Crucial Conspiracy against American?

If you’re an American, the World Cup in South Africa might leave you feeling a little bitter today. The Americans were robbed by a disallowed goal called by the referee in a crucial match against Slovenia, the group leader. The game ended 2-2 and the Americans earned their one point, but they should have had 3 points making them the leaders of the group and surely a spot to the next round.

Why? Who? What? Where?
After going down 2-0 and fighting back to make the score 2-2 in the late stages of the game, USA scored their 3rd goal from a Landon Donovan free kick that was crossed into the goal crease and poked in by Maurice Edu. However, referee Koman Couiibaly of Mali disallowed the goal.

Landon Donovan
"I'm a little gutted to be honest," Landon said. "I don't know how they stole that last goal from us. I'm not sure what the call was. He (the referee) wouldn't tell us what the call was."

Crucial Conspiracy
After the game ended in the 2-2 tie, there is some speculation of a conspiracy. After questioning of why the goal was disallowed, answers were given that there was a foul away from the play just before the goal. However, upon review there was nothing picked up by the video cameras, and there are a lot of video cameras. Could it be that the referee just didn’t want the Americans to win the game?

American Hopes
The tie will make it very difficult for USA to advance to the next round of the World Cup. Slovenia still leads the group with 4 points and England is the other group contender who will probably gain full points and advance. The USA can still advance but they are going to need some help and a lot of goals in their last game against Algeria.

The Murder of vuvuzela horn

It was the first time you heard complete silence at the World Cup. The vuvuzela horn, which had previously been a non-stopping sound of South Africa, had stopped. And you could have guessed someone had been murdered on the soccer field to stun the fans… and quite frankly it was murder… murder of the Bafana Bafana.

The Shameful Soccer Scene
South Africa, known as team Bafana Bafana, fell victim to one of the most disgusting plays in soccer… a dive by a Uruguayan player inside the penalty area. Inside the 18-yard-box, the goaltender for South Africa Itumeleng Khune reaches with his leg to stop Luis Suarez who trips over Itumeleng’s toe. But if you watch this play in slow-motion replay, it’s easy to see that Luis had made up his mind before even being touched that he was going to fall down and pretend to be hurt.

The dive allowed referee to call a penalty shot, and much worse, a red card for Itumeleng because of Luis’ position of being right in front of a wide open net… and a sure goal. The penalty shot was taken by Diego Forlan who made no mistake. The goal silenced the home crowd who looked stunned in the cold South African winter. But it couldn’t be a more bitter situation as their team was now down a player and behind by two goals.

Supporting the Sneakiness
What is even more disgusting is that everyone, broadcasters, critics, players, are all saying that even though it is obvious that Luis dove and acted hurt to persuade the referee to make the call… it was a penalty. No one is talking about giving Luis a penalty for the dive.
Contagious Diving Disease
And if you thought it couldn’t get worse… it did. South Africa, down to 10 players with 10 minutes left in the game, had a chance to score. Bafana Bafana player Siboniso Gaxa had the ball inside the Uruguayan box, and made an obvious dive to draw a penalty shot. Diving is contagious. If Uruaguay profits from a dive, then South Africa abandons their honest game plan to join in on the dishonesty.

Cheaters Never Prosper???
Uruguay ended up winning the game 3-0. They were the better team with more skill and talent, but the dive by Luis demonstrated that even the most skilled teams cheat to win. This type of cheating is nothing new in soccer. How will it ever stop? Is it possible? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below?

Nigeria’s World Cup dream foggy

SUPER Eagles wasted a good opportunity to be in reckoning for the next round of 16 at the ongoing World Cup in South Africa on Thursday, when the team threw away its one goal lead against Greece in their second match at the Free State Stadium in Mangaung/Bloemfontein.

