“Below you will find photo series displaying different aspects of African football. The photos are kindly shared by Twenty Ten: African Media on the Road to 2010 (and beyond).” (Play the Game)
Handmade Soccer
“Children from the pastoral tribes of Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya are often responsible for household and community chores. Many of them do not have the opportunity to attend school.”> (Twenty Ten)
“One of the hard things about forming an outlook on the World Cup is that when an event gets this much attention, the flow of commentary is so fast and broad that every possible angle is exhausted and trivial positions develop a kind of insubstantial politics. Conventional wisdom starts to seem like an ideology, and if you’re not careful, your own feelings about what happens will be dictated by where you want to stand in relation to that ideology rather than by what you actually think. There’s a pundit position, a cognoscenti backlash, an uber-cognoscenti counter-backlash, and so on till after midnight. Your heart and the stadium get farther and farther apart.” (Run of Play)
“The clichéd tourist fare in South Africa outside the World Cup seems to mostly involve two components: big animals and ‘traditional’ dances. To the dismay of almost every South African I meet, I’m not much of a big animal person. The famous game parks, no matter how spectacular, are not on my itinerary. The ‘traditional’ dances, however, are harder to avoid. They are also, in my experience, harder to make sense of in this World Cup of vuvuzelas and the invention of tradition.” (Pitch Invasion)
“A game that was shaping up to be an interesting battle until Miroslav Klose’s unnecessary sending-off towards the end of the first half. Serbia won but failed to impress, whilst Germany had the better of the second half despite their numerical disadvantage. Germany predictably kept the same eleven which thrashed Australia 4-0 in the first game, and they set out in the same 4-2-3-1 system.” (Zonal Marking)
World Cup 2010: Germany 0-1 Serbia
“The German side who sparked this World Cup into life with their 4-0 win over Australia, a German side so effortlessly impressive that they brought all the very best paranoid and stereotypical utterances about “Ze Germans” out of the normally *cough* very reserved and neutral British press, were back in action today. But you’d have had to be a very brave man, or a very proud Serb, to have seen this coming. In fact, although Serbia were much improved on their opening performance against Ghana, it’s still difficult to believe it happened.” (twohundredpercent)
Germany 0-1 Serbia – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – World Cup – 18 June 2010
“Germany could come close to clinching a spot in the next round as they faced Serbia on Friday, June 18, 2010. Serbia lost their opening match to Ghana and needed to get a result to keep their knockout stage hopes alive.” (The 90th Minute)
“It’s strange to say, but I feel a powerful sense of relief tonight. I’ve been rooting for France steadily since 2006, through the crash-and-burn of Euro 2008, through a qualifying campaign that constantly seemed like Waterloo (with Serbs instead the English), through the ire of Ireland, optimistic to a fault. And today, all I can say is that I feel a weight off my shoulders: barring some miracle against South Africa, I don’t have to see Domenech again, don’t have to watch him twist, squeeze, and ruin a group of remarkably talented players any more, don’t have to watch figures like Thuram and Henry end their international careers in the worst possible way.” (Soccer Politics)
Margaret Gradwell, Indaba Series
“We were looking for Spain to really get the tournament going – they did exactly that, but by being on the end of the biggest shock so far, rather than providing an amazing attacking display. Switzerland’s win was remarkable – to keep a clean sheet against this Spanish side is very impressive. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side did not actually play particularly defensively – they rarely had the ball, certainly, but they broke in numbers and frequently got four men in the box when they had the ball in an attacking zone.” (Zonal Minute)
World Cup 2010: Spain’s nightmare – an early dream final with Brazil
“Two wildly contrasting states jolted this World Cup to life, with North Korea (totalitarian) roughing up Brazil and Switzerland (laissez-faire meets conservatism) shocking Spain, the European champions, in Durban. With the first upset of the tournament the iconoclastic Swiss may have spoiled the dream final. If the favourites finish second in Group H they are likely to collide with Brazil in the second round.” (Guardian)
Unflinching Swiss Give Spain a Jolt
“Beautiful to watch and all but impossible to beat for the last two years, Spain has not yet figured out how to combine artistry and victory in South Africa. Since winning the European championships in 2008, the only blemish on its record was a surprising 2-0 loss here to the United States in last year’s Confederations Cup. But the even bigger surprise came Wednesday on a lovely late afternoon in Durban, where Spain was beaten, 1-0, by Switzerland in the World Cup opener for each team.” (NYT)
