World Cup Update
8:01 AM
France Korea - 1 - 1. (Henry, can't remember)I fell asleep so I can't say much. Except that it's not riveting. It could have been the time of day, but from reports France hasn't been riveting. I'm not particularly impressed by Korea either. I think that Japan's a lot more pleasurable to watch but they made too many mistakes, which is too bad. Also, they've got Brazil to contend with, and the toughest in Group G looks like France who's not being too tough right now, or Switzerland, which is still not in the class of Brazil. maybe Australia-class, or a bit better or worse, depending on the day.
Suisse vs Togo - 2 - 0.
Togo doesn't have the experience Suisse do, according to comments, but they're not half bad either, putting up a decent fight. Their striking's almost on par with Suisse, they worried Suisse quite a bit. But I think the biggest difference is the defence. Suisse defense is rock solid, they converge on Togo players like nothing and it's scary to watch. It's almost pitiful. It's as rock solid as Czech in the previous match.
But they did try.
Now Suisse having had one win and one draw will be on the same level as Korea, the two of them taking the top 2 places. France, having had 2 draws will be third, and Togo will be fourth with 2 losses. If France is going to have a difficult time now. If they want to make it to the final 16, they'll have to hope that either Swiss or Korea will lose by at least one goal and they have to win by at least 2 goals at Togo. Togo, even if they win France, cannot help but deal with 2 losses so the most they can do is move to the third placing, having been beaten by both the Koreans and Swiss. But looking at France's condition they might actually make the French struggle a bit. France is just not gelling properly yet. Yet? Can they ever do it?
Later, it's Saudi Arabia vs Ukraine. Saudi's gotta win this one if they want to secure second placing, having drawn against Tunisia previously. Ukraine having been whipped 6 - 0 suffer from disgusting GD disadvantage and they'll need a similar spectacular win to neutralise this.
Spain will play tunisia. Spain can afford to draw, but Tunisia will need to win. But I think Spain seems to be rather goal-hungry - that's a good thing - we'll see whether Spain is really that good, or Ukraine is really that bad. But Saudis cannot afford to underestimate Ukraine. It will lead to many bad mistakes.
After these two matches, we'll be going through the last round of playoffs before the final 16 are decided. Stay tuned! till then.