Whilst everyone is paying attention to the glorified friendlies/soft opening in South Africa, way up near the opposite end of the globe the U-21 UEFA championships kicked off yesterday. England beat Finland predictably while giants Spain and Germany butted heads to a scoreless draw, but it wasn’t til today when the tournament truly kicked off as hosts Sweden put on a show in front of the home crowd. 5-1 was the final score, including a beautifully technical hat trick from Marcus Berg, and each goal worthy of its own highlight reel. Even Belarus stuck in a couple candidates for goal of the tournament - though the own-goal flicked header from 18 yards probably won’t go down well - proving once again…it’s all about the children.
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Headline of the Day: ‘Horror tackle, lasers and missiles mar Beijing derby’ (ESPN)
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It’s always going to be an uphill battle against the likes of Brazil & Italy. The slope tilts a bit more when going down to ten, which was the case for both Egypt and the USA - despite coming in vastly different circumstances.
Brazil 4-3 Egypt
Brazil got off to their predictably hot Spain-style start, going 3-1 up by half time on the back of some very Brazilian brilliance by Ricky Kaka and some very un-Brazilian standard headers (Luis Fabiano & Juan). Game, right? You’d think so.
But buoyed by a swarm of insect noises, a shocking 60 second surge saw Egypt level things up at 3-3 thruogh Mohamed Shawky (adutioning for a move away from relegated Middlesbrough) and Mohamed Zidan. And that’s how it stayed, until…
…Al Mohamady cleared Pato’s shot off the line in the dying moments, but with his arm. Lying on the floor and pretending his face hrut wasn’t cnovincing Howard Webb, and so it was red card, penalty, Kaka, goal, Brazil win 4-3.
Egypt aren’t taking this lying down though, and have lodged an official complaint about the penalty. Not because it wasn’t handball (hard to deny) but because Egypt feel the decision was made using video evidence. Here’s what Egypt’s assistant coach Gharib Chawki had to say:
“As far as I am aware there is no rule allowing video evidence. We’re not contesting the referee’s decision but the way it was made. Or maybe the rules have changed and nobody has told us.
“Since when do the regulations say there is a penalty which is not blown by the referee? It took three minutes to change the decision while the player was being treated.
“The decision was changed after a statement by the fourth official, after watching the monitor, that it should be a penalty.
Good old Howard Webb, making friends wherever he goes.
Italy 3-1 USA
In the late game, USA and Italy seemed to be reenacting their 1-1 WC 2006 draw in opposite roles when Ricardo Clark was sent off for going in late, high and hard on Rino Gattuso in the 33rd. But surprisingly US pulled the lead through a penalty, won by Jozy Altidore, shortly thereafter.
It all looked roses until the highly controversial Guiseppe Rossi stepped onto the pitch for the Azzurri. Rossi was born to Italian parents who’d recently moved to the US and was thus eligible for the US nat’l team. He moved to Parma early on and signed up to play for the country of his blood, much to the dismay of America. Mere moments after stepping onto the pitch against the country of his birth, Rossi stole the ball, dribbled a bit and unleashed a ripper into the back of the net.
A Daniele De Rossi - some may remember him as the one who was sent off for the bloody skirmish in Germany - bounder and some Pirlo brilliance finished off, once again, by Rossi sealed the 3-1 win and more American hatred for the NJ-native.
So what did we learn today? Red cards = bad.
Confed Cup takes the day of tomorrow, but returns on Wednesday. Full schedule here.
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The 2009 Confederations Cup finally kicked off yesterday in Johannesburg. Highlights of the opening ceremony in the stadium formerly known Ellis Park (now Soda-Pop Park) are above.
Gives us a nice little preview of what the 2010 World Cup will look and feel like, no? And have to say it’s got me more than a little excited. Though not as excited as Sepp Blatter, apparently.
The opening game didn’t quite match the occasion. Hosts South Africa were held 0-0 by a non-too-adventurous Iraq in front of 52,522. It really should have finished 1-0 to Bafana Bafana, but Kagisho Dikgacoi’s 84th minute goalbound header was blocked on the line by Bernard Parker. In case you can’t tell from the name, Parker does not play for Iraq.
“I can’t turn back the hands of time. I’ll just have to put it behind me and focus on our next game. But when the ball hit me, I just wanted to drop dead on the spot. It happens, it’s football.”
Although somewhat predictably, only the sensational part about him wanting to drop dead made the headlines. I wonder what Benni McCarthy - left out of the Confed Cup squad by coach Joel Santana - thinks about South Africa’s failure to score…
Spain found it a lot easier to put ball in net in yesterday’s second Group A game, routing New Zealand 5-0 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg (start learning these stadium names people, you’ll need them next summer) as Fernando Torres helped himself to a 17 minute hat-trick, the fastest in Confederations Cup history:
Cesc Fabregas and David Villa also got on the scoresheet. Plus Spain’s kits looked super-cool, so good day all around for the Spanish.
Only downsides were:
1. Andy Boyens fail to let Villa score (1:30 in the above vid), and
2. Just 21,649 people in a 45,000 seater stadium, despite some tickets costing just $8.75. Too early to worry about World Cup crowds just yet though (because I wouldn’t pay to watch New Zealand play either).
Things get a lot more exciting today, as Group B (the one with the proper teams in it) begins. It’s Brazil vs Egypt in Bloemfontein (4pm local time, 3pm UK time, 10am US Eastern) followed by Italy vs USA in Pretoria (8:30pm local, 7:30pm UK, 2:30pm US Eastern).
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