“Theories abounded that this World Cup would favor attacking teams. The cold weather was supposed to lead to superior fitness and, ergo, a goalfest of epic proportions. However, these scientific theories overlooked a very simple fact – we live in the dark ages of soccer. Despite Barcelona’s great season a year ago and Spain’s title as European champion, the tendency to pack the box and not risk tossing numbers forward plagues the world of football like pox-carrying rats. These locusts have resulted in a paltry first round goal total and abysmal goal per game percentage.” (futfanatico)
“A small selection of images from the new coffee table book by photographer Jessica Hilltout that captures the soul of African football in a 208-page photographic essay.” (Vimeo), (Jessica Hilltout)
“The crowds had gathered near the Hector Pieterson Memorial, and a group of schoolboys stood together on the street, in their iron-crisp uniforms, singing at the top of their lungs. Through our open van windows, it sounded like a song of celebration, a joyous song. But our driver, a 45-year-old former soldier named Jan, felt the hair on his arms go up. He had not been back to Soweto since his military service ended in 1994, when the apartheid regime fell and the soldiers were told to go home. Now that song brought him back to the freedom riots here, the burning tires and the bricks. The memories came flooding in.” (ESPN)
“I am probably watching soccer with the wrong person. As my friend D. and I walk through the 40-degree heat of downtown Belgrade, where she grew up and returns in the summers, I spot a building-high vertical banner of an enthusiastic, fit young man in body paint hawking soda. ‘Refresh Your World!’ it implores.” (Soccer Politics)
“This moment from Point Omega kept coming to me yesterday during the Brazil versus North Korea match. Not only for the suspense that was ‘trying to build,’ but for the curious fact that I was sitting in a white-cubed art gallery, my eyes fixed mainly on the projected match but occasionally straying over to another screen, this one showing Douglas Gordon’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, the film, made with Phillipe Pareno, that famously tracked Zidane — and Zidane only — with 17 cameras over the course of a match.” (TNR)
Gonzalo Higuain
“A game that Argentina dominated from the first minute, and the scoreline is an accurate reflection of the balance of play. Diego Maradona changed Argentina’s shape slightly, resulting in a more balanced and dangerous side when going forward.” (Zonal Minute)
World Cup 2010: Argentina 4-1 South Korea
“‘There’s enough material here for an entire conference,’ said the psychiatrist in the Fawlty Towers episode entitled, funnily enough, ‘The Psychiatrist.’ Argentine coach Diego Armando Maradona, we are told, is a modern day Basil Fawlty. A six-one loss to Bolivia, selected 107 players, scraping through to the finals, picking his 36-year-old mate who hadn’t played for Argentina this century, not picking Esteban Cambiasso…or any full-backs, or getting the best out of Lionel Messi. That’s been the narrative.” (twohundredpercent)
Argentina 4-1 South Korea – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – World Cup – 17 June 2010
“Argentina faced South Korea in a match of the two teams who won their opening matches in Group B. A win for both sides but likely qualify them for the knockout stage. South Korea were impressive in a 2-0 win over Greece but would be the underdogs against Argentina, who created several chances but only beat Nigeria 1-0 in their opening match.” (The 90th Minute)
“Two teams who needed a result to have a realistic chance of making it to the knockout stage met as Greece faced Nigeria on Group B play. A loss wouldn’t end either teams chances but a win was definitely needed for Greece who will play Argentina in their next match.” (The 90th Minute)
World Cup 2010: Greece 2-1 Nigeria
“Finally the tournament has come to life. In the twenty four hours before this game we’ve had some fine football played by Switzerland, Uruguay and Argentina, some drama and our first proper upset in the first of these games. We’ve even had some controversy going on off-the-field too. If we needed a reminder that behind this celebration of world football lies a grubby marketing exercise then there’s the faintly scandalous decision to prosecute two of the women involved in Monday’s ambush marketing stunt (which seemed, in any case, not to break any of FIFA’s strict rules) at the Holland v Denmark game.” (twohundredpercent)
“Dozens of security workers walked off the job hours before the Brazil-North Korea soccer match Tuesday night here, the latest in a series of labor strikes that have challenged organizers of the World Cup in South Africa. With the latest strike at Ellis Park stadium, soccer’s governing body FIFA has now been forced to ask the police to take over security at four World Cup stadiums around the country. The other three stadiums are located in the cities of Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Cape Town, Durban and Ellis Park — as well as Soccer City in Johannesburg — had contracted security services to Stallion Security Consortium, the local World Cup organizing committee said.” (WSJ)
