Greece 2-1 Nigeria World Cup 2010 Group B

In the white-collar world especially, when someone blurts out the word “Nigeria”, the first and perhaps the only thing that comes into most of the people who hear it is the Advance-Fee Fraud (Nigerian 419 scam). For those laypersons out there, it is the infamous scam through e-mail in which it is not the correct occasion for me to explain fully but one thing for sure, it is something really negative about Nigeria. In this match against Greece, it was such a crucial match for Nigeria. Firstly, by beating Greece, they would have condemned Greece to go home early from World Cup 2010 and puts them in a extreme play-off against the recently beaten South Korea to decide who gets into the last 16 of the competition. This is also crucial to shed the country's bad images such as the one mentioned above and thus to project a positive image about the country to the whole world. There's nothing better to convey such message as in a global event as big as the World Cup. As for Greece, they were a side condemned by all corners to be knocked out soon and severely beaten by Nigeria in this match, but fate has another say...

At the start of the match, Nigeria showed the world just that as they simply dominated over Greece thoroughly and Nigeria took the lead in just 15 minutes through Kalu Uche's not so wonderful but effective free kick. They continued to dominate Greece to such an extent that it looked like it would be a massive thrashing in store for Greece. However, just like most of the Greek mythology stories out there, everything which seems glorious and powerful, will only face a really tragic and sadistic end (unless we read the kids version of the mythology, that is). At 32nd minute, for whatever reason it was, the Nigerian player S. Kaita suddenly kicked out a Greek player lightly on the touchline prior to a throw in. The Greek player was only too happy and fall down as if his thigh was shot by a magnum and the ref promptly sent Kaita off so shamefully. In my opinion, it wasn't necessary at all for Kaita to do that no matter what. Never touch an opponent unnecessarily in a football match or you will pay a heavy price and let your team down. Furthermore, it's not as if Nigeria was trailing in frustration, they were thoroughly dominated the match and they were a goal up, and on course to getting more goals scored and of course getting themselves on course to qualify to the last 16.

Greece's manager Otto Rehhagel was too experienced not to let this opportunity to pass by and immediately put Georgios Samaras into the fray in an extremely attacking substitution and it worked wonders. The pathetic Greek team from the first match against South Korea as well as during the first 32 minutes of this match suddenly turned into a group of titans from Olympus. From this moment all the way to the end of the match, all they did was attack attack and attack. Although Vincent Enyeama, the Nigerian goalkeeper was heroic throughout the match, there's only so much to do for one man to carry a whole nation alone, and he duly conceded at the 43rd minute and that's the end of the half.

The second half got Nigeria even worse. In this half, anything that could go wrong, simply go wrong for Nigeria and it started at 53rd minute when one of their strongest defenders Taye Taiwo needed to be substituted as he was injured while Enyeama continued to rescue Nigeria time after time with stunning saves. But he again conceded a goal at the 70th minute. It was such an emotional sight. I really felt for Enyeama. I think he deserves so much more than such a humiliation like this. After this fateful goal, the other 9 players on the pitch seemed to had thrown in the towel and they simply hoped for the match to end sooner or later. To his credit Vincent Enyeama continued to have massive spirits in this game. He continued to have that sense of urgency, the belief that Nigeria could still rescue this game. This was shown when he eagerly requested for the ball from the ballboy so that he could promptly pass the ball for his team mates to score and rescue Nigeria's World Cup campaign. The Greeks were attacking like Barcelona now, such that when Samaras dribbled past a few Nigerian players in Nigeria's penalty box, I thought he was Messi who suddenly grows tall.

It was such a humiliating day for Nigeria now that they are 95% knocked out from the competition unless a mathematical miracle happens in which just like how the commentator put it, I won't go into the details of the complex permutations and combinations, but Nigeria has very little hope of progressing, so little that they are as good as getting knocked out. No matter what, Vincent Enyeama is my choice for the man of the match award! Very well done Enyeama! See you in the UEFA Champions League, you deserve a big move now after two stunning performances against Argentina and now the Titan infused Greece.

