your daily recap

Spain 1 - Saudi Arabia 0: The surprise here is that Spain didn't steamroll the Saudis, but — again — they were playing a fair amount of subs.  The Saudis had a small chance of qualifying, which involved either a Tunisia-Ukraine tie and them beating Spain by 5 goals, or a Tunisia victory and the Saudis beating Spain by two more goals than the Tunisians got.  I only watched the first half; Spain played well, and the goal was quality.  The Saudis had their chances, but none were converted.

Ukraine 1 - Tunisia 0: I watched the second half until Shevchenko dove for a penalty and got it.  The game was rather dull at that point; Tunisia was a man down after Jaziri got a second yellow card for a takedown (and his first was for diving in the box), so their chances were thin.  Once the penalty was knocked in, i lost interest.  Ukraine looked far from convincing.

France 2 - Togo 0: France dominated, although Togo definitely played decently, if uncreatively up front.  France's goals were both high quality, and there was a definitely palpable sense of relief among the French.  Trezeguet was in fine whiny form today, almost like an Italian or an Uruguayan.  Togo will do well with some more team maturation.  France gets to play Spain next.

Switzerland 2 - Korea 0: Senderos scored the first goal and celebrated as blood ran down his brow and nose.  Later he had to leave because he separated his shoulder.  If he's unable to play against Ukraine, his team will miss his hard work in the back.  Korea, inexplicably, did not start Ahn Jung Hwan yet again.  The second Swiss goal seemed an obvious result of an off-side Frei, and the linesman lifted his flag immediately, but the referee allowed the goal to stand, adducing that the pass that was made by the Swiss player had been then played backwards by a Korean defender.  This was evidently not the case; it was a deflection, a mere bounce, which by rule must be called as offside.  A small amount of blame goes to the goalie, who could have tried to stop the final shot, but instead stood around arguing that Frei was offside.  Play to the whistle, guys.  Always, always play to the whistle.

Trivia!  The Swiss are the only team to emerge from round-robin play without having given up a goal; Trinidad & Tobago are the only team to come out of the Cup without scoring a single goal.  Korea are the only team to get 4 points but fail to qualify.  Nobody got screwed on goal differential this year, which is a good thing.  Of the eight group seeds, only Mexico and France failed to finish in first place (but qualified in second place).

I don't know what the deal is, but the reffing has steadily gone downhill throughout the first stage.  It had better improve starting tomorrow.

your daily recap

Spain 1 - Saudi Arabia 0: The surprise here is that Spain didn't steamroll the Saudis, but — again — they were playing a fair amount of subs.  The Saudis had a small chance of qualifying, which involved either a Tunisia-Ukraine tie and them beating Spain by 5 goals, or a Tunisia victory and the Saudis beating Spain by two more goals than the Tunisians got.  I only watched the first half; Spain played well, and the goal was quality.  The Saudis had their chances, but none were converted.

Ukraine 1 - Tunisia 0: I watched the second half until Shevchenko dove for a penalty and got it.  The game was rather dull at that point; Tunisia was a man down after Jaziri got a second yellow card for a takedown (and his first was for diving in the box), so their chances were thin.  Once the penalty was knocked in, i lost interest.  Ukraine looked far from convincing.

France 2 - Togo 0: France dominated, although Togo definitely played decently, if uncreatively up front.  France's goals were both high quality, and there was a definitely palpable sense of relief among the French.  Trezeguet was in fine whiny form today, almost like an Italian or an Uruguayan.  Togo will do well with some more team maturation.  France gets to play Spain next.

Switzerland 2 - Korea 0: Senderos scored the first goal and celebrated as blood ran down his brow and nose.  Later he had to leave because he separated his shoulder.  If he's unable to play against Ukraine, his team will miss his hard work in the back.  Korea, inexplicably, did not start Ahn Jung Hwan yet again.  The second Swiss goal seemed an obvious result of an off-side Frei, and the linesman lifted his flag immediately, but the referee allowed the goal to stand, adducing that the pass that was made by the Swiss player had been then played backwards by a Korean defender.  This was evidently not the case; it was a deflection, a mere bounce, which by rule must be called as offside.  A small amount of blame goes to the goalie, who could have tried to stop the final shot, but instead stood around arguing that Frei was offside.  Play to the whistle, guys.  Always, always play to the whistle.

Trivia!  The Swiss are the only team to emerge from round-robin play without having given up a goal; Trinidad & Tobago are the only team to come out of the Cup without scoring a single goal.  Korea are the only team to get 4 points but fail to qualify.  Nobody got screwed on goal differential this year, which is a good thing.  Of the eight group seeds, only Mexico and France failed to finish in first place (but qualified in second place).

I don't know what the deal is, but the reffing has steadily gone downhill throughout the first stage.  It had better improve starting tomorrow.