Nigeria led through Kalu Uche's free-kick and were in complete control when Kaita was sent off in the 33rd minute for kicking out at Vasilios Torosidis after the ball had gone out of play.His inexplicable behaviour allowed Greece back into the game and they levelled a minute before half-time when Dimitris Salpingidis' shot from the edge of the area hit Lukman Haruna and looped beyond the goalkeeper and into the net.Greece secured the points in the 71st minute when the otherwise excellent Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama spilled Alexandros Tziolis' shot and Torosidis turned home the loose ball.

Despite their victory, Greece may still have to avoid defeat against Argentina in their final Group B match to progress, while Nigeria know that only a victory against South Korea will keep alive their slim hopes of qualification.After Argentina's earlier win over South Korea both teams knew how costly a defeat here would be, but they adopted very different attitudes in the early minutes.

Nigeria started strongly and deservedly opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Uche floated a free-kick into the area, where Peter Odemwingie failed to make contact with it.But his attempted header was enough to deceive Greece goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas, who appeared to dive out of the way as he watched the ball drop into the net at the far post.

Greece offered little attacking threat in the opening stages, but were handed an unexpected advantage when Kaita was sent off - and they responded by pushing forward.Enyeama was soon called into action to make a brave save at the feet of Salpingidis, before Haruna hacked a Georgios Samaras shot off the line.Greece finally levelled the scores in the 44th minute through Salpingidis, but Nigeria were better organised defensively after half-time and even looked to push forward and clinch a win.

In one 30-second phase of play Theofanis Gekas was denied by Enyeama's fine sprawling save, before Nigeria broke upfield and Yakubu raced through on goal, only to see his shot blocked by Tzorvas.The rebound fell to Nigerian substitute Chinedu Obasi but, with the goal gaping, he somehow managed to miss the target.Enyeama made another superb save to deny Samaras, before his error presented Greece with the decisive goal and leave the Africans on the brink of elimination after a second defeat in the competition.

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CREDIT

Source:The Nation(Vintage Press Limited, Nigeria)

**Nigeria keeper Enyeama voted Man of Match

Picture: Nigeria's goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama (right) crying after the Super Eagles lost 1-2 to Greece during the Group B first round 2010 World Cup football match in South Africa

Brazil narrowly beat North Korea...

The group of death was in action during Day 5 of the World Cup in South Africa. The games were all pretty close. Brazil narrowly beat North Korea, and there were no goals in the tie between Portugal and the Ivory Coast. The other game involved New Zealand and Slovakia, who really had an exciting match… let’s look at the details:

Brazil 2 / North Korea 1
Brazil is the best soccer country in the World and North Korea sure gave them a run for their money. Everyone was expecting a blowout of Brazilian offense, but the game endly closely with a final score of 2-1 for Brazil. .
Maicon scored the first Brazilian goal from a tight angle to give the five-time World Cup Champs the lead in the 55th minute, and Elano added another goal with a one-touch shot from inside the box after a perfect pass from Robinho in the 72nd. North Korea surprised everyone scoring a goal in the last minute of regulation time, but they had no chances to tie as the game ended quickly after the goal.

Ivory Coast / 0 Portugal 0
The big story of this game was the entry of Didier Drogba and his injured arm. Didier is one of the greatest soccer players in the World, and the Ivory Coast really need his help playing in a group with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. You would think that Didier and Cristiano would get the offense going but this match was played very cautiously and neither team was able to score at all.
Cristiano was the closest to score. He actually made a great strike that hit the post from 30 yards. Didier only came into the game during the 66th minute, so he really didn’t get much time to work his magic. With this game ending scoreless, Brazil takes the early one goal lead in the group of death.

New Zealand / 1 Slovakia 1
With no one really expecting much from Slovakia and New Zealand, the two low-ranked countries put forth an entertaining game anyways. Slovakia scored the opener quite early and in the dying seconds of the game, Winston Reid helped New Zealand survive by deflecting in the tying goal keeping New Zealand’s hope of advancing to the next round still alive. Winston was so happy to score, that he stripped off his shirt and danced in celebration. I guess no one told Winston that taking off your clothes isn’t allowed and he received a yellow card. One more yellow at his next game could turn red... keep your clothes on Winston!

