A tale of two Soap Operas

So the 2nd day of the tournament has past and what a day it was. A day full of incident and a day that will be dominated by one incident. But more of that later.

The Day began with the South Koreans against the ex European Champions and overly defensive Greeks. I decided to go and play pitch n putt in St Anne's Park, because one cannot sit in front of the TV all day watching football can they. From catching the end of the game and seeing the goals it seems that Greece have kept all of the bad parts of their Euro 2004 victory (lack of creativity) and got rid of any of the good ones (good organisation and set pieces etc ). The South Koreans from the highlights looked to be very organised and played with plenty of energy. They have now put themselves in a good position to qualify and I would fancy them against Nigeria.

On to the next game and it was the turn of Argentina and the soap opera that is the Argentinian team managed by Diego Maradona. They lined up with huge attacking threat in Messi, Tevez and Higuain and the player of the Portuguese season Di Maria and a favourite of many Championship Manager player. However there was also the prospect of the Newcastle left playing at right back for Argentina and an ageing Veron in central midfield. Questions marks were also raised about Maradona's lack of tactical nous and thatit would be exposed by managers at the highest level.

However I must say I was very impressed with Argentina in the first half, they kept the ball brilliantly and defied all the critics who said they would play route one and bypass the midfield. They did something that is going to be very important with the altitude conditions which was keep the ball for long periods of time. They also created chances time and time again but they could not finish Nigeria off. The more the game went on the more it looked as if Nigeria may sneak a late and undeserved goal. Thankfully for all of the Argentinians in Thomas Reads pub in Dublin, this did not happen and they could party their night away.

From one soap opera to another. A well known Irish comedian by the name of Karl Spain says that watching England at a World Cup is a lot like watching a re run of Only Fools and Horses, we know the joke but still can't stop ourselves from pissing ourselves laughing when it happens. Again it happened tonight. England started with all the hope and pomp behind them as if they were going to channel the pressure to produce a positive outcome. A well worked goal created by the much maligned Emile Heskey and converted by the recent England Captain Stephen Gerrard gave them the perfect start. From then on, they produced the same type of performance that they did in 2006. All of the people who said that Gerrard and Lampard can play together in central midfield were proven once again to be wrong. Basically neither of them are central midfielders, both of them are more support strikers than then they are classic central midfielders. As a result England gave the ball away time and time again. Predictably England resorted to long balls up to Heskey and could not control the game. Although the goal they conceded was a freak it was deserved on the run of play. Many people have underestimated this American team but they once gain showed that at this level they will cause problems for the top teams like they did last year at the Confederations Cup.

If England think the only issue tonight is that their goal keeper made a mistake, they have no hope in the tournament. If they recognise that a central midfield of Lampard and Gerrard has no future, then they may go on to do something but there also looks to be issues at the back where King's lack of fitness and Carragher's lack of pace rose their heads again.

Oh and to finish on one quiz question, name the player who's mistakes led to more goals than anybody else's last season in the English Premiership.


The answer Robert Green.