Miami Herald’s Dan LeBatard has said it over and over about his hometown fans lucky acquiring of the Big Three: “Miami doesn’t deserve this.”

And Dan is right. The city of Miami didn’t deserve to get three of the NBA’s best 15 players. They are a fan base that shows up late, if not infrequently to games. The town itself is not inclined to celebrate, love or appreciate basketball. And the fans would much rather spend their time on South Beach at a party then at American Airlines Arena—and you know what? So would I!

Of all the fan bases in America, Miamians are among the least deserving of a basketball franchise’s instant rise to relevance. And Americans are just as non-deserving of a World Cup winning Women’s Soccer team.

Hell, Americans aren’t deserving of a World Cup-winning soccer team of any gender! We don’t love soccer. We don’t appreciate soccer. And that’s why I don’t feel sorry for the country or myself after watching our women’s team lose to Japan on penalty kicks in the World Cup final.

Sure, at the end of the day, who’s deserving of anything when it comes to the bird’s eye-view relevance of sports? But relative to the support, care and energy other nations put into their soccer teams, Americans are lucky if we deserve to even be in the tournament—never mind win it.

Now, the earnest soccer fan may disagree with me, and rightfully so. After all, he or she as an individual certainly deserves a championship-caliber soccer team if they put forth the kind of passion and energy other top soccer nations do. However, as with the game of soccer, being a fan is a team sport. In the NFL, if your city doesn’t collectively come together to support the team at the stadium with its dollars, you don’t get to watch the game on television. In college basketball arenas across the nation, it’s practically against the law to sit down before the home team scores. And in baseball, if the road team hits a game-defining homerun into the stands, you better throw that damn ball back on to the field and join your fellow fans in booing the home team.

That same team-mentality is required of US soccer fans if they really want to deserve a championship. If Americans want to feel entitled (and we love being entitled!) to a great team every World Cup, every year and every game, then we need to put the same kind of energy into soccer that we put into the NBA and NFL.

Of course, we have been trying to do that for years in America. I actually grew up playing soccer. Among all the organized sports I wound up playing during my childhood, soccer was my first and possibly my best. I love soccer. Or at least I used to. The second I made my Varsity football team in high school and saw the fun, excitement and athletes involved in the sport of football, I abandoned soccer like an open bar that suddenly starts charging for liquor.

So perhaps I do not even deserve to see the USA Women’s team win a soccer championship. Don’t get me wrong, the women on the team deserve to win. They put in the time, energy and effort that’s required of them to do so. But as fans, Americans do not deserve soccer success. We just started paying attention to women’s soccer five minutes ago, and all of a sudden the entire country jumped on the bandwagon—myself included. But bandwagoners do not deserve medals, championships and world bragging rights. That belongs to the faithful, like the Brazilians, the Germans and apparently, the Japanese.

Some of you may view this as treason. Here I am, a “so-called” American, telling the world that America didn’t deserve to see its country’s team win, and you think I’m being un-American in doing so. But you only think that because we were so close. Had we been eliminated two weeks ago, or if we didn’t make the tournament, you wouldn’t even read this article. And that’s understandable, because we don’t really care about soccer, men’s or women’s, in this country.

Now we can get to a point where we do deserve soccer glory. We can start watching soccer on prime time television, going to MLS games and buying Landon Donovan’s jersey instead of Donovan McNabb’s. But until we get there, I will continue to say that we don’t deserve the women’s soccer team we have, never mind the one that won the World Cup in 1999. I wish, hope and even pray we will win despite our lack of allegiance, but as with any other aspect of life, I expect nothing I have yet to earn.

The post "Women’s World Cup: Truth Be Told, We Didn’t Deserve It" was originally published at TSW.

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In the world’s biggest sporting event, the team favored took it all. Spain defeated the Netherlands by a score of 1-0 in extra time to win the World Cup and lay claim to the title of best soccer nation in the world.

The final goal of the World Cup, and the lone goal of the championship game didn’t come until the 116th minute of the match. Andres Inlesta scored off a broken play, in which his teammate found him 15 yards away from the goal, where Inlesta took the volley and belted it right under the outstretched hands of the Netherlands goalkeeper.

