooney sat ruing Gerrard justified his entry with a magnificent header that gave England the lead again. The joy though was short lived as a comedy of errors resulted in Larsson equalizing for Sweden in the last minute of regular time. An eventless three minutes later, the referee decided to call it a day ending the game with a share of spoils for both the teams.

Here are a few things that caught my eye:

England piled on most of their attacks from the left with Joe and Ashley Cole creating the chances. I felt that Joe Cole was a little too desperate to prove a point. England also were not keen on attacking from the middle, as they went on beating around the pitch despite players being free in central midfield. Beckham was like a showpiece, taken out only for set pieces and put back into the showcase. Anyone watching football for the first time would have bet his last penny insisting that Crouch is a midfielder. Rooney hardly got a touch of the ball in the second half. Lampard’s out-of-the-box heroics are yet to yield results and it looks as if he is finding it difficult to get to grips with this ball’s behaviour.

I ponder again:

Will we see the sensationally selected Theo Walcott in action?
Owen – is it end of the road for him in this World Cup?
If England fail to win this time, will they blame it on injuries?

(Raam Shanker is an England fan , hoping that they will win the World Cup this year)

2006-06-21T23:13:00.000+01:00

Ole, Ole, Ole, Ola, Argentina

Argentina 0
Netherlands 0

You know what is scary about Argentina? It is the fact that their players look so comfortable with the ball. They can interchange positions and still continue to do a proper job. And most importantly, they have fun while playing. You don’t see them complaining, raving or ranting. Neither do they play dirty to win one over their opponents.

And one player who encompassed all of these qualities today was Lionel Messi. He started the game against Netherlands and soon he was running the show for the South Americans. In the 70 minutes he was on the pitch, he did all that was requested from him, and even more. The only thing he did not do was to score. He showed such skills that belied his age (18).

Now to the match itself. The problem was that both these teams have qualified to the second round. Both had played exceptionally well in their previous two games, more so Argentina than Netherlands. And today’s game was just to determine who will top the group. Argentina needed just a draw as a superior goal difference was enough to see them above the Dutch.

In such circumstances, both teams put out a team without some of their big names – Argentina rested four players, including Saviola, Crespo and Sorin, while Netherlands sat out five, including their most effective player so far Arjen Robben.

Thus the order of the day was not to lose for either of the team, but both of them showed positive attitudes in trying to score goals. I thought Netherlands missed their star players more than the Argentineans. Mind you, in the place of rested players the South Americans had other ‘lesser’ players like Messi and Tevez in the starting eleven. And later in game we even saw Pablo Aimar making his debut in the tournament.

The game ended in a nil-nil draw but both teams showed us that they have that something extra which they can bring about as and when needed.

In the second round, Argentina will play Mexico and I don’t foresee them having much trouble on Saturday, especially when their big guns come back into the team.

As for Netherlands, they will have a tougher draw, playing against Portugal on Sunday. With Robben on their side, the Dutch do look unbeatable but then again the Portuguese are also playing well, winning their top-of –group match against Mexico 2-1 earlier today without five of their regular players.

Coasting for a win

Ivory Coast 3
Serbia & Montenegro 2

The best game of the day has to be Ivory Coast against Serbia and Montenegro. Both these teams have only pride to play for but I wanted so much for Ivory Coast to win this game. They had come to the tournament as ranked outsiders and in the two games against Argentina and Netherlands, they played good attacking football even when they were down.

Led by example by their captain Didier Drogba, these Africans showed us what an entertaining and hard working side they are. Today they were without their captain who was suspended and had gone behind by two goals in the first 20 minutes. They again showed us what they are capable of by coming from behind to win this game by 3-2.

Sadly their participation in the World Cup has come to an end but I think this African team will go far in years to come.

2006-06-21T11:02:00.000+01:00

Feast for the senses

(On a day when Argentina plays Holland in their last group match, guest blogger Sri Shanker Krishnan reminds us the skills and flair of this team)

What a great team performance! So much flair, imagination and technique. Yes, I am enthusing about Argentina’s performance against Serbia & Montenegro (S&M). It has been quite a while since I had witnessed such wonderful football.

Argentina were one of the favorites before the tournament started and they have definitely lived up to the billing! S&M may have lost one of their key defenders before the match, got one player sent off during the game but I think all these were of no consequence – believe me, these would have had no impact on the match and the score. As an all time classic match it had everything, from breathtaking movements, wonder goals to high tempo drama and action. Definitely more than your money’s worth! The game itself started at such a high tempo with the Argentinians showing their intent from the onset. They were relentlessly committed to attacking football.

But this did not mean they had neglected their defensive duties. On the contrary, the defenders and defensive midfielders worked tirelessly in preventing the opponents from building any attacks that it made it look as though the S&M players could not mount any offensive moves. The high up field defending tactics employed by the Argentines worked wonderfully as they kept pressing the S&M players in their own half most of the time. This is not an easy tactic to execute as it takes players of top caliber, technique, fitness and high discipline to make it happen.

Everyone needs to play his part to perfection where all the players must back track and defend when the ball is lost, starting from the strikers. This is not easy to do at such a high level of competition. Special praise must be given to the two midfielders, Cambiasso and Mascherano. Both these guys were practically all over the pitch. As Maradona had said, Mascherano is a ‘monster’ of a player.

And then there was the 2nd goal. 24 passes, constant movement, opponent doesn’t touch the ball, clever back heel and goal. Enough said! Moving the ball around so effortlessly at such pace, it was simply joyful watching this Argentine team. A sight for sore eyes, indeed! Apart from the above two players, the rest also deserve 10 out of 10 for their performance. The introduction of Tevez and Messi in the 2nd half was simply adding fuel to the fire! The two provided more flair and quality to the team. Imagine having Tevez, Messi and Aimar on your substitutes’ bench!

Personally I am a keen Brazil fan but I certainly appreciate good, beautiful football. It is rather unfortunate that the Brazilians performance has been a major let down. I hope after seeing their arch rivals and neighbours, they will be inspired to do the same if not better. Mark my word, this Argentine team will go far and Mascherano, Messi (pix) and Tevez are going to be the next international superstars. One if not more will probably end up at West London soon, with you know who! For now, I take my hats off to the Argentines for giving someone like me so much pleasure. It was certainly a feast for all the senses! There is hope yet for winning in style and not at any cost….Carry on, Argentina!

(As he mentioned, Sri Shanker Krishnan is a Brazil fan, hoping that his team will start playing as they should)

AND in case you missed THAT second goal, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

2006-06-21T10:58:00.000+01:00

Germany tops group but don’t be fooled

(Guest blogger Roshan Jason regrets racing back from a trip overseas to watch the Ecuador v Germany game)

If you’re going on about how Germany is one the favorites to carry the cup, I do hope you DON’T put your money where your mouth is. This is simply because the Germans – although a decent side – were made to look like Cup contenders by an Ecuadorian side which didn’t field half of their regulars and their top-poachers. They also rested their key central defender.

If you watched the Ecuadorians against Poland (2-0) and Costa Rica (3-0) – both of which I did – you’d know that the South Americans were so much better in those games and were more effective because they were actually playing football.

Against Germany they didn’t come to the pitch to win, draw (as that’s all they would have needed to remain top) or even play. Come on, let’s be real… if the Ecuadorians really wanted to top the group, they would have packed the defense and midfield and they would have been a lot more robust in their challenges to ensure they kept the Germans at bay.

Any right-minded footballer will agree that the game ended before it began. The results were more than expected. The Ecuadorians were saving themselves.

Perhaps they didn’t want to disappoint the German Chancellor – who was present at the game – by beating or holding the Deutchlanders.

For someone like me, who likes watching a good football match - no matter who’s playing - that Ecuadorian display was very disappointing and frustrating. I was not entertained. They have just done a disservice to themselves and blown all the credits they received after the first two performances.

Back to the German team: they’re good but they have flaws. Klose scores but he doesn’t create his own goals. Podolski’s not in the club form of a year or two ago. And don’t forget the defense leaked two against Costa Rica and they were lucky not to concede against Poland.

When they play Sweden in the next round, Ballack and his team will be given the worse time they’ve had so far in the World Cup. I’m quite sure we’ll see the true Germany then. A good attacking team, with a solid midfield but a team that will be undone by a dodgy defense and a couple of strikers, who have the goods but don’t deliver all the time.

(Roshan Jason hopes the second round brings about more beautiful game from the teams.)

2006-06-20T23:43:00.000+01:00

38 years and still waiting

England 2 – Joe Cole (34) Steven Gerrard (85)
Sweden 2 – Marcus Allback (51) Henrik Larsson (90)

It has been 38 years since England last beat Sweden in any competition. Today they came mighty close but a surprisingly leaky defence meant a 2-2 draw and the wait to beat Sweden continues.

Apparently England has been training all week long to play a passing game to suit Michael Owen. With Wayne Rooney starting in front with him, the idea was to play through the younger striker for the veteran to start scoring goals. Thus in this new scheme of things Peter Crouch was dispensed.

However all the well laid plans came to a naught in the opening 60 seconds when Owen came crushing down holding his knee in agony. In came Crouch and in all credit, England stuck to their training ground routine in playing short, neat passes.

I saw England at its best in this tournament in the first 45 minutes and to stamp their new mentality, they went in front through a beautiful goal from Joe Cole in the 34th minute. They ended the half time in a high.

I watched this game in a cinema with some mates and about 15 England fans. Everyone in the cinema thought England will come back in the second half to play more decent football and finally beat that unwanted record.

But the team that came out firing in all cylinders was Sweden. They pushed England defenders into making silly errors. Their dead balls caused major problems for the England back four. And they finally drew level through a neat flick by Marcus Allback in the 51st minute.

Then a sustained pressure by the Swedes saw England keeper Paul Robinson beaten three times, but he was saved by the cross bar twice and once by Steven Gerrard, who had come in as a substitute, on the line.

Gerrard then went on to put England in front again in the 85th minute. Again, the England players thought they had wrapped up the game after all the pressure from Sweden.

However the last word went to the Swedes who again scored in the midst of a static England defence in the 90th minute.

At the end it was a good game – with four goals - for the neutrals. England top their group and now will meet Ecuador in the second round stage on Sunday while Sweden will play Germany on Saturday.

England will be happy to play the South Americans but they better not underestimate them. Ecuador lost to Germany 3-0 earlier today but they played without five regular players.

There are still some tweaks to be made for England before that Sunday meeting. Today, most of their play came in the left through Ashley Cole and Joe Cole. David Beckham on the right was a forlorn figure. I think they will have to mix and match their passing through both flanks.

But more importantly, the defenders will have to stay awake throughout the game.

Memorable moment in the match: A very petulant Rooney raving and ranting after he was substituted.
Passing of the game: Halfway in the second half, England players tried to play possessive football. They kept a string of some 20-odd passes, reminding everyone that they too can do what the Argentinians did. However unlike the Argentinians, England lost possession in their 21st pass and nearly resulted in Sweden scoring.

In the other meaningless Group B match, Paraguay defeated Trinidad and Tobago 2-0.

German machine keeps rolling

Germany 3 – Miroslav Klose (4), (44), Lukas Podolski (57)
Ecuador 0

I am impressed with Germany. They are playing well. Their strikers are on fire. And their under-fire defence is showing some stability.

Today they ended their group matches with an easy 3-0 win over Ecuador. And along the way, Miroslav Klose becomes the leading goal-scorer with four goals.

Their performances in the three games so far have heightened the hopes of their fans who want their team to win the trophy in their home soil.

In the other Group A match today, Poland beat Costa Rica 2-1, but this result means nothing to either of the team.

2006-06-20T13:55:00.000+01:00

Different ways of supporting your team

There is an article posted in the official World Cup website which gives us a list of how football fans support their team. It includes some guy dressed up as a ball to sweet girls blowing kisses.

The article says:

"A full-scale multi-coloured ‘battle’ is being waged in the streets and the stands, with fans from around the world showing no shortage of inventiveness and flair when it comes to supporting their heroes."

Have a read of the article here.

2006-06-20T13:51:00.000+01:00

Barber and the World Cup ball

This is the new match ball developed by Adidas to be used at the World Cup. It is called ‘Teamgeist’ and has just 14 panels, with fewer seams. This makes the surface smoother than conventional footballs which have a 26 or 32 panel hexagon-based pattern.

