World Cup 2010 Day 3, A Brief Recap

Algeria 0-1 Slovenia
Robert Koren (79′)

The first half featured a bevy of giveaways that suggested two nervous and/or weak teams. The second half was slightly better but seemed to be going nowhere. It featured the Algerian Ghezzal being sent off after a second yellow. Just as the earlier feeling of the game ending as a tie was about to materialize Chaouchi let a not too powerful shot go in. He failed to block and the ball almost went through him.

Serbia 0-1 Ghana
Asamoah Gyan (pen 84′)

Ghana missing Essien were intriguing to watch. Both teams showed some tactical ability and were somewhat cancelling each other out. The second half saw more chances. Krasic, Zigic and Jovanovic had acceptable but not great games and on the Ghanaian side Asamoah Gyan was doing well. Another second yellow game incident saw Lukovic out at the 74th minute. And again the game seemed to be heading for a scoreless tie when Kuzmanovic handled the ball needlessly in the box. It resulted in the only goal of the game. Not for the first time Serbia did not help their own cause.

Germany 4-0 Australia
Lukas Podolski (8′) Miroslav Klose (26′) Thomas Muller (67′) Cacau (70′)

The young Germans were their steely selves and at least for this opening game not only kept their nerves but were disciplined and executed well. The Socceroos were poor in dealing with the superiority of the midfield and offense of the Germans and were time and again running to cover raids by Podolski, Muller and Ozil. Tim Cahill was sent off with a straight red in a somewhat questionable call but nevertheless Australia mustered few and far between chances and Neuer, in the German goal, did not have a difficult night.

Comments

One response to “World Cup 2010 Day 3, A Brief Recap”

  1. World Cup 2010 Day 3, A Brief Recap…

    I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.