“The US game against England–a 1-1 tie, as everyone knows–was real entertainment and also, for me, a moment of revelation. After an early goal, when it seemed like it would all be out of reach very soon, star-studded England seemed troubled by the innocent, sincere play of the Americans, who were able to pull even later in the first half and keep it at that for the rest of the game.” (Soccer Politics)
Johannesburg
“The tournament favorites, Spain, opened the group stage with a match against Switzerland on Wednesday, June 16, 2010. Spain has been notorious for not living up to the hype in World Cups but can they change that this year? They come into the World Cup as reigning European Champions and probably the most talented starting 11 on the planet.” (The 90th Minute)
World Cup 2010: Spain 0-1 Switzerland
“The important thing with covering a World Cup which has been so slow to start as this one is, basically, to at least try and keep yourself entertained. As such, our intrepid crayon-tester and some-time football journalist Dotmund had something of an ‘episode’ and decided to file his report of the Group H match between the reigning European Champions Spain and Switzerland in handwritten form. With sketches. He hopes this novel approach will become the paradigm for all sports reporting in this country. We are just glad that it keeps him off the streets.” (twohundredpercent)
World Cup 2010: Gelson Fernandes seals Switzerland shock over Spain
“The World Cup has its first shock and, as unexpected results go, it could be that this tournament sees nothing quite so remarkable again. Spain may be sublime on the ball but there is no use out-passing opponents without out-scoring them and they learned that the hard way here in Durban against a limited but ultimately jubilant Swiss side.” (Guardian)
Honduras 0-1 Chile – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – World Cup – 16 June 2010
“Two teams from the Americas met as CONCACAF side Honduras faced CONMEBOL side Chile. Honduras is only playing in their second World Cup while Chile is playing in their first in several years. A result is a must for both sides who are in the same group as Spain.” (The 90th Minute)
“Today we complete the first set of 2010 World Cup group play games. I’ve watched more than 90% of all the minutes – and yet managed to miss five goals live (Holland, Argentina, Slovakia, Brazil’s second and North Korea’s). It’s been an educational experience. I’ve learned many interesting factoids (many acquired by virtue of this being the first Twitter World Cup) and made a few observations as well.” (Pitch Invasion)
“This essay by Martha Saavedra affirms that all sporting terrain has a history, both personal and corporate. Organizers of the 2010 World Cup discovered this when developing the site of Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. Football grounds offer testimonies buried in sediment and memory.” (The Global Game)
“A good game in both tactical and entertainment terms – North Korea defended resolutely and their front two showed their technical quality, but Brazil’s patience was rewarded in the second half. Firstly, it’s never nice when websites blow their own trumpets, but you can be assured that this is actually a vuvuzela ZM is blowing on.” (Zonal Minute)
Why Brazil’s breakthrough was always going to come from Maicon
“It was inevitable that Brazil would eventually score against North Korea, and it was almost as inevitable that they would do so through Maicon, their rampaging right-back. Here’s why. Firstly, the diagram on the left shows general positioning of both teams when Brazil had the ball in midfield. Brazil have four attacking players who play clearly-defined roles, whilst North Korea effectively had eight defensive players – three centre-backs, two wing-backs, and three central midfielders, the central one sitting deeper than his two colleagues.” (Zonal Minute)
One Name Is Better Than Two
“‘It’s madness that Dopey left Duck and Goose off the team,’ Mr. Silva, a shop worker in downtown São Paulo, says in Portuguese. Brazil may take soccer more seriously than any other nation. Some banks will close and even many nursery schools are letting out early in honor of the country’s World Cup debut Tuesday against North Korea.” (WSJ)
“‘Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that,’ former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said. Uncomfortably close to a bald statement of fact for fans of the beautiful game in Somalia, who risk their lives to watch the World Cup unfolding in South Africa. In the final weeks before the tournament kicked off on Jun. 11, demand for satellite dishes was high. But the Islamist groups that control much of the country have declared the World Cup un-Islamic, threatening dire consequences for anyone found watching.” (IPS)
“We are now five days into the 2010 World Cup finals and already several key themes are being discussed ad infinitum. The weight of the balls being used and the influence of the vuvuzelas have already been discussed in the media to the point of saturation in the media (none of which is to say that we won’t return to these particular themes over the next couple of days or so), as have the paucity of goals seen so far. What seems to be becoming one recurring theme so far during the 2010 World Cup is a degree of under-achievement on the part of the qualifiers from the UEFA confederation.” (twohundredpercent)
