Category — World Cup
World Cup countdown: England 3 Egypt 1
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England delivered a solid second-half performance to beat African champions Egypt 3-1 in a friendly on Wednesday.
It was no easy encounter for Fabio Capello’s side however as a very motivated Egyptian team impressed the home crowd at Wembley stadium in the first half.
The Africans even got the opening goal on 23 minutes, as Mohamed Zidan picked up the ball near the halfway line, got past a defender and struck past Rob Green for 0-1.
But England improved in the second half and equalised three minutes before the hour mark. Gareth Barry delivered the ball in the penalty area and Peter Crouch side-footed it home at the first post.
And the hosts went on to take the lead in the 75th minute, as keeper Al-Hadari initially parried a shot from James Milner but could not prevent that Shaun Wright-Phillips scored on the rebound.
The game was all but decided five minutes later. Crouch appeared to be offside when receiving a pass from Wright-Phillips, but was allowed to go on and netted the home team’s third of the night, 3-1.
England play the United States in their first group game on June 12, and face Algeria and Slovenia in the following matches. Egypt failed to qualify for the World Cup.
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March 4, 2010 No Comments
World Cup countdown: Spain 2 France 0
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Spain confirmed their position among the World Cup favourites with a dominant 2-0 victory over France in their friendly match at the Stade de France here on Wednesday.
The European champions prevailed through first-half goals from David Villa and Sergio Ramos, inflicting upon their hosts a first defeat in 13 home games.
Worse for France was their powerlessness in the face of Spain’s masterful control of possession and the home fans made their feelings known at regular intervals by imploring under-fire coach Raymond Domenech to resign.
The enigmatic 58-year-old has seen his popularity plummet since leading France to the 2006 World Cup final and the defeat will increase calls for him to step down before this summer’s finals in South Africa.
The half-time introduction of Xavi and Fernando Torres presaged further misery for Domenech’s men, but although the scoreline remained the same, the damage had already been done.
Thierry Henry, representing his country for the first time since his infamous handball in the play-off victory over Ireland in November, was whistled when he left the field in the second half, while the French fans took to airing their frustrations by cheering every completed Spanish pass.
Florent Malouda headed against the post from fellow substitute Djibril Cisse’s right-wing cross in the 80th minute and it was to prove the closest the hosts came to a breakthrough.
Sevilla winger Jesus Navas almost made it 3-0 in injury time but his shot across goal from the inside-right channel flashed narrowly wide.
France had made an industrious start, with Franck Ribery a persistently menacing presence on the right of midfield.
The hosts, though, were playing with an untested centre-back pairing of debutant Michael Ciani and Julien Escude, and cracks quickly appeared.
Sergio Busquets gave the home side a warning in the 19th minute when he met a corner unmarked and flashed a header narrowly wide.
Two minutes later Spain went ahead, after David Silva dummied Andres Iniesta’s through-ball, flummoxing Escude and allowing Villa to stroll through and place the ball past Hugo Lloris.
The goal settled the visitors and they were content to sit deep behind the ball, inviting pressure from the French and looking to break forward on the counter-attack.
The crucial second goal arrived in first-half injury time.
Ramos cut infield from the right and let fly with his left foot, the ball flicking off Escude’s outstretched foot and leaving Lloris helpless.
The result leaves Domenech similarly exposed.
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March 4, 2010 No Comments
World Cup countdown : Cameroon draw with Italy
African giants Cameroon held world champions Italy to a 0-0 draw in a dull World Cup finals warm-up international in Monaco on Wednesday.
Italy coach Marcello Lippi said that despite the 0-0 scoreline he had found the match a useful exercise.
“That was a very useful match, I had the chance to have a look at many players for the first time, even those who had already been in the squad before (when Lippi wasn’t coach)” he said.
Lippi used this fixture to have a look at new players and he picked an experimental line-up with a mix of regular first teamers such as captain Fabio Cannavaro and midfielder Andrea Pirlo while giving debuts to Cagliari midfielder Andrea Cossu and Bari right-back Leonardo Bonucci.
The unfamiliar nature of the Italy team possibly contributed to a first half which saw barely a chance created by either side.
Italy were marginally the more potent, although that speaks volumes about the lack of threat from Cameroon.
The world champions did have the ball in the net on 13 minutes but it was rightly ruled out for offside.
