Spain 4 – 0 Ukraine
Tunisia 2 – 2 Saudi Arabia
Germany 1 – 0 Poland
At last! It’s taken us until the start of the second set of group games, but we’ve now seen a proper full-blooded European grudge match. Neither team really deserved to lose, and had Poland’s Radoslaw Sobolewski not been sent off, I think it would have been a draw. Germany’s defence still looked very dodgy (apart from the sterling work of Per Mertesacker) and certainly benefitted from Poland’s lack of attacking creativity. The Germany/Ecuador game could be interesting.
Of the other two matches, I had high hopes for Ukraine. They’ve promised so much in the past (not least when their national squad was effectively that brilliant young Dynamo Kiev team plus a few extras) but never quite made it out of the qualification stage. This is their big chance to show what their players can do, right? Well, on the evidence of that match, no. The mighty Shevchenko hardly touched the ball and was effectively removed from the game by some faultless Spanish defending. On the other hand, Spain were simply mesmerising, with every player combining perfectly to create moves which pinballed from side to side, end to end. Vashchuk’s dismissal (and the subsequent penalty resulting in Spain’s third goal) was unfortunate, and plenty of referees wouldn’t have given anything, but action replays clearly showed him grabbing Torres’ shorts.
Oh yeah, and Tunisia played Saudi Arabia in a dreary, apathetic encounter, distinguished only by a fairly exciting final ten minutes. Tunisia have a reputation for being schizophrenic in big tournaments… we saw Mighty Tunisia win the African Cup of Nations earlier this year, but it was Moribund Tunisia who turned up yesterday. Saudi Arabia looked sharp and skilful, but their lightweight style of play never does them any favours. As Jim Beglin said on the ITV commentary, their football scene is so isolated… all of the players are based at home clubs, they play their international qualifiers (and, presumably, their Champions’ League equivalent) against weak Asian clubs and they rarely play European teams in friendlies, so they never get the chance to toughen up against world-class opposition. Still, when you get a Rolls Royce each just for turning up, what’s the problem?
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There are some great comedy names in this year’s World Cup. Here’s a comprehensive guide to the sort of sophisticated comedy you can enjoy as your brain starts to react to a steady diet of TV and beer.
Bastian Schweinsteiger – Germany’s Mr Pig-Climber.
Otto Pfister – The Togo coach with the Clapham Common surname. As James Richardson (never one to leave a pun unpunned) pointed out on the Guardian’s World Cup podcast, the name is quite appropriate given the upheavals in the Togo camp… first he was in, then he was out, then he was back in again…
Leo Beenhacker – The Trinidad & Tobago coach, who probably gets turned down for lots of jobs in garden centres.
Er… that’s it.