“It was the goal heard around the world on Saturday when England’s net-minder Robert Green let a tame shot by U.S.A.’s Clint Dempsey slip through his hands, sending the game to a 1-1 draw. A day later, Algeria’s keeper Fawzi Chaouchi mishandled a long-range strike from Slovenia’s Robert Koren, costing Algeria the 0-1 match.” (Vanity Fair)
“As Spain prepares to take on Switzerland on Wednesday, the world is abuzz with anticipation. Not only are Spain joint favorites with Brazil, but the tournament needs the Spanish team like a fish needs water. After one of the drabbest opening rounds in memory, fans everywhere are looking for reasons as to why things are so awful this time round. The long European season, the austral winter, the security concerns and the stress it creates, the ultra-defensive attitudes, and the worst ball in history that was still round: the Jabulani. Thanks, adidas, for a World Cup with no shots on goal.” (Soccer Politics)
“The sun had barely risen on a typical Saturday in Lagos. Yet there was life beneath the concrete overpasses of Nigeria’s megacity of some 15m people. Dozens of boys were out playing football, in any space they could find, before the unforgiving African sun got too high.” (Guardian)
“Brazil, the most successful team in the World Cup, started the group stage with a match against North Korea. It’s a match that would appear to be very one sided but North Korea have shown in AFC World Cup Qualifying they can be a very tough defensive team.” (The 90th Minute)
“A hard-fought draw in a game that was a must-not-lose rather than a must-win for both sides. There was a disappointing lack of goalmouth action, but both defences were excellently organised. The one minor surprise in the Portugal line-up was the welcome sight of Danny Alves in the first XI, although he was deployed in a wide role as Nani’s replacement, rather than the central position he favours. Fabio Coentrao was ahead of Duda at left-back, whilst Pedro Mendes was preferred to Pepe, still returning to full fitness after seven months out, in the centre of midfield.” (Zonal Minute)
“Oh, dear! Are Fabio’s birds coming home to roost? As one who has known and largely admired him both as player and coach these many years, I’ve never really wanted to join in the somewhat sycophantic chorus which has responded to him since he took the England post.” (World Soccer – Brian Glanville)
Cape Town, South Africa
“Ivory Coast tied Portugal 0-0 at the World Cup on Tuesday, largely outplaying its higher-ranked opponent despite Didier Drogba only coming on as a late substitute. Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo rattled a 30-yard strike off the left post in the 11th minute, but Ivory Coast otherwise created the better chances.” (ESPN)
Ivory Coast 0-0 Portugal
“Ivory Coast and Portugal contested a goalless draw in a cagey opening game to the World Cup’s so-called group of death at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. With Brazil also in Group G, it was obvious that both sides were desperate to avoid defeat and there was an extent to which both teams cancelled each other out. It was the first competitive fixture of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s short spell in charge of the Elephants and he can be pleased with the unity and discipline his side showed, particularly with talismanic striker Didier Drogba missing from the starting line-up.” (BBC)
Portugal expects from Cristiano Ronaldo
“It was a bleak end of summer in Portugal. The Algarve may have glistened in the sun, but in the pubs and cafes were glum-looking fans, wearing the national team’s replica jerseys with heads bowed and shoulders hunched.” (BBC)
Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) 0-0 Portugal – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – World Cup – 15 June 2010
“The Group of Death (or Group G) began play with two strong nations at the Ivory Coast played Portugal. It’s a crucial match to determine who will make it out of the group and a loss would be devastating for either side. Cristiano Ronaldo would feature for Portugal while Ivory Coast has Chelsea’s Didier Drogba.” (The 90th Minute)
World Cup 2010: New Zealand 1-1 Slovakia
“Having given the television coverage a review/kicking over the weekend, it’s time to take a look at the radio coverage of this World Cup. Ian Dennis is our host, and Jacqui Oatley and Graham Taylor are our commentary team for the opening stages, with Dennis taking over. Oatley is one of three prominent ladies at the World Cup, alongside Gabby Logan, and ITV’s Kelly Cates. Logan and Cates are more high profile, but considering most of the games that we’ve had so far, Oatley has considerably the toughest job of the three.” (twohundredpercent)
New Zealand 1-1 Slovakia – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – World Cup – 15 June 2010