The World Cup closes up the first round on Day 6. Who do you think is the best team so far? Let us know in the comments…

Almost all the countries have now played their first game of the World Cup

Almost all the countries have now played their first game of the World Cup in South Africa. There hasn’t really been much offense and the games and the goals are few and far in between. Games have been really defensive, most of them only tallying 1-2 goals and sometimes none. Day 4 of the World Cup demonstrated this trend of lack of goals… let’s take a look at what happened.

Italy 1 Paraguay 1
The 2006 World Cup Champions from Italy played Paraguay in a key match of the top two teams from group F. Many critics are saying that this is the easiest group of the tournament, which means that no one is really being considered to having a chance to win the World Cup.

Italy Ties It Up
The game was boring. Even though there were two goals, the game had very few scoring chances and shots on goal. The teams were both very defensive and that is not exciting at all. The game was also frustrating to watch as the players were really into diving and acting injured… not fun!

Japan 1 Cameroon 0
Honda Hero
This game only had one goal but was much more exciting than the Italian game. The Japanese were big underdogs against a bigger, stronger Cameroon and Japan pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament winning 1-0. It took a while for Cameroon to get going, but after Keisuke Honda’s goal for Japan, the desperation to tie the game made the game much more fun to watch. They didn’t tie the game but there were some great final moments of action.

Netherlands 2 Denmark 0
Eljero Elia
The Netherlands played a really young kid by the name of Eljero Elia who was one of the fastest players of the tournament. His speed and great play was very exciting to watch as he helped set up both of the Netherlands’ 2 goals. Eljero is only 23 years old, he’s small and only weighs a buck fifty, but boy was his speed a factor. He was constantly beating Denmark defenders up the wing and don’t be surprised if he is huge factor leading the Netherlands to their first World Cup.
Get ready for the group of death. The next games include Brazil, Portugal, the Ivory Coast and North Korea. They call this group of countries the group of death because the teams are so good. Who do you think will advance? Let us know in the comments below…

Germany puts forth the first big bunch of goals in South Africa

Someone has finally stepped forward at the World Cup and said “We are the Leaders” as Germany puts forth the first big bunch of goals in South Africa. Germany scored 4 of them against Australia, who aren’t that bad of a team, but totally in a different class of soccer this day.

Here’s all the details of all three games on day 3 of the World Cup round robin play.

Germany 4 /Australia 0
Podolski Power
It was a total explosive start for the Germans as they showed potent power and relentless determination with an offensive onslaught of the down-underachieving Australians. It started with a huge boot from Lukas Podolski off a cross that blasted so hard through the goalie that it speared the netting without any loss of velocity. Then Miroslav Klose caught the ball with one of his famous headers that reached higher than the Australian goalkeeper could reach with his own hands. At 2-0 the Germans added two more goals late in the game to seal the victory and statement that they are the team to beat this World Cup.

Ghana 1 /Serbia 0
Ghana Greatness
A well-deserved victory for Ghana but it couldn’t have been more of a lucky goal that actually determined the win. What happened was quite strange. A ball launched across the 18- yard-box, but away from any danger, was touched by the hand of a sprawling Serbian defender.
Zero Chance Zdravko
His name is Zdravko Kuzmanovic and the poor guy is going to be remembered as making one of the “stupidest” plays ever at a World Cup. People are saying it was stupid because there was absolutely no reason for him to touch the ball with his hand, and it cost his team the game as Ghana scored on the penalty-shot awarded in the final minutes of the game.

Slovenia 1 /Algeria 0
Whoopsie-Daisie
Another “Whoopie Daisie” goal, similar to the goal scored by the Americans just the day before, slipped by the Algerian goalkeeper to give Slovenia the 1-0 win. Algeria goalie Faouzi Chaouchi will be remembered to let an easy shot from 25 yards slip right through his arms. The goalkeepers of the World Cup might have to practice getting used to the South African stadiums’ turf, because there is a lot of talk about how the players are not used to the way the ball is bouncing.
Did you enjoy the German offensive demonstration of goal-scoring? Tell us who scored your favorite goal at the World Cup in the comments below.