Cameroon goalkeeper Souleymanou Hamidou came for a corner but made an absolute hash of his attempt, yet inadvertently his actions saved his team from conceding as when Daniele De Rossi helped the ball forward, there was only one defender between Giorgio Chiellini and the goal.
There was the usual flood of half-time changes and one of the Italy substitutes, Juventus’s Claudio Marchisio, fashioned a chance for Antonio Di Natale, whose volley was deflected over.
With 16 minutes left Italy came close again but Hamidou did well to come out and smother Bonucci’s close range effort from Chiellini’s flick.
But Cameroon then had the best chance of the game as Pierre Webo was played in behind the Italy backline only for his first touch to be poor and allow Federico Marchetti to come out and smother on the edge of the box.
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March 4, 2010 1 Comment
Aguirre replaces Eriksson
Javier Aguirre has been named as Mexico’s national team coach, less than 24 hours after Sven-Goran Eriksson was axed from the position.
Aguirre will take charge of El Tri for the second time after leading them to the round of 16 at the 2002 World Cup.
The 50-year-old had frequently been linked with the post after he was sacked as Atletico Madrid boss in February, with Mexico’s poor form intensifying those rumours.
Aguirre has distanced himself from the role as early as last month, but following Eriksson’s sacking yesterday – less than a year into his tenure – he has answered an SOS from the Mexican football association.
Late last night he met the governing body’s president, Justino Compean, and the director of the committee of national teams, Nestor de la Torre, in Mexico City before agreeing a new deal.
He will take charge of a Mexico side that has has won just one of its past six World Cup qualifiers and who sit fourth in their CONCACAF qualifying group to reach the 2010 finals in South Africa.
According to a Mexican FA statement Aguirre will be officially presented on April 16, with his first game in charge due to come away to El Salvador on June 6. – ESPN
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April 4, 2009 No Comments
Word Cup Qualifier – Spain 1 : 0 Turkey
Spain continued their seemingly unstoppable march towards the World Cup finals by edging out Turkey in the battle between the top two teams in Group Five.
Gerard Pique scored the only goal of a closely-fought encounter at the Bernabeu as Spain made it five wins out of five in qualifying, leaving them six points clear of second-placed Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The victory also extended the European champions’ unbeaten run to 30 matches – of which 28 have ended in victory.
However, Vicente del Bosque’s side were slow out of the blocks at the start of the game and can consider themselves fortunate not to have fallen behind early on.
In the sixth minute Turkey captain Nihat Kahveci got in behind the home defence but fired a low shot just wide, before 60 seconds later Senturk brought a diving save out of Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
That was an encouraging start for the visiting side, who had picked up eight points from their first four qualifiers, and Fatih Terim’s troops would go on to edge an opening period in which clear chances were at a premium.
Spain had to wait until the 42nd minute for their first real effort of note, with Fernando Torres testing Demirel Volkan from the edge of the area.
Just seconds prior to that Turkey had created another half-chance when a well-timed run from Arda Turan saw him break through, but his control was too heavy and Casillas was able to rush out and collect.
Spain were finding it hard to build any momentum against a determined and well-organised Turkey side and it was hard to see where a goal was going to come from.
However that changed on the hour mark when the Euro 2008 winners finally managed to break the deadlock through the unlikely figure of centre-back Pique.
Xavi’s free-kick into the area should really have been tucked away by the unmarked Sergio Ramos on the edge of the six-yard box, but the Real Madrid defender seemed surprised to receive possession and could only divert the ball back across the face of goal.
Fortunately for the home side though Pique was free at the far post to side-foot the ball past Volkan, who got his hands to the shot but could not deny the Barcelona youngster his first international goal.
Soon after that breakthrough Del Bosque made his first change, sending on the debutant Juan Mata for his Valencia team-mate David Villa.
The in-form Villa had become the first Spaniard to net in six successive internationals in last month’s win over England, but he was unable to extend that record after being well-marshalled by the Turkish backline.
New boy Mata looked enterprising down the left and that, combined with Pique’s goal, allowed Spain to gradually enjoy more freedom going forward as Turkey left more space at the back.
David Silva went close to doubling the hosts’ lead before Volkan did well to somehow turn away Xabi Alonso’s half-volley.
Spain were unable to find a second goal but their defence had few problems keeping their opponents in check at the other end of the pitch, and Del Bosque’s men will now go to Istanbul for Wednesday’s return meeting against the Turks knowing a good result would leave them on the brink of a place in next year’s finals. – ESPN
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March 29, 2009 No Comments