“Two of the smallest countries in the tournament faced in Group F play as New Zealand played Slovakia. The Kiwis were not favored to get a result while Slovakia are seen as a good chance to get second in the group. The other two teams in the group are Italy and Paraguay who played to a 1-1 draw yesterday.” (The 90th Minute)
“On Sunday afternoon, I rode the metro up from my place in the thirteenth arrondissment to Belleville, in the northeastern part of Paris, to take in the Algeria-Slovenia match in a neighborhood with a large Algerian population. Almost as soon as I emerged from the station onto the wide Rue Belleville, I met Ben, an Algerian immigrant whose parents were French, and his son Ilias. They were selling the green and white jerseys of the Algerian national team, both draped in Algerian flags themselves. Ilias predicted a 2-0 Algerian win; Ben thought 1-0.” (Soccer Politics)
“In case you missed the U.S.’s “victory” over England over the weekend, you’re in luck. The website Lego Fussball has gone through the trouble of recreating the key plays with Legos. Unlike the actual game, we all win in this one. (via Guardian).” (Huffington Post)
“If you’ve been at or watched a World Cup match on tv in the past few days, all you hear from the crowd noise are the sounds of the vuvuzelas. They are the loud horn that have been present at all the World Cup matches and extremely loud. They have drowned out virtually all other crowd noise including chants from particular countries.” (The 90th Minute)
“Sporting history surely teaches us not to be too hasty in drawing conclusions. Yet it is already tempting to observe as this World Cup unfolds that Germany might be rising again, and Italy, the defending world champion, falling. There seems to be a new, vibrant, powerful Germany — a side whose players are too young to fear defeat and whose diverse ethnic backgrounds are a testimony to the society now forming in that country.” (NYT)
“Italy dominated the game but rarely provided a real goal threat, whilst Paraguay sat back, defended and were happy to rely on set-pieces. Marcello Lippi’s switch to 4-4-2 on the hour mark resulted in Italy looking a far better side. Italy started out in a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Claudio Marchisio playing the attacking midfield role ahead of Ricardo Montolivo and Daniele de Rossi. Simone Pepe was a slight surprise on the right, so Vincenzo Iaquinta switched to the left. Domenico Criscito came in at left-back, so Gianluca Zambrotta started on the right.” (Zonal Minute)
“Laurence McKenna, co-host of the EPL Talk and World Cup Buzz Podcasts, recently had a golden opportunity to sit down with one of the most remarkable English football writers and authors, Barney Ronay of The Guardian and When Saturday Comes.” (EPL Talk)
“Italy fell behind, then lost its star goalkeeper for the second half. So a 1-1 World Cup draw with Paraguay should not have been all that disturbing for the defending champions. Yet the Azzurri’s underwhelming, rain-soaked draw hardly was pleasing to coach Marcello Lippi, the same man who guided the Italians to their fourth championship in 2006.” (ESPN)
Holders Italy on the defensive
“If Italy’s World Cup campaign doesn’t get off to a flying start against Paraguay tonight, it won’t be because the world champions have been dragged down by the weight of expectations. The nation is braced for failure after an uninspiring qualifying campaign, dreary performances in warmers and the loss of their main creative force, Andrea Pirlo, at least for the first two games with a calf problem. The core of the team are over-30s from the 2006 squad, several clearly past their best, including Gianluca Zambrotta and captain Fabio Cannavaro, who will play in Dubai for Al-Ahli next season after Juventus let the centre-back go.” (WSC)
Italy 1-1 Paraguay – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – World Cup – 14 June 2010
“The 2006 World Champions began their Group Stage of the 2010 tournament against CONMEBOL side Paraguay. Italy come into this World Cup with almost no one picking them to repeat as champions. Paraguay know that any result in this match would put them in good position to move into the knockout stage.” (The 90th Minute)
“Robert Green’s ‘hand of clod’ goal against the United States, painful as it was to watch (here it is again!) … … was not the first howler committed by the England keeper.” (NYT)
“The sound of booing from his own team’s supporters will not surprise Brazil’s head coach at Ellis Park tomorrow night. Whatever goes on inside the mind of Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, better known as Dunga, his exterior is armour-plated. And, having heard it all before, he will not allow criticism to deflect him from his mission.” (Guardian)
Durban Transport
“One of the most consistent teams in the history of the World Cup, Germany, began the 2010 tournament against AFC side Australia. The Socceroos surprised last year with some great play that moved them into the round of 16 and looking to build on that in 2010. The match was a 20:30 local time start on Sunday, June 13, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
Germany 4-0 Australia: Germany excellent, but quality exaggerated by poor Australian tactics