All and all, it was a very close match throughout the game, despite the fact that Spain dominated the ball for 57% of the time. However, even that number is slightly skewed, as Spain seemed to hold on to the ball and was less aggressive during the final half hour of the match.

The Netherlands had 5 shots on goal while Spain had 6, with the 6th one being the difference in the game. Both goalkeepers were outstanding all day long, as each keeper had 5 saves, many of them of the 1-on-1 variety on breakaway opportunities for the opposing team.

In fact, it was the Netherlands that had the most 1-on-1 opportunities, including a late one in extra time when the Netherlands Arjen Robben failed to get the ball past the goalkeeper after some physical contact in the box. Spain had earlier opportunities, including one in which the Netherlands goalie came 18 yards out only to barely get a foot on the ball and save what would have been a go-ahead goal for Spain.

This World Cup victory marks the first of its kind for the nation of Spain. David Villa’s five goals during the tournament will make him a part of Spanish lure for a long time to come if not forever.

While Spain enjoys its World Cup victory, Germany’s Thomas Mueller was awarded the World Cup’s Golden Boot, which goes to the high scorer of the tournament. Mueller had six goals in South Africa during the tournament, while Spain’s Villa and the Netherlands Wesley Sneijder each had 5 as the runners up.

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It is becoming painfully obvious that the Germans do not plan on losing out on the World Cup Championship. In a pummeling of the highly regarded Argentinean soccer team, Germany defeated Argentina by a final score of 4-0 in the Quarterfinals of the World Cup.

For the first 68 minutes of the game, the match seemed to be teetering back in forth. Surely, Germany’s early goal in the 3rd minute of the match sent a preliminary message, but Argentina was showing an ability to attack the goal despite the fact they didn’t manage to punch it in the net.

Argentina’s missed opportunities would come back to bit them and would come back to bit them hard. In the 68th minute of the match, Germany’s Miroslav Klose scored a goal to make the count 2-0, Germany. And just minutes later, Arne Friedrich scored his first ever goal in international play against a rather lackluster Argentinean defense that had seemingly given up on the match.

To add insult to injury, Klose would score another goal in the 89th minute, his second goal of the day in what was his 100th international appearance for the German squad.

If you look at everything but the goals, you might have thought that Argentina had won this game. Germany had 18 shots and 6 shots on goal, while Argentina had 20 shots and 7 shots on goal. Argentina also won the possession battle, had more corner kicks, and completed a high percentage of their passes.

Ultimately, it was Argentina’s up-and-down defense that did them. Simple mistakes such as not clearing out the ball, marking their men and flat-out hustling were the reasons for Germany’s early goal in the 3rd minute and next two goals that were just 6 minutes apart.

Argentina’s head coach Maradona was incredibly upset with his team’s performance. When asked about his soccer team’s performance in the World Cup, Maradona said, “This is a country where you live and breathe football. I don’t think that any one will be happy when the team loses 4-0.”

Germany will face Spain in the Semifinals match of the World Cup to be played this Wednesday.

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World Cup Soccer just saw another titan exit the tournament today. Brazil was defeated by the boys from Holland as the Netherlands left the field with 2-1 win over the #1 ranked international football team in the world.

Brazil’s Robinho had put his nations up very early in the game, with a beautiful touch in the 10th minute of the match. With a center pass from midfield that barely left the ground, the ball found Robinho streaking down the middle of the field like a wide receiver against blown coverage.

Brazil would hold on to the lead, and control of the ball, throughout the first half of the match. However, it wasn’t the Netherlands that would seize control of the game in the second half, instead it was Brazil that would give it away. Off a free kick from about 25 yards outside of the penalty box, the Netherlands kicked the ball into the box, where Brazil’s own Felipe Melo would accidentally head the ball into his own net. The Brazilian goalkeeper had come off his line to grab the ball out of the air, but for some reason he failed to connect, and Melo’s header was—well, let’s just say it was a “little” off-target.

That was just the equalizer though. And up until that point, Brazil was playing better soccer. The Netherlands, however, would start to turn it around and scored the go-ahead goal in the 68th minute off a corner kick. It was Wesley Sneijder who would head the ball in after the ball had ricochet off the head of another Brazilian defender.

