I have been in coaching education program for the last 2 days so I could not write anything about the World Cup but I still managed to follow the games. The first shocking result occured in Spain-Switzerland game. Switzerland made a remarkable team defense and they started the campaign with 3 points. Spain played quite well through the game but they were unlucky in finding the net. In the other game of the group, Chile made a great start with their positive football and 1-0 victory over Honduras. In the last game of day 6, Uruguay demolished South Africa with the fascinating performance of Diego Forlan who scored an amazing opening goal in the game.
A day later, the second surprise of the tournament showed up. Mexico beat the latest World Cup runner-up France by 2 goals. However, the result was not that much surprising for many because of an untalented man: Raymond Domenech. He has many skillful players such as Malouda, Ribery and Gourcuff but he cannot construct any harmony on the pitch. He is absolutely the man on target in his country nowadays.
In the second games of Group B, Argentina had an embarressing win over South Korea with the hat-trick of Gonzalo Higuain. It is clearly seen that Maradona is loading enormous level of motivation to his team from the sideline. It will never be a surprise for him to raise the World Cup in his hands on the 11th of July. In the other game of the group, Greece bet Nigeria with the simple mistake of the successful goalkeeper Enyeama who was selected as the man of the match despite his mistake. Nigeria still has the chance to qualify for the second round despite having no points up to now.
On the 8th day, there was only one game from Group D in which Germany was expected to lead dominancy after the first game against Australia but they were defeated by Serbia by the touch of Jovanovic, the new Liverpool player, within the six-yard box. Miroslav Klose was sent off in the first half but Germany still intended to play in an offensive style. They had the chance to equalize with a penalty but Lukas Podolski had been denied by the goalie in the 59th minute. After that moment, Serbia had some positions denied by the posts and they managed to get 3 points at the end of 90 minutes.
In Group C, Capello’s England still have lack of organization and efficiency on the pitch. Algeria applied a great strategy over them and in some moments of the game they came close to have a goal. For Capello, the scene is very dark and it seems that it cannot be lightened up by some inutile players such as Heskey, Carragher and Lennon. The game between Slovenia and the USA was probably the most contested game of the campaign up to now. Slovenia was 2-0 ahead in the first half but the USA did not give up and made a fantastic comeback. They also scored a third goal but it was contraversially cancelled by the referee. I hope we will be continuing to watch games like this one in the following days. At least, it will help us to call our attentions for the game more than the damn vuvuzela.
