NU Mad - World Cup Report - Sunday

Last updated : 13 June 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

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England goalkeeper Robert Green insists he has the mental strength to bounce back from his goal-costing error in the World Cup opener with the United States in Rustenburg.

Green: "It was a mistake. The important thing is not to let it affect you for however long is left in the game.

"That is what you prepare for mentally. You don't prepare mentally for making great saves and playing the perfect game. You prepare for trauma.

"It is regrettable and not what you want to happen but that's life and you move on, you hold your head up high and get to work in training.

"It won't affect me psychologically. I'm 30, I'm a man, and you have hardships in life and prepare for them.

"I'm strong enough to move on. At a younger point in my life it would have affected me more.

"But you hold your hand up and say 'that's gone, move on and don't let it affect you'.

"The ball may well have moved. I don't often miss the ball by that much.

"It may have moved quite a bit but I'm not looking to make an excuse for what happened and I hold my hand up and take responsibility."

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England midfielder Frank Lampard said the boys were backing Rob Green.

Lampard: "We are all behind Robert, he is a fantastic keeper. Everyone makes mistakes and we are together as a team.

"It wasn't the worst performance in the world but there is always room for improvement."

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Fabio Capello defended his decision not to name his goalkeeper until a couple of hours before kick-off after seeing Robert Green make a howler in the 1-1 draw against the United States in England's opening World Cup encounter.

Capello: "I decided Green would be the goalkeeper because he played the last game very well and at Wembley (against Mexico) the performance was very good too. He made one mistake, but in the second half he made a good save. This is the problem of the goalkeeper.

"We have to accept the mistakes of goalkeepers and of referees and of forwards. This is football.

"We played a good match and created a lot of chances. But the result is not okay for us. We played better than USA but the USA are very good. I saw the spirit of England and the team. They fight every time to win back the ball.

"I am not worried for the next game about their physical condition. We ran better in the second half than the USA. But now we have to look forward for the next game."

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SOUTH KOREA 2 GREECE 0

Park Ji-sung helped to continue Greece's miserable World Cup record as South Korea secured the first victory of the 2010 finals.

The Manchester United midfielder struck seven minutes after the break at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth to double his side's advantage following central defender Lee Jung-soo's seventh-minute opener.

Huh Jung-moo's side ultimately ran out comfortable winners in front of an army of their delighted fans among a crowd of 31,513 as Greece's fourth World Cup finals outing ended in the same way as the pervious three, with defeat and without a goal scored.

Coach Otto Rehhagel had warned his players in advance to be wary of South Korea, and by the time he got them back into the dressing room at the break, he will have been relieved they had not been mauled further.

It took Korea just seven minutes to get their noses in front in the Group B encounter when Lee Jung-soo met Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-yueng's swinging free-kick unopposed and volleyed it gleefully into the back of the net.

They increased their lead within seven minutes of the restart when Park Ji-sung made the most of Loukas Vyntra's woeful control in the middle of the park to race in on goal, leaving the central defender and partner Papadopoulo standing before sliding a shot across Tzorvas and into the bottom corner.

SOUTH KOREA: Jung, Cha, Cho, Jung-Soo Lee, Young-Pyo Lee,Chung-Yong Lee (Jae-Sung Kim 90), Ki (Nam-Il Kim 74),Jung-Woo Kim, Ji-Sung Park, Chu-Young Park (Seung-Youl Lee 87),Yeom.

Goals: Jung-Soo Lee 7, Ji-Sung Park 52.

GREECE: Tzorvas, Torosidis, Papadopoulos, Vyntra, Seitaridis,Samaras (Salpingidis 59), Tziolis, Katsouranis,Karagounis (Patsatzoglou 46), Charisteas (Kapetanos 61), Gekas.

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ARGENTINA 1 NIGERIA 0

Diego Maradona's World Cup debut as a coach ended in a victory as Lionel Messi started to demonstrate he could transform his club form at Barcelona to the world stage.