From then on, the Brazilian’s would just fall apart. Melo, who had ceded the own goal, got a red card and an ejection in the 73rd minute for kicking a Netherlands player while on the ground. That ejection came just 5 minutes after giving up the go-ahead goal, all but taking away any surge Brazil could have made to try and score the equalizer.

With Brazil out of the way, many people find the Netherlands to be the top team left in the World Cup. They were a sleeper pick to win the tournament at the start, but now they have proven themselves as worthy as any other team of winning the Cup.

The post "World Cup Soccer: Netherlands defeats Brazil, 2-1" was originally published at TSW.

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This could be considered blasphemous, treason, or just plain outright silly, but it’s the truth. The USA did not deserve to beat Ghana on Saturday, when they were eliminated from the World Cup by a score of 2-1 in overtime.

With unbelievable consistency and a lack of concentration, the USA gave up their third early goal of the tournament, surrendering a goal to Ghana’s Kevin-Prince Boateng in the 5th minute of the contest. And apparently it’s not just the start of the game that the USA was not prepared for. Just 3 minutes into the overtime period, the USA gave up a goal to Ghana’s best player, Asamoah Gyan, which ended the game as Ghana wore out the clock for the next 30 minutes of play.

The USA just could not mount enough scoring attempts to keep up the barrage of shots needed to beat the steady play of Ghana’s goalkeeper. Sure, they had 21 shots and 6 of them were on target, but Richard Kingson was a master in the box, saving every shot the USA fired at him during normal play.

The USA’s lone goal came in the 62nd minute of the match, as Clint Dempsey was taken down in the penalty box, setting up a penalty kick that tied the game up at 1-1. Then again, the USA almost messed up that chance, as Landon Donovan (the guy who took the shot) hit the inside of the right post and got a good bounce as the soccer ball still went into the back of the net.

However, other than that penalty kick, the USA’s offense was dead for long periods of time. The first half was abysmal, and the USA looked a team quickly headed home. In the second half, the USA looked a lot better at the beginning, as they were attacking the Ghanaians with an unbelievable consistency. But after they scored on the penalty kick, Ghana took control of the game again, and as the early goal in overtime might suggest, the USA never quite had the momentum again at any point in the match.

Some people are already questioning USA soccer coach Bob Bradley, who may have made some questionable substitutions and staring lineups. Some want to get on Clint Dempsey, who didn’t really play up to the hype during the 2010 World Cup.

I question no one in particular, and especially not the coach. First of all, Ghana was better than USA. They were more skilled, they seemed faster, and their goalie appeared to be every bit as good as the USA’s highly heralded goalkeeper.

However, while I question no one in particular, I do question the USA soccer’s team collective intelligence. Sorry if that sounds mean, but it’s real. How do you give up a goal in the first 5 minutes of a match? They were sleeping! They had to be. The defense was nonexistent, foolish and didn’t appear to be in the game. What were they waiting for? Do they need a green card in order to understand that it’s go time?

And then there was the game-winning goal in which the USA defense was caught so off guard that a ball fired 5 stories into the air, landing right outside the penalty box to set up the go-ahead goal for Ghana. That’s unspeakably inexcusable, and something that should never happen to an intelligent soccer fullback. But that is what happened, and here’s to hoping, for the USA’s sake, that it won’t happen again.

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It was a scoring fest in South Africa today, as Portugal beat the North Koreans like they stole something. Chile also had its way with Switzerland, while Spain delivered for the first time in the 2010 World Cup.

Portugal defeats North Korea, 7-0
It was a rainy day in Cape Town, South African, and I’m not talking about the weather. Shots rained in on the North Korean goalkeeper, as he almost had to forget about saving shots and just try to stay out of harms way. I could try to name every player that scored, but then we would be here all day. Let’s just say that Spain’s Raul Meireles opened up the scoring in the 29th minute with a goal he scored as the beneficiary of a beautiful through pass to the middle of the penalty box. Tiago was the only player to score twice. And Cristiano Ronaldo finally got on the board with his first goal of the tournament on an absolute blooper by the North Korean defense.