“We’ve now seen half of the 32 teams that will be contesting this tournament, and whilst we haven’t yet sampled the three most exciting sides – Holland, Brazil and Spain – it is undeniable that Germany have been by far the most impressive so far.” (Zonal Marking)
World Cup 2010: Germany 4-0 Australia
“It’s a conundrum for English national team fans, who to support out of the football and cricket arch-enemies. But it’s not a problem for long as the game is over as a debating point within the first quarter. In the ITV studio, Edgar Davids is making it clear that it’s “C’mon Aussie, C’mon” for him. He looks perplexed when Adrian Chiles brings up England’s propensity to lose to Oz at rugby and cricket. He’s clearly not sure what rugby and cricket are; but he looks just as puzzled at every question Chiles asks.” (twohundredpercent)
Holland 2-0 Denmark: Dutch struggle to break down a disciplined Danish defence
“A quiet game won by two scrappy goals – not really the performance we were hoping for from Holland. Some credit should go to Morten Olsen – his tactics stifled Holland’s creative players and Denmark did have chances to score. Holland lined up as expected considering the injury to Arjen Robben – Rafael Van der Vaart played on the left, Dirk Kuyt was on the right, and Welsey Sneijder played behind Robin van Persie.” (Zonal Marking)
Lack of depth tempers Dutch expectations
“You would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the media here – or indeed in the country as a whole – who doesn’t think the Dutch will win their opening Group E match against Denmark. This may smack of overconfidence, but it’s probably more accurate to describe it as justifiable optimism. The team’s long unbeaten run and impressive performances in the last three practice matches before leaving for South Africa – banging in 12 goals against Hungary, Ghana and Mexico – has instilled a healthy degree of self-belief.” (WSC)
World Cup 2010: Netherlands 2-0 Denmark
“Half way through the opening set of fixtures then, and we’ve already seen two of the semi-finalists in action. Only Germany have really looked good enough to be worthy of it so far, but the lower half of the draw contains more big guns, with favourites Spain and Brazil, not to mention holders Italy, all to come shortly.” (twohundredpercent)
“Two goalies emerged scarred out of the drama of yesterday’s USA-England game. One injured but with pride intact, another perhaps irreparably damaged professionally. I remember well how, as a kid playing YMCA soccer in suburban Maryland, I learned the universal lesson we were reminded of yesterday: being a goalie is hell. Perhaps the only goalie to have won the Nobel Prize for literature, Albert Camus (in the front row in the snazzy clothes below) wrote that what he know most surely ‘about morality and the duty of man,’ he learned from playing football at the Racing Universitaire d’Alger in Algeria as a young man.” (Soccer Politics)
“Nothing in football is so traduced as the offside law. Most seem to regard it as a piece of killjoy legislation, designed almost to prevent football producing too many goals and being too much fun, while for the punditocracy it has become the universal scapegoat, the thing that ‘nobody understands’. Just because Garth Crooks doesn’t get something, though, doesn’t make it a bad thing. The modern offside law may be the best thing that’s ever happened to football, and it is almost certainly the reason Barcelona have been so successful with a fleet of players whose obvious asset is their technique rather than their physique.” (Guardian)
“In early April, silly flags were already flapping all around Beirut. A non-resident would think that dignitaries from the entire United Nations were about to make an appearance, adding a touch of color to our city. According to numerous sources, the flags had sprouted much earlier. As early as January, my sister made sure to tell me. I don’t think any earlier than that, my mother said. People were too busy with Christmas and New Years, and in 2009, Ashura, the Shiite holiday fell at the same time—far too much going on for anyone to concentrate. It was still not 2010, in any case.” (TNR), (Must Read Soccer)
“I made certain vows and promises in the days before this started respecting things I wouldn’t touch, and I can’t break them now. So if it feels like something’s missing from this argument, it’s only that I’m trying to save my soul. You can fill in those blanks better than I could, anyway.” (Run of Play)
“Every four years, a young player emerges and blossoms into a star at the World Cup. Often the young player comes off the bench in the first game, and then during the rest of the tournaments, he’s the main man.It is hard to predict exactly which players will be prominent at this kind of tournament, as lots of coaches pick young players with energy and fresh legs to do the damage at the latter stages of a tense game. With club officials and coaches from world class teams scouting young players at the World Cup, more and more younger players become stars after the World Cup.” (Just Football)