As for Greece, congratulations for their first ever win in the World Cup finals, and unlike Nigeria, they might even go through from Group B if things turn out in their favor. If Nigeria and South Korea play out to a draw, and they beat an Argentina side which would surely put out a non full strength side as they have qualified to the last 16, they would turn from a World Cup no hopers to joining Argentina to qualify to the last 16 of the competition. It was such a memorable match... For Vincent Enyeama and for Greece. If I am a Nigerian editor, the headline which I would put up tomorrow would be “1 Stupid Eagle, 9 Ordinary Eagles and 1 Extraordinarily Super Eagle Vincent Enyeama!”

Argentina 4-1 South Korea World Cup 2010 Group B

Vamos! Argentina have just become the first country to go through from the Group Stage of the World Cup 2010 thanks to the impressive victory against the unsurprisingly resolute and hard working South Koreans! This victory was down to the sheer genius of Diego Maradona, the Argentina manager who initiated a match defining, masterstroke substitution to kill off any remaining challenge from the South Koreans! To be fair to the South Koreans, they were resolute and looked like equalizing or even overturning the Argentine until the aforementioned genius masterstroke decision from the legend himself! Maradona is also the first manager who deviated from the cowardice 4-5-1 formation to play the brave and attacking 4-4-2 Diamond formation, which is my personal favorite formation of all. Despite this crushing defeat, the South Koreans is pretty much in he competition and likely to join Argentina to go through from Group B. But how hard it would be depends on the match between Nigeria and Greece very soon from the time of writing.

The first half was utterly dominated by Argentina with plenty of pace from Angel di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Jonas Gutierrez, the free role Leo Messi, as well as the hard-working machine like Carlos Tevez who chased for practically for every ball no matter what. Argentina started the match all the way to the highest gear and they really dominated the match, playing the fabled Barcelonaesque football with plenty of pacey and swift dazzling passes on the pitch. Argentina, with their brave formation and attacking style were rewarded soon at the 16th minute when a Messi cross was turned to his own goal by South Korean striker Park Chu-Young. It was a perfect strike from the AS Monaco man, but he scored to the wrong goal. 1-0 to Argentina. At the 20th minute, Walter Samuel needed to be replaced with N. Burdisso, reminiscence to how Philippe Senderos of Suisse needed to be substituted early in the match against Spain. The extent of his injury is not known yet. Argentina domination continued when Higuain scored with a very nice header, the first of many for the night. However, Argentina was totally stunned when a terrible mistake by Martin Demichelis allowed Lee Chung Yong to pull one back right before half time. 2-1.

In the second half, the complexion of the match changed and Argentina were pinned back by South Koreans and the Koreans looked like scoring at anytime as Argentina stuttered, frustrated and started collecting yellow cards for silly reasons. This is despite the commentator stating in the first half that there will be no way back for S. Korea if Argentina is 2-0 up. It was bad as Jonas will also miss the potentially crucial next match against Greece due to a second yellow card in the tournament (if the Koreans managed to hold or defeat Argentina which at that time was a huge possibility). South Korea's goalkeeper Jung Sung Ryong also looked like he won't concede another goal.

However, Maradona showed the world why he's a genius manager when he decided at the 74th minute to replace the out of steam and larely anonymous Tevez in the second half for Sergio Aguero. This is what separates an ordinary manager with a genius manager. An ordinary manager would have brought on Diego Milito in desperation based on his exploits for his club. But, club and country football are two very different things and the fact that Aguero didn't have a good season with Atletico Madrid is irrelevant. One minute later, Aguero made a great run and was greatly involved in the attacking move involving Messi as well with Higuain tapping in after Messi had hit the post. 3-1 for Argentina. At the 80th minute, Aguero was at it again when he assisted Higuain to complete his marvelous hat-trick and utterly destroyed South Korea 4-1. With this, Argentina dominated again and at right after the goal, Higuain came off to be replaced by M. Bolatti the hero against Uruguay in the qualifiers which secured Argentina's qualification into the World Cup for Higuain's well deserved standing ovation. Aguero even managed to almost obtained a well deserved Argentina's 5th goal at the very last minute.

Amazing victory for Argentina, and they have qualified to the last 16 and are on course to even go all the way in the tournament. Now, the aforementioned ban of Jonas Gutierrez is no longer relevant and it is just like he's rested for the now dead rubber match against the Greeks in which Maradona is likely to experiment with his second team with the likes of Martin Palermo for example. For South Korea, this defeat doesn't mean that they won't go through as from their performance between the 45-74th minute, they are more than capable of beating Nigeria and join Argentina to the last 16. Again, how easy it would be for South Korea to go through depends on the upcoming match between Nigeria and Greece. Enjoy!

Argentina 1-0 Nigeria World Cup 2010 Group B

The second opening game for World Cup 2010 Group B was the match between Argentina and Nigeria. The match ended 1-0 to Argentina's favor, but in truth, it was a surprisingly very tight and well-balanced match in which I believe Nigeria was rather unfortunate on not being able to at least equalize. Prior to the match, both teams have had their respective plans laid out. Argentina started with the attacking trident of Higuain, Messi (who was given a free role), and Tevez. While Nigeria started out with Yakubu as their sole attacking lone spear but reinforced as the match wears on especially in the second half. Another interesting point is Juan Sebastian Veron's role in the Argentina squad as well as some players form both sides that attracted attention in the match. Since it is of no secrets by now that I am tipping Argentina to win this year's World Cup, the points which I will be making below are mostly about Argentina, but I will try my best to include things that caught my eyes from the Nigerian team in the match as well.

The match started as a high octane extreme attacking match with both teams attacking liberally, especially Argentina with the aforementioned attacking trident. After just 5 minutes, Argentina immediately scored through a really nice move. A corner kick resulting from Messi's stinging shot which was saved (the first of so many more in the game) was dispatched by Veron and then Gabriel Heinze appeared so suddenly and abruptly into the penalty area such that he was free to head the ball and he did just that to score the first and only goal in the match which turned out to be the winning goal for Argentina. However, unlike Greece in the previous Group B match, Nigeria wasn't really shocked with the early goal and maintained their high-gear approach of the game.

Another point to take note is Jonas Gutierrez. Although a lot of pundits criticized Maradona's decision to bring Jonas on board in favor of other who are supposedly more high profile such as Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso. The fact that he played in England's lower division with Newcastle in the recently concluded club season doesn't mean that he's not a great player. He was brimming with energy and passion in the game and since he played as a right back, he reminds me of Brazil's Maicon. He was practically everywhere on the pitch. When the team attacks, he's right in front ready to receive the ball and when he has the ball, he could be seen crossing to the strikers, but when the opponents launch a swift counterattack, Jonas is suddenly at the back again defending and trying to win back possession. The amazing thing is that he does that while completing the whole 90 minutes without any sign of tiring down and thus needing to be substituted or rested.

Another interesting point, as mentioned in the first paragraph is Veron's role in the squad. This is again the substantiation of the “pseudo-manager” effect which I have explained so many times by now and another bad sign for Germany since they have lost Michael Ballack, the player which has this role in the squad. Veron was the pseudo-manager in the squad, and thus might just be another of Maradona's concealed genius masterstrokes. In the match, whenever possible, it could be seen that Maradona was conveying instructions to Veron, and then in the match itself, Veron could be seen waving his arms, shouting commands to the players and the players seem to react according to the instructions, such as slowing or quickening the tempo of the match. Despite how much Maradona moved around the touchline barking instructions, a pseudo-manager such as Veron is still needed.

The second half started where the first one had left off with both teams continuing to operate on high gears. Argentina continued to dominate possession and the match with Tevez as the embodiment of the team's high octane approach. However, since Argentina failed to score that second and killer goal, Nigeria started to realize this and they immediately made two attacking substitutions with Peter Odemwingie and Obafemi Martins entering the fray. Nigeria's attack turned from a one tipped spear to become a trident with Martins, Yakubu and Odemwingie.

Exchanges of entertaining and heart-stopping counter-attacks ensued between the two teams with Nigeria's Taye Taiwo nearly equalized before injuring himself. Bad sign for Nigeria. But he was substituted with Kalu Uche, another striker, and by this time, about 10-15 minutes from the end of the game, Nigeria operated with four strikers on the pitch now in their quest to find the equalizer, and by now, Argentina started to get pinned back as they continued to fail to get another goal and Nigeria acquiring more and more belief as time passed. Perhaps it was due to the match ball, but Argentina's efforts continued to go over the bar (also observable in other matches). In any case, Nigeria crept closer and closer to scoring a goal.

Maradona seemed to realize the 4 engined Nigerian bombardment as well as his team's failure to score the second goal prompted him to make a defensive substitution after two attacking ones prior to this when he sent Nicolas Burdisso into the fray. Argentina continued to become shakier and shakier but they did manage to get to the Nigerian goal as Higuain was denied a penalty. In the dying minutes of the game, Nigeria continued their resilience and as many as six Nigerian players were committed to the attack at that time.

However, it wasn't enough as Argentina managed to hold on to their slender lead and start the World Cup campaign with a victory. For Nigeria, they have to snatch a victory and a draw at the very least against South Korea and Greece.

Meanwhile, for Argentina, they only have to draw or preferably defeat South Korea and/or Greece to ensure their qualification to the knockout stages. This is a great start for Argentina, and a preferable one as well in my humble opinion. This is so as Argentina managed to get off to a good start by winning their first match, but they don't peak too early just like themselves in 2006 and Spain traditionally in the World Cup.

S. Korea 2-0 Greece World Cup 2010 Group B

It was the opening match for Group B in World Cup 2010 with South Korea facing Greece at the newly built Nelson Mandela bay stadium. Judging from both team's profiles, this match was expected to be a tight and cagey affair with both teams, especially the Greeks employing a defensive and cautious approach, and many including myself had expected this match to end all square with the scoreline of 1-1. Although two goals were indeed scored in the match, it wasn't to be a draw as South Korea snatched a massive 2-0 victory against the Greeks. It was the South Koreans' first victory in the World Cup outside of the Asian continent and also the first time they have won by 2 clear goals in the World Cup. This puts them in a very promising position to also go through from the World Cup Group Stage for the very first time outside of Asia.

Just like what we have seen in 2002, and if that World Cup was controversial (especially for Italians and Spaniards out there), we could even see in 2006 that there's undoubtedly something special in the South Korean squad. They somehow have some kind of winning aura surrounding them. When they play, somehow we know beforehand that they are going to do well in the match, and thus a high chance of getting a victory no matter the opposition. Based on my observation, especially after this victory against Greece, this South Korea team is a very industrious, solid, matured, and they have a really good team chemistry. This group of players almost have some kind of telepathic understanding with one another. Their players such as Park Ji-Sung, Cha Du-Ri, Park Chu-Young just to name three are really skillful and able players. We have seen how at first Jung-Soo scored the first goal with his head and defeating the supposedly bigger and taller Greek defenders. This dispelled the Asian physical inferiority myth. Park Ji-Sung's goal for South Korea's second and killer goal also substantiated the kind of world class player that he is, after leaving two Greek defenders out cold with his dazzling pace and skills as well as leaving the Greek goalkeeper scrambling for nothing more than bits of soil on the ground. The full backs consisting of the striker turned right back Cha Du-Ri and the evergreen Lee Young-Pyo augmenting the South Korean attack perfectly.

In contrast, the Greek team seemed tired, old, and clumsy. A good analogy, especially in conjunction with their style of play would be that they are just like an artillery-worn and crumbling defensive wall. They no longer able to showcase their famed rigid defending which would draw any oppositions into submission such as how they showed the world in their Euro 2004 triumph, let alone showing the world how they were able to win matches by 1-0 scoreline which delivered the Euro trophy as well as shooting them to fame.

The Greeks were leaking goals, and thus it would totally deprived them of their only way to play and win the football game, in which to defend staunchingly until the enemy is worn out and then to score one unexpected goal from either a corner kick or a free kick. Since they were leaking goal, and since they don't really have a plan B, there's no way that Greek could win this game or any football game for that matter. Their lack of a back up plan and ways to get back into the match in general.

Also, if the South Korean players had their way in their barrages towards the Greek goal in the last ten minutes or so, it could have easily been a shameful thrashing by the Koreans. Thus, Greek's World Cup scoring curse continues on as they have yet to find that first goal in the competition.

Now, South Korea is in a great position to go through from Group B as they only need to at least get one more point from the remaining two games, and not to take away anything from Nigeria, but it is attainable to get a point or even more from Nigeria and of course not ruling out an upset against Argentina if they have their way. As for Greece, things look bleak for now unless they are able to overturn their low morale and could formulate a great plan B in time for their remaining two games against Argentina and Nigeria.