Chile defeats Switzerland, 1-0
Chile continued to carry the banner for South America, defeating Switzerland in what was a completely 1-sided game. Sure, the score was only 1-0, but Switzerland barely had any chances to put a dent in Chile’s one-goal lead. Chile controlled the ball for 58% of time, drew 5 corner kicks, and had 20 shots (7 shots on goal) as they made Switzerland look like Swiss cheese. The fact Chile was offsides 9 times should tell you just how aggressive they were all game. Considering that Switzerland barely had the ball and managed just one shot on the Chilean goalkeeper, it’s amazing that they only loss by one goal.

Spain defeats Honduras, 2-0
As proof that the soccer at the World Cup is getting better and better, all three games resulted in a win, including this “W” for the Spaniards, who were thought to be among the favorites to win the title. David Villa did his best to make sure Spain’s hopes wouldn’t die in the second game of the tournament, as he scored two goals to put Honduras away with 40 minutes left to play in the match. In the 17th minute, Villa had beautiful goal off a crossover move into the box. And in the 51st minute, Villa would also score from outside the box, when Honduras left him wide open and he drilled the ball just underneath the crossbar. Villa would have an incredible opportunity to get the hat trick, but he would miss a penalty kick in the 62nd minute of the match. Luckily for him, that missed shot had no bearing on the game, as Spain won easily.

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They call football the “beautiful game,” and Brazil always reminds us why. In the premiere match of the day we saw Brazil’s Kaka face off against Didier Drogba. Brazil played just another flawless, well-managed game in which the Ivory Coast had little chance of winning. Oh yeah, other teams played as well…

Paraguay defeats Slovakia, 2-0
Paraguay just continues to be one of the World Cup’s biggest surprises. They handled Slovakia relatively easily, scoring in the 26th minute of the first half and just four minutes before the end of the match. It was Enrique Vera’s goal in the first half that gave Paraguay the lead, as Slovakia just seemed unable to control Paraguay’s relentless attack on the goal. Slovakia won all of the measurables, but when it came to putting shots on goal, Paraguay had great shots while Slovakia challenged the Paraguayan goalkeeper just once.

New Zealand ties Italy, 1-1
This was apparently the most surprising result in recent World Cup history. I never thought that there could be such fervor for a tie, but as it was explained to me, this tie for New Zealand would be the equivalent of #16 seed tying a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. How did it happen? Well, New Zealand just played great soccer, assumed the role of aggressor and got a goal in the 7th minute of the match. Italy would respond later after earning a penalty kick for “favorable” foul call in the penalty box. Vincenzo Iaquinta would knock that in, and the rest of the game played out without another goal, despite Italy earning 14 corner kicks.

Brazil defeats Ivory Coast, 3-1
Well, we were hoping that this matchup would give us the scintillating offense that these two teams’ stars usually provide. However, it was Luis Pablano for Brazil that stole the show with two goals in a row, which put Brazil up 2-0. Luis Fabiano’s first goal came off a tight through-pass in the box, and he put the ball right by the goal with power to give Brazil the lead in the 25th minute of the match. Fabiano would score again in the 49th minute, and Brazil’s Elano would make it 3-0 in the 61st minute. The Ivory Coat did get a goal from their superstar Didier Drogba in the 78th minute. And Kaka made the headlines for the wrong reasons, as he got a questionable red card that will cause him to miss Brazil’s final qualifying round game of the World Cup.

The post "World Cup Recap: Day #10" was originally published at TSW.

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It was a day for the smaller countries in the 2010 World Cup. Between the Netherlands, Ghana and Denmark, you have three teams that aren’t exactly soccer powerhouses. However, on Day 9 of the World Cup, each of these teams would get a favorable result, keeping them alive as they pursue a second round berth in the 2010 World Cup.

Netherlands defeat Japan, 1-0
The Netherlands Wesley Sneljder scored the match’s only goal less than 10 minutes into the second half, and that was all the Netherlands would need to get the 1-0 win over Japan. Throughout the rest of the game, the Netherlands dominated, holding the ball for 66% of the game. The Netherlands also had five shots on goal to Japan’s 2.

Ghana ties Australia, 1-1
The tiny nation of Ghana was unable to get the victory over a not-so-powerful Australian soccer team, but the tie wasn’t all bad. With the tie, Ghana remains undefeated in World Cup play. All of the scoring in this game came extremely early with Australia scoring in the 11th minute of the match and Ghana getting the equalizer in the 25th minute off a penalty kick. The rest of the game was an education on how to play goalie, as both goalkeepers got big save after big save to keep the game tied at 1-1.

Denmark defeats Cameroon, 2-1
While Cameroon is no big nation itself, the relatively small country of Denmark has to be joyous about their win—especially when they probably didn’t deserve. In what was probably one of the most exciting matches of the World Cup, Denmark and Cameroon duked it out, and duked it out hard core. Cameroon’s first goal came after Denmark gave the ball away just outside of their own box in the 10th minute of the match. Denmark would make similar mistakes throughout the game, but Cameroon, which controlled the ball for 57% of the time, still did not manage to score another goal. Cameroon would also make their own mistakes, which resulted in an equalizer for Denmark in the 33rd minute. Later on, in the 61st minute, Denmark connected on a through pass down the middle, and Dennis Rommedhal have Denmark the go-ahead goal and the win. Cameroon was eliminated from the tourney with the loss.

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It was definitely a day of ups and downs in the World Cup. One game featured an incredible comeback that saved the hopes of a nation. Another game was witness to a game-deciding save of a penalty kick.

Serbia defeats Germany, 1-0
In one of the biggest shockers of the day, Serbia defeated the heavily favored Germans with one goal in the 37th minute of the match, as they had a one-man advantage after a red card sent German striker Miroslave Klose back into the locker room. At the end of the day, however, there was no doubt that Germany was the better team, as they won the time of possession, had more shots, more shots on goal and won 7 corner kicks. Despite all of that, the Serbian goalkeeper went to work, especially when he blocked the penalty kick attempt of Lukas Podolsk in the 59th minute of the game. So while Serbia got the win, the better team is left to wonder what could have been.

USA ties Slovenia, 2-2
Oh, this was one heck of a game. Slovenia quickly got on the board, as the Americans, with defensive lapse in judgment, gave up a goal in the 12th minute of the match. Then in the 42nd minute, right before half, the USA gave up another goal to Slovenia, as Ziatan Ljubijankic was able to put the ball in the back of the net. But the US would not be denied, as Landon Donovan got the ball out on the side and behind the defense. He couldn’t find anybody, so he took on the goalie, which had the angle on him, and he rocketed over his head for the goal. However, it was Michael Bradley, the coach’s son, who scored the equalizer in the 82nd minute of the game. He got the bounce off a free kick and put it over the goalie’s head. The US would actually score a legitimate goal with just minutes to go, but the referee would incorrectly nullify the score with a phantom foul call.

England ties Algeria, 0-0
England, considered one of the best five teams in this tournament, has still failed to win a match. Algeria managed to hold on and hold off England for the more than welcoming time for the African nation. Algeria’s goalie saved all 5 of England’s goat-threatening shots to keep his team in the match, and as a result, they got the tie.

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There would be no ties on this day. The World Cup was finally treated to a day’s worth of scoring and goals, as all three games were decided, with at least 2 goals scored in each game, and as many as five goals in one of them.

Argentina defeats South Korea, 4-1
Argentina was just the superior team in this match, as South Korea faired horribly against the unstoppable front line of the Argentineans. Park Chu Young, South Korea’s defenseman, opened up the scoring of the match, unfortunately, he did it for the wrong team. In the World Cup’s first own goal, Park Chu-Young headed the ball off the back of his teammate, and the soccer ball immediately went into the corner of the net. But Argentina didn’t need the help. Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuain scored in the 33rd minute of the match to make the score 2-0—and he wasn’t done. Higuain would scored two more times (75th minute and the 79th minute) to put South Korea away for good.

Greece defeats Nigeria, 2-1
Nigeria looked good early, as Kalu Uche scored off a direct kick just outside the box. It was probably the most beautiful attempt at a goal from free kick position all tournament—and yet it was for not. Sani Kaita got a red after only a few minutes later, which left Nigeria to play with 10 men. Greece would immediately go on to dominate the time of possession and goal scoring, putting up two goals to take the win.

Mexico defeats France, 2-0
France’s hopes of advancing to the second round have come to a sudden end—and deservedly so. The French team just hasn’t looked good in their first two games, as Mexico took it to the French like they stole something. It wasn’t unit the second half that Mexico got on the board, but the beautiful breakaway goal by Javier Hernandez in the 64th minute put France’s hopes to an end. Despite winning the time of possession, France looked sloppy all day, and in the end it showed, as Mexico won by a two-goal margin.