“We all know that with the thrill of the World Cup comes an astonishing array of national, racial, and cultural stereotypes. While we are not yet through the opening round of matches, we are taking a look for posterity’s sake at some of these, seeing how they’ve held up (or not) so far and what might become of them.” (Soccer Politics)
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! We’re writing this column under proper World Cup conditions—with vuvuzelas blasting in both of our ears. Is everyone already exasperated with the Infamous Plastic Horn of Distraction? WE SAID, IS EVERYONE ALREADY EXASPERATED WITH THE INFAMOUS PLASTIC HORN OF DISTRACTION?” (WSJ)
“A World Cup is like time speeded up, a kaleidoscope of emotions crammed into a month. But the tournament is rarely won by the team that gets out of the blocks fastest. For those sides that start well, dealing with euphoria can often present problems – as the Germans might find after their superb 4-0 win over Australia. Pacing tournaments is normally a traditional German strength, but the 2010 team are young and it will be interesting to see how they cope with the expectations they have now aroused.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)
“England were the better side, but struggled to make their dominance count and came close to losing the game. The USA’s 4-2-2-2 shape caused problems and prevented England’s full-backs from getting into the game. England started with their usual shape from qualification, Wayne Rooney partnering Emile Heskey upfront. In Gareth Barry’s absence, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard played together in midfield and James Milner started on the left – although only stayed there for half an hour.” (Zonal Minute)
For Abject England, Expect More of the Same
“England fans have traditionally been guilty of the sin of not really looking. Reading the English press, there seems a general sense of shock about how their team performed in their first game yesterday. But to a neutral observer, the result, and England’s sorry, tired performance, was not really all that much of a surprise. And while they are still a smart bet to get out of this group, it is hard to imagine an English team with so many obvious deficits advancing very far in this tournament.” (EPL Talk)
Luck of the draw
“For the United States, Saturday’s 1-1 tie with England wasn’t quite 1950 vintage, but the team will take it. Ties, of course, never taste as sweet as victories. But when your team falls behind early, gets a Santa Claus-sized gift from the opposing goalkeeper and hangs on to snag a point against the presumed group favorites, the aftertaste is plenty satisfying. In the process, the U.S. did plenty to enhance its chances of reaching the second round.” (ESPN)
England miss out on fine start as USA benefit from Robert Green gaffe
“Just as South Africa opened their World Cup with a goal that will be remembered forever, so England, as is their wont, contrived to open theirs with a goalkeeping blunder that will never be forgotten. No sooner had Fabio Capello placed his confidence in Robert Green than his judgment was mocked by the sort of bungle no professional footballer can comfortably watch, an unforced error that allowed the United States back into a game on which England appeared to have a comfortable grip after Steven Gerrard’s early goal.” (Guardian – Paul Wilson)
England ask too much from Rooney bursts of brilliance
“It’s all very well saying that England have the man to beat the world in Wayne Rooney but no one can really do that, not on his own and not even Diego Maradona when you get right down to it. Not when one disaster is piled upon another as swiftly as it was here last night, which is to say as quickly as the night swoops down on the highveld. Suddenly, Rooney and his team-mates knew that they had two huge tasks. One was to beat a United States team who had made an impressively spirited response to an early setback.” (Independent – James Lawton)
World Cup 2010: Alan Shearer on England
“I feel desperately sorry for goalkeeper Robert Green after his horrendous mistake led to the United States’ equaliser against England. But I’m not surprised to see the criticism he has got in the newspapers back home because that is part and parcel of being an England player – in fact, I expected him to get more stick than he has done. I was impressed he came out to face the media afterwards because he could have hidden away. Instead he has faced up to what’s happened, and said how he was trying to forget about it. Strangely, he appeared more relaxed and composed when he was talking after the game than he did beforehand.” (BBC)
“Tim Howard may be Jesus’s desktop, but pride kills progress. You can’t claim honest rivalry on one end and moral victory on the other, especially if you went to the game as a knowing participant in a fury of modern hype. Not even Manchester City does that. So for the sake of self-respect, or whatever the equivalent is when you’re writing about hope and strangers, it has to be acknowledged: our guys missed chances that didn’t want to be missed (Altidore missed one in each half), gave up a goal that didn’t want to be scored, defended clumsily at times, and got pinned back in their own territory for far too much of the second half.” (Run of Play)
Soweto, Kliptown. 1890 and 1910.