And this is a barber in India who is misrepresenting his customers:

2006-06-19T23:24:00.000+01:00

Viva Espana

Spain 3 - G Raul (72), F Torres (76), F Torres (90) (pen)
Tunisia 1 - J Mnari (8)

Surely now Spain must be one of the favourites to win the World Cup. They have performed well in their opening games and barring any freak incidents, they should win the final group match against Saudi Arabia too.

They showed us that they can score goals – seven in two games, and kept on going even when they were down, as they did today against Tunisia. Today’s game also revealed the strength in depth of this team. They can bring in Cesc Fabres and Raul at half time and suddenly their game plan is changed. They persisted in attacking and were justly rewarded with three goals.

Torres now leads the scorers’ chart with three goals in two games. Their prize now is a second round group match with the runners-up from Group G. This, depending on the final outcome of the last group matches, could mean either South Korea or Switzerland.

Still doubtful that this Spanish team will go far?

Another four-goal thriller for Ukraine

Ukraine 4 – A Rusol (4), S Rebrov (36), A Shevchenko (46), M Kalinichenko (84)
Saudi Arabia 0

But this time they were not at the receiving end. Instead Ukraine forgot all about their own four goal defeat to thrash the out-of-sorts Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine now looks certain to qualify to the second round as long as they defeat Tunisia. As for Saudi Arabia, their only chance of further progress is by beating Spain. I don’t see that happening. The most likely outcome from them is to start preparing for their flight home.

Togo Swiss rolled

Switzerland 2 - A Frei (17), T Barnetta (88)
Togo 0

Togo came to this tournament full of internal conflicts. However we must credit them for not allowing that to interfere with their game. In their opening match, they gave a good account of themselves against South Korea before losing after having to play with 10 men.

Today, again, they showed us that they can play good attacking football. However just as they were good in attacking, they were bad at defending.

Defensive errors and frailties allowed Switzerland to score two goals to kick Togo out from the tournament.

In the end, it was a deserved win for Switzerland. They now top Group G and need a draw from their last game against South Korea to advance to the knock-out stages.

As for the Africans, they will claim that they were denied a decent penalty claim.

2006-06-19T11:02:00.000+01:00

Brazil stuck on second gear

(Guest blogger Raam Shanker reviews how Australia rattled Brazil and almost caused an upset.)

It was a great occasion as two giants of recognisable international sporting accolades stepped up to face each other earlier today in the Allianz Arena, Munich. Brazil, five times and reigning World Champions against Australia, former two-time Rugby and three-time Cricket World Champions. It was an occasion for me to remember too, as two men, sharing their birthday with me were playing for opposite teams, Ronaldo of Brazil and Kewell of Australia, born on 22nd September!

A little peek into Australia’s culture and particularly sporting culture will tell us that they have a long line of accomplished athletes who have won top honours in tennis, swimming, motor-sport, cricket, rugby and a host of other sports in various international events. However, the football World Cup is a bigger stage when compared with any other and for the first time in thirty-two years they were back in it and back in Germany. They had a lot to prove and three decades of virtual non-existence to make up for. Managed by Guus Hiddink, whose reputation precedes the man, himself, the Socceroos gave us a taste of their resilience and never-die spirit by coming back from 1-0 down to net three goals in the last six minutes against Japan in the previous game.

Brazil, on the other hand were reigning champions and were the strong favorites to win, despite a poor showing against Croatia, with Ronaldo being the disappointment of the tournament, so far. It was end-to-end action, right from the word go, with both sides missing well-created chances by shooting wide. For Brazil, the culprit turned out to be Ronaldo, again and again. His worst moment came just after a half hour, when he missed the ball from point blank range, only for the Australian defenders to scramble it away in haste. For the Aussies, it was Viduka, Emerton and Bresciano. The first half certainly looked as if it belonged to Australia as they went off the field confident and in control.

The second would look different, at least it would start differently. Four minutes in, Ronaldo’s most sensible decision so far in the tournament was to pass the ball across to Adriano after being surrounded by the Aussie defence. It paid off as Adriano broke the deadlock! 1-0 to Brazil! Any team would have gone down after going down by a goal but not Australia! The goal seemed to have woken them up and they piled on chance after chance, but without success. The attempts from Viduka, Kewell and Bresciano flew all over the place but the goal. The scales again tilted towards Brazil’s favor as Kaka and Robinho threatened the Aussie goal and Schwarzer was made to work by Kaka. Back at the other end, Bresciano was at it again and Dida was forced to scramble. We were recovering from this and Kaka was already posing a threat to Schwarzer’s goal. In the blink of an eye, it was Viduka, attempting damage on Dida’s goal but missing it by a whisker on two occasions! Phew! I am tired writing imagine life out there!

The final minute of regular time saw Brazil snatch a second one, courtesy of Fred, who tapped the ball into an empty goal from a Robinho rebound. Soon, the game was over, 2-0 and what a game! This epic match between David and “Goliath” of international football saw David win eventually but Goliath put up an impressive show. The Aussies had some great chances and wasted them but they made Brazil play hard for the win.

Trust me, it was not at all easy for Brazil. Australia committed twenty-five fouls in the game, three more than their opening game against Japan. Not a good sign at all. Brazil will be better off not starting with Ronaldo. One look at his expression took me back to Paris, eight years ago, to that fateful night of the final against France. The body language between Ronaldo and coach, Pereira suggested that they were falling out with each other.

As usual, my questions:

Will Ronaldo start against Japan?
How much more of Ronaldo will we see in international football?
How far will Australia go?
Does Brazil truly deserve to win this time, especially with Argentina, Italy, Holland and Germany putting up impressive performances?

And you know where the answers are; out there!

(Raam Shanker believes England will win the World Cup)

2006-06-19T10:17:00.000+01:00

The favourites, frogs and the French

The World Cup enters the 10th day today. We have seen 29 games played thus far and most of the pre-tournament favourites have kept their form and moved into the second stage.

Some favourites have amassed maximum points without playing well (read: England and Brazil) while there are others who started superbly but then struggled in the second match (read: Czech Republic and Italy).

And then there were the dark horses who entertained and perhaps surprised us with their level of play (read: Ecuador, Ghana and Ivory Coast). Of these three, I have been so impressed by the performance of the Africans. Sadly Ivory Coast, despite playing so well, is on the way home after two defeats but I truly hope Ghana will make it to the following stage.

And finally, there are some teams who have done so very well, playing good football and continue to mesmerize us with their performance (read: Argentina and Holland).

By the end of today, I hope Spain will join in this category. In their first game against Ukraine, they were simply irresistible. They played good football, passed the ball well and kept going forward and was rewarded with four well-worked goals. Their victory was much sweeter as it came against a fancied Ukraine side.

Today they play their second group match against Tunisia and should win this one. However I somehow don’t see them scoring many goals in this victory. A win will cement their tag as one of the new favourites of the tournament.

In the other group game, Ukraine will play Saudi Arabia and will look forward to kick-start the World Cup campaign. Amazingly, their excuse for the defeat against Spain was that croaking frogs had kept them awake the night before the game. Now presumably with the frogs caught and destroyed and with a good sleep in the way, they have no excuse in not beating Saudi Arabia.

The day however starts with a game between Switzerland and Togo. A win for the Europeans will certainly put the utterly unimpressive French under pressure and may result in them being packed home after just three games.

Hhmm, what a tournament this has been so far. May it continues to entertain us.

2006-06-18T22:51:00.000+01:00

Koreans do Asia proud

France 1 – T Henry (9)
S Korea 1 - Park Ji-sung (80)

Well done South Korea. They never gave up and ended up with a draw with 1998 champions France. In fact, in the last few minutes the Koreans looked like increasing the score and winning the match. Unfortunately it was not to be but now the Koreans lead Group G with four points. A draw with Switzerland in the last game should be enough to see them through to the second round.

As for France, why didn’t they play attacking football when they were already leading? It looked as though they were only riled up for action after the Korean goal. Now, with only two points from two games, France increasingly looks dangerous of missing out of the second round all together in the second successive tournament.

Anyway, the good news for France is that they have finally scored a goal in the World Cup after almost eight years – the last they scored was in the final victory over Brazil in 1998. But they still remain without a World Cup win since that day!

Today things looked as though they will change with Thierry Henry giving them the perfect early start. They then went on to dominate the game, pushing the Koreans back to their half, but without making any real inroads.

The Koreans had their chances but the best of the lot came 10 minutes from time, thanks to some sloppy French defending. From the French point of view, it was a soft goal to give.

Forget Ronaldo, bring on Robinho

Brazil 2 – L Adriano (49), C Fred (90)
Australia 0

The lesson for the defending world champions is that they should start with Robinho. Brazil only started playing after the young striker was brought on to replace the off-form Ronaldo in the 72nd minute.

To his credit though, Ronaldo tried harder today than his team’s opening match. He ran more, had a shot or two at goal and even assisted Adriano for the first goal. But he is not as sharp as he should be. This was clearly evident when he air kicked a good goal-scoring opportunity.

Australia gave a good fight and created many chances. They too had some clear-cut opportunities, with Kewell being the biggest culprit. And they were hard on the heels of the Brazilians, not allowing them to play their usual flair football.

However I thought Brazil was defensively strong. They withstood all Aussie pressure. I enjoyed watching the central defenders Juan (in pix, on the ground) and Lucio play their way out of trouble.

But the player most impressed me today was not one of the special quartet. Midfielder Ze Roberto, for me, was the vital clog in their play. He tidied up, he created chances and he defended too. (In pix, with jersey no 11)

Brazil has now gone nine games unbeaten in the World Cup and will look to add to that against Japan next week, with Robinho in the side I hope.

A frustrating game to watch

Japan 0
Croatia 0

For me, this is a game to be forgotten soon. Nothing happened in this game that is worth remembering, except for the penalty save by the Japanese keeper.

This goalless draw did not do much to help either side's hopes of progression.

Croatia will be happier with the point with Australia to come next, while Japan face the awesome task of having to beat Brazil to stand a chance of qualifying from Group F.

2006-06-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

Three red cards, one own goal and one disallowed goal

Italy 1 – A Gilardino (22)
USA 1 - C Zaccardo (27) o.g.

What a game – Italy and the USA today played one of the most dramatic games of the World Cup. We had an early Italian goal, an own goal by an Italian defender, a red card for an Italian player, then followed by a marching order for an American player and then another American followed him out, and finally an overruled American goal.

At the end, even with players down, both these teams showed us urgency in trying to win the match. Both sides had good chances. For the Americans, their keeper Kasey Keller gave a man-of-the-match performance to keep his side level while his defenders, though less in numbers, played heroically in blunting the Italian attack.

As for the Italians, the sending off changed their rhythm of their game and this was further compounded when their playmaker Francesco Totti was substituted as a tactical change.

Still, this was a good advertisement for attacking football – not literally based in the number of red cards!

I thought everything in the game was good except for the refereeing. Maybe the first red card was correct as Italian midfielder Daniele De Rossi did leave a flying elbow on Brian McBride. The referee however got the other two red cards for the American players wrong.

And again, the man in black was wrong in calling offside the 65th minute American goal. Striker DaMarcus Beasley rifled a shot from the left which left Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon stranded. I thought McBride, who was in the middle, was passive, the referee reckoned active.

At the end, it is now 12 games since the Americans defeated the Italians and are rooted to the bottom of Group E with one point and one game to play. Italy is on top with four points.

2006-06-17T22:25:00.000+01:00

Finally an upset

Ghana 2- A Gyan (2), S Muntari (82)
Czech Rep 0

Remember this game. In months to come and even years to come, when people talk about how African teams beat European teams, this Ghana team will be mentioned, deservingly, along side the names of other great African World Cup sides such as Cameroon and Senegal.

To me, Ghana’s win over Czech Republic today was the first upset of the tournament. And they way they did were just excellent. World Cup debutants, they showed us in their first game against Italy that they can play attractive football. Sadly on that day, they petered out softly, losing 2-0.

Today however they started great – got a goal as early as the second minute. Then they just played attacking football. Mind you this was against a Czech Republic side that was full of confidence after their routing of the USA last week.

