South Korea vs Greece: Korean speed impressed Greek defense depressed

Well saw the match a day later. The only world class player on the field was Ji Sung Park (Man U winger) and stood out on the pitch head and shoulders above the rest. The Greek team made two elementary defensive blunders which resulted in both the goals. The finishing of the second goal by Park was absolutely clinical. The koreans attacked with a sense of purpose and troubled the Greeks with their speed. The 2004 European champions looked like a shadow of the team they were in 2004 European Championships especially their defense which was so organized back then.

France vs Uruguay : Technically sound visually boring

The headline says it all. French controlled the game most of the time yet apart from Ribery (who was a standout) none of the other French players seemed to have much purpose on the pitch. Two players were especially lackluster, Gourcuff and Govou. Govou is a disgrace to the No. 10 jersey worn with such elan by the likes of Zidane and Platini. Gourcuff and Govou were an integral part of each attack that the French made and these kept giving the ball way. Uruguay, apart from Forlan and an organized defense didn't have much to offer but they were helped along by those two and their organized was rarely challenged by the French. All of this culminated in a boring match though technically sound one with astute defending from Uruguay and some show of class from Ribery. The match had only two clear cut chances, one wasted by Govou in the first half and the other by Forlan in the second half.

Great start to the CUP!

Well we expected a good first match; we got a great one. Both South Africa and Mexico played out an absolute thriller. Not a goal scoring thriller, mind you, but a football match is mostly measured by the number of chances each team produces and both teams produced chances aplenty. Both teams played aggressively wanting to win which is the way The Beautiful Game needs to be played. Both teams were however found out at the quality of (or rather the lack of) marksmenship and several chances were gone a begging. Though Mexico had the better of the ball possession South Africa had the better of the chances. Mexico played in their traditional; short passes interspersed with the odd long pass approach, while South Africa played like teams of the English Premier League; long passes, very quick counter attack and ran very fast when they had the ball. Rafael Marquez's late equalizer and the rebound of the left post in the dying minutes of the match must have broken millions of South African hearts. Anyway football was the winner and we eagerly wait for the next match which can be another potential cracker (may be boring as well as France, like Italy are slow starters) between two former World Cup Champions France and Uruguay.