Friday, June 23, 2006

World Cup Group F Latest

Ronaldo Double Silenced Critics And Brazil Through To Meet Ghana

Signal Iduna Stadion

Japan 1 - 4 Brazil

Scorers:
JAP - K. Tamada (33min);
BRA - Ronaldo (45min, 81min), Juninho Pernambucano (53min), Gilberto (59min);


Well, the Brazillians showed they're the World Cup champion by defeating Japan 4-1 with the fatty Ronaldo grabbing a double. To be honest he should have scored another at the start of second half, but credits to him, under all the intense pressure and criticisms, he rised to the occasion and put 2 past the helpless Kawaguchi. Ronaldo is officially the joint all-time top scorer of the World Cup and although he's still not the Ronaldo of old, he still possess the killer instinct and like most people would agree that form is temporal but class is permanent.

But Brazil's defence looked a little susceptible to speed attacks though. They made a mistake by sitting to forward and inviting the Japanese to run at them and they took their chance well by scoring a beautiful goal. But they learnt their mistake and sat a little deeper in the 2nd half and the Japanese clearly lacked creativity to break down the Brazillian defence.

The end of the game looks like a regular training match for the Brazillians though, the match below is far more interesting!


Kewell Makes Socceroos Dream


Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion

Croatia 2 - 2 Australia


Scorers:
CRO - D. Srna (3min), N. Kovac (56min);
AUS - C. Moore (39min), H. Kewell (79min);


Sent Off (3):
CRO - D. Simic, J. Simunic;
AUS - B. Emerton;

If FIFA is reading this (of course not), please send Graham Poll home, now. No, he's not a player if you wonder, but he's the referee for this game. Just watch it again and you could tell this English referee has clearly lost it and doesn't know what's he's doing. How did he show Simunic a 2nd yellow and yet not a red card and not know about it? This seriously put a doubt over his competency as a referee and how did he not spot the handball just before Kewell scored the equalising goal for Australia? Gosh, I think we'll hear more about him in days to come.


Anyway congratulations, Socceroos. I'm not your fan but I was cheering you on for the match as I think you lads deserved it more than the Croats do. Came back from behind to beat Japan, went down 2-0 to Brazil although the scoreline flatters the Brazillians a bit and now to come back against Croatia again. I admit I didn't watch much of the game as I fixed my eyes on the Brazil vs Japan game, but I did switched over to watch it and was shocked to see the clanger by the Australian keeper, Zeliko Kalac. I don't know why he started instead of Mark Schwarzer, but I think he will never appear again anyway. As AC Milan's 3rd choice keeper, the hulking figure dived low for Kovac's long shot and he completely missed the catch and it went in off his hands into the back of the net.

Thankfully Harry Kewell was on hand to save his blushes. Although it does looked offside, there was a handball from the Croatians and I think it evens out, eh? Well done Aussies, you deserve it, but how you're gonna beat Italy, I don't know! Good luck anyway!


Final Group F Standings:
  1. Brazil 9pts (Qualify)
  2. Australia 4pts (Qualify)
  3. Croatia 2pts
  4. Japan 1pt

Next Round of 16:

26th June
Italy vs Australia

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Officiating in general for the world cup has been awful.Refs are too quick to give out yellow cards.The penalty against Oguchi Onyehu was horrible.I hate Michael Essien alot,but he did not deserve a yellow card and now Ghana face Brazil without there best player.Oh well....like it mattered.I hope the boys from Australia can beat Italy and send them back to their soon to be relegated teams.Ha Ha Serie A is a joke,at least now we know why Italians stay in Italy to play football not 1 player from their national squad plays abroad.


peace

DROGBALLS said...

Quite true, I think FIFA have asked the referee to punish the players more heavily this time round hoping that the players would learn from their silly mistakes but...doesn't seemed to work eh? Haha the Ghana penalty seemed debatable and I need to have another look. On the topic of the Italian football scandal, I saw news of several big teams including Juve, AC Milan and Lazio will be charged and actions will be taken. Let's hope Juve go down anyway, don't fancy them. But I do hope AC Milan stays, it's a club with real tradition and great support. Oh same could be said for English I guess, only Beckham and Hargreaves play abroad.