Ghana even got and missed a penalty but they kept going at the opposite goal and were fully rewarded with the second goal at the 82nd minute.

Their players fought for all the ball – something seen in the number of yellow cards the got, 5, - and at the end were enjoying themselves. Now let’s see if they can beat USA in their final group match and move into the second stage.

Get the FIFA match details here.

2006-06-17T16:46:00.000+01:00

Figo and gang too strong for the Iranians

I thought Figo dived to earn that penalty which resulted in Portugal going two up against Iran. Anyway, Portugal controlled this match and deserved to win. Iran on the other hand
looked ill-prepared to play against European opponents.

Deco scored first for Portugal from a curling right-footed shot, straight into the corner of the net from 20 yards out, in the 63rd minute. Cristiano Ronaldo then doubled the lead by converting the penalty in the 78th minute.

This win, following the 1-0 defeat of Angola last week, guarantees a place for Portugal in the second stage – something which they have not done since 1966.

Iran however looks set to go home as soon as the final group game against Angola next week. Previously they were beaten 3-1 by Mexico.

2006-06-17T12:31:00.000+01:00

Time running out for Owen

Michael Owen has been the star striker for England for some years now. He is Sven Goran Eriksson’s most capped player, starting every competitive match when he has been fit. In all, he has scored 36 goals in 79 games. Now however his star seems to be fading.

In the two World Cup matches so far, he has been hauled out on the hour mark. First Sven said the substitution was a tactical one and then admitted that Owen’s lack of match sharpness was the reason.

You can’t blame Sven for it. Owen clearly does not look sharp and at times struggled to find the ball. He missed chances which he would have buried easily on his top form.

Owen has been injured and had not played a competitive full match since December 31 (for his club Newcastle) but just prior to the World Cup Sven had been telling everyone that Owen was super fit and “on fire”. Two weeks later, the manager discovers his assessment had been wrong.

Newcastle manager Glen Roeder blames Sven for not using Owen properly in the matches. He accuses the England manager to prefer long balls and not playing to the striker’s strength.

He may be right there. In the games against Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, we saw how the defenders were just banging in long balls to the head of Peter Crouch. Even the midfielders were as guilty.

Owen himself agrees that he is not getting the sort of ball he strives on. He said:

“I am in the team to be in the box. If the ball is in the box and I’m not on the end of it you can blame me. But that’s where I should be, in the box scoring goals for England. One thing I’m not going to do is change my game to please everyone’s eye.”

All okay with that but the pressure is now on Owen to change his game. Otherwise, Wayne Rooney will just replace him and partner Crouch up front.

I think Sven will give Owen another hour against Sweden next Tuesday to get on form, failing which, he will have to settle on the bench for the second round matches.

2006-06-16T22:22:00.000+01:00

End of road for entertaining Ivory Coast

Holland vs Ivory Coast

Holland 2 – Robin van Persie (23), Ruud van Nistelrooy (27)
Ivory Coast 1 – Bakary Kone (38)

In the second Group C match tonight, an entertaining and hardworking Ivory Coast were eliminated from going any further by an attack-minded Holland team.

What a game did Arsenal’s Robin van Persie had. He was instrumental in most of Holland’s attack and his goal, from a free kick, was simply superb. In van Persie and Arjen Robben, Holland have speed upfront and these players can and will cause havoc in most defences. This is their second victory following the 1-0 win over Serbia & Montenegro and they now join Argentina in the second round.

And what about Ivory Coast? Is this their first World Cup campaign? They didn’t play like novices. Their players were skillful and appeared to be at ease playing against top class opponents. Even in the first game against Argentina they only lost narrowly by 2-1 and with today's defeat, it is sad that they won’t make it to the second round but I am sure this country has a big football future and we will see them in future World Cups.

Mexico vs Angola

The last game of the day involved another African team, another debutant, Angola, playing Mexico. This end-to-end game ended goalless and along the way just added to the reputation of African football.

Angola still stand a chance of qualifying for the second round, depending on how the final round of matches next week goes.

Mexico has a good hardworking team but today they failed to break down the African defence despite trying hard.

2006-06-16T22:11:00.000+01:00

Argentina turn on the style to win big

Argentina 6 – Maxi Rodriguez (6), (41), Esteban Cambiasso (31), Hernan Crespo (78), Carlos Tevez (84), Lionel Messi (88).
Serbia and Montenegro 0

Argentina gave a 6-star performance today to totally demolish Serbia and Montenegro by 6-0. Playing short, simple, one touch-two touch passing, the South Americans brought entertainment and style to their play. Their class was such that they could afford to bring in Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi as substitutes to score the last two goals in the match.

The best goal of the game (and perhaps of the tournament thus far) has to be the second goal scored by midfielder Esteban Cambiasso. He finished off a move which involved a string of 24 passes which started inside the Argentinian half.

Once again, Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Mascherano and Javier Saviola played and combined excellently in the well-oiled midfield area.

Another highlight was the introduction of Messi in the 78th minute and he did not waste any time insetting up Crespo’s goal – fourth for the night.

Argentina moved into the second round with ease and their fearsome show of attacking strength will definitely instill some fear in any opposition.

For those who had missed the game, here is a chance to watch the goals:

2006-06-16T13:29:00.000+01:00

British media and England's performance

Just prior to England’s departure to Germany for the World Cup, the British media went to war to see who the loudest cheer-leader was. Daily articles and commentaries were written about how this England team will win the World Cup and bring home the trophy after a 40-year wait. They created such hype over this team that the fans thought this was the team which was going to sweep away the tournament with style and panache.

Then came the Paraguay game and with England’s woeful performance, knives were beings sharpen. After another uninspiring match yesterday, the dailies continued to write with a positive spin but with some words of warning asking the team to buck up or return home empty handed. They have not started vilifying anyone yet, but that I think will start as soon as England is booted out of the World Cup.

Below are some of the articles and commentaries published today:

This is from the Guardian: “The truth is that England have no real strategy beyond a reliance on the individual qualities of their big names … ask them to play their way from one end of the pitch to another with co-ordinated passing and movement, and they are lost. As things stand, it will have been a poor World Cup if they make it much further. And all the way is, just now, unthinkable.”

The Mirror’s view was this: “Most depressingly of all, England looked ill-prepared. Woefully ill-prepared. Until Rooney and Aaron Lennon came on, there was no urgency, no evidence of a plan.”

The Sun said: “On the face of it, six points, no goals conceded from two games and qualification from Group B with a game to spare is a fantastic start. But it masks the truth. England are not living up to their star-billing as one of the WC favourites.”

The Times said this: “You might not think there was a cloud on England’s World Cup horizon if you tuned in purely for the last seven minutes. Some hard questions will have to be asked about the previous 83 — and not all the answers will be found in Rooney’s return — but at least Sven-Göran Eriksson has time to ponder his responses.”

And finally this is from the ex-England captain Terry Butcher: "England have been involved in two of the worst games at the World Cup. This match has told me they must start with Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch in attack in the next match - England must build up momentum."

These attacks will get personal and sharper in the days to come if England do not improve.

2006-06-16T09:55:00.000+01:00

Dying slowly in the group of death

So far in the World Cup, three teams have impressed me much. They all come from the same group – Group C – dubbed as the Group of Death. It’s a pity that of these three - Argentina, Holland and Ivory Coast – only two will progress into round two.

All these teams play today and I am sure their games will be as good as it was in their first matches.

The day’s proceedings start with favourites Argentina taking on Serbia and Montenegro. This is a game which the South Americans should win without much trouble and comfortably get into the second round. Sadly Argentinian blue boy Lionel Messi will once again miss this match due to injury. However they do have enough firepower in Hernan Crespo and Javier Saviola to ease through.

Player to watch out: Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina)

Then after this comes the match of the day – Holland vs Ivory Coast. The game will see Chelsea teammates Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba trying to outdo each other.

I hope Ivory Coast win this match. They played so well against Argentina in their first game and still ended losing 2-1. Drogba was their goal-scorer. Holland too showed us how football should be played in their first game and the opponents had no answer to their speed. The won their first game by a single goal scored by Robben.

This match will be exciting, fast and highly entertaining. I don’t think either of the team will hold back and defend. Instead it is their nature to attack. If Ivory Coast win, then it will make the last matches in this group ever more exciting.

And I can’t wait to see Argentina play Holland on next Wednesday.

Players to watch out: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Arjen Robben (Holland) (pix)

2006-06-15T23:09:00.000+01:00

England evade banana skin with last gasp win

Let’s not get carried away with England’s win over Trinidad and Tobago. This was not a convincing performance at all. The 2-0 win - with goals in the final seven minutes - fails to flatter me.

All this while England had given the impression that it had a team capable of winning the World Cup this year but the way they played today, and in their opening match against Paraguay a week ago, do not support this claim.

They struggled against a dogged T&T defence for most of the game. There were deficiencies in the team and if they are still keen on doing well in the tournament, they must buck up soon. Time is running out for them and a good team will find their flaws easily.

Today, many a time the midfielders were guilty of not creating enough chances for their strikers and their strikers guilty of not finishing off the chances that came their way.

I must single out Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and Michael Owen as the main culprits. The two strikers, especially Crouch, were such wastrels in front of the goal. The two midfielders were guilty of trying to do too much with the ball when a simple pass would have sufficed. And defender Ashley Cole looks as though he is still not fully fit to play at this level.

However I must commend Sven Goran Eriksson for his substitutes – not Wayne Rooney, but the two wingers in the form of Aaron Lennon and Stewart Downing. These two players created chances from the flanks and generally increased the tempo of the game for England. I also thought both Steven Gerrard and David Beckham had a good game.

As for Rooney, his arrival lifted the spirits of the fans and the players but contribution wise, nothing much. Perhaps his mere presence was enough.

Now to the goals – Crouch finally managed to beat his marker in the 83th minute to head a beautiful cross from Beckham and I just hope he could do this more often than trying to be spectacular.

As for the second goal in the last minute of the match, it had Gerrard stamped all the way. The moment he turned with the ball towards the goal, you instantly knew that he was going to hit it straight into the net.

As for T&T, full credit for their never-say-die attitude. Their fans can be very proud of this team.

England is now in the second round with a game to spare. They will have to get back to the drawing board and re-look at their game plan so that they can make the strides they expect.

And finally a word for ex-England captain Terry Butcher: “They're top of the group and going through to the next round, but in what condition?”

In the other Group B match, Sweden at last gained a win and scored a goal by beating Paraguay 1-0. The goal was scored by Freddie Ljungberg in the 88th minute. Paraguay is now out of the World Cup while Sweden can still make it to the second round provided they don’t lose to England and T&T do not win against Paraguay next Tuesday.

In an earlier Group A match, Ecuador outplayed Costa Rica 3-0 and made history to qualify for the knockout rounds for the first time. Carlos Tenorio, Agustin Delgado and Ivan Kaviedes scored the goals that secured the South Americans' progress from this group. Their victory means that they and hosts Germany become the first two teams to book their places in the last 16 - and ends Costa Rica and Poland's hopes of advancing.

2006-06-15T10:11:00.000+01:00

England must win big and with style

Although England won their opening match against Paraguay, their woeful performance was roundly criticised by the British media and their fans alike. Their game that day lacked fluidity, looked negative and had no flair. They did not look like a team that want/can win the World Cup.

And at the back of that game, we hear rumours of split in the England camp between the players and the management. Seniors players are said to be unhappy about the tactical approach used by manager Sven Goran Eriksson, his use of substitutes, the substitution of Michael Owen in the 55th minute of the game and finally over the use of Wayne Rooney – where and when is the question with many believing the striker should be allowed to get fit properly but Sven is said to be thinking of throwing him into the fray even today.

So with all these going on, it is imperative that England perform well against tiny Trinidad and Tobago later today. To put an end to the mounting criticism from the British media, England must win. No, they must win big and win in style. I reckon anything less than four goals will be a failure against this T&T team made up of journeymen footballers from the lower divisions of English football.

England midfield must take control of the game and start feeding Owen and Peter Crouch to have a go at the opposite goal.

And will Rooney play? How about the young kid Theo Walcott? I don’t know what Sven is thinking but if England were leading very comfortably, perhaps Walcott will get a chance to show his stuff in the final 30 minutes of the game. And maybe, just maybe, Rooney will get a short run in too.

T&T had a wonderful game against Sweden in their opening match. The scoreless draw was very much due to the superb form of their keeper Shaka Hislop. Hislop is sure to be pretty much in a similar form today.

However after the energy sapping first game, can T&T raise their game again today? I don’t think so and maybe this is where their fairytale World Cup dream will come to an end.

They will play well, no doubt about that, but England should have a better game. David Beckham and his team must raise their own game to justify their tag as one of the favourites of this tournament.

And more importantly, they will have to silence the critics back home. For this at least I think they will do their best to win big tonight.

2006-06-14T23:26:00.000+01:00

Last gasp win for Germany

Germany 1 – 0 Poland
Oliver Neuville (91)

For 91 minutes Germany huffed and puffed against a resilient Poland. Then suddenly there was a breakthrough.

Substitute David Odonkor burst through the right wing and crossed the ball towards the Polish goalmouth and there, another substitute Oliver Neuville scored with a first-time shot from six yards.

Game over. Germany won and now have six points in the bag and looks quite certain of playing Sweden/Paraguay in the second round. All these with one more group match to go.

Germany played brilliant football and their defence performed much better than their first game. Their captain Michael Ballack was back in the team and all play was channeled through him. Strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski played well together and many times managed to breach the Polish defence only to find the opposite keeper Artur Boruc standing tall.

Poland had an equal share of the game until the 74th when Radoslaw Sobolewski was sent off for a second bookable offence after bringing down Klose.

The Germans then started wave after wave of attacks with the talismanic Neuville leading the front. On the 80th minute Boruc made two super double saves. Then in the 90th minute when he was beaten, the post came to his rescue – twice.

However Germany was not to be denied of their win with the last minute winner from Neuville.

2006-06-14T18:05:00.000+01:00

Marauding victory for Spain

Spain 4 – Xabi Alonso (13), David Villa (17) (48,p), Fernando Torres (81)
Ukraine 0

Spanish strikers David Villa and Fernando Torres (pix) marked their arrival to the international stage with sizzling performances, scoring thrice between them in a 4-0 thrashing of new boys Ukraine.

The effective partnership of this duo kept Spain’s prolific and talismanic goalscorer Raul out of the starting eleven, and more importantly damned Ukraine to an unexpected heavy defeat.

Spain dominated from the start to the final whistle, accumulating 19 shots to Ukraine's five. And this victory marked Spain’s 23-match unbeaten streak.

For years Spain had the reputation as a World Cup underachiever but this year it might, just might, finally put that dubious honour to rest.

This is Spain’s eighth consecutive World Cup appearance and they have failed to reach the semifinals since posting their best result in a fourth-place finish in 1950.

Playing with flair and finesse, Spain took a lead through Xabi Alonso in the 13th minute, Villa made it two just four minutes later. Both the goals had some elements of fortune after being deflected into the net by Ukraine players.

But the biggest slice of luck came for Spain in the 48th minute when referee Massimo Busacca made two wrong decisions. First he sent off Vladyslav Vashchyuk for apparently pulling Torres’ shirt as the striker was running free towards goal, and then he awarded a penalty.

It was a dubious penalty but Villa made no mistake in scoring, and making it 3-0.

Ukraine had the wind taken off their sail and they struggled from thereon with 10 men and three goals down. Spain made some substitutions to rest some of the important players, and one player to come in was Raul.

The best move and goal of the match came in the 81st minute. Torres, who tormented the Ukraine defence throughout the match, ended a string of passes which began when Puyol intercepted a pass at midfield. Torres ended the move with a powerful right-footer in the 81st minute.

Ukraine star Andriy Shevchenko, expected to parade his goal-scoring talent on the world's biggest soccer stage, had little effect on the match. Ukraine is the only European country making its debut. The team was the first in Europe to qualify for the event and was unbeaten in five friendly matches this year.

Tunisia 2 - Z Jaziri (24), R Jaidi (90)
Saudi Arabi 2 - Y Al Kahtani (57), S Al Jaber (84)

In the other match in the group, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia played to a 2-2 draw. The game only came to live in the last 10 minutes when in the preceding 80 minutes it was filled with errant passes and sloppy football.

This was surely not a showcase of what Asian and African football can offer.

Saudi Arabia trailed by a goal for the majority of the game but somehow managed to overcome that and led 2-1 until the 92th minute. At that point, up stepped Bolton’s Raidi Jaidi who jumped higher than the entire Saudi Arabia defence to head home the equalizer.

Saudi Arabia tried hectically in the remaining two minutes of injury time to steal a win and they had decent chances which went begging.

Spain next play Tunisia while Ukraine will play Saudi Arabia on June 19.

2006-06-14T11:15:00.000+01:00

Are you calling me fat?

Yes definitely fat, sluggish and slow. In fact Ronaldo yesterday looked like he was more of a lightweight boxer waiting to get into the heavyweight category. Even his game had the signs of a boxer – just waiting to make that sucker punch! Sadly in his case, none came in his way (apart from one snap shot which he conjured in the second half).

The former world player of the year looked more relieved coming off the pitch than doing the job on it. He was often operating at walking pace and was constantly hampered by bad ball control and heavy touch. Not once did he attempt anything as ambitious as a run into a channel.

It looks more like the curtain is finally being drawn for this player. His coach Carlos Alberto Parreira however still insists that Ronaldo will improve as the tournament progresses.

Parreira’s excuse for Ronaldo’s bad performance yesterday?

“Ronaldo has not been playing for the last two months and has had only two friendlies, so it was natural he felt a bit heavy as it was very hot."

2006-06-13T23:02:00.000+01:00

Boring, boring Brazil win their opener

Brazil 1 – 0 Croatia
Kaka (44)

For 69 minutes the defending champions Brazil played their opening match against Croatia with 10 players and one passenger in the field. There was a glimpse of some urgency in the team only when young Robinho replaced Ronaldo. However by then they had already taken a 44th minute lead through a sublime Kaka goal.

But don’t be mistaken. This was a game which Brazil fully controlled and dictated the pace. They knew full well when and how to attack and more importantly they also knew how to defend. You somehow got the feeling that they could have moved up a gear at any time and that they were resorting to slowing down the game to preserve their energy for the other matches to come.

There were no theatrics and showing offs from the Brazillians. They were utterly professional but they did have their magical moments too. Roberto Carlos showed us how powerful his kicks can be while Ronaldinho performed some of his party tricks.

Mind you, this win sees them winning their eighth straight victory in the World Cup – a record – with the last seven culminating in them taking the trophy for a record fifth time in 2002.

Croatia, for their part, played well and on the three occasions when they had the chance, they shot straight to Dida.

But one thing that caught my eyes was the woeful performance of Ronaldo. He looked sluggish, never contested the ball and failed to run anywhere in the pitch while he was still playing. In fact the only time he showed some form of excessive activity was when he trotted out during his substitution.

Here are some high-points of the match:

Best display of the game: The entire Croation defence

Magical moment of the game: Kaka’s goal from out of nothing

Best spectator: Ronaldo – both while on and off the pitch

Best shots in the game: Between Kaka and Roberto Carlo

Best duel of the match: Stewards trying to remove a Croation fan who had encroached into the pitch

And here are how the other two matches of the day went:

France 0 vs 0 Switzerland

France, the champions of 1998, continued from where they left in 2002 – goalless and winless. This was a boring display from the French team which clearly lacked vision and penetration to kill off the young Swiss side.

Their lack of goal should not come as a surprise as after all France is the team which scored the least number of goals in the qualifying rounds amongst all finalists – 14.

In fact, it was Switzerland which came the closest to score a goal and grab all three points.

Thierry Hendry continued to puzzle football fans as to why he could not reproduce his Arsenal form at international level.

South Korea 2 – 1 Togo
Lee Chun-Soo (54) Mohamed Kader (31)
Ahn Jung-Hwan (72)

South Korea did Asia proud by winning this game with two wonderful goals. Togo took a surprise lead in the first half when S Korea looked very stale in their performance. A second half substitution to bring in the 2002 hero Ahn Jung-Hwan plus the sending off of Togo’s central defender turned the tide in the Korean favour.

Debutants Togo showed no signs of internal turmoil – and their coach who walked out over the weekend returned to the team again – and scored their first goal in the tournament with grace and splendour.

2006-06-13T13:27:00.000+01:00

Why Brazil should not win again?

(With the defending champions Brazil starting their campaign today, guest blogger Raam Shanker thinks it will be bad for the beautiful game if the Samba Kings are allowed to walk away with the trophy for the record sixth time.)

Their defeat to Uruguay in the finals of 1950, in front of their own people inflicted deep wounds into the minds of the Brazilian people. Its influence must be so strong that, young footballers are bred with this hard-hitting truth, which has perhaps led to Brazil producing players of great quality, who understand the value of playing for their country. When you see a Brazilian team on the pitch, you can feel it; they don't play for money or fame, but only for national honor and pride. There is a message to the rest of the world, a message that says: "You need to be special to play football for Brazil." Their games are an attempt to erase the scars of 1950, but I wish those scars never go, for if the scars disappeared I am left wondering, whether we will get to see the beautiful game ever!

Now, coming back to a few harsh realities of the beautiful game. Statistics say that the last time a Latin American team won a World Cup in Europe was back in Sweden 1958. Now who won it? Brazil! Wait! Another statistic; Incidentally, Brazil is the only Latin American team to win in Europe! When I say Latin America, I also include Mexico. I do personally believe that statistics are like bikinis, what they reveal is suggestive but what they hide is essential. Now having said this let’s make an effort to see what they possibly reveal in this case and what they try to suggest.

The easiest conclusion is that European teams have dominated in Europe and also no European team has won outside the continent. A very logical and common explanation one can give is weather and playing conditions in Europe being different from Latin America. All said and done, there have been two World Cups played outside Europe and Latin America; USA 1994 and Korea-Japan 2002. Brazil won them both against European opposition, Italy in 1994 and Germany in 2002. Some more fun, Italy 1990 and France 1998 were the last two Cups to be held in Europe and they were won by European teams, Germany and France respectively, and the runners up? Latin American teams, Argentina in 1990 and Brazil in 1998.

There is something else too. We call as premature-peak-syndrome (PPS). It happened to Argentina, and the defending champions France in 2002. Apparently Argentina were the strong favorites to win the cup simply due to their stunning form in qualifying and in the pre-world cup matches. But when the tournament started, they had lost the pristine touch that they possessed. On the other hand, Brazil and Germany were the least favorites to win the cup. But look what happened. They, of all teams made it to the finals. When I talk of France, I must say that they are the reason for a major rule change after the last edition of the cup. Their miserable performance and eventual exit after the first round came as a surprise to the footballing fraternity. Hence FIFA decided that even the defending champions had to qualify, which actually saw Brazil as the first defending champions to endure qualifying.

The media for obvious reasons has hyped them. They have the flair and they have what it takes to win the World Cup. But if they win it, won’t it be all too boring? I mean FIFA would not want it, would they? Give this a thought, the game was born in Europe, FIFA is based in Europe and the championship is staged in Europe. More importantly, Brazil has dominated the World Cup by winning a record five times. A sixth championship will make it all tasteless and boring, yes very similar to Ferrari’s domination of the FIA Formula One World Championship in the first half of this decade. Yes football is a beautiful game and the Samba Kings are masters at it. But there is something bigger than them. Money! It makes the world go round. Money will flow in only when people like it and people surely don’t like to see the same team gather glory once every four years. So for these simple reasons, Brazil should not win this edition.

(Raam Shanker is a diehard fan of football and Formula One. He strongly thinks this is England’s year to lift the trophy.)

2006-06-13T09:31:00.000+01:00

A (witch)doctor in the stadium

Is this man a Ghana juju-man (witch doctor)? Or is he an exhibitionist supporter? Whatever he is, neither his chanting nor his cheering resulted in World Cup debutants Ghana to post a win against Italy. Although they played some attractive football, they were just too naïve for the masterful Italians.

2006-06-13T00:22:00.000+01:00

Goals – It does make one happy

(Guest blogger Roshan Jason lists the goals that impressed him most so far in the World Cup)

Eleven games played so far and many goals produced. WC 2006 looks set for not only a high-scoring tournament but also one with some technically good goals and some outrageously wonderful strikes. The new game ball may have something to do with it but that’s not yet conclusive.