DAY 2 DAY 2 DAY 2

SOUTH KOREA 2 / GREECE 0
South Korea showed that they should be higher in the rankings as they dominated the favorite Greece 2-0. It wasn’t just the scoreboard that showed the domination, but the South Koreans were all over the Greeks constantly controlling the ball. The first goal they scored came off of a corner kick which was missed by several Greek players before falling right onto the boot of Lee Jung-Soo, who made no mistake burying the first goal only 7 minutes into the game.

Park's Pleasure
The problem with Greek soccer is that they play too much defense. They showed very little aggression to send players forward. In the 52nd minute Korean Park Ji-Sung, from Manchester United, stole a poor misplaced ball by the Greek defender. He immediately had a breakaway and managed to just chip it in over the goaltender. It was a beautiful goal and the South Koreans are looking good… so good maybe they could be the first Asian team to win the World Cup.

ARGENTINA 1 / NIGERIA 0
This game could have easily been 5-0 as Argentina had so many more opportunities to score. If it wasn’t the Nigerian goaltender Vincent Enyeama, the Nigerian team could have been easily embarrassed by the onslaught of scoring opportunities. Lionel Messi should have scored three goals but each shot that was headed into the net were just deflected wide by Vincent’s fingertips.
Heize Header
Argentina was able to score their first goal early during the 6th minute by Gabriel Heinze and they never showed any struggle to keep Nigeria under control. It seemed like a game where Argentina just slowly passed the ball from defender to defender over and over again without any pressure because Nigeria had to worry about the dangerous Argentinean strikers.



USA 1 / ENGLAND 1
It was the most anticipated game of the World Cup preliminary games, but it fell short of a good finish. England’s captain Steven Gerrard scored what seemed to be such an easy goal for England as it came so early in just the 4th minute. It was a beautiful play and Steven was able to easily get into a position to slide the ball into a wide-open corner.

Whoopsie Daisie
Clint Dempsey of the US team managed to even the score with a few tricks up his sleeve. Not only did he make a couple of sharp turns by himself to lose the defender, but also he slowly kicked the ball straight at the English goalkeeper from outside the 18-yard-box. Well it tricked everyone because the ball slipped right through the goalie’s fingers on a slow bounce. England should have won this game, but could have lost it just as well.

DAY 1

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa kicked things off early Friday morning with the host country known as Bafana Bafana taking on Mexico in group A. Also those French cheaters, who got into World Cup unfairly by beating Ireland with a handball goal, faced off against Uruguay. Both games ended in ties, so no team has made any progress, but the energy of the players and fans has taken off.

Siphiwe’s Sweet Strike
It took just a bit more than 55 minutes, but South Africa’s Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the first goal ever in a World Cup match on African soil… and boy it was a beauty. It was a left-footed power-strike to the top corner, and what a great way to get the stadium of 85,000 South African fans to make some noise.

Les Bleues’ Blues
The other game between France and Uruguay didn’t have any goals. The French, known as “Les Bleues”, complained that there was a handball inside the penalty area, which could have easily given them a penalty kick. But the referee did not call it. It looks as though Les Bleues’ Karma is catching up with them after they were allowed the infamous goal against Ireland after Thierry Henry used his hand to get France the one goal they needed to get into the World Cup.

The Vuvuzela
If you haven’t heard a VUVUZELA yet, you probably will by the end of this South African World Cup. Actually, the moment you watch one bit of the World Cup you will hear the vuvuzela, because the fans don’t ever stop blowing them. Many people are complaining about the sound of the vuvuzela because it has no rhythm, just one long annoying loud pitch. But it’s very unique and quite fun, and the vuvuzela did not stop for one moment during the games today.

American Anticipation
The most anticipated game for American fans will be played tomorrow with USA playing England. Who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments below!