As the World Cup started I agreed on a (slightly bold and rushed) statement with my housemate: ‘if England don’t win the World Cup it’ll be down to the players and not the coach’ – that statement doesn’t stand so true anymore. After the USA game I attacked the England players individually with some player ratings. Post-Algeria I don’t see any point to individual assessment. Everyone was poor. The team must be examined as just that – a team.
Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuaín scored the first hat-trick of the World Cup as Diego Maradona’s Argentina overcame South Korea in Soccer City today. Argentina went 2-0 with goals through Higuaín and an own goal from Park, CY. However Argentina notched their first goal from open play as Higuaín scored his second and third from moves inspired by Ballon D’Or winner Lionel Messi and Maradona’s son in law Sergio Agüero.
We all know that opinions after games or certain decisions made are often divided but why is it that one group of people often think so differently to another? We are going to be asking your views over the next three weeks in the form of a handful of 60 second questionnaires. At the end of the World Cup, one participant will be selected at random to win £100 as a thank you for providing their insight.
World cup winner and Brazilian coach Dunga believes his side are capable of so much more after a nervy 2-1 victory of minnows North Korea. The five times World Champions found it tough going against a side that have only qualified for one finals before, over forty years ago. Korea lined up in a 5-4-1 formation, although did counter attack well at times in the first half.
Following England’s draw with the USA last Saturday, WCS blogger Doron has put together a number of player ratings, where 1 is the worst, 10 is the best and 6 is your average solid performance. England will be hoping to get their World Cup hopes back on track when they play Algeria this Friday.
So England drew and collectively, a country groaned. Surprisingly the spark amongst the rubbish on show was Emile Heskey and not Wayne Rooney. I will argue that Heskey should not start England’s next game. I am no scout, I know very little about how Algeria play and therefore I am not considering that they may have a 4ft centre back who Heskey would dominate. I am writing this purely as an England fan who wants to see the England team do as well as possible and believes that in order to achieve this, Wayne Rooney is central to English plans.
So with the World Cup kicking off later today I thought I would stick my neck out and make some predictions (which I should point out, usually turn out to be very very wrong!). Also, if you are interested in finding out when the World Cup is on the TV you can check out the following World Cup TV Listings Guide.
The Fiorentina and Italian play maker Riccardo Montolivo believes he is the ideal replacement for Andrea Pirlo, who will miss the early stages of the tournament through injury. The AC Milan deep lying play maker is set to miss the Italy’s opening two group games against Paraguay and New Zealand after injuring his calf muscle in a recent friendly against Mexico. Italy are the defending World Champions and will be aiming on July 11th to reach a joint record five World Cup titles – currently held by Brazil.
Having already seen key striker, Marco Streller withdraw from the World Cup, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld now has a new concern. Captain, Alexander Frei injured his ankle in training after a tackle from Steve von Bergen. He has been sent for a scan so the extent of the injury can be conduced.
You are currently browsing the archives for the World Cup category.
