retired_hern1001

The Dutch

The rest of the squad rather picked itself. The goalkeeping department was rather inexperienced, after Maarten Stekelenburg retired to become a coach aged just 27, but that wasn’t to be helped. The defence was pretty solid, led by Khalid “the Butcher” Boulahrouz. The midfield was especially good going forward, with players like Van Der Vaart and Sneijder, while Robben and Van Persie would provide plenty of danger on the wings. Up front it would be down to the likes of the ageing Ruud van Nistelrooij, Dirk Kuyt and the younger guns like Ryan Babel and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

retired_manragh

The team was picked for the greatest event in the World and the English were prepared to mount a mighty challenge, or try and get out of the group stage anyway!

Heres the team
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pkd | Inf | Name | Club | Caps | Goals | U21 | U21 Gls | Value | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Scott Carson | Liverpool | 27 | - | 28 | - | £5.25M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | GK | | Robert Green | West Ham | 5 | - | - | - | £3.4M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DR | Wnt | Micah Richards | Man City | 17 | 1 | 10 | - | £6.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Joleon Lescott | Porto | 1 | - | 2 | - | £5.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DL | Wnt | Gareth Barry | Aston Villa | 18 | - | 27 | 2 | £3.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Anton Ferdinand | West Ham | 7 | - | 16 | - | £6M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DC | Wnt | Rio Ferdinand | Man Utd | 91 | 1 | 5 | - | £8.25M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DC | | John Terry | Chelsea | 70 | 2 | 9 | 1 | £15.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Leighton Baines | Newcastle | 11 | - | 7 | - | £5.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Ryan Taylor | Rangers | - | - | 4 | - | £2.4M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MC | | Owen Hargreaves | Man Utd | 56 | 1 | - | - | £12.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Michael Carrick | Man Utd | 42 | 2 | 14 | 2 | £15.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MR | | Joe Cole | Chelsea | 59 | 9 | 8 | 2 | £19.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MC | | Steven Gerrard | Liverpool | 93 | 23 | 4 | 1 | £23.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Theo Walcott | Aston Villa | 1 | - | 14 | 5 | £11.25M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Ashley Young | Aston Villa | 6 | - | 2 | 1 | £7.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | ML | | Stewart Downing | Arsenal | 46 | 3 | 8 | - | £15.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Frank Lampard | Chelsea | 80 | 12 | 19 | 8 | £18M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | FC | Wnt | Wayne Rooney | Man Utd | 63 | 26 | 1 | - | £33M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Dean Ashton | West Ham | 16 | 12 | 9 | 2 | £15.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | FC | | Peter Crouch | Liverpool | 29 | 18 | 5 | 1 | £9.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Jermain Defoe | Reading | 40 | 13 | 29 | 7 | £12.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Michael Owen | Newcastle | 114 | 60 | - | - | £14.25M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

Cole missed out through injury so we brought in a proper right back Ryan Taylor from Rangers would earn his first ever cup for country, well maybe

retired_asteph4206

group b
matchday 1


france of to nervous start as aussies dump denmark

1 france v ivory coast 1
(gallas) 1 (keita) 1


1 australia v denmark 0
(kennedy) 1

shannon2007

Argentina v Croatia
Group C - Match 1
June 13th

Argentina - who entered the tournament without the worlds best player, Messi, who misses the tournament through injury - still have more then enough to destroy a Croatia side who it seemed had forgotten how to defend. Coloccini started the rout from an acute angle on 3 minutes, and in the second half Rodrigo Palacio hit two, Zivkovic put the ball in his own net and Milito completed a satisfying opening match.

If only they're all going to be like this .....

retired_w0lfpack1

In the other Group C match, the U.S.A. enjoyed a comfortable 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia, scoring on an own-goal and a 74th-minute goal by Santino Quaranta.

Colombia took the early lead in Group D, scoring a 1-0 win over Mexico as Aaron Galindo was forced into an own goal in the 63rd minute. Luis Perea picked up a ninetieth-minute red card, which would force the defender to miss the next match.

Germany were hammered by injury as hosts South Africa came out in a hard-tackling approach that saw Torsten Frings and Michael Rensing off injured by the half-hour. When George Mokofeng scored early in the second half, it looked like an upset was on, but Lukas Podolski salvaged a 1-1 draw with his headed goal in the 66th minute.

In Group E, Nigeria enjoyed an upset over the ten-man Czech Republic; Yakubu had scored early, but it took Edu's ninetieth-minute winner to give the Nigerians a 2-1 edge after Zdenek Grygera was sent off.

Israel, despite the distressing retirement of their 29-year-old manager just days before the World Cup began, were able to celebrate a 2-1 win over Costa Rica thanks to Guy Asulin and Yossi Benayoun.

retired_w0lfpack1

"Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

"My sin is that of taking the Lord's name in vain, and other foul language.