The post "World Cup Recap: Day #7" was originally published at TSW.

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It was a sad day in South Africa, because the host nation got pummeled beyond belief. The loss by the nation of South Africa, however, was not the only shocking loss of the day. Spain’s loss to Switzerland, as well as Chile’s defeat of Honduras, were both of the unexpected variety.

Chile defeats Honduras, 1-0
It was pretty much an exercise in keep away. After Chile got a goal from Jean Beausejour in the 34th minute of the match, they essentially played monkey in the middle for the rest of game, not allowing Honduras to do too much with the soccer ball. Chile owned possession of the ball for nearly two-thirds of the match, while holding Honduras to just 7 shots, of which only 1 shot was on goal. Chile had 22 shots and 5 shots on goal, in what seemed like an aerial attack against the Honduras goalie. This was Chile’s first World Cup win 48 years, and their win was almost as surprising as their drought was long.

Switzerland defeats Spain, 1-0
Spain “was” considered one of the big favorites to win the World Cup this year, but a loss to the relatively small nation of Switzerland may have ended those chances. Of course, if you watched the game, you know it was much more than Switzerland’s Gelson Fernandes’ goal in the 52nd minute of the match. Spain dominated possession of the ball for 74% of the time and had 25 shots to Switzerland’s 9. But at the end of the day, Spain couldn’t put the ball in the net, and Switzerland walked away victorious.

Uruguay defeats South Africa, 3-0
There seemed to be nothing South Africa could do. Just 23 minutes into the match, Uruguay’s Diego Forlan scored and it was all downhill from there. Uruguay got two more goals late in the second half and sent the host nation home with their first loss of group play.

The post "World Cup Recap: Day #6" was originally published at TSW.

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If it weren’t for Brazil, would there even be a World Cup to watch? Scoring in the World Cup has been down this year, and that’s certainly not going to bring a lot of American fans into the fold. However, Brazil’s great performance in the final match of Day 5, certainly made up for a lot of scoreless soccer.

New Zealand vs. Slovakia, 1-1 Tie
Slovakia appeared to be headed for the win off the goal of Robert Vittek early on in the second half. However, a late goal in extra time gave New Zealand the tie that allowed them to walk away with at least one point for their efforts.

Ivory Coast vs. Portugal, 0-0 Tie
Games like this certainly aren’t helping the goal-scoring numbers. The Ivory Coast, the team dubbed as Africa’s best hope, failed to even come up with a goal against Portugal. Then again, Portugal had the player dubbed the best player in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo. Neither Ronaldo nor Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast’s renowned striker, were able to put the ball in the et, and it resulted in what both teams would consider a disappointing finish.

Brazil defeats North Korea, 2-1
The score is very misleading. On the hand, one might think that the game was close, but Brazil actually controlled the soccer ball 73% of the time with an array of passes that made the North Korean club look foolish. Then on the other hand, North Korea did have its chances in this one, with two very good shots on goal, as well as 3 corner kicks. In the end though, Brazil made light of North Korea and appear headed for one heck of a run in the World Cup tournament rounds.

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Day #4 of the World Cup was very interesting. We saw a lot of “sexy” goals and passionate finishes. We also had a huge surprise out of the Netherlands, a team that appears and ready to take on the world. However, an actual pre-tournament favorite almost saw their World Cup hopes diminished but ultimately managed to save the day.

Netherlands defeat Denmark, 2-0
Who knew the Netherlands were coming to World Cup with visions of grandeur on their mind? Sure, we knew that had some very capable scorers, but their domination of the ball (66% of the possessions) and 88.6% passing accuracy demonstrated skill beyond belief. Of course, what’s skill without some luck? The opening goal of the game came on an own-goal by Denmark in the 46th minute of play when a Denmark defender headed the ball off his own defender and into the back of his own net. The Dutch finally scored on their own in the 85th minute of the game when Dirk Kuyt scored after a shot bounced off the side post of the goal. At the end of the day, the Netherlands were just the better team and appear to have a good idea of how they are going to attack other teams in this tournament.

