Germany Complicates Their Future

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Serbia achieved their first victory in their history by surprising over the all powerful Germany with a score of 1 - 0, yesterday in Port Elizabeth. Yesterday marked the second game of Group D in which the Germans were playing with 10 players in the first hour and wasted a penalty kick. Serbia went all out to Germany with many players defending the result and marking almost all of the german players so that their counter attacks were useless against Serbia. With this result, Serbia has opened the group in which they are fighting against Germany and Ghana for the first or second place in group D. Radomir Antic, the coach, presented a dangerous scheme to strenghten the offense that Milan Jovanovic opened the score for Serbia, with a magnificent assist after the header from Nicola Zigic in the 38 minute, after the German team lost striker Miroslav Klose due to a red card issued by the referee.

Germany had a fantastic debut, filled with goals in the first game against Australia, with a renovated team with players like Thomas Muller and Mesut Ozil were instantly stopped by the great defense proposed by the Serbian coach Antic that exhibited the players much intensity in the game and to put the emphasis to be attentive to the Germans led by Podolski, Muller, and Ozil. Podolski had many chances of goals and also missed the penalty kick in the 60 minute, saved by Serbian goalie, Vladimir Stojkovic, who became the hero of the day. Serbia was part of the ex Yugoslavia who faced Germany several times with their national soccer teams 6 times but only defeated the Germans in the quarterfinals in the World Cup in 1962. This victory is the first for Serbia as an independent state.

Argentina The Great

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Argentina did not glow but surely grew their offensive abilities to defeat the all powerful South Korea with a score of 4 - 1 with three goals from Gonzalo Higuain and the great tactics of Lionel Messi, which gave him chances to advance to the next round. The Argentinians passed to be leaders of Group B with 6 points, in which is followed by Greece, who defeated Nigeria with a 2 - 1 score, leaving Nigeria with 0 points since the debut against Argentina. The Argentinians started suffering the game with an ajusted 2 - 1 at the Soccer City Stadium in front of 82,000 fanatics that were present to witness the sweet victory. The first goal was an own goal by South Korean Park Chu-young in the 17 minute, the second goal was from Real Madrid striker Higuain in the 33 minute, but the South Koreans managed to score a goal by Lee Chung-Yong at the end of the first half. Gonzalo Higuain demonstrated his potential to score in this tournament that gave Argentina the hopes to win the World Cup.

Higuain has shown the world the ability to score just like Messi and hope to become one of the best players in this World Cup. Higuain has all the qualities of a striker shown in Real Madrid being at the right place at the right time, just what Diego Armando Maradona settled his schematical tactics that simply worked with Maxi Rodriguez and Lionel Messi counterattacking constantly. When a striker like Higuain is always at the right place, it gives the strikers the facility to score. Then, after the first two goals from Argentina, Lionel Messi finally came out of his shell and scored the third goal at the 76 minute and Sergio Kun Aguero assissted the fourth goal scored by Higuain at the 80 minute. If Argentina leads Group B, the actually will play against the second of Group A which is Mexico at the moment, but if Argentina is second in Group B, the actually will play against the leader in Group which in the moment is Uruguay.

The Day The Earth Stood Still For Spain and South Africa

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Spain, favorite team to win the World Cup by many, had a chaotic debut against Switzerland in the opener for Group H. Switzerland has never won over Spain in their respective matches against the Spaniards, but yesterday it happened so for the first time in history with a 1 - 0 score. The striking offense leaded by David Villa and Fernando Torres was shut down the light for both in their worst moment in history. Switzerland was up in the score thanks to the Swiss striker Gelson Fernandes in the 52 minute. With Spain's first loss in the debut of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, this cuts the 12 straight wins that Spain previously had with the United States on the June 24, 2009 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup.

