Day 5 - Dead, or Alive?

A quick mention for New Zealand in group F. Well done!

Onto group G (lol – I’ll chat about it later ^^). The so-called "Group Of Death"!!!! Grrrr! Firstly, I'm not sure how I should feel about North Korea being in the Group Of Death. Not when Portugal (and therefore, I) is/am - in there with them. And especially not after seeing Jong Tae Se's performance - who incidentally, cried during the playing of his national anthem - and the way he spearheaded the North Korean attack throughout.

The Brazil vs North Korea was a nice way to conclude the opening matches of Group G and it has to be said that, much like in '66, the Korean's have surprised a good few people. Now, many players show fighting talk before their games. It's obvious; you want to come across as confidently as possible. But NK's 'fighting talk' always makes you a little worried. "We will destroy all of our opponents" they said. Hmm... You have to wonder what they will destroy if they don't win their matches!

Anyway, to be fair, that comment could have been misquoted, although, to be equally fair, their track record doesn't help them all that much either.

Still, it must be said that they played a great game and for a while, there even looked like there may very well be one of the biggest upsets in WC history on the cards. That was, until the Brazilian right back, Maicon, popped up with a goal of sweet Brazilian class. One of those goals that makes people ask "But, did he really mean it?"

You know that when you ask a question like that, that if he did mean it, the goal was pure genius. Running and stretching down to the bye-line, his shot was hit with perfect swerve to nick in between the post and the keeper. 95% of players would have tried to push that back into the box for someone else to tap in... but because he's a Brazilian full back…

Finally Brazil got a hold of the game and when Robinho angled a delightful pass, through the defense to Elano, the game was effectively over when the midfielder tucked his shot away into the bottom right corner.

North Korea did have one last go and scored a great goal through Ji Yun Nam but it was too little, too late. Still, for a team over 100 places below the 5-times World Champions they should not feel bad about coming away with a result like that.

In the other game... O dear. What can I say about the other game ...*buries his head in his hands*... In the other game, Portugal and the Ivory Coast drew in an intense (for me, anyway) but ultimately, largely disappointing game.

I'm not exactly sure which game the Portuguese press was watching, but it sure as hell didn't seem to be the same one I watched. Maybe I just blinked at important moments but, the way I saw it, Portugal were very lucky to come away from it with a draw.

One newspaper decided it would be good to say that the Portuguese "ran more" than their opponents. Apparently they ran a total of 109 673 metres, just over 4km's more then the Ivory Coast’s players. Ermm... So What???! Heck. Maybe that's cus they were chasing the ball more.

They also pointed out that they had more shots at goal (7-5) and that they hit the target more (2-1). You wouldn't have thought it though. Watching this match was utterly annoying from my point of view and Deco was the only one to really echo those thoughts afterwards.

Claiming he didn't like the position he was being played in (right mid - a position he's never played in his whole career), he openly criticized Queiroz's tactics, stating that their "long ball and direct play", suited the Ivorian's just fine. So, at the end of the match, when Queiroz said he thought Portugal were the better side and were the ones who were unlucky to find an Ivory Coast sitting back and "waiting for the Portuguese mistake", I couldn't quite believe it!

Seriously? I mean, was I indeed watching the wrong match last night??? Please, somebody tell me. Urgghh.

In the end, Ronaldo said "we were unlucky". OK. Maybe he was unlucky, yes. Had his thunderous crack at goal found the net, midway through the first half, instead of just removing some of the paint off the Ivory Coast's post, then maybe we'd have been talking about that goal for years to come and yes, lady luck could have played a part.

But there was nothing unlucky about how well The Elephants played. They were industrious, faster and more skilled than the Portuguese. If the Portuguese play like that against North Korea in next week's match... then I think we'll be the ‘dead’ ones in the Group of Death.

About New Zealand's result, sorry about the joke at the beginning of this blog but I hope you understood my reasons for not wanting to delay my feelings about Portugal ;)

A great match for the All Whites! I have to say I was very happy with that one. Maybe my little bit of bias is coming out here - but still. The first half was a little slow and when Slovakia scored in the second, things didn't look too good.

But credit to the Kiwis, they came back strong and scored through Winston Reid in the 93rd minute. Reid later stated that it was the most important goal of his career. The chap's only 21 so let's hope he gets a few more, eh? Still, very well taken goal and 3 minutes into injury time too. Its the stuff dreams are made off, that's for sure ^^! I guess nobody will blame him for getting booked for removing his shirt after that one (although the fact Shane Smeltz almost pulled the entire team into the moat during the celebration was rather funny!).