shannon2007

The Drug Barons

Our second match was against those lovely Colombians. You had to feel a tad sorry for them - lose and they might not survive the trip home. After our stuttering start against Denmark, I was none too confident about this game, but just two minutes in Guti sent us ahead.

After a first half we totally dominated, Guti added a second right on half time. Raul added a third just after the break, and we cruised to a comfortable win. Now we only need a draw with Costa Rica to go through. Easy enough. But then, this is Spain.

retired_sander

Italy Vs Russia

Another match another odd tactic for Italy. Today it was a 4-3-1-2 formation which apparently the new manager Keith Stuart quite likes.

A very very good performance from Ruslan Nigmatullin in goal saw Italy only manage a 1-1 draw meaning they really needed to beat South Africa to qualify for certain.

Uter domination saw 1 point as Nigmatullin pulled off save after save and Italy only had Arseal's new £42 million man on the score sheet after 5 minutes.

A Buffon foul in the bos led to a Russia Penalty that was easily scored. Then onto to 70 minutes of Italy attacking to no avial.

Bring on South Africa

Raptor

And then... AOL Arena, Hamburg, midsummernight 2006... Germany v Senegal, a draw will do in terms of qualifying for the second round.

The best defence in the World Cup will surely be up to the task? They are, until the 33rd minute, when out of the blue El Hadji Diouf of Liverpool opens his World Cup account, and silences a patriotic home crowd in the process.

For the first time, Germany HAVE to attack, and HAVE to play football. They can't. A powerless team is changed on three positions: two at half time, one with 20 minutes left. I even try to explain the principle of attacking football to them, though I know it's no use. You can't change genetically determined things in the blink of an eye.

Miroslav Klose and Jörg Böhme get the best chances in the dying minutes, and to be honest, I fully expect a stoppage time equaliser. It's the German way of doing it.

But not with a Dutch manager, it seems. Make that ex-manager in fact. I guess you could say "mission accomplished", in that the krauts won't lift the World Cup now. But I fear for Oranje...

enjikari

Ronaldinho, unsurprisingly, was recalled to the first team as Fowler realised that a mistake and a decision like that couldn't be made again. With all four teams still able to qualify, it was all to play for in Group D. Fowler opted to change tactic, and this appeared as though it was going to work. However, unforunately for Brazil, they ran into Brad Friedel. He stopped everything at half-time he had kept out nine Brazilian efforts. USA were no threat upfront and it was basically about when Brazil were going to score. At the end of the match, the stats showed that Brazil had had fourteen shots on target. Friedel managed to keep out nearly all of them. Fortunately for Brazil, America conceded a penalty with just over ten minutes left. Léo Macaé kept a cool head to convert the penatly and score his first goal for his country and this was enough for Brazil to qualify to the knockout phase.


USA 0-1 Brazil - Léo Macaé (pen)

Scotland would join them from Group D...

retired_hern1001

The dismay in the press was big, if not to say huge. They were already calling for my head and if I wanted to keep it (which I rather did) nothing less than a win against Mexico would suffice. The pressure was on. It was up to us to turn it off again.

At the start of the game, Mexico were top of the table, but that lasted only five minutes. Patrick Kluivert carved home a well hit volley, from a Van der Vaart cross to fire Oranje ahead. And captain Davids doubled the margin on eighteen when he scored a rare headed goal after a free kick from Bouma was only half cleared by the Mexican defence.

They never threatened the Dutch goal in the second half and a deflected van Nistelrooij free kick made it 3-0, although the goal was actually credited to some random Mexican who happened to be in the way of it. The defence, anchored by man of the match Kevin Hofland had no trouble dealing with a late attempt at a Mexican offensive and so the score remained 3-0 and the Dutch, despite fears to the contrary, finished top of Group F.

retired_amyslack

Super Eagles Top World Cup Group

The Group H showdown between the two unbeaten teams ended in favour of Nigeria, a stoppage-time goal from substitute Yakubu Aiyegbeni who plays his football in Israel giving them a 1-0 win over Portugal. Both teams were evenly matched throughout the 90 minutes and the respective keepers were kept busy with both making some impressive saves. The draw for the 1st knockout stage sees the Super Eagles take on Group G runners-up Croatia and confidence is high in the camp with rookie manager Beveridge talking up his team’s chances of further progression.

shannon2007

Costa Scotia

Remember Costa Rica? Scotland do.

This should though be a stroll in the park for Spain, and indeed thats how it turned out. Two first half strikes from Mendiata put us on easy street, and a third from Xavi wrapped it up.

The match was way too easy to tell us anything about the potential of the side, and now we face us to Russia in the last sixteen. Hmmm.

retired_sander

Italy Vs South Africa

A must win match to gurantee progress saw Keith Stuart stick to the 4-3-1-2 tactic that worked so well against Russia.

Surprisingly after only 2 games of a new odd tactic the team played so well a simple 5-1 win was the result depsite a missed penalty.

Tommasi scored in the first minute to start off the easy win. Pirlo got two, Ambrosini got one too and DelPiero scored as well.

This easy win set up a nice 2nd round tie agianst Denmark.

retired_sander

Italy Vs Denamrk World Cup 2006 2nd Round

What looked like a fairly easy tie for Italy did not proove to be as easy as it looked.

With Totti rested and only on the bench it fell to Cassano and DelPiero to lead th eline with Inzaghi behind them replacing Totti.

Coco made a first appearance at left back replacing Zauri in another change by keith Stuart.

£42 million man Marchioni got the MOM award for a wonderful goal and Del Piero got one too.

Cassano played like a ****** and was replaced by Totti at half time and will probably miss the next game too.

Next up is the Quarter Final against uknown opponents at this stage.

enjikari

Fowler echoed most people's opinions when he stated in a pre-match press conference that 'the draw has definitely been kind'. Brazil had been paired with Senegal in the Secound Round of the World Cup after winning their group. Senegal would be no pushovers, having defeated Germany in their last group game to guarantee their own passage to this stage, and Brazil had to be on the ball to make sure they defeated the African nation. Léo Macaé had clearly enjoyed scoring his first goal in the last match, it took him just four minutes to open the scoring and give the Brazilians the lead. After this, Senegal goalkeeper Khalidou Cissokho, who went on to recieve the man of the match award, did his best impression of Brad Friedel from the last game and kept everything else Brazil threw at him out. Fortunately, similar to Friedel's American team-mates, Senegal offered little upfront and Brazil negotiated their way to the World Cup Quarter Finals.

Brazil 1-0 Senegal(R2) - Léo Macaé