This historic goal that Switzerland scored came about by a long shot from Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio to striker Eren Derdiyok, which he gets knocked down by Iker Casillas, Fernandes was very effective granted that he was present in the Spanish area so he took advantage and gave it a fantastic goal. Before the loss, Spain was considered to be favorites to win the World Cup, came to the that in their 50 years, Spain has never overcomed a win in their World Cup debuts. Spain cotrolled most of the game, but the effectivity of their strikers lacked vocational offense and they had a large amounts of chances to score, but this was the consequence that Switzerland took advantage of and scored by the end of the match. Spain tried to recuperate from the goal, but for the most part Swtizerland already bet in many of their players to remain with their result and became a wall that the Spanish could not penetrate. Many breathed early with a clear shot from Xabi Alonso, but it was not enough for the Spanish to suffer this way.

When Spain controlled much of the game, Switzerland betted to defend and attack in minutes after the goal when Eren Derdiyok had a clear shot on goal but the ball drifted to the other side. During stoppage time of 5 minutes, the Spanish seemed nervous and desperate to score the goal, this is the result of a catastrophic proportion because Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld planted a well thought out scheme to stop the Spanish offense to take advantage of the spaces left by the Swiss.

Brazil Won Fair Despite Its Ups and Downs

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Maicon, Internazionale de Milan player, from an impossible angle at the 55 minute opened the score of the Brazilian national team in its debut with a victory 2 - 1 over North Korea in their debut of Group G. Despite Brazil's victory, there has been left with many criticisms in their tactical scheme when it came to the offense because they have failed and lacked communication in the attack throughout the game. With Maicon scoring the opener for Brazil, Elano scored the second goal in the 72 minute with an effective pass from Robinho, the best player of the game. But, minutes later North Korea pressured the Brazilian defense that led to the 2 - 1 by Ji Yun Nam in the 89 minute. With this result, Brazil is leader on the top of group G alongside Ivory Coast and Portugal, which they both tied 0 - 0 in the previous game.

with Maicon's first goal, Brazil was breathing it easy, trying to maintain the result of a team that didn't have enough ideas, Kaká was unaware of the passes and became very erratic in the game. For the North Koreans, this is their second World since last in 1966, build a strong, but well effected defense to stop the Brazilian counter attacks but was very attentive to all the Brazilian players going all out to look for the rival net. On a cold night, the North Koreans managed to surpass and work together in a humble manner that the Brazilians had trouble deciphering the Brazilian defensive barrier leaded by Lucio. Maicon went up to the offensive very little, but he managed to score the goal, one that many consider an impossible to score. The Brazilian players were astonishing from the beginning with the long shots on target but none of the shots ended in goal but exhibited the potential of these Brazilian players.

With Maicon in the offensive, it gave way to weaken the North Korea defense little by little, but with this came the second goal that with Maicon and Robinho it gave way to the pass to Elano to score a short downward shot that ended in goal and the 2 - 0 temporarily. Minutes later into the game, the North Koreans were everywhere and tried to penetrate through the Brazilian defense but they managed to do it with Jong Tae Se, that complicated the Brazilian defense many times. With this victory, in order to qualify to the next round Brazil needs to win against Ivory Coast and North Korea needs to win against Portugal into having hopes to making it to the next round.

Champion Saved By a Tie

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Paraguay payed the consequence of its goalkeeper giving in a draw against Italy, the defending Champion of the FIFA World Cup 2006. Paraguay was in the front of the score with an effective header from player Antolin Alcaraz in the debut from both teams of Group F. Paraguayan player Alcaraz surpassed both Italian players Daniele De Rossi and captain Fabio Cannavaro after a corner kick from Aureliano Torres in the minute 39. But, at the 63 minute, the error of Paraguay's goalkeeper was committed after a bad exit so that Daniele De Rossi took the advantage to put the equalizer. After the tie, Italy attacked more and more effectively troubling the ability of Villar to measure the ball's travel.

But, even though the Italian national team attacked more, the team lacked the offensive vocation into scoring the goal to widen the result. With this tie, the Paraguayan team breathes air but still pending the games from New Zealand and Slovakia into what is going to happen because both teams are not that easy. The bad news for Italy came about the early back injury of goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who had to be substituted in the second half, substituting for Federico Marchetti. The rain and the cold weather froze both teams ability to create many different dangerous situation of goal, but it gave both teams lack of ideas. This game resulted in good tactical scheme from both teams and very well done job from both teams.