Here’s a list of my favorites:

Tim Cahill (Australia vs Japan) – The socceroos’ second goal was a show of sheer confidence in one’s ability. The Everton man smartly step on the ball for a second and positioned it just right for him to swing a shot into the corner of the post. The Japanese defenders contributed by backing off just enough to give Cahill an extra second or two to pick his spot.

Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic vs USA) – Another hammer of a shot with enough swerve to beat even the best keeper in the world (read - Buffon or Cech would have not made the save either). With his first tournament goal, the new Arsenal man had less time than Cahill did but shot just as well. His second goal was equally as good more so because the midfielder took it like a striker. Ran the ball fast past the defenders and coolly slotted it in the top corner of the net. Look out for more from him. He had another very good powerful strike, from distance, in the same game that hit the bar.

Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast vs Argentina) – A man of the match performance was topped off with a superb finish by the Chelsea front man. It was a lot harder to put that ball in the back of the net than it looked. It takes good balance and an instinctive positioning of the body – and feet – to redirect a cross at that pace while under pressure from a defender.

Jan Koller (Czech Republic vs USA) – I like this goal simply because the cross was inch perfect and a man of his stature did exactly what he had to do. Head the ball with power and accuracy. Peter Crouch could certainly take a lesson or two from this giant of a striker.

Torsten Frings (Germany vs Costa Rica) - A goal that now seems a distant memory, was the second good goal of the tournament for me – after Philip Lahm’s strike. Frings’ powerful drive, from 35-yards out, was a classic German midfielder goal.

There were a few other good goals but these are my pick of the lot. I’m sure I’ll be soon replacing these with impending goals from the likes of the Brazilians and France’s Henry.

Having said that, my hats off to some of the goalkeepers on display whom have produced some equally fine saves. That’s a story for another day.

(Roshan Jason is sure he’s never going to stop loving the game. He’s keeping his fingers crossed for a good South Korean performance.)

2006-06-12T22:14:00.000+01:00

Ghana got caught out

Italy 2 - Andrea Pirlo (40), Vincenzo Iaquinta (83)
Ghana 0

Footballing masters Italy showed new boys Ghana how it is done at the World Cup by winning their match 2-0 with goals from Andrea Pirlo in the 40th minute and Vincenzo Iaquinta in the 83th minute.

Ghana by no means looked overawed by the occasion and contributed evenly to this first-rate match. As for the Italians, they are now unbeaten in 18 games in all competitions and friendlies and look set to put on an impressive performance in the tournament.

Ghana can surely take the lessons learned today and hope to perform better in their next game against Czech Republic on June 17. However they will not find it easy going as well, especially with the form the Czech Republic players are in at present, particularly Tomas Rosicky.

Czech Republic 3 – Jan Koller (5), Tomas Rosicky (36) (76)
USA 0

In an earlier match in this same group, Rosicky gave a man of the match performance and two great goals in a 3-0 win over the USA. I must say that Czech Republic started their World Cup campaign in style. Their other goal was scored by Jan Koller.

Rosicky, a new signing for Arsenal, attributed his winning performance to his familiarity to the pitch as he had played in it during his time in the German league.

He scored two beautiful goals and linked very well with midfield supremo Pavel Nedved.

Australia 3 – Tim Cahill (84) (89), John Aloisi (90)
Japan 1 - Shunsuke Nakamura 26

In the day’s first game, there were heartbreaks for the Japanese players after losing to Australia by conceding three goals in the final eight minutes. Up until then, they were leading by a goal from Shunsuke Nakamura.

Substitute Tim Cahill was the hero for Australia by scoring twice with fellow striker John Aloisi scoring in the injury time.

The results were even sweeter for the Australians as they had finally managed to record both their first goals and their first ever win in the World Cup.

2006-06-12T15:02:00.000+01:00

Football fans are mad

Football fans are not just mad about football. Some of them are just plain mad as well. The picture above shows two such Dutch fans in Leipzig after the victory of their team in the match against Serbia and Montenegro.

2006-06-12T14:30:00.000+01:00

The sideshows and the matches

(Guest blogger Sri Shanker Krishnan gives us his observations of the World Cup so far.)

So the 18th edition of the World Cup has finally kicked off. How has it been for you so far? As a self professed football nut (or whatever you can call it!), I have been very impressed with the way things have started.

I am going to give a quick run down of things so far based on my observations so far. Except for the unusually exciting opening game, things have gone pretty much as expected, except probably for Sweden, much of that later. The big boys have all performed to expectations, at least they have won their respective openings games, England included! Apart from the games there have been a few interesting ‘side shows’, to make sure the fans get more than just football. Among the many side shows, the ones that caught my attention were:-

The Brazilian president sending an apology letter to Ronaldo for calling him fat. So much for telling the truth then!
‘Kaiser’ Franz Beckenbauer to get married later this summer. He has proved that he is a master at multi-tasking!
Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari urging the Portuguese public to ‘will’ the team on simultaneously. Seeking divine intervention, Scolari?
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan admitting that he is envious of FIFA being able to unite people all over the world. That’s power of football for you, bro!!!
Togo coach Otto Pfister resigning over his players’ salaries issue. Case of jumping off a sinking ship?

And it goes on and on. Now this is what I call money’s worth! Now let’s get down to the serious business of football. Below is my dissection of things so far…

Opening Match – The opening ceremony and the ensuing match between Germany and Costa Rica were to put it simply, breathtaking. What a way to start! For a change it is nice to watch a German team playing with so much flair and attacking verve. I could not believe that I was watching an opening match, there was so much end to end stuff going on throughout the game. Torsten Frings, as the match commentator rightfully mentioned, has probably scored one of the goals of the tournament. Credit to Costa Rica for opting to take the game to their opponents. A word of caution – the Germans defence has to improve markedly, unless they want to entertain instead of win! Klinsmann is a living testimony that Americans do provide positive influences as well!!

Major Upset – Definitely got to go to Trinidad & Tobago (T&T). The Caribbean islanders performed wonderfully in what was a very entertaining 0-0 draw. So much excitement and drama - a pity there were no goals. This match has restored my faith for the underdogs, I expect a few more upsets to happen. That’s why we all love the game so much, eh?

Same Old England – England won. Well, that was the only positive thing I can say about the English performance against a woeful Paraguay. They started brightly, even scoring a goal after only 4 minutes of the game played. Then the English started playing ‘safely’. They just did not want to throw caution to the wind and attack all out against a team that was there for the beating! I just cannot understand why the English were playing so cautiously. To make matters worse, the substitutes brought in were Downing and Hargreaves – what nonsense. Why wasn’t Lennon brought in, I wonder. I actually rushed from an important wedding function and this is what I get in return. But then again I should have known better! Still let’s give them a benefit of doubt as it was their first game.

Best Match – On the other hand the wait to watch the Argentina vs Ivory Coast match at 3.00am was vindicated. For me this was the best match of the tournament so far. What technique, what flair! The skills level and tactical nous shown by both teams was par excellence. Some of the performances were simply fantastic and real joy to watch. This is what football is all about. Riquelme, Sorin, Saviola, Mascherano, Drogba, Toure, and Kone were all outstanding. Special mention must be made of Riqelme, what a class performance, easily the performance of the tournament so far! He was completely in control and was running the show single handedly.

That’s about all for now. Got to go back to catch more WC action, what with France, Spain and the mother of all the big boys, Brazil, have yet to come on. Don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough! Ciao!

(Sri Shanker Krishnan, in his own words, is a football nut who is rooting for Brazil to win this tournament.)

2006-06-11T22:01:00.000+01:00

Video: The first game of World Cup 2006

In case you missed the opening excellent encounter between hosts Germany and Costa Rica, here is a video clipping of the match highlight for you. Enjoy the superb goals and the Japanese commentary.

2006-06-11T17:18:00.000+01:00

Robben magic does it for the Dutch

Holland 1 – Arjen Robben (17)
Serbia & Montenegro 0

The third day of the World Cup started today with the skillful Dutch side taking the vastly improved Serbia & Montenegro. In the first half, Holland’s performance were very much reminiscent of their great footballing sides of the 70s and 80s.

Time and time again their players ghosted past Serbia & Montenegro players and Chelsea’s Arjen Robben was outstanding in the right wing. He created so many chances with his mazy runs. His goal came out of a flick on by Robin van Persie which left Robben on a straight run towards the goal.

Two inspired substitution by Serbia changed the game and for the much of the second half, it was Serbia who were dictating the game.

In the end it was a hard-fought win for Holland and they were truly good value for money. This group, which also contains Argentina and Ivory Coast, promises some good football in weeks to come.

Meanwhile...

In the other two games today, Mexico scored twice in the final 20 minutes to defeat Iran 3-1 in their opening World Cup Group D match in Nuremberg while Portugal defeated Angola by a single goal. in the other Group D match.

2006-06-11T17:09:00.000+01:00

Sad but true - a reflection of the England game

(One day after the uncomfortable win against Paraguay, England fan Raam Shanker is left pondering if his team has the fire to go all the way to win the World Cup.)

I am trying not to quote the rock band, Metallica when I say sad but true, but looking at the game yesterday, I am running out of analogies. What I saw in Old Trafford, Manchester precisely a week ago was an exhilarating experience. Comparing it with the crucial game against Paraguay, I must say that this was a mere shadow of the team that played in Manchester. The big game pressure has got to them again. England got a win, yes. But in a football-crazy nation where being a footballer is akin to a tightrope walk, it was a pathetic display. Very few chances created, the created ones wasted. It was certainly a rude wake up call for me, as I was mesmerized by their performance against Hungary and Jamaica in the friendlies. I took these performances for granted and assumed safely that England would not just win, but would win comprehensively. The bubble burst and the dream faded away into oblivion, leaving a trail of uncertainty behind. The good news going into the game for England was the fact that Gary Neville and Stevie Gerrard would start. On the flipside, Jamie Carragher would warm the bench. Peter Crouch, who a season ago was not even dreaming of an England start yet, was making his World Cup alongside Owen.

England began well and were rewarded, by Beckham’s opposite number in the third minute. A Beckham freekick graced by Gamarra’s head on its way in. England taking the lead, much to the delight to all of England supporters. It looked pretty hot and dictator (read referee), Marco Rodriguez, who controlled the game with an iron hand was not too keen on letting the English players have their sip of water every now and then. The match-ball, called Teamgeist by Adidas looked very light and was what one would call seamless, for it had no visible seam. If I were to be a little lenient, I would consider this as an excuse for Lampard, and Gerrard’s long-range efforts going wasted. Paraguay looked a little shaky in the first half, when the ball was in their half, but were not seriously threatened. Eriksson deployed the 4-4-2 and it saw Gary Neville take Carragher’s place (from the Old Trafford friendly). The Beckham-Neville combo created a few opportunities but up front we had a crisis. Owen was not up to match sharpness and let a few down the drain. To be honest, he is not the same old Owen, who made his World Cup debut, eight years ago in France. This could partly be attributed to his recent injury and subsequent recovery. Crouch, Owen’s strike partner overshadowed the defences with his sheer height but could not take full advantage of this. Also the lack of coordination between Owen and Crouch was very visible. Statistics and the commentators told us that England had not scored a second half goal in the World Cup since Owen’s goal against Romania in 1998. I must say though that England pushed and pushed in the first half but failed to double their lead.

Come second half, I thought they ran out of fuel. The game slowed down miserably and they started losing focus. On the other hand, Paraguay started to soak the pressure and Robinson got some work, but he discharged his duties very well. Lampard seemed to inject some life into the game later on but all he managed was to extract a corner from the Paraguayan replacement goalkeeper. Oh, by the way their first choice goalkeeper injured himself while bravely fending off an attempt by Michael Owen, some time very early in the first half. Sven replaced Owen with Downing and pushing Joe Cole up front, just behind Crouch, thus converting a 4-4-2 to a 4-4-1-1. Blunder again? But of course yes! Because Cole was not tested in this position, it was in fact Gerrard.

