IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL PLAYERS: What goes on tour doesn't necessarily stay on tour - especially when I'm here to document the action. So be careful on the field or you could be shamed in my next post!
So far, not a single match has been played in the World Cup without at least one player getting booked, and already, Tim Cahill of Australia has been given a straight red card and three more players have been sent off after two cautions in the same game - Nicolas Lodeiro from Uruguay, Abelkader Ghezzal from Algeria, and Aleksandar Lukovic from Serbia. This World Cup is turning out to be just like four years ago in Germany when there were several discipline problems even when you take Zidane's share of the cards out of the equation.
Although South Africa wasn't playing, the deafening vuvuzelas still were. But enough about those eardrum-bursters.
One of today's matches was between Algeria and Slovenia. The first to get booked was Slovenian player Aleksandar Radosavljevic who pushed an Algerian player in the back during a tackle in the 35th minute. The next entry in the ref's notebook was Algerian substitute Abelkader Ghezzal who tugged on a Slovenian player's shirt in a tackle shortly after he came on in the 59th minute. He deliberately handballed in the 73rd minute and was sent off (unlike that filthy Maradona when the goal counted in 1986). Komac (playing for Slovenia) and Yebda (playing for Algeria) got booked in injury time. Although there were bookings, there were no goals for either team until Slovenian skipper Robert Koren scored in the 79th minute. Final score was 1-0 to Slovenia and it was their first ever win during a World Cup game.
Another Former Yugoslavia - Africa pair was found later in Serbia (whose shirts look like the Danish flag despite the fact that many Serbians are Orthodox and many Danes are Protestant but then again both denominations broke communion with the Catholic Church) and Ghana. The game was not without several bookings, and again, the red card was shown. Ghana scored the only goal in the match after a penalty for a handball in the 84th minute, which also resulted in a yellow card for one of Serbia's eleven.
Next up, the Soccerroos took on Germany, who hosted the last competition in 2006. Lukas Podolski is the quickest scorer so far, having scored a goal in the eighth minute of the first half. Germany also got the first booking when Mesot Oezil dived three minutes later. Next in the book was Soccerroo Craig Moore, who protested a free kick given against him for a handball in the 21st minute, for which I believe the referee should have just yellow-carded in the first place. Tim Cahill, playing for the Soccerroos, got the first straight red card of the tournament during a tackle in the 56th minute. But that wasn't the end of the card trail for that match, for which the final score was 4-0, the most goals I've seen so far. Being a Kiwi, I definitely enjoyed watching Australia being humiliated by three-time champions and two-time hosts Germany and I can't wait for the All Whites to cream Slovakia.
But it's not just the soccer that I have to call to attention. The commentators mentioned that Brazil's first game was against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea when just North Korea would have sufficed. I would not have referred to North Korea as democratic when it clearly isn't. And why is North Korea even playing in the World Cup? I know it's wrong to mix sport with politics, but FIFA should have just Karcherized Kim Jong-Il's regime and enforced an agreement similar to the Gleneagles agreement which was used by the British Commonwealth against South Africa during the apartheid era.
No comments:
Post a Comment