Day Two

Well, what a start from the home nation. South Africa did themselves proud and were only let down by a loss of concentration by their captain Aaron Mokoena. Arguably they could have snatched the game with the 90^th minute effort from Mphela hitting the outside of the post.

They did take the lead ten minutes into the second half from Thsabalala’s amazing effort, he may sound like a line from Tony Christie’s Amarillo, but boy can he hit a ball! He struck it across Mexico’s vertically challenged keeper, who wouldn’t have reached it with help from a ladder, straight into the top corner.

I thought Mexico deserved their point, Barcelona’s Rafael Marquez finished calmly for the goal and Dos Santos looked dangerous, excelling in the time and space he was given, a luxury he isn’t afforded in English football. We saw a cameo from 120 cap veteran Blanco who managed a few fancy touches but displayed all the pace of a tired sloth.

Les Blancs draw a blank!

We saw another insipid display from the French under the hapless Domenech last night. I really don’t under stand why then won’t take a game by the throat and utilise their obvious attacking potential. Anelka had virtually no service despite having Ribery, Gourchoff and Govou to supply him. To me, it seemed odd that they replaced Anelka with Henry rather than playing the pair together.

Domenech’s tactics will be questioned by the press no doubt, Uruguay played on the break with only Forlan and Suarez pushing forward yet France had a back four and holding midfielder with only 2 men to mark. Govou missed the best chance of the game, guiding the ball wide as it was played across him. Late on Henry even had the temerity to appeal for handball when his shot hit Victorino’s arm from about 2 yards away, few Irishmen will have have seen the funny side of that.

Uruguay will be delighted with a point, especially being down to ten men for the last 15 minutes. This was supposed to be their toughest game and to come away unbeaten will boost them.

A quick mention too for the officials, both sets were from the Asian confederation and got us off to a brilliant start.

Hopefully my predictions for today are more accurate than yesterday!

South Korea 2 Greece 1

Argentina 2 Nigeria 0

England 2 USA 1 see full preview