June 12th in Review

Korea holds a kimchi making class

The Greek team was reduced to garlicky cold cabbage by an organized and effective Korea.

The Korean national team, worked, ran created. Be warned, Korea looked very good indeed as they beat Greece 2-0 with a margin that could have been greater. Park Ji Sung's goal as he stole the ball and scored against a very error-prone Kyrgiakos-less Greek defence. Otto Rehhagel looked weak today, as he deployed a defensive team against the weakest opponents in his group and lost big.

 Still, Argentina and Nigeria today looked the two best teams in the Group.

Argentina flares then fizzles against organized Nigeria.

Argentina was lucky to earn a 1-0 win over an impressive Nigerian team. Lagerback was obviously the best of the two coaches after the Argentine had trashed talked him all week in press conferences. Playing Jonas Guttierez in right defense was dangerously exploited by Nigeria who looked like restoring the parity or even winning for parts of the match.

Messi was tired, but played brilliantly for flashes of it, Tevez was fine, Veron looked out of sorts.

Maradona looks to have made selection mistakes that will cost his team later in the tournament, if Nigeria play as they did today they will qualify out of the group. Vincent Enyeama was deservedly man of the match with several exceptional saves.

Americans nearly beat mild England and a Robert Green flapper


A hard working American side earned a 1-1 draw due to a Clint Dempsey shot that Robert Green flappered into the English net, continuing a long tradition of English goalkeeper mistakes. Otherwise Wayne Rooney looked dormant, Frank Lampard present for about 10 minutes of the game and Shaun Wright Philipps, Glen Johnson and Stevie Gerrard created much danger to the Americans but a brilliant Tim Howard stopped all except the first effort.

Tim Howard deservedly received man of the match.