Humiliated French. Africans Entertaining. Argentinians Masterful. Greek tragic!
22/06/10 00:39
Bye Bye France!
Today we had the final matches for Groups A and B. This saw the hosts South Africa take on that great footballing nation, World Cup Champions 1998, France. Our cross channel neighbours perhaps shouldn't have even been there after some underhand (you could say overhand) tactics as Thierry Henry handballed in their qualifier match against Ireland but that was all in the past and surely they could put the guilt behind them and storm through to the latter stages of the tournament. Well obviously the sleepless nights caught up with them as the team and management fragmented before our very eyes even refusing to train in a protest to a decision from the manager to send home "Nico". South Africa needed the win and dug deep to play as a team unlike their opponents and they finally managed get their reward with a marvellous 2-1 victory. However they needed the result in the other game going on at the same time between Uruguay and Mexico to go their way and sadly for them Uruguay managed to sneak a one nil victory which saw them top the table but more crucially for the Bafana Bafana saw Mexico through as runners up on goal difference! And so ends an era in French football, I'm sure they'll be having a big clear out before their next international, perhaps we'll see Domenech at Anfield next season or maybe we'll see a few washed up French players at St James Park snapped up in a buy one get one free deal!
The evening games decided Group B and we saw a hard fought display of quality by Argentina against a resolute Greece that looked like they were playing for the draw! Had nobody told they had win this match to qualify, at times it was bordering on the bizarre! Finally though Messi was instrumental enough to set up two goals which saw them cruise through to the KOs 2-0. In the other game, Nigeria played out an exciting game against South Korea in a four goal thriller. Nigeria had to win to qualify and maybe they might have as they missed several golden opportunities including Yakubu's miss of the tournament as he stood less than six yards from an empty net and put it wide! Unfortunately for the boys in green, the 2-2 result was enough for South Korea to qualify as runners up.
And so to the Footcall league...We have a new leader! Dean "Scouse" Smith has moved topside on 32 ahead of Jon, Paul, (and Ringo). We've had some real movers today notably Lee Baker now up to 5th eyeing up the money, Stephen Hills and Ryan "Yet Another" Smith also doing well. Colin Jessop picked up another 3 after getting his first the other day and Paul Wratten scored well today. Jo Mackenzie is getting better and we see Neil Witt the Fourth, Martin Acott and James "Salad Boy" Ridley all on to page one. John Dawson and David Frost have realised how this game works and let's give player of the day to Rob "Hoof It" Pearson and Alex Church (not near the bottom anymore) both did remarkably well.
I will sign off with special mention to Gemma the wonderdog Evenden, Dean Turney and finally me ol mate, Adrian "Genesis" Frisby all of whom collected their first red square today, well done guys your patience has paid off!
Dj