Japan defeats Cameroon, 1-0
In what can only be described as a shocking blow to the hopes of Africa, the continent’s seemingly best team was defeated by Japan and looked hapless in the process. Cameroon just was not able to generate any constant offense. This despite the fact that they controlled the soccer ball for 57% of the time, didn’t allow a corner kick and only gave the Japanese two shots on goal. The problem was that Cameroon had no steady offense of their own. They appeared to just knock the ball down field and hope for something good to happen. That plan of attack resulted in just 9 shots, a mere two shots on goal, and one-nil defeat to a team many people thought they should have beaten fairly easily.

Italy ties Paraguay, 1-1
It was looking ugly for the Italians for a good 20 minutes, as Italy went down 1-0 in the 39th minute of the match on a goal by Antolin Alcaraz who scored on a beautiful header off a set play. Italy, aka the Azzurri, failed to impress its fans and analysts with its horrible passing and lethargic play. In fact, the Azzurri’s goal in the 63rd minute wasn’t even all that impressive as the Paraguayan goalkeeper completely missed on a corner kick when he should have at least gotten a hand on the ball. Of course, Paraguay didn’t look that good either, as both teams combined for a 67% pass completion percentage. In Italy’s defense, they did manage to get 10 shots and 5 shots on goal, while Paraguay managed just 1 shot on goal for the entire match—unfortunately for the Azzurri, Paraguay did score on that lone goal.

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There would be no ties in the World Cup on Day #3. Today’s games all resulted in one team going back to the hotel happy and the other team going back to the hotel in disbelief. Of course, some teams were more jubilated, or in more disbelief, than others.

Slovenia defeats Algeria, 1-0
For most of the match, this match had a tone and feel that suggested no one was going to score, and more than 1 hour and 15 minutes into the game, that was the case. However, at the 78th minute, Slovenia’s Robert Koren came up with long-range shot that bounced off the Algerian goalkeeper’s arm for the go-ahead goal. From then on, Slovenia was barely able to hold on to their one-goal lead despite their inability to control the soccer ball throughout the match. All and all, neither team provided much offense. Slovenia had 7 shots in total, with just three of shots on target. Algeria had 10 shots, but only two of theirs actually threatened the goalkeeper. The time of possession was virtually even, 52% to 48% in favor of Slovenia, as both teams were very sloppy with their long range passes, especially Slovenia, which failed to convert on any of their 19 crosses on the day.

Ghana defeats Serbia, 1-0
The first African team to win a World Cup match on African soil was Ghana, which managed to avoid a tie and beat Serbia by way of a penalty kick in the last 7 minutes of the match. It was indeed in the 84th minute that a Serbian player hit the ball with his hand, resulting in a penalty kick for one of Ghana’s top strikers, Asamoah Gyan. Gyan easily put the kick in the back of the net, as the Serbian Goalkeeper had no other option but to guess which way to dive, and he guessed wrong. Even without giving up the penalty kick, Serbia did not help their cause. Aleksandar Lukovic was ejected from the game after receiving his second yellow card late in the latter half, leaving Serbia to play with just 10 men, which led to an onslaught of shots from Ghana as they made a late charge. Serbia will undoubtedly be disappointed with this result, as Ghana’s only shot on goal was the penalty kick.

Germany defeats Australia, 4-0
In the first laugher of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Germany cruised past the Australian Socceroos and announced to the world that they were in South Africa to win the World Cup. It didn’t take long for Germany to get going, as Lukas Podolski scored the game’s opening goal in the 8th minute of the contest. Miroslave Klose followed that up less than 20 minutes later with header in which the goalkeeper came out to challenge the volley but didn’t come up with the catch. In second half, it was still all Germany. Of course, Tim Cahill getting ejected in the 56th minute only poured salt in the Australian wound. Forced to play with just 10 people on the field, the advantage was clear and Germany started the onslaught. Seemingly getting into the penalty box at will, Germany dominated possession of the ball on the Australian side of the field. Thomas Muller seemed to control the ball in the penalty box with ease before he stuck one past the goalkeeper from about 15 meters out. And just three minutes later, Cacau scored on a breakaway goal to wrap things up. While only half the field has played a match, it’s clear which team has played their best soccer thus far. And if Germany can keep this up, they may be on their way to one heck of a World Cup run.