Also leaving Cole up there meant the inexperienced Downing had to man the left wing and worse, Crouch was left up there to fend for himself and Cole could not play the creative role that he is so used to playing. Sven could have explored the possibility of bringing Rooney on for the last 10-15 minutes and seeing how he performed. This is a two-fold advantage. The first one is the obvious, which is, Rooney is back to fitness and plays his natural game and everyone is happy. The second prospect is this - suppose Rooney’s performance is below par and his injury shows, he can be sent back to England for a full recovery and Sven can get on with Walcott as the substitute rather than waiting for the big games to arrive and risk playing Rooney in the later stages, which would lead to worse consequences, both for England and for Rooney’s career with Manchester United. Well this is just a thought, but I suppose Sven had other thoughts in mind.

Looking at the amount of set pieces England had, they needed to have won by a bigger margin. Looking at the way Trinidad & Tobago held Sweden to a goalless draw, I am forced to ask this in my set of questions at the end. End of ninety minutes and added time, England got their win and took three points back to Baden Baden, but they were not at all convincing. If the rest of their campaign is to be rated on the basis of this game, I can be very sure that they won’t go far, before returning home. But if they were to brave it out, take a few risks and create chances, they could go on. So much for wishful thinking!

Question time again:

Will Carragher replace Gary Neville?
Will Rooney play earlier than he is supposed to?
Will the sensationally selected Walcott come in?
Are they capable of going past Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden?

As ever, the answers lie out there, but they better be convincing.

(Raam Shanker is a diehard fan of football and Formula One.)

2006-06-10T22:05:00.000+01:00

Hail Drogba

Argentina 2 - Crespo (24), Saviola (38)

Ivory Coast 1 - Drogba (80)

He ran himself to the ground. He scored a good goal. And he led upfront by example.

Ivory Coast were down by two goals with only 10 minutes to go. Didier Drogba and his teammates gave a stirring fightback by throwing players forward and scored a vital goal through Drogba. They then pushed Argentinians back as they looked for that equaliser.

Luck was not with them and Argentina held on to win this game 2-1, with goals from Javier Saviola and Hernan Crespo. I was impressed with this Argentina team, especially the way their playmaker Juan Riquelme dictated the game.

2006-06-10T19:56:00.000+01:00

Nil-nil… but what a game eh? (2)

(Guest blogger Roshan Jason enjoyed watching minnows Trinidad and Tobago playing Sweden to a scoreless game. He is even more pleased that a particular Malaysian pundit got it wrong.)

The first scoreless match at the 2006 World Cup and what a match it was!

Tiny Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of over a million people only, swept aside countless attacks by Sweden’s world-class strikers, to make history.

T&T secured their first ever World Cup point in their first ever World Cup. The match itself was a great one to watch. This is why I watch football. There may have not been that many skillful moves or superb goals but there was a lot of heart displayed on the field.

Sweden, who came into the match as favourites, did all they possibly could to score against the football unknowns but T&T’s defenders, goalkeeper as well as midfielders stopped them cold in their tracks.

What’s more, T&T played with 10 men towards the last part of the match. Shakla Hislop – T&T’s goalkeeper – was magnificent in goal. He made a least half a dozen wonderful saves. What’s more admirable is that he was initially lined up as the reserve keeper but only got the nod to start 10 minutes before the game when the first choice keeper hurt himself in the pre-game warm up. To come on knowing you weren’t trusted to be first in goal and yet perform with so much concentration and belief – was just respectable.

T&T even had a shot hit against the crossbar in the 58th minute. What impressed me most was that T&T players could really play good football. They passed the ball well – especially long, accurate passes to their lone-striker.

The fans – from both sides – were a large contributor to the atmosphere. After watching this, the 4th match of the tournament, I can safely say I was entertained the most today. This after a drab England – Paraguay game, was reason enough to stay up till the early morning (in my part of the world) for a football game.

There also needs to be special mention to former Manchester United favourite Dwight Yorke. The aging-striker, now converted to a midfielder – was at the very heart of T&T’s game. Not only was his smile infectious on the other players on the pitch, Yorke provided a master-class midfield display with a lot of good holding of the ball, changing of game pace and hard-working tracking back to defend. Perhaps United should look no further for a replacement to Roy Keane.

Whether or nor T&T are able to repeat this over the next two group games is left to be seen but from today’s game it was enough for me to root for them.

Credit also to veteran coach Leo Beenhakker, who may end-up doing a Gus Hiddink (when coaching South Korea in 2002).

The final icing on the cake for me was how the pundits got it absolutely wrong – especially Malaysia’s very own Shebby Singh – who showed little respect to the T&T team by predicting a routing for Sweden.

Let’s hope all pundits, football fans and players alike take a lesson from this game. Football has gone global and is no longer conquered only by European or South American teams. Remember Senegal, Korea and Japan in 2002?

I’m gearing myself up for another good match coming up shortly – Ivory Coast vs Argentina and I won’t be surprised if Drogba and gang take inspiration from T&T and go out there and show the world that the ball is round and anyone, I mean anyone, can entertain on the pitch. And sometimes – you don’t need to score to do so.

(Roshan Jason is an avid football fan (surprise, surprise!). He’s been kicking a ball ever since he can remember and has improved his game over the years by not only getting in games but also by attentively watching the professionals play. He really wishes he had taken a leave of absence for the upcoming World Cup.)

2006-06-10T19:07:00.000+01:00

Its nil-nil but what a game…

Sweden 0
Trinidad and Tobago 0

Minnows Trinidad and Tobago played valiantly – with 10 men in the second half - to earn this well-deserved goalless draw with Sweden. Sweden played all the fancy football, especially with their forwards Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Larsson and Freddie Ljungberg linking so well, but it was T&T’s keeper Shaka Hislop who stole the show.

The veteran keeper, only a last minute inclusion to this game following an injury the first choice goalie Kelvin Jack, was the stumbling block time and time again. Sweden wasted about ten chances to score the elusive goal while T&T also hit the woodwork in the second half.

This result means England now lead Group B with three points, courtesy of the own goal by Paraguay earlier today.

2006-06-10T17:01:00.000+01:00

Own goal enough for unimpressive England

England 1 - Carlos Gamarra (3) own goal
Paraguay 0

In one word: disappointing. That’s how I will describe England’s opening game against Paraguay earlier today.

In all, in the first 45 minutes, they conjured to score an early goal – albeit an own goal, played a possessive game without any real penetration and made Paraguay look easy.

However in the second half, Paraguay emerged with more purpose, made some threatening runs through the middle and made England very uncomfortable.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson blamed the wilting heat for their performance but was nevertheless happy with the points.

However I must question his tactical decision to take off Michael Owen in the 55th minute, to be replaced by Steward Downing. That changed whatever potency England had up front as Joe Cole who was pushed up to play alongside Peter Crouch had no understanding with the tall striker.

Sven could have pushed Steve Gerrard further up to look for goals, as he had tested him playing that role in the last two warm up matches. However the formation England played meant Gerrard was just sitting in front of his defenders. Frank Lampard had some chances to forage forward and to be fair he had two shots on target.

Ardent England fans should not be disheartened though as this team has a history of making slow starts to major tournaments. So watch out Trinidad and Tobago on June 15.

2006-06-10T01:16:00.000+01:00

Day Two - A preview

After the blistering start yesterday, dare we hope for more of the same in the three games to be played today?

Our World Cup bonanza for today starts with the highly charged England taking on Paraguay, After this, it is Sweden vs Trinidad and Tobago and the day is rounded off with Argentina playing Ivory Coast.

England vs Paraguay
The worry over Steven Gerrard’s fitness following a hip injury is now over and he is set to make it to the field. In any event, England can afford to miss him at this stage of the tournament as they have either Michael Carrick or Jamie Carragher to stand in.

England is expected to start with a traditional 4-4-2 formation with Michael Owen and Peter Crouch playing upfront. Wayne Rooney definitely will not play in this game.

Paraguay is also in their own striking crisis with striker Jose Cardozo ruled out of the tournament due to an injury. Fellow forward Roque Santa Cruz too could be out due to knee injury. Replacement striker Dante Lopez will start tomorrow.

Sweden vs Trinidad and Tobago
The Swedes are without experienced goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson who was injured in training. He was knocked unconscious when a fierce shot from Kim Kallstrom struck him at point-blank range. He might even miss the second game against Paraguay on June 15. Sweden’s problem is compounded by the fact that their two other keepers are totally inexperienced.

Trinidad and Tobago also suffered a major blow of their own when veteran defender Marvin Andrews was ruled out of the game with a knee injury. No date is fixed for his return.

Argentina vs Ivory Coast
This game sees Chelsea club mates Didier Drogba and Hernan Crespo playing against each other.

Argentina coach Jose Pekerman will be without Lionel Messi for their opening game but he is confident his team has the resources to overcome the Africans. Argentina will make use of their fast players with great ball skills and bags of pace to undo the Africans. Javier Saviola may partner Crespo up front.

The Ivorian side will be pleased that Argentina do not have a good record against African sides in their opening game in a World Cup and they believe that appalling record should continue.

2006-06-09T19:28:00.000+01:00

Germany start the tournament in style

Germany 4 - Philip Lahm (6), Miroslav Klose (17) (61), Torsten Frings (87)
Costa Rica 2 - Paulo Wanchope (12) (73)

Hosts Germany got on to an excellent start by defeating Costa Rica in this very attack-minded game. Both teams must be credited for their open play and this curtain-raiser proved to a much better affair than any other opening World Cup games in the recent past.

Germany scored two wonderful goals through Lahm and Frings and in between Klose (pix) did a good poaching job any good striker would do.

Costa Rica on their part provided their fair share in this very open game and scored two sweet goals through their veteran striker Wanchope.

The only concern for the Germans would be the way their defence struggled to contain the through balls from Costa Rican midfielders. A much better opponent would have had more scoring chances and could have converted a few.

Ecuador vs Poland

In the day’s second game, Ecuador defeated Poland by two goals to nothing. The first goal was scored by Carlos Tenorio in the 23rd minute (pix) while Agustin Delgado scored the second in the 80th.

The South Americans scored their second goal against the run of play as Poland saw more of the ball in the second half. They were however frustrated by some stout defending and excellent goalkeeping by Ecuador. And they hit the woodwork twice in this sustained period of pressure.

Only last November, Poland defeated Ecuador 3-0 in a friendly and today they failed to repeat that feat.

This result means Germany and Ecuador now lead Group A with three points each but the Germans are on top on goal difference.

Germany next play Poland on June 14 while Ecuador will meet Costa Rica on June 15.

2006-06-09T12:59:00.000+01:00

Klinsmann: More fun with more goals

Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann has come under intense fire for being too attack-minded and is accused of ignoring the defensive aspects that are well-known in the German teams of past years.

On the day when his team opens the World Cup in a match against Costa Rica, Klinsmann justifies his different approach in an interview with FIFA Magazine:

FIFA Magazine: When a coach takes over a team he often tries to build from the back. You took a different approach; you preach an attacking style of play.

Jurgen Klinsmann: Our approach from the beginning has been to work with the players to develop an identity, to define a football philosophy that the players share and uphold on the pitch. Our primary aim is to get the ball forward quickly and play. Only once we had agreed on this did we turn our attention to the individual sections of the team and consider the players with whom it might work.

And as for the game today?

Would you rather win a game 3-2 or 1-0?
3-2, because I used to be a striker. It’s simply more fun when more goals go in.

Read the full interview here.

2006-06-09T07:33:00.000+01:00

The world awaits

This is from BBC Online:

Hosts Germany will kick off the 18th football World Cup on Friday after the opening ceremony in Munich. A further 63 games will take place before the winners are crowned after the final in Berlin on 9 July.

The first match will be preceded by an opening ceremony in which more than 150 players who have won the World Cup, including Pele and Diego Maradona, will be on display.

Read the full article here.

2006-06-09T00:42:00.000+01:00

Germany and its mediocre bunch of players

Finally the wait is over. The World Cup starts today. The first match sees hosts Germany take on minnows Costa Rica, but they will be without their captain Michael Ballack who is out injured.

This is a severe blow to the hosts who had been relying on Ballack in recent years to pull them through. And having qualified automatically to the finals, Germany have not had the advantage of testing their players in a competitive mode.