Both teams managed to play with an air ball at all times so they paid much attention to the direction of the ball. Overall, Italy couldn't penetrated much into the defense, which in most of the match very difficult to get through. The Italians centers were very well rejected by either the defense or Justo Villar. While Paraguay attacked more or less, which the Italian defense seemed rather weak but focused to not make the same mistake again. After the Italian goal, Paraguay had difficulty to recompose when it came to the defense and their offense.

Germany Demolished Australia

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Germany proved to the world that they are a firm candidate to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup with a crushing victory over Australia. Throughout the game, Australia played very smoothly until the last 30 minutes of the match with the expulsion of Tim Cahill. with this clear victory, Germany debuted the World Cup set the right foot and exhibited great soccer to the Australians and were effective to widen the score of 4 goals. Also, Germany is consolidated for now as the leader of Group D with 3 points alongside Ghana, who defeated Serbia 1 - 0 with a penalty kick executed by Gyan Asamoah. Lukas Podolski opened the score at the 8 minute and Miroslav Klose took advantage to widen the score of 2 - 0 with a fantastic header at the 26 minute.

In the second half, Germany's became more and more effective in their offensive with goals from Thomas Müller and Cacau. Australia fought for what they believed in and showed the best effort, even though of the crushing defeat. Captain Philipp Lahm, Mezut Ozil and Thomas Müller took advantage of the weak defense of the Australians, which showed a very erratic tactics and lack of concentration towards the Germans. Klose had a very good performance in the game but the only thing that lacked was that he missed more than one occassion to score a goal, but he gave great assists and effective passes that Australia's defense did not catch up to the expectations of the audience. With this convincing collective scheme, Germany demonstrated a great sense of control in the field even though it missed the absence of captain Michael Ballack.

With Germany's victory, this also demonstrated that the country is destined to go far in the World Cup and even has aspirations to win it so. If Germany defeats Serbia in the next game, they are surely in the round of 16, but it's not going to be easy because Serbia is a good collective team that gave many difficulties to Ghana to score.

Argentina's Sweet and Sour Victory

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Lionel Messi, F.C. Barcelona's striker and Diego Armando Maradona's key player, set in stone their World Cup hopes with a fantastic header from Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze. The goals was made in the 6 minute, held at the Ellis Park Stadium opening for Group B. Heinze's header, was made from a center corner kick from midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, when Argentina was feeling very nervous about the rythm of the game. At the end, the hug at the end of the match between Messi and Maradona was seemed almost impossible to imagine because of the many criticisms towards Messi not having a good relationship with Maradona. In the end, Maradona was running around the field and congratulated all of their staff and players for their hard work.

This hard work is determined that even though Messi was not effective and did not score any goals, this shows to the world of Messi's abilities aside from the different tactics that is shown between F.C. Barcelona's exhibition as well as the Argentinian national team. What Messi lacked in the Argentina - Nigeria was the lack of Messi's scoring abilities, he missed several occassions to score but still the audience was in awe the fact that Messi facilitated his teammates to project into the offensive. Messi's explosivity in the offensive was extremely effective because it felt like a supercharged in Argentina's control of the game. The other player that lacked even more goals was Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain, Nigeria's defenders Joseph Yobo and Danny Shittu managed to not mark Higuain, which created several occassions to score. After the goal, Argentina changed tactics into keeping the game controlled and to remain with the score until an offensive vocation appeared.

Argentina's defender Jonas Gutierrez was very erratic in his game throughout the game, making the defense weak and to make Nigeria's players like Chinedu Obasi, Yakubu Ayegbeni and even defender Taye Taiwo to infiltrate easily in the Argentine's defense. Nigeria lacked the pefect shots on target because of Walter Samuel and Gabriel Heinze, Sani Kaita and Chidi Odiah couldn't equalize the game. This is the third straight victory over Nigeria in the World Cup, with victories in 1994 and 2002.