The post "World Cup Recap: Day #3" was originally published at TSW.

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Day 2 was the biggest day in World Cup History for U.S. Soccer fans. While the rest of the world was probably keener on watching Diego Maradonna lead his Argentinean favorites against Nigeria, us Yankees on the other side of the pond were prime for a matchup against England.

South Korea defeats Greece, 2-0
South Korea had no problem coming up with first win of the World Cup. They practically dominated the nation of Greece, a team probably more worried about their nation’s austerity plan than playing soccer—or at least it looked that way. South Korea dominated this game from start to finish. Lee Jung-Soo opened up the scoring in just the 7^th minute of the match off a corner kick that went right by the goalie, to the far post, where Jung-Soo jumped through the air and one-timed the soccer ball into the back of the net with nobody near him. Then in the 52^nd minute, Park Ji-Sung had nice little solo goal to make the count 2-0. Greece was not without their chances though, earning 11 corner kicks in the game, the most in World Cup match history.

Argentina defeats Nigeria, 1-0
Nigeria was down in this game for 84 minutes after giving up a goal to Gabriel Heinze in the 6^th minute of the match. Heinze scored on a diving header, which was the only shot on goal Argentina converted of their seven shots that were on target. Nigeria just didn’t look good in their attack. The Nigerian Super Eagles managed just one shot on goal, and 12 shots in all. Also, Nigeria only controlled the ball for 42% of the game and allowed Argentina to complete 87.1% of their passes. Had it not been for the unbelievable work of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and his six saves, this game could have been early well before the final tick of the clock.

England vs. USA, 1-1- Tie
In a game that had the “muff heard around the world,” the USA got a fortunate bounce that tied the game the 39^th minute of the contest. Clint Dempsey’s straight on shot from just outside the penalty box hit goalkeeper Robert Green right in the wheelhouse, but Green was unable to knock the ball away and the ball bounced haplessly into the net. The USA was not clicking on all cylinders though, as it took just four minutes for England to get on the board on a lovely through-ball that found Steven Gerrard for the go-ahead goal. The one thing the USA did well all night was keep Wayne Rooney out of the picture. He did not even touch the ball for the first 17 minutes of the match, and he didn’t get in the box until well in the latter stage of the second half. Outside of Green botching the one save, the story of the day was US goalkeeper Tim Howard, who was just masterful. While he had just 5 saves on the day, all of them were amazing and at crucial junctures in the match.

The post "World Cup Recap: Day #2" was originally published at TSW.

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Opening Day of the 2010 FIFA World Cup was one to remember. While both of the two starter games resulted in ties, the pure excitement of watching the world’s biggest sport being played in the continent of Africa was thrilling enough. As for the games…

Mexico vs. South Africa, 1-1 Tie
Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the opening goal of the 2010 World Cup in the 55th minute of the match after a scoreless first half of play. At first, the South Africans seemed overmatched and outmaneuvered as Mexico’s ability to control the ball at midfield set much of the tone for the day. However, South African’s counter attack proved to be reliable at different times in the match, often resulting in credible and worthwhile runs at the goal. In fact, it was the counterattack that gave South Africa their first goal, as a perfect through pass from midfield set up the left-footed power shot from Tshabalala. However, Mexico’s steady control of the ball (65.6% of touches) resulted in a lot opportunities, and eventually it was controlled attack that led to Mexico’s first goal, as Rafael Marquez found the back of the net from his position near the far post. Mexico also ended up with far more shots, but the work of the South African defense limited the shots on goal and held on for the tie.

Uruguay vs. France, 0-0 Tie
There was no such scoring to speak of Game 2 of the World Cup Opening Day. Neither team was able to get on the board, as both Uruguay and boys from France were unable to muster up a single play worthy of a goal. Given France’s success coming into the game, they were clearly the favorites in the this soccer match, but they just seemed lackluster on offense, unable to create a decent number of opportunities on goal. France finished the game with a plentiful 20 shots, but just 3 of those shots were even on goal. France also racked up the penalties, garnering 20 penalties three yellow cards. Uruguay was probably relatively happy with the result given France’s chances of winning game. France, on the other hand, knows they have a lot of work to do if they plan on advancing past Group Play.

The post "World Cup Recap: Day #1" was originally published at TSW.

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