World Cup Day Two

With those vuvuzelas blasting off till 4am it is a somewhat disturbed sleep here at Blue Moutain Backpackers. Nonetheless up by 8.30am for a cheap and rather offensive tasting breakfast. Around 10.30 am and a double decker bus sponsored by UK’s Sun newspaper drives along with non-topless dolly-birds jiggling about. Tacky don’t even come close!

We head to Cafe Santa Groove bar just off the Market for the first match of the day. This is a very attractive game with the versatile South Koreans taking on Greece. The game has pace and South Korea dominate throughout. A seventh minute goal by the spritely Koreans set the tone and despite some aggressive play by the Greeks, South Korea dominate the midfield look lively on the attack. A second goal basically seals the tie with the Greeks in complete disarray substituting their captain at half time and the replacement captain before the end of the match.

Mixing it up, John and i head to The Dubliners pub on Long Street for the second match of the day.

With the brilliant handballing cheat of a manager, Maradonna looking more and more like his idol Fidel Castro, he leads his Argentinean team to victory over the Nigerians. It bodes badly from the start with ex-Watford player and heavyweight Danny Shittu at the heart of the Super Eagles defence against a three man Argentinean attack including superstar Tevez and the mecutial Lionel Messi. Again, an early goal settles the match, and it could have been worse had it not been for the heroics of the Nigerian goalkeeper who saves three immense shots from Messi. Shittu plays stoically and no further goals are scored. Argentina look amazing going forward, but whether they can win their third World Cup remains to be seen.

In the final match of the day, England get off to a magical start following a blunder by greedy Watford star defender Jay De Merritt who allows Heskey to flick on to Scouser and England captain Stevie G who takes the goal to perfection after just 4 minutes. Suddenly i see England’s chance of spanking them in. This doesn’t last long as England fail to control the game, and Team America apply themselves well. However, another classic blunder from an English goalkeeper (think Seamen against Brazil in 2002 and ex-Watford keeper David James on ore occasions than i care to remember) and Robert Green parries the ball into his own net from a straightforward opportunistic US punt with just a few minutes left before half time.

England look threatening when they go forward but their efforts are ineffectual and the game ends unceremoniously in a draw. England look unconvincing, but rarely start World Cup tournaments well. However world champions they are not judging on this performance!

John and i are taking a short football break tomorrow to head to Cape Point. More on this tomorrow – i hope.