Gabriel Heinze headed in the only goal after five minutes but Messi, so often unable to reproduce the Nou Camp sparkle on national team duty, was his team's star.

However he and his team-mates were unable to make the margin of victory a more convincing one as Vincent Enyeama in the Nigeria goal denied them time and again.

Whether Argentina could waste so many chances against better sides and get away with it remains to be seen, but for now Maradona must be satisfied to have put three points on the board in Group B.

ARGENTINA: Romero, Gutierrez, Demichelis, Samuel, Heinze,Veron (Maxi 74), Mascherano, Di Maria (Burdisso 85), Tevez,Messi, Higuain (Milito 79).

Goal: Heinze 6.

NIGERIA: Enyeama, Odiah, Yobo, Shittu, Taiwo (Uche 74), Kaita,Etuhu, Haruna, Obasi Ogbuke (Odemwingie 60), Yakubu,Obinna (Martins 52).

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ENGLAND 1 USA 1

Robert Green added his name to an unhappy list of calamity goalkeepers as he cost England victory over the United States on Saturday night.

Steven Gerrard had given the Three Lions' World Cup campaign a flying start with a fourth-minute opener in Rustenburg.

England were still holding that advantage despite a less-than-convincing performance, until Green committed the kind of howler David Seaman, Paul Robinson and Scott Carson have all done down the years and allowed Clint Dempsey's harmless shot to slip through his fingers.

Fabio Capello could only watch on in horror and wonder why fate had dealt him such a shocking hand given he had preferred Green to David James and Joe Hart as his first-choice goalkeeper, dismissing the latter man for fear his inexperience would cost England in a similar manner to that the West Ham man actually did.

There was to be no atonement, even though England dominated at the end.

And with one of his favourite sons, James Milner, hauled off after half an hour, Ledley King failing to return for the second half and his replacement Jamie Carragher getting himself badly exposed on more than one occasion, it will be an uncomfortable six days for Capello and his players before England try to rebuild their reputation against Algeria in Cape Town next Friday.

ENGLAND: Green, Johnson, Terry, King (Carragher 46),Ashley Cole, Lennon, Lampard, Gerrard,Milner (Wright-Phillips 30), Heskey (Crouch 79), Rooney.

Goal: Gerrard 4.

USA: Howard, Cherundolo, DeMerit, Onyewu, Bocanegra, Dempsey,Bradley, Clark, Donovan, Findley (Buddle 77),Altidore (Holden 86).

Goal: Dempsey 40.

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GROUP A FIXTURES

Friday, 11 June 2010
SOUTH AFRICA 1 MEXICO 1

SOUTH AFRICA: Khune, Gaxa, Mokoena, Khumalo,Thwala (Masilela 45), Tshabalala, Dikgacoi, Letsholonyane,Modise, Pienaar (Parker 83), Mphela.

Goal: Tshabalala 55.

MEXICO: Perez, Aguilar (Guardado 56), Rodriguez, Osorio,Salcido, Torrado, Marquez, Juarez, Giovani,Franco (Hernandez 73), Vela (Blanco 69).

Goal: Marquez 79.

URUGUAY 0 FRANCE 0

URUGUAY: Muslera, Victorino, Lugano, Godin, Pereira,Maxi Pereira, Perez (Eguren 87), Arevalo Rios,Gonzalez (Lodeiro 63), Forlan, Suarez (Abreu 73).

FRANCE: Lloris, Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra, Govou (Gignac 85),Gourcuff (Malouda 75), Toulalan, Diaby, Ribery,Anelka (Henry 71).

Wednesday, 16 June 2010
South Africa v Uruguay, 19:30

Thursday, 17 June 2010
France v Mexico, 19:30

Tuesday, 22 June 2010
France v South Africa, 15:00
Mexico v Uruguay, 15:00

GROUP B FIXTURES

Saturday, 12 June 2010
SOUTH KOREA 2 GREECE 0

SOUTH KOREA: Jung, Cha, Cho, Jung-Soo Lee, Young-Pyo Lee,Chung-Yong Lee (Jae-Sung Kim 90), Ki (Nam-Il Kim 74),Jung-Woo Kim, Ji-Sung Park, Chu-Young Park (Seung-Youl Lee 87),Yeom.