Their squad is inexperienced, young and suffers a shortage of talent. The only truly star quality players in the squad are Ballack, Miroslav Klose and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and Oliver Kahn.
And of course there are some talented players to watch out - like Lukas Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Christophe Metzelder. As for the rest, in the words of a German football pundit, they are either not up to scratch or need a couple of years to mature.

In the past 18 months, they have tried 14 defenders without any improvement. To top it all, they are being coached by a novice who believes in an attacking philosophy. They were hammered 4-1 by Italy in March and more recently the defensive frailty showed again when they had to come back from two goals down to force a draw with Japan.

This prompted captain Ballack to openly criticise coach Jurgen Klinsmann, saying that the team had failed to solve the weaknesses of the past two years.

Given these circumstances, what are the chances of the hosts then? Will Costa Rica spring an upset at the opening game?

If they do, they will then join Senegal and Cameroon for beating the odds against far superior opponents. In 2002, a previously unknown Senegal gained a famous victory against the then defending champions France while Cameroon beat Argentina in the first match of the 1990 tournament.

Although football romantics would love for such a result, I don’t think that will be the case. I think the boisterous home crowd will be able to encourage a win for Germany, although it might not be an easy victory.

The recent performances of this German team have lowered the expectations but I think they will still top their group and at best will be knocked out at the semi-final stage.

2006-06-08T08:22:00.000+01:00

Argentina looks at Messi for inspiration

Ever since Diego Maradona left the 1994 World Cup with his reputation in tatters for a failed drug test, Argentina has been looking for an able replacement to bring home the cherished World Cup trophy for a third time.

The nation wants a player who can emulate the great Maradona just as he single-handedly won the trophy on 1986 (no pun intended). Although Argentina is known for producing artistic and skillful players, none has thus far been able to live up the high standards of Maradona. In 2002, the young pretenders – of whom there are many – failed miserably when they were knocked out in the first round.

This time around, things may be different. The team is beaming with confidence with so many creative players. There is Juan Roman Riquelme, Pablo Aimar, Carlos Tevez, Gabriel Heinze, Juan Pablo Sorin, Javier Saviola and Hernan Crespo. And then there are the players less heard off but excellent nevertheless – players like Maxi Rodriguez and Javier Mascherano. And finally, of course there is Lionel Messi.

In the list above, there are at least four or five players who have been touted as the next Maradona. And now the label falls upon the 18-year-old Messi and anyone who had seen him play at Barcelona will agree to that. He is not called the unpredictable genius for nothing.

This boy wonder will be carrying the hopes of his nation and to accentuate that, he will be wearing a pair of specially-made commemorative boots at the World Cup. Stitched into them will be the inscription: The Hand of God Mexico 86.

The dreams of his countrymen will however depend very much on the duration in which Messi gets to play at all for he has not played a full game since tearing a thigh muscle on March 7.

This injury means that he is unlikely to play in Argentina's first game against the Ivory Coast on June 10. He is recovering fast though and he did play 22 minutes of his side's friendly last week against Angola (right).

His coach Jose Pekerman is confident that Messi will be able to show his worth as the tournament gets on.

However in the event Messi fails to shine at the World Cup chances are he might lose the opportunity of replacing Maradona as the nation’s football saviour. Already there is another young gun claiming to be the new Maradona - 17-year-old striker Sergio Aguero who was not picked this time around but in four years time should be ready to carry the nation’s burden.

2006-06-07T23:52:00.000+01:00

Bad news for Cisse

French forward Djibril Cisse is out of the World Cup after breaking his right leg in a friendly game against China earlier tonight.

This is surely a big blow for the striker who was looking forward to a move away from Liverpool this summer.

He previously broke his left leg in October 2004 and spend some seven months recuperating.

2006-06-07T11:27:00.000+01:00

Hold ya horses ye old English!

(Yesterday I blogged about how some facts and figures from 1966 are very similar to 2006, giving the impression that all the signs are pointing towards England returning home on July 10 as World Cup winners. Today however guest blogger Roshan Jason brings us back to reality by looking into some weaknesses in the England team – some weaknesses that may scupper their hopes is winning the trophy.)

Ok, Ok, England’s on a winning streak and Peter Crouch-ing Tiger seems to be on a successful hunting spree. But folks, I really have to beg you to take a step back and honestly evaluate the English team and its chances this year.

Here’s a list of what England fans (and I’m one of them) should really acknowledge as chinks in their armour:

Defence: Yes, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand are solid defenders with Carragher a more than capable replacement for Neville or for either of the central defenders. However, I have not been convinced by Ashley Cole’s performances. He isn’t the same left back he was before his long lay off. He needs more time to get back to full throttle. In the friendly against Hungary, he was outdone on numerous occasions by the Hungarian left wing in the first half. Cole’s cover – Wayne Bridge – while somewhat reliable defensively, is not very capable of effectively supporting attacks along the wing. My biggest concern rests with the fact that the main central defensive cover – Sol Campbell – is, how shall I put it, no cover at all. Sol’s time has long set over the horizon. Let’s just hope that Neville, Carragher, Terry and Ferdinand remain injury-free throughout the tournament.

Midfield: Yes, the 4-4-2 formation did seem to work better deployed in the final warm-up match (which folks, you should read as just what it was – an international friendly against a less than formidable opponent). The downside with this age-old formation is that Joe Cole, England’s most skillful player, doesn’t revel in it. He was a victim of this much-supported pattern on Saturday. For close to 60 minutes of the game, the gifted-boy was lost. He hardly made any telling runs along the flank and when he did, he didn’t produce any quality crosses. He’s not a winger, full stop! He was a lot more effective when allowed to cut into the middle during the match against Hungary when England played the 4-5-1 (or 4-1-4-1 as some are calling it). Against Jamaica, Cole only came to life when Stewart Downing was brought in on the left-flank. I have to admit though that David Beckham’s crosses and passing are a class above the rest. He’s put to perfection his skills – especially over the last few months - in Madrid. And it’s also assuring to see Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard quash doubts that they can’t effectively tango together.

Up front: To be brief – Michael Owen is nowhere near his best and Peter Crouch – he’s an imposter. In all honesty folks, he scored a ‘hat-trick’ simply because he had the space to do so. Not because he created room for himself but because the Jamaicans were too busy staying away from him. At the World Cup, defenders are going to be much tighter on strikers and Crouch will find himself with little room to maneuver his robotics. That leaves Theo Walcott and Jermaine Defoe (if Rooney doesn’t make it). Walcott is going to be too overawed – if given and chance – and Defoe, well I’m not sure there’s a reason why he’s even Sven’s fourth natural choice. I guess England will rue the day Rooney hurt himself. The first couples of weeks after the injury, the football world – especially those England – were devastated and were convinced England had no real chance without him. The as time passed, they started to realize that they weren’t doing any good to any slight chances England had by making the other players feel impotent. So, they got behind the rest of the team. But I tell you, ladies and gentleman, Rooney was/is England’s key to glory. Rooney is England’s 11th AND 12th man on the pitch. He has the strength, speed and determination of two strikers put together. His absence will surely be evident when they take on the likes of Paraguay, Sweden and Germany (as I’m predicting England will come in second in group B). I’m just keeping my fingers crossed for Gerrard to fill BOTH PAIRS of boots Rooney has left.

The penalty - This is the final nail in the coffin. Two games, two missed. Although Crouch will certainly not have Sven’s go-ahead to take the spot kick ever again, England’s 11-yard-kick takers are by far dodgy and history always repeats itself – especially when it comes to the English and the dreaded shoot-out. Beckham has missed in the World Cup, Lampard shaky before reaching Germany and Gerrard has surely missed a few for Liverpool and so has Owen. Sven has also named Cole and Owen Hargreaves as potential takers. I’m skeptical of how composed and impartial Hargreaves will be when taking the kick in a country where he plies his trade.

I guess, to cut a long cross to a short pass – England will go into the World Cup, like they have the past few tournaments, one of the favourites and feeling confident of bringing the Queen the Jules Rimes trophy again. Unfortunately, they’ll return feeling robbed of the title, like they always have, since failing to defend their crown in 1970.

(Roshan Jason is an avid football fan (surprise, surprise!). He’s been kicking a ball ever since he can remember and has improved his game over the years by not only getting in games but also by attentively watching the professionals play. He really wishes he had taken a leave of absence for the upcoming World Cup.)

2006-06-07T10:40:00.000+01:00

Kissinger’s take on the World Cup

Henry A Kissinger is a former US Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize winner and above all a football fan. In the latest Newsweek magazine, he wrote about his passion for the game. Here is an excerpt on his predictions for the World Cup.

“The United States plays in a very tough initial group. To reach the elimination round, it will have to overcome at least one of two powerhouse European teams, Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as a talented team from Ghana. England has the players to reclaim a major role, though the recent injury of its star forward, Wayne Rooney, reduces its prospects.

In qualifying, Argentina won more games than any South American team, including Brazil. But its composure is not always equal to its talent. Italy looked overwhelming when defeating Germany a few months ago, and could advance unless it is held back by a developing scandal regarding refereeing. The German team has been a puzzle. It has an inventive new coach and passionate public support. But in the preliminary games, it had trouble against major opponents.

This may be the year for African teams to emerge; their technical brilliance has so far been thwarted by lack of international experience. In the last World Cup, two Asian teams—Korea and Japan—showed great progress. This World Cup will reveal how much of this is owed to the fact that the Cup was played before admiring home fans.

And there is always Brazil, which will guarantee excitement and exuberant fans.”

2006-06-06T14:03:00.000+01:00

Echoes of 1966?

Here are some facts and figures that seem to suggest why England can emulate their 1966 victory.

In 1966, it was Jimmy Greaves who was unfit to play for England. His replacement Geoff Hurst became more than a capable substitute in the finals. This time around replace Greaves with Rooney and Hurst with Peter Crouch,
In 1966, Brazil came to the tournament as favourites to defend their title, boasting some of the world’s best players. Just swap Pele with Ronaldinho and you will get what I mean,
In 1966, England started their campaign by playing a South American team – Uruguay. This time it is Paraguay, and finally,
In 1966, the Bond-spoof Casino Royale was being filmed – same for 2006.

Are these indicators of what is to come?

2006-06-06T13:13:00.000+01:00

British media go nuts over Rooney’s bicycle kick

The England team landed in Germany (or to be precise in their World Cup HQ at Baden Baden) last night, along with the burden of nation’s aspirations of becoming world champions lying heavy on their shoulders.

And just hours before flying off, there was joyous news from the England training camp when striker Wayne Rooney, who is nursing a broken bone in his foot, was seen kicking the ball without much pain.

In fact the news about Rooney training about has sent the British media into a state of ecstatic delirium. Almost all of them today carried a photograph of Rooney doing a bicycle kick in that training session. The Sun even went as far as running a page one lead with the word ‘There is a God’ in bold, backed with a photograph of Rooney doing the bicycle kick.

Rooney will undergo a scan tomorrow to ascertain when he can start full training again. Once again the British media is speculating that Rooney’s speedy recovery means that he could even start England’s second match against Trinidad and Tobago on June 15.

However until the full prognosis is made and then given sufficient time for him to regain full fitness, the news about Rooney’s early return remains purely a media speculation.

2006-06-05T23:30:00.000+01:00

Top ten goals of the 2002 World Cup

Lets hope we see more of these this year too...

2006-06-05T09:37:00.000+01:00

The players who make it happen

(Guest blogger Sri Shanker Krishnan continues his review of the players on parade at the World Cup. Today he writes about the midfield supremos who may be the stars of the tournament.)

The World Cup has seen many wonderful footballers stamp their class and in my opinion almost all the memorable and stand-out players in the Cup’s history have been midfielders. Perhaps it could be due to the fact that these are the players who hold together a team’s attack and defense.

