World Cup Day 2- 12/06/10

Poor, poor Rob Green. You have to feel for the guy. The debate had gone on for so long about who should start in goal for England's opening world cup game, Green (rightfully in my opinion) eventually got the nod. It was all going so well, with England successfully closing down the USA players and forcing them to resort to shots from distance. However, for one such shot from Clint Dempsey, Green failed to behind the ball, and could only palm the shot into the net.

Green can't be totally to blame for England's poor 1-1 draw with their transatlantic friends. After making a bright start, with Steven Gerrard slotting home inside 4 minutes, England played poorley. The reason for Emile Heskey's inclusion in the squad continues to elude me, particularly with Darren Bent scoring over 20 goals last season with worse players around him, in comparison to Heskey's 3. Save for a touch into the path of Steven Gerrard to set up the opening goal, Heskey did nothing. The main reason for his inclusion was due to his power and aerial ability, but even that deserted him today. He got beaten far too often in the air, gave away numerous free kicks trying to win the ball back, got caught offside a lot and missed 2 sitters. The bright side for Heskey is that he was hardly any worse than much of his England team-mates today. Rooney was completely ineffective in attack, with the exception of a long range shot which almost found its way into the top corner. Lampard likewise, his only meaningful contribution being to sting the palms of Tim Howard with a long range effort. Milner did nothing apart from get himself booked for two rash challenges, and was substituted after half an hour. The two wingers who finished the game, Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Phillips, were also fairly inconspicuous, with Lennon once again lacking a final ball and Wright-Phillips providing a couple of relatively decent crosses, but never really troubling the USA defence. Capello will need to re-adjust his front line if he wants England to do well in the tournament, and the team will really have to step it up for their remaining group games against Algeria and Slovenia.



Earlier in the day, South Korea defeted Greece 2-0. Once again in the World Cup, some shoddy defending was on show, as Lee Jung-Soo was allowed to run unchallenged to the back post and fire home Ki Sung-Yueng's excellent free-kick. More defensive errors allowed Park Ji-Sung to double Korea's lead on 52 minutes, as Loukas Vyntra's poor touch allowed the Man UTD midfielder in to score goal 2. I had expected Greece to improve on their dismal performance at their last World Cup finals, but on the basis of today's performance I wouldn't bet against them once again leaving with no points, and no goals.



Else where in group B, group favourites Argentina defeated Nigeria 1-0 in a result which was kind to the second African nation to play in the tournament. Yet more poor defending was in evidence here, with no-one picking up Gabriel Heinze's run onto a Juan Sebastian Veron corner on 6 minutes. Argentina had many chances throughout the game, and more often than not it was Lionel Messi who was at the heart of it. Even when he wasn't gliding past players with ease, he was contributing by opening up space for his team-mates, with Nigeria requiring at least 3 men to mark him. This meant there was more space for Tevez and Higuain to exploit and run in at goal. As long as Messi plays well and the finishing ablility shown by Tevez and Higuain for their respective clubs doesn't desert them, Argentina could go very far in this competition.



My Predictions for World Cup Day 3- 13/06/10

Algeria 1-0 Slovenia
Two of the smaller teams at this years World Cup, shouldn't make for an overly interesting game. Slovenia are known for their poor performances in international tournaments though, and Algeria's decent performance at the Africa Cup of Nations means they should just about edge this one.

Serbia 2-3 Ghana
This should be an entertaining and well-matched game. Serbia have a strong sqaud this year and a good defence, helped in no small part by the defensive martialling of Man UTDs Nemanja Vidic. Ghana will be without their talisman Michael Essien, which could cost them overall in the tournament, but I still think that the likes of Muntari and Appiah will help the Ghaneans to just about take all three points in this one.

Germany 2-0 Australia
The Socceroos have a decent squad and should prove to be no pushovers to anyone at this years tournament. If the defence plays well, then the Aussies are in with a chance of beating anyone at the tournament. However, I feel that they are too weak in attack. Tim Cahill is an injury doubt and Harry Kewell is far past his best, so I don't feel that they are overly likely to take anything from a Germany team which is still one of the best in the world.