Source: FOOTYMAD
Spoiling The Party! - Little Boy Blue's World Cup Diary
June 16: Day Six South Africa got this World Cup going with a spirited showing in their opener against Mexico to give us a game which suggested we were in for a classic tournament. Unfortunately, subsequent matches have failed to live up to expectations so all eyes were on the hosts tonight to breathe new life into the competition and, with Uruguay also doing their bit, the second round of games got off to an encouraging start. The Uruguayans must have felt that the whole world was against them. As if a partizan home crowd wasn't bad enough, most neutrals were behind South Africa knowing a successful host nation tends to lift the World Cup but Uruguay were up for the battle and took the game to their opponents. And Diego Forlan, who was red-hot going into tournament, stunned everyone midway through the first half with a 25-yard shot which struck Mokoena and looped over keeper Khune and into the net. Over the years Uruguay have earned a reputation as great spoilers. Now we would see what Bafana Bafana were made of. Earlier in the day, having been bored to tears by so much of what I've watched this week, I was tempted to body-swerve Chile v Honduras and go to the pub but the prospect of checking out Georgie Welcome was meant to keep me indoors. So with the man reported to be on Rangers' radar stuck on the bench, the Letham Hotel did indeed get the benefit of my hard-earned. With one eye on the TV screen while discussing other fitba matters, it was clear both sides were capable of knocking the ball around cleverly enough but Chile always looked the team more likely to make something happen. Eleven minutes before the interval Mauricio Isla got behind the defence and his low cut-back was knocked in by Jean Beausejour to give the Chileans the lead they deserved but, just short of the hour mark, Welcome replaced Carlos Pavon and suddenly the game had my undivided attention. Before the sub could get a touch of the ball, Alexis Sanchez had a great chance to score Chile's second but shot wide when he really should have hit the target, then the wonderfully named Waldo Ponce had a header from just two yards out blocked by the keeper. Georgie Welcome certainly looked like he has a physical presence and the word from the commentary box was that his pace was capable of troubling the Chileans. Unfortunately, he didn't see too much of the ball, he got in one shot which was well offf target, so I think we'll just have to reserve judgement on Georgie for now. Chile were worthy of more than their 1-0 win and will go into next Monday's game against Switzerland brimming over with confidence. Spain and Switzerland were the last two nations to open their World Cup campaign but, where I would normally have had the Spanish down as surefire winners, everything that has gone before made me less than certain. And that is how it turned out. Spain battered the Swiss in the first half but couldn't turn their superiority into goals. Doubts about Fernando Torres' fitness saw him stuck on the bench but, with David Villa and David Silva firing blanks, he was sure to get the call sooner rather than later. It became a matter of some urgency after 52 minutes when Gelson Fernandes fired Switzerland ahead. Eren Derdiyok led a swift counterattack, Iker Casillas managed to halt him in his tracks but, with the defence all over the place, Fernandes followed up to bundle the ball into the net from close range. Enter Torres... The Liverpool man curled a shot over the top, then his former club-mate Xabi Alonso smashed a piledriver off the crossbar as the European Champions heaped on the pressure. Yet they should have been dead and buried when more good work from Derdiyok looked like delivering the second goal, only for the ball to rebound from the post. Suddenly the patient pass and move football which has been such a feature of Spanish football (especially at Barcelona) was becoming more desperate and, with more and more players being committed forward, the Swiss were always dangerous on the break. Just when it looked like the game was up, the fourth official indicated five minutes of stoppage time to give Spain some hope but they lacked the craft to break down the Swiss and, with Torres clearly less than 100% fit, it just didn't happen for them. The significance of this result is that failure to win Group H could put the Spaniards on a collision course with Brazil in the first knock-out round. With Forlan's strike still separating South Africa and Uruguay at half-time, the home team were, to all intents and purposes, playing for their World Cup future in the second half. Completing their group fixtures against France next Tuesday, they needed to take something from tonight's game but the South Americans showed little sign of surrendering the initiative. Indeed, on several occasions they looked like adding to their lead. Fifteen minutes from the end the roof caved in on the Africans. Keeper Khune clipped Suarez as the striker went round him, a penalty kick and a red card, and Forlan fairly hammered the spot kick high past sub goalie Josephs. Goodnight and goodbye Bafana Bafana! Alvara Pereira's injury time header merely rubbed salt into the hosts' wounds. I suppose South Africa could still get through, especially if France and Mexico draw tomorrow night. Victory over the French next week would mean that any result other than a Mexican win over Uruguay would maintain home interest. But it is a very long shot. Tomorrow: Argentina v South Korea, Nigeria v Greece, France v Mexico.