Goals: Jung-Soo Lee 7, Ji-Sung Park 52.

GREECE: Tzorvas, Torosidis, Papadopoulos, Vyntra, Seitaridis,Samaras (Salpingidis 59), Tziolis, Katsouranis,Karagounis (Patsatzoglou 46), Charisteas (Kapetanos 61), Gekas.

ARGENTINA 1 NIGERIA 0

ARGENTINA: Romero, Gutierrez, Demichelis, Samuel, Heinze,Veron (Maxi 74), Mascherano, Di Maria (Burdisso 85), Tevez,Messi, Higuain (Milito 79).

Goal: Heinze 6.

NIGERIA: Enyeama, Odiah, Yobo, Shittu, Taiwo (Uche 74), Kaita,Etuhu, Haruna, Obasi Ogbuke (Odemwingie 60), Yakubu,Obinna (Martins 52).

Thursday, 17 June 2010
Argentina v South Korea, 12:30
Greece v Nigeria, 15:00

Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Greece v Argentina, 19:30
Nigeria v South Korea, 19:30

GROUP C FIXTURES

Saturday, 12 June 2010
EGLAND 1 USA 1

ENGLAND: Green, Johnson, Terry, King (Carragher 46),Ashley Cole, Lennon, Lampard, Gerrard,Milner (Wright-Phillips 30), Heskey (Crouch 79), Rooney.

Goal: Gerrard 4.

USA: Howard, Cherundolo, DeMerit, Onyewu, Bocanegra, Dempsey,Bradley, Clark, Donovan, Findley (Buddle 77),Altidore (Holden 86).

Goal: Dempsey 40.

Sunday, 13 June 2010
Algeria v Slovenia, 12:30

Friday, 18 June 2010
Slovenia v USA, 15:00
England v Algeria, 19:30

Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Slovenia v England, 15:00
USA v Algeria, 15:00

GROUP D FIXTURES

Sunday, 13 June 2010
Serbia v Ghana, 15:00
Germany v Australia, 19:30

Friday, 18 June 2010
Germany v Serbia, 12:30

Saturday, 19 June 2010
Ghana v Australia, 15:00

Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Australia v Serbia, 19:30
Ghana v Germany, 19:30

GROUP E FIXTURES

Monday, 14 June 2010
Netherlands v Denmark, 12:30
Japan v Cameroon, 15:00

Saturday, 19 June 2010
Netherlands v Japan, 12:30
Cameroon v Denmark, 19:30

Thursday, 24 June 2010
Cameroon v Netherlands, 19:30
Denmark v Japan, 19:30

GROUP F FIXTURES

Monday, 14 June 2010
Italy v Paraguay, 19:30

Tuesday, 15 June 2010
New Zealand v Slovakia, 12:30

Sunday, 20 June 2010
Slovakia v Paraguay, 12:30
Italy v New Zealand, 15:00

Thursday, 24 June 2010
Paraguay v New Zealand, 15:00
Slovakia v Italy, 15:00

GROUP G FIXTURES

Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Ivory Coast v Portugal, 15:00
Brazil v North Korea, 19:30

Sunday, 20 June 2010
Brazil v Ivory Coast, 19:30

Monday, 21 June 2010
Portugal v North Korea, 12:30

Friday, 25 June 2010
North Korea v Ivory Coast, 15:00
Portugal v Brazil, 15:00

GROUP H FIXTURES

Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Honduras v Chile, 12:30
Spain v Switzerland, 15:00

Monday, 21 June 2010
Chile v Switzerland, 15:00
Spain v Honduras, 19:30

Friday, 25 June 2010
Chile v Spain, 19:30
Switzerland v Honduras, 19:30