The second day of the World Cup in South Africa was a busy one from the Red point of view. There was Soto’s Greece, Maxi’s & Masch’s Argentina and of course there were our Three Red Lions’ (Stevie, Jaime and Glen) England in their WC opening matches.
South Korea – Greece 2:0
Sotirios Kyrgiakos didn’t participate in this match as he was left on the bench by the German coach Otto Rehhagel who regrets it a bit now, I suppose. Soto may not be the fastest but he’d add some confidence to the game.
Greece was very, very poor. I barely could watch the match. They didn’t even look like they we’re trying. Playing like they we’re 2-0 up. Simply had no response to the goals, and no attempt to liven the game up with any imagination. Barely look bothered to be on the world stage. In the last 20 minutes of the match they tried to take chances and play a bit more aggressive, but it did not help anymore. The played to defensive for to long and there was not enough time, confidence and chances to change the result.
South Korea did a fantastic job and won merited. They also were the first winners of the young tournament.
Gutted for Soto.
The second match of the day was Argentina – Nigeria 1:0
Our Javier captained his Argentina into a 1:0 win over an not bad Nigeria. Masch led his amigos very well, conducted them wise from behind and did not do any mistakes.
And cuddled with Diego Maradona afterwards ….
Maxi Rodriguez started the game on the bench and came on in the 73’ minute. He played short but very vital, effective and with great commitment. With Lionel Messi he was able to create a few goal chances and two good assists. Great effort by Maxi.
And he also cuddled with Maradona afterwards …
It was a good match: intense, fast, exciting, with a lot of running, lot of scoring chances and … a lot of Diego Maradona. It was a superb performance be the Nigerian team who defended well and only made a couple of mistakes, but couldn’t keep up with the much stronger Argentina. In the end there were so exhausted they were barely moving. And they didn’t cuddle with Maradona …
Well done by Masch and Maxi. Keep up the good work, lads!
And then there was England – USA which ended with a 1:1 draw.
Superb and early goal by our Captain Fantastic Steven Gerrard helped England to the 1:1 draw against the very good American side. Not a bad result for an opening game by any means, but manner of performance far from convincing. It was a surprisingly tough one. England had many chances to score, though they couldn’t get the ball in.
Glen Johnson was also involved throughout, while Jamie Carragher was introduced at half-time. Both performed brilliantly (especially Glen) and with a lot of passion, commitment and toil. Glen even had scoring chance but unfortunately the ball missed the opposite side’s goal. But without any doubts Stevie G. is the MOM not only because he scored the only goal, but because of his terrific job (despite the booking). In the pub, where I was watching the match, he earned standing ovations which obviously made me feel proud of our Liverpool captain. I could only feel proud after our lad’s performance. Every KOPite should!
England’s next match is on Friday against Algeria and I hope there’s more to come!
As I tweeted after Stevie’s goal, in my relatively short career as a Liverpool fan, I’ve never been prouder than at that moment. :)
Yeah. :-D I can’t even describe this feeling when I was watching him leading the team on the pitch :-D
Can the writers on this site stop using “gutted” before it becomes meaningless? You’ve already driven YNWA into the ground, let’s practice some quality control, folks.
Did I miss something? What “many chances to score” for England are you talking about? Apart from opening goal I remember just one clear chance squandered by Heskey…
STEVIE G CAPTAIN FANTASTIC!!!!
One?? I noticed more, mate ….
The reason why Masch never mad mistakes as because he 1. never had much to do, and 2. wasnt exactly playing top notch opposition. I was at the Argentina/Nigeria game and trust me, after a good first half I was falling asleep in the second half. You therefore cannot make accurate judgements on either Masch or Maxi. It would be skewed!
I was seasted close behind the goals, and that Nigerian keeper Enyeemba was fantastic- not only his saves but his positional sense was superb. Would make an excellent back up to Pepe