“Serbia and Ghana faced off in Group D action with both teams knowing that a loss would put their knockout stage chances in the balance. Both teams are likely fighting for second place with Germany a clear favorite to win the group. The teams played the early match (13:30 local time) on Sunday, June 13, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
“Two teams who made it to the World Cup through playoffs met on Sunday, June 13, 2010 in Group C of the World Cup. It was Algeria facing Slovenia in a match that neither team could afford to lose if they wanted to have a realistic chance of getting out of the group stage. Slovenia would be slightly favored to win the match.” (The 90th Minute)
World Cup 2010: Algeria 0-1 Slovenia
“I volunteered for this game. On paper it seemed a good idea to do. I’d seen Slovenia play Spain at Euro 2000, and Slovenia are some of the loudests fans I’ve ever come across. They only really have one song: “Kdor ne skače,ni Slovenc, hej, hej, hej”. And when they sing, they jump up and down in unison, and if you’re in the upper tier of a stadium with 10,000 Slovenians ten feet away for them, you get that a great atmosphere, with the slight sense of unease that the stadium is going to collapse.” (twohundredpercent)
“Is America a soccer nation, now? On the morning of the United States’ most-hyped ever game against England, I combed through the front covers of every single American newspaper listed at Newseum, a good couple of hundred of them (which is not comprehensive, but is a pretty hefty sample-size), to see what Americans were waking up to read about it on their front pages — if anything at all.” (Pitch Invasion)
“We’re into the cycle — as dependable as the World Cup itself — of the never-ending discussion on soccer in the U.S. It’s an incredibly predictable pattern, one already nicely explored in Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism and Soccer in a Football World, and it gives me a little bit of a headache. While fans, advertising firms, and networks gear up for the World Cup, a plaintive wail echoes across the land.” (Soccer Politics)
“Best places to watch – A World Cup pub crawl might start here, and it might last all month.” (NYT)
“One of the most anticipated 2010 FIFA World Cup Group Stage matches took place on Saturday, June 12, 2010 as England faced the United States. The only other time the two teams met in the World Cup was in 1950 when the USA upset England 1-0.” (The 90th Minute)
England 1-1 USA
“England goalkeeper Robert Green suffered a World Cup nightmare as they were forced to settle for a disappointing draw in the opening game of their campaign against the United States. Steven Gerrard gave coach Fabio Capello the perfect start to this South African mission when he slid Emile Heskey’s pass beyond Tim Howard after only four minutes. And while England rarely hit the heights, they were maintaining their advantage in relative comfort until five minutes before half-time when West Ham United’s Green suffered the lapse that will haunt him.” (BBC)
Goalkeeping blunder hands U.S. hard-earned point vs. England
“Clint Dempsey scored on a blunder by goalkeeper Robert Green in the 40th minute, and the United States came from behind to tie England 1-1 in the Americans’ World Cup opener Saturday. Steven Gerrard put England ahead in the fourth minute, blowing past Ricardo Clark to beat goalkeeper Tim Howard from short range.” (ESPN)
“Argentina began their first World Cup under manager Diego Maradona. They had a poor qualifying campaign but are one of the most talented sides in the entire tournament. Nigeria are a team with talent as well but will be the underdogs against Argentina.” (The 90th Minute)
Argentina 1-0 Nigeria: Maradona’s men dominate but fail to convince
“Eight years ago, Argentina started with a 1-0 win against Nigeria and then crashed out before the knockout stages. You wouldn’t bet on the same thing happening again, but this performance didn’t suggest that Argentina have the ruthlessness needed to win the trophy.” (Zonal Minute)
“There is not much for me to say about today’s match: it has already been said, not even an hour after the match’s conclusion. We even broke Twitter, twice the whole network seized up – too many of us telling each other all about it. It was a game of two halves, and two nervous teams. Throughout the first act South Africa was afraid to attack, and the whole side seemed to play stopper.” (From A Left Wing)
“Your first book is Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, about an obsessive Arsenal fan. Isn’t it a bit depressing? It’s not depressing! It’s very funny and was also almost the book that started this all off. Actually, the book that started it all off was Pete Davies’s All Played Out. That came out in 1990, and has been called the John the Baptist to Nick Hornby’s Jesus. Because when Pete Davies’s book did well, publishers realised there was a literate football fan audience out there, and then Nick Hornby came and proved it with a vengeance in 1992.” (Five Books – Simon Kuper)
“An American soccer star joins the TRIAD Trust using the game to educate children and young adults about how to protect themselves from contracting H.I.V.” (NYT)
Condoms for the World Cup and other ways to keep HIV at bay
“In three months hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are expected to descend on nine South African cities for the 2010 World Cup. But for so many visitors going to a country where more than 10 percent of the population is estimated to have HIV/AIDS, many public health experts are worried that the event will kick off a spike in transmission. South Africa, in turn, has responded by requesting one billion condoms for the year (many of which will be supplied by the U.K.)—more than twice as many as usual, the BBC noted.” (Scientific American)
“An entertaining game that finished with a fair result, a point apiece. Both sides will be relatively disappointed to come away from the opening game with just a draw, and the match demonstrated the faults of both sides more than it did their qualities.” (Zonal Minute)
Uruguay 0-0 France: no cohesion in attacking zones from either side
“Group A is wide open after the first round of matches, after a draw in both games. The earlier game was open and exciting throughout – this one started well but faded badly as the game went on. Uruguay’s expected 3-5-2 became a 3-4-1-2 with Ignazio Gonzalez pushing forward to play just behind Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez. Mauricio Victorino came in on the right side of defence, and Egidio Arevalo took the midfield role requiring the most positional discipline.” (Zonal Minute)
Scissors Kick 