From Maradona to Zidane, Rivelino to Mattaheus, Zico to Platini and so the list goes. These are the blessed breed who have determined and changed the course of many a classic World Cup match. Who can forget Argentina vs England, 1986 or Brazil vs France, 1986 or Germany vs France, 1982 or England vs Brazil, 1970. I can go on and on, it never tires one to watch or talk about such classic football matches. So, moving from my previous article on the analysis of strikers, here is my assessment on some of the midfield players who, in my opinion, are going to be the stars of this coming Copa Mundial. Here goes :-

Steven Gerrard – Arguably the most complete midfielder in modern football. His energy, stamina, shooting and scoring rate are second to none. A product of the famed Liverpool youth system, he has matured admirably over the years and I expect him to be spearheading England’s assault in the tournament and be their outstanding player. Very versatile, he can play both as an attacking or defending midfielder. The recently concluded FA Cup final is a testimony of this.
Prediction? Will be one of the outstanding stars of the tournament.

Ronaldinho – The FIFA World Player of the year for the second year running and a real joy to watch. One of the few players today I’d pay to watch. Can do amazing things with a ball even during crucial matches, his trickery, passing and free kick ability make him stand-out even in the hugely talented Brazilian team. He was just coming into the team in the last World Cup, so I expect him to go all out this time around. The only flaw (if it can be considered as one) in his game is the defensive aspect or the lack of it. But again with his ability why the need to defend?
Prediction? He has just come off a really hectic season at Barcelona and this may affect him somewhat but I’d still expect him to play a pivotal role for Brazil.

Frank Lampard – Runner-up to Ronaldinho in the FIFA World Player of the Year award for 2005 and an outstanding box to box player. Along with John Terry, forms the backbone of the hugely successful Chelsea team of the last two seasons. Highly energetic and possesses admirable long range shooting ability, he however has not reproduced his club form for his country, England. It is about time for him to show his abilities at the international level.
Prediction? Will not stand out individually but will be part of a formidable midfield for the English.

Kaka – Another wonderfully gifted Brazilian magician. A pure joy to watch, he scores fantastic goals and is the creative inspiration for AC Milan. Since joining the Italian giants he has improved the defensive part of his game and added to his technical ability makes him a player to watch out for in the coming World Cup. He is still young, around 24, and should be heading the next generation of Brazilians together with Robinho.
Prediction? Part of the magic quartet of the selecao and my personal favorite to be the outstanding midfielder of the tournament.

Michael Ballack – Germany’s only world class footballer. Emerged as a true world class talent during the last World Cup in 2002. Since then has matured to become one of the world’s truly outstanding all round midfielders. His scoring record and all action displays make him the most valuable player in the German team. Recently transferred to Chelsea, the whole German nations hopes are placed on his broad shoulders. The German team’s suspect defense looks like going to put a heavy toll on him during the tournament.
Prediction? To perform to expectations, ie, to single-handedly push the German’s title push.

Deco – A gifted Brazilian who is a naturalized Portuguese now. One of the outstanding stars of the highly successful and brilliant Portugal team of the Euro 2004 campaign. Combines brilliantly in midfield with Ronaldinho for Barcelona, he is probably the most instrumental figure for Portugal. His technical ability and industrious nature makes him stand out in a highly talented Portuguese team.
Prediction? To shine brightly and together with Simao Sabrosa, form a deadly partnership for the Portuguese.

Javier Mascherano – One of a group of young, outstanding Argentine players, I expect him to emerge as a truly world class player in this tournament. Has been a huge success for Corinthians in the Brazilian league, a no mean feat for an Argentinian. Has fantastic balance, technical ability and superb passing range. A sure bet to move to Europe after the World Cup.
Prediction? Definite to be one of the major stars of the tournament.

Juan Roman Riquelme – The creative force behind Villareal’s success in La Liga and Champions League, this Argentinian is certainly in his prime now. I first saw him in the World Youth Cup held in Malaysia in 1997 and immediately knew he was destined for further glory. His ability to read and control the midfield is par excellence. A wonderful technician as well. Has had a tough season at Villareal.
Prediction? To shine and stand out for an Argentinian team that will go far in the tournament.

A special word of mention must be made about Francesco Totti, the Roman god and Italy’s supremely talented midfield maestro. I did not put him in the above list simply because I don’t think he has fully recovered from his injury, thus my believe that his impact in this tournament will be minimal. Among my dark horses would be :-

Michael Essien (Ghana); Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany); Joe Cole (England); Franck Ribery (France); Juninho Pernambucano (Brazil).

Let the midfielders rule for us to enjoy the Cup of Life! Here’s to an exciting and riveting tournament.

(Sri Shanker Krishnan is a fan of the beautiful game and fervently supports Brazil.)

2006-06-05T01:00:00.000+01:00

Why is Brazil such a hot favourite?

For almost every World Cup series that I can remember, the overwhelming crowd favourite to lift the trophy has always been Brazil. And the same continues this year too where many so-called football neutrals are once again backing the Samba boys to lift the trophy.

So why are they everyone’s favourite? There is no doubt they play beautiful football. They score excellent goals and they make the game look easy. They have won the World Cup for a record five times and their present squad includes truly world class players who can turn the game in a single pass.

So what are their weaknesses then? The Australians, who will play Brazil on June 18, think they have found it. According to the Socceroos assistant coach Graham Arnold the answer lies in exposing the space left behind by forward-going Brazil’s aging full-backs Cafu and Roberto Carlos. And the other secret weapon is to try to cut the supply from the midfield to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka and Adriano. Surely easier said than done. Lets see how the Australians cope when they actually take the field.

Brazil legend Pele says Ronaldo and Co are skillful players who know how to win hard. He says they are not just good at marauding forward looking for goals but are also strong in defence this time around.

Germany libero Franz Beckenbauer agrees Brazil have the best players and thus the favourites, and “after them, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and England. That’s it”.

Brazil’s style of football has taken over the world so much so that people were queuing up to pay to watch them train in a small village in Switzerland.

A British football journalist visited the team in training and expressed surprise that the training sessions were so laid-back.

He added: “It begun with the discouraging sight of Ronaldo’s paunch as he trotted on to the pitch but ended with Juninho Pernambucano bending breathtaking free kicks over the practice wall and into the net. Juninho is only a substitute, and Ronaldo’s record is such you hesitate to doubt him.”

And both Ronaldo and Juninho scored in their 4-0 friendly win against New Zealand today. The other scorers were Kaka and Adriano.

So would you bet against them in winning the World Cup... again?

2006-06-04T13:16:00.000+01:00

Two is company and three is Crouch

(Guest blogger Raam Shanker was at Old Trafford to watch England effectively dismantling Jamaica. Here he gives us his views on the way the match went.)

A day to remember for everyone associated with English football, for more than one reason. It was Sven Goran Eriksson’s last home game as manager of the national team, it was England’s last friendly before they depart to Germany for the big one and most importantly a hattrick for the Robo-Kop saw England pulverize a hapless Jamaica 6-0. To cut a long story short, a sun kissed Saturday afternoon and twenty-five pounds well spent.

Now the long story. First things first. Sven choosing the 4-4-2, a favorite of almost every manager. This is how it looked like. Jamie Carragher taking Gary Neville’s place. Terry and Ferdinand manning the central defence and Ashley Cole at the left. Midfield saw from left to right, Joe Cole, Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham lining up one next to another. Up front, surprise, surprise as the lanky Peter Crouch gets to start alongside Michael Owen.

Playing an opposition like Jamaica, goalmouth action was waiting to happen and it did, with Lampard smoothly finishing as early as the 11th minute. A booking for his tackle on Lampard and an own goal off Beckham’s free-kick in the 17th minute saw the culmination of a disastrous 10 minutes for Jamaican defender Jermaine Taylor.

Having gone 2-0 up, one would have expected England to relax and enjoy the sunshine, but no. They kept the pressure on and if this is what can be expected of them in Germany, their opponents better watch out. Ricketts denies further advances by England, but for how long, is the question. Answer? Not for long as Robo-Crouch nets his first of the day from a Beckham corner. Jamaica have not yet recovered and oops! There blips Michael Owen on their radar, going round the goalkeeper and slotting the ball into, obviously an empty net! 32 minutes into the game and the score sheets read 4-0 in favour of England. I almost lost my voice and went deaf sitting at the North Stand doing the occasional Mexican wave. Something told me there was more to come. And it did!

A slight concern for Sven as Terry and Ashley Cole have to be replaced by Sol Campbell and Wayne Bridge respectively. Nothing major, just a preventive measure. Jamaica did have their share of chances with Jason Euell being denied by Robinson as early as the 22nd minute and Shelton miscuing the ball on a couple of occasions. End of first half and England lead by 4 goals to nil.

Time for some match day statistics and thanks giving for Sven on his last home game. We learnt that there were around 70,259 of us at Old Trafford today and it was pretty loud!

David James came on for Paul Robinson and a couple of minutes into the second half, Jamaica made changes, not that it would help their cause but hey if England were doing it, why not them. Lampard is again the victim of a tackle gone wrong and it results in the second yellow card of the day, this time to Crawford. I must mention Jamie Carragher who was on a rampage during the game and did make his presence felt on quite a few occasions. Joe Cole wants a slice of action but targets the jubilant crowd. Oh and within a minute of this, Carragher is back, and denies Jamaica, making the day easy for the keepers.

Minute 63, Joe Cole and Peter Crouch cook up a chance but it is dealt with and a goal kick is the result. But you can’t keep a tall man down for long can you? Well his name is Crouch and that’s where it ends. He stands up and walks tall, for he has his reasons. Minute 65 and Crouchy poaches one from point blank range making it 5 for England. Time to do the crouch as Old Trafford goes berserk, but the game is far from over.

A minute later Carrick replaces Beckham and Lennon, on his senior debut, comes in for Lampard. Nothing much to talk about in the next 10 minutes. Now we have an England substitution sandwiched between two Jamaican substitutions. Bennet for Fuller, Downing for Gerrard and Stephenson for Euell. Action again as Owen is fouled in the area and, penalty! And more noise from the crowd.

Up steps Robo-Kop as he is favouritely called. Can Crouch complete his hat-trick? Silence echoes throughout Old Trafford as we all hold our breath. Then, Crouch chips the ball and it goes on and on and on till it finally lands in the crowd. So much for the silence and he is an instant villain in the very eyes of the people who drooled over his goals a few minutes ago. Such is the game and such is life. Things happen and one has to move on in both.

Move on he does, and he does it in style as he completes his hat-trick a minute before stoppage time by splendidly finishing Owen’s layoff. He has redeemed himself and is hero again! After an eventless 3 minutes of stoppage time the score at the final whistle reads England 6 – Jamaica 0.

The day was almost flawless, but a few questions need to be answered. The 4-4-2 worked like a dream. But where does Gary Neville go? True he was resting his hamstring but today Carragher insisted, time and again that Sven needs to give him more attention. Should Peter Crouch take spot kicks? I am sure Sven has already answered this, but it still remains a lingering one. The big ones: Where does Rooney go? With Crouch proving himself and Rooney himself recovering from injury, is the gamble of playing Rooney worth the stakes? Can England’s performance be measured using the warm up games against Uruguay, Hungary and Jamaica as yardsticks? If they can, how reliable will our analyses turn out to be? Questions, questions and more questions. But the answers are out there. Time will tell and so will we, once time tells us. So keep watching this space for more.

(Raam Shanker is a diehard fan of football and Formula One. He strongly thinks this is England’s year to lift the trophy.)

2006-06-04T12:58:00.000+01:00

Round-up of other friendlies

With less than a week to go before the start of the World Cup, teams are finalising their tactics, game plans and team selections by playing their final friendly matches. After this, any tinkering with the system will need to be done and perfected at the training grounds.

Most teams played or will be playing against opponents who play similar football to the other teams in the groups. Thus the game by England against Uruguay and Jamaica (so that they can gauge how Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago will play), and so too is the reason for Brazil to play New Zealand today- they will have one eye to size up the style of football played by Australia who they will meet on June 18.

Other friendlies for today will see the Dutch playing the Australians, Japan playing Malta and Korea playing Ghana.

Yesterday, we saw some exciting friendlies. The biggest win was for England who thrashed Jamaica 6-0. Other results include Switzerland beating China 4-1, Spain defeating Egypt 2-0, Portugal winning 3-0 over Luxembourg, Poland beating Croatia 1-0 and Czech Republic easily seeing off Trinidad and Tobago 3-0.

Czech Republic’s Jan Koller (pix), Switzerland’s Alexander Frei and England’s Peter Crouch all had dynamite in their boots for these friendlies for their respective teams.

Read a complete report on these friendlies here.