World Cup 2010: Days Two and Three

In spite of being in Indiana for a wedding for most of the weekend, I was actually able to see the majority of the six games. Let's recap.

South Korea 2-0 Greece

Most of the games I'm going to be able to watch are the ones that start at 6:30 am. Which is a shame, because at 6:30 am I am not always fully coherent (that, and the fact that many of the early games look kind of mediocre on paper). As such I don't recall a ton about this game - what I can tell you is that South Korea played outstanding technical football, with crisp passes and coordinated attacks, and Greece just looked awful. The Koreans took an early lead with a goal in the seventh minute and Greece really never seemed much of a threat to score. This is only Greece's second World Cup appearance, amazingly; in their first, USA '94, they didn't score a single goal. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they repeated that feat here.

Argentina 1-0 Nigeria

Group B should be really interesting. Argentina were probably the better side in this game, but Nigeria looked decent on offense; they just couldn't find the net. Their defense left more to be desired, but we're talking about a team in Argentina that runs out two of the best scorers in Spain and one of the best scorers in England at the front. The goalie, Enyeama, did bail out his defense on more than a couple of occasions. I'm a little worried if I'm Argentina about the inability of the team to score after Gabriel Heinze's early rocket header, given the struggles of the Nigerian defense, although since I have no doubt they're going to pound Greece, advancing from the group won't be an issue.

USA 1-1 England

Because we had to leave the hotel at 3 pm Central to get to the wedding, I missed the last 15-20 minutes of this game, but I saw all the key stuff. The US sure loves conceding early goals in the World Cup, don't they? Just ask Jan Koller. And Emmanuel Olisadebe (and Pawel Kryszalowicz). And Slobodan Komljenovic. Those four guys all scored goals in the first five minutes against the US in the last three World Cups, and now you can add Steven Gerrard's name to that list, following an absolutely woeful piece of defending that left me thinking it was going to be an extraordinarily long afternoon. Fortunately, things settled down, and a game that had "Czech Republic 3-0 USA" written all over it turned into a game more like "Italy 1-1 USA," albeit without all the red cards. Clint Dempsey's goal was, of course, a lucky break, but you make your own luck to some extent, and the Americans could easily have gone up 2-1 had Robert Green not later been able to deflect Jozy Altidore's shot off the post. The US also did a good job of mostly taking Wayne Rooney out of the match; while the English were unsurprisingly able to put together a number of dangerous attacks - and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified every time England pushed forward on anything resembling a break - the US held their own and had some good chances against a sometimes porous English back line. I'm perfectly happy with a point, especially after that start, and I think it was plenty deserved for both teams.

Slovenia 1-0 Algeria

This was always destined to look like the odd match out in the group - neither England nor the US playing, two of the lower-rated teams in the entire field going at it - but it did not disappoint that billing. While the fact that it kicked off at 6:30 am undoubtedly contributed, I fell asleep for 20 minutes or so during the second half, which does not say much for the quality of play. I didn't feel confident in either side's ability to mount threatening attacks; while Slovenia's defense is supposed to be pretty good, I'm not sure what it says about their offense that it took 79 minutes to break down what never looked like a particularly strong Algerian defense, and the goal was exceptionally soft (more so than Dempsey's, I would argue). While I wouldn't encourage the US to take either of these teams lightly, I didn't come away from this match thinking that either team had a shot to come out of the group. The media has been making a big deal about how the US wanted a goalless draw here and how now Slovenia are atop the group... um, who cares? If the US beat Slovenia and Algeria - and based on the level of play in this game they should do so handily if playing like they're capable of doing - the result here is completely irrelevant. Slovenia can't advance with just three points, so maybe wait until they're threatening to draw (or somehow beat) the US or England before we talk about how Slovenia might advance. To me this game did nothing but solidify the status of the US and England as favorites to advance.

Ghana 1-0 Serbia

A completely deserved result in my book. For a long time I was worried this game was headed for nil-nil, which would have been a real shame; I think the nil-nil draw is one of the things about soccer that the average American sees and just turns up their nose at. Ties are bad enough, but the game ended without anyone scoring? And yet with the possible exception of USA-England, I didn't see a better end-to-end game in the first three days of the tournament. While I love the World Cup, its high-stakes nature - even in the group stage, a single loss is often devastating to your chances of advancing - means that a lot of teams often play cautiously, especially in their openers, spending a lot of time in the midfield while looking for openings to attack. Serbia and Ghana, meanwhile, were flying up and down the pitch from the word go. It was a great game to watch and would have been even had no one scored. But then Serbia went down to ten men - deservedly - and amazingly the game got even more exciting as they somehow had many of their best chances in the few minutes after the dismissal. Finally a clear handball in the box earned Ghana a penalty, which they converted. This group is clearly Germany's to win, but if Ghana plays like this against Australia in their next match, I expect they'll be advancing as well.

Germany 4-0 Australia

An absolutely brutal result that probably ended Australia's World Cup just as it was beginning. After a 3-1 loss to the US in a friendly last week, Australia insisted they would be ready for this game, but the Germans absolutely throttled them. Maybe Germany is just that good - but even before Australia actually went down to ten men (via a harsh straight red card to Tim Cahill), they already seemed shorthanded. The Australians seemed to be trying to make regular use of the offside trap, but while it worked a few times on young striker Mesut Özil, Miroslav Klose was too experienced to be fooled, scoring one goal and coming up just short of at least two more. (As someone who watched the US in 2006, trust me - the offside trap is just an awful, negative style of defense, and the soccer gods must hate it because it always breaks down at least once.) While the Germans probably won't be quite this dominant throughout, this was an impressive display and at this point I'd be a bit surprised if they didn't take all nine points. Meanwhile, Australia simply have to win their next two games; with their GD already at -4, winning a tiebreaker will be next to impossible. Assuming Germany win out, Australia could advance by beating Ghana and drawing Serbia, but they're in a big hole early and even allowing for Germany being really, really good, the Australia I saw today will be hard-pressed to beat anyone, especially after the display that Ghana and Serbia put on.

With work back on tomorrow, here are the games I expect to be able to watch live this week:

Monday: Netherlands v. Denmark
Tuesday: New Zealand v. Slovakia
Wednesday: Honduras v. Chile
Thursday: Argentina v. South Korea
Friday: Germany v. Serbia; Slovenia v. United States
Saturday: Netherlands v. Japan; Ghana v. Australia; part of Cameroon v. Denmark
Sunday: Slovakia v. Paraguay

Not a ton of winners in there, though I think Netherlands-Denmark should be a good tilt, Argentina-South Korea has real potential, I'm of course looking forward to the US game, and Ghana-Australia could be good if Australia wake up. I will make an effort to "live blog" at least some of these games.