And the teams are as undisciplined as ever. We revisit the hosts of the current tournament, South Africa, as they face Uruguay, who hosted the first ever tournament back in 1930. In the first tournament, only four European nations could make it: France, Belgium, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Of these, only France has made it this year and Serbia is in the Former Yugoslavia, but at least there are more European teams.
Nicolas Lodeiro couldn't come due to his being sent off in the last match but the noisy vuvuzelas could. Speaking of poor discipline on the field, Steven Pienaar (not related to former Springboks captain Francois Pienaar) was the recipient of the second fastest booking in the current tournament to date, having received a yellow card during the 6th minute. Discipline-wise, several players were cautioned along with one receiving a straight red card. Score-wise, Uruguay won 3-0, endangering South Africa's chances of making it to the Round of 16.
Next up, Argentina took on South Korea; the latter got the first two yellow cards of the match and scored an own goal for which the player responsible risks being shot if South Korea don't make it past the group stage. Argentina won 4-1, and Gonzalo Higuain scored the first hat trick (that's when the same person scores three goals in the same game) of the tournament. A total of 5 players were booked.
Afterwards, Greece took on Nigeria, whose name sounds suspiciously like a racial slur. While the advance-fee fraud didn't quite make it to Bloemfontein, the cards did, and they turned up 4 yellows and a direct red. Greece won 2-1. Then, Mexico beat former champions France 2-0, and the ref had to show the yellow card a whopping six times!
That's 20 games down - that's right, I've watched 20 games of soccer in less than a week and every match has featured at least one booking.
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