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FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

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FOOTBALL SHIFTS TO TWITTER

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FIFA WORLD CUP 2010: Round One Match Round Up

COMING UP

15th June

Group E

New Zealand vs. Slovakia - 5:00pm (India Time)

Group F

Côte d’Ivoire vs. Portugal - 7:30pm (India Time)

16th June

Brazil vs. North Korea - 12:00am (India Time)

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Let's look at the results and standings of all the weekend matches. Goal keeping errors are proving costly as England and Algeria found out.

  

GROUP C, June 12

England vs USA: 1:1

Algeria vs Slovenia: 0:1

Slovenia find themselves at the top of the table after the first bout of matches. England losing their lead to a goal keeper's error and not finding it again. Slovenia also benefited from lopsided goalkeeping to register their first ever win in a FIFA World Cup. 

GROUP D, June 13

Ghana vs Serbia: 1:0

Germany vs Australia: 4:0

Ghana won a penalty in a listless match to get through, while Germany sparkled with brilliant short passes to find the net four times, Australia had no answer to such brilliance.   

GROUP E, June 14

Netherlands vs Denmark: 2-0  

Japan vs Cameroon: 1-0

The 'group of death' saw emphatic victories been scored, now it is up to Denmark and Cameroon to make it tighter for the top teams. 

GROUP E, June 14

Italy vs Paraguay: 1:1 

In the most enthralling encounter of the World Cup so far, Paraguay might well have stunned the defending champions if not for (yet another!)  a goalie error that allowed Italy to level in the second half. Both teams kept at each other till the final whistle, the passing - quick, the pace, electric.    

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010:Victory eludes Group A on Day One, Group B latest

GROUP B, June 12

Korea vs Greece - 2-0

at the time of posting
Argentina lead Nigeria - 1-0

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GROUP A, June 11

South Africa vs Mexico : 1-1
France vs Uruguay :  0-0

Stuck up in a pouring monsoon shower and returning drenched to a home without electricity I missed the verve of the first match. A blog correspondent, so totally dependent on the television for coverage, has his limitations. Then, France played a lacklustre game against an average Uruguay. It took the entry of Thierry Henry as a substituiton in the 77th minute for France to spur them into action but it was too late by then. As the table stands for now - South Africa lead due to the goals scores, France and Uruguay trail. The next two matches become equally vital for each team now.   

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010: DAY 1 and GROUP A PREVIEW

 

As every fan would know, two teams from each of the eight groups would go ahead to Round 2 (16 out of 32). One look at Group A tells us it could go anyway.

GROUP A MATCHES  

Today
South Africa vs Mexico 19: 25 hours
France vs Uruguay 23:30 hours

Pre-match brief
Mexico are fancied against the underrated hosts in the inaugural match , but playing at home may just spur the home side on. The 2006 runners-up France may seem like an ageing side, but then so was it in the last edition, and can't be taken lightly - Zidane magic or not. Uruguay, on the other hand, may not boast of classy players on paper, but they are no pushovers either. Expect a tough contest.   

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Other GROUP A Fixtures

16/6/2010
South Africa vs Uruguay 23:55 hours   

17/6/2010
France vs Mexico  23:55 hours

22/6/2010
Mexico vs Uruguay 19:25 hours  
France vs South Africa 19:25 hours  

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010: FLASHBACK CAPSULE

Soccer fever is on the high and I couldn't escape its joy net too. So, have been catching up with various magazine specials like our very own Sportstar and the Indian edition of Sports Illustrated. In this post let me give you a brief about the first ever FIFA* World cup held in 1930.

WORLD CUP, 1930 
Only 13 teams participated in the 1930 World Cup held at Uruguay; most teams from Europe skipping the event because of the long, exhausting and extravagant sea journey it involved. Even as the host and defending Olympic champion Uruguay crashed horns with Argentina in the final, feelings ran high. There were now no doubt that the tournament had captured the public imagination. Jean Langenus, the Belgian referee for the final, who agreed to be part of the match just hours before game commencement, had a boat ready at a harbour close to the match venue, if things went awry. He didn't have to worry as Uruguay romped to a 4-2 win. Another feature of the final was that it was played with two different balls in the either half. Argentina bought the ball for the first half, the hosts picked one for the second.

FIRST GOAL
The first goal of the tournament is still remembered, scored as if was by Lucien Laurent, a Frenchman, against Mexico, a match that France won 4-1. Laurent, speaking of it later, talked of snow that fell during the match. He also mentioned how muted the celebrations were then, "Everyone was pleased but we didn't all roll around on the ground - nobody realised that history was being made. A quick handshake and we got on with the game. And no bonus either; we were all amateurs in those days, right to the end."   
      

Footnote
*International Federation of Association Football (French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association), thus FIFA. An international governing body of association football - headquartered at Zürich, Switzerland with 208 'member associations'. Responsible for organization and governance of  major international football tournaments, most notably the FIFA World Cup.

Movie Review: INVICTUS: Nelson Mandela and the courage to forgive

Clint Eastwood's latest directorial venture is an entertaining portrait of Nelson Mandela's initial days as President of South Africa - and what a time it was! Leading a nation - "balancing black aspirations with white fears" and confronted with rising crime, Mandela plays a gamble by backing the National Rugby team - still considered in 1994 especially by many blacks, to be a symbol of apartheid. The team is not doing great either, plunging to defeat after defeat. With the Rugby World Cup (South Africa been the host nation) barely a year away, Mandela calls upon the team captain and asks him, without actually saying it, of a service - to win the 1995 World Cup. His hope, it seems, is that the entire nation will be united and inspired if this occurs. 

Invictus - after a poem that inspired Mandela during his 27-year long ordeal in prison, may seem to be another underdog story, but it is more about the courage to change and forgive, about taking that big risk to bring together a nation. It is about Nelson Mandela, played so lovably by Morgan Freeman, while Matt Damon is competent as the Rugby team captain.

Watch it to know more about Nelson Mandela, and how he and a rugby team inspired a nation. A good watch - to think that it all really happened...

Other threads

Mandela's 'mixed' security personnel, his separated family, Damon's sceptical father and a little exaggerated part about the little poor boy.

Here is the poem INVICTUS written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley

Invictus 

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

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Movie Review: ZULU (1964)

It really happened...

1879, Africa

An Anglo-Zulu war is brimming. After the massacre of more than 1,500 British soldiers at the Battle of Isandlwana by 20,000 Zulu warriors, a 4000-strong Zulu group heads to annihilate Rorke's Drift, a small English Army station comprising of 140-odd soldiers. The breathless drama that ensues in the movie adaptation of this battle makes for a lively Sunday evening at home.