"But those cheating Swiss b******s!! Excuse my language, father. They were hacking at my players all afternoon!!

"I mean, I'd been sort of nervous to start, which might explain my prayers for victory in the early stages; I know God doesn't care about the outcome of a football match, but still. We were widely expected to win the opener; with the fans expecting a comfortable victory, and the players confident, nothing less than success would do.

"Anyways, when Doucourt fluffed it out of his box, and Almeida was able to convert, I offered a prayer of thanks, and settled down a bit.

"In the second half, well it was one-way traffic. They'd already hacked Vaz Te down at midfield, when Ferreira's long ball gave Almeida his second. Could it be any conincidence that they then chopped Almeida down? It was clear vengeance for what he'd done to them.

"Then Nunez made it 3-0 in the 88th minute - I think that was after Gomes had hit the post, and forced a fabulous save from Doucourt with his header...

"But it was when Maksimovic aimed a kick at Ferreira that I lost it entirely! Those cheaters!! I'm afraid that's when I gave the worst of the language..

"And again when I saw the injury report after: Almeida out for one week with bruised ribs, and Vaz Te out for two with a damaged foot."

"This would normally be a major sin, but son, I saw the match, and you were fully justified. The referee should have gone to his cards much earlier. Say a hundred Rosaries... and make sure you win!"

Portugal 3, Switzerland 0
Almeida 20, 53, Nunez 88; ----
MoM: Pepe (Portugal DC)

Angola 3, Iran 2
Mantorrs 11, o.g. 64, o.g. 81; Borhani 28, Kazemian 43

retired_bbcarr

Japan vs. Spain
Group G – Matchday 1
15th June 2010, Ellis Park (Johannesburg)

Six minutes gone, 1-0 up, Fernando Torrrrrrrrrrrrrrrres with the goal. This **** is easy. Well, maybe not. The dastardly Japs put up a hell of a fight, Pepe Reina (in for the suspended Iker Casillas) had to pull off a fine save as the game neared half time and Pablo put his ‘keeper in trouble again when he tried to show off in his own penalty area.

Bojan Krkic replaced the largely ineffectual Torres after the break (and the entirely useless Xabi Alonso gave way to Xavi) but we still couldn’t break down the land of the rising sun again. We managed to hang on for the win, one we really needed to get out of the group, but performances shall have to improve if we’re to get anywhere near the latter stages.

--

Later That Evening

Bulgaria 2 – 2 Chile. Couldn’t care less who scored, just delighted that they took points off each other, leaving us top of the group. Win next time out and we’ll be through.

retired_manragh

Paraguay 1 defeated England 0 (not a even a decent highlight)

retired_hern1001

Netherlands vs South Korea, World Cup Group H, 16-06-2010, Pretoria

The Koreans were hardly rubbish, as they had shown in the 2002 World Cup, when they claimed an admirable Semi-Final spot, although they had some Dutch help in that of course, in Managerial Legend Guus Hiddink. Of course, he had long since buggered off into retirement, so the Koreans were left with some local to lead them out.

The Dutch sent out the following eleven to do battle with the Koreans. Tim Krul; John Heitinga ©, Joris Mathijsen, Khalid Boulahrouz, Hedwiges Maduro; Robin Van Persie, Arjan Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart; Ruud van Nistelrooij and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar;

It was a shaky start to the Dutch title defence, with the Koreans getting the first opportunities. However, Lee Dong-Gook wasn’t really that good and his effort went straight at Krul in goal. Krul, in his first International match, had very little to do for the remainder of the first half, as the Dutch took control. Ruud van Nistelrooij put them one up from close range, after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had broke down the right and swung in the cross. Eight minutes later, the Dutch were awarded a penalty, but as is custom with the Dutch team, Van der Vaart aimed it straight at the goalkeeper. Not that it had any consequences though, as Robin van Persie headed home from the resulting corner to make it 2-0. That was the score at half time as well. The second half had only barely started when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar made it 3-0 from van Nistelrooij’s cross from the left. The Dutch immediately took their foot off the gas and paid for it when Lee Dong-Gook made it 3-1 after a poor clearance by Mathijsen. It was hardly cause for concern though and Huntelaar again was on target to make it four. There was a cause for concern though in the Dutch camp when Rafael van der Vaart had to go off injured with a sprained ankle, which ruled him out for the rest of the tournament.

retired_w0lfpack1

In Group A, a scoreless draw against the Ukraine left Italy in dire trouble, one point from just two matches, and the entire country wished that one of you readers had signed up to manage them. Surely someone could have done better than this!!

Brazil cruised to a 2-0 victory over Morocco, with goals by Robinho and Anderson giving them the berth in the elimination rounds. The table was set as follows:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Q | Brazil | | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 6 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Ukraine | | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Italy | | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 1 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Morocco | | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 1 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre>