Soccer Goals | World Cup Draws, Draws, Draws and a Little Surprise

Another day, another set of drawn matches in the soccer goal depleted World Cup Finals. As usual, three games were played today, with New Zealand playing Slovakia, which to me are both unknown entities in the world of football. So it wouldn’t have made much difference what the result had been. These teams play in Group F along with Italy and Paraguay, and arguably it will be Italy and Paraguay which progress out of the group stages and into round 2, despite the fact that their game yesterday was also a draw. Starting to get just a tad repetitive now, all these draws, and I was hoping for some of the “big gun” teams like Portugal and Brazil to come along and produce a goal fest or two!

And so to Portugal versus Ivory Coast; a Portugal walk-over in most people’s minds, I would have thought. But no – in fact, it turned out to be, um, a draw, um, again. What a surprise! A drawn game in this World Cup competition. Oh well, and no goals either; some very close calls and ricochets off the crossbar, but no cigars. Quite a shocker of a game in terms of the result.

Then onto the Brazil versus North Korea game. My expectation was something along the lines of a 7-0 annihilation by the number 1 seeded team against the 125th team in the rankings. And yet another surprise of a match, for several reasons. Firstly, it was anything but a walk in the park for Brazil, with the score at a 0-0 stalemate by half time. The North Koreans played a very cagey, defensive game with a flat back five and a bunch of defensive midfielders, which swamped the Koreans’ half and stifled Brazil’s stars from playing any meaningful football.

As the clock ticked on, the pressure was undoubtedly on Brazil to produce a result in this mismatched fixture, and early in the second half, almost out of nowhere, Brazil and Inter Milan defender Maicon broke the deadlock with a fantastic goal from an almost impossible angle on the touchline – a goal reminiscent of something Roberto Carlos might have pulled off!

Later in the second half Elano doubled the advantage with a perfectly executed goal, from an inch perfect through ball. Exactly what might be expected from a talented Brazilian team, and it looked like the floodgates might open as time marched on and the North Koreans tired from the relentless onslaught. But there was another shock to come. The Koreans decided to hit back, and to be fair to them, they looked very dangerous on the break throughout the game. It was no surprise when they pulled a goal back; the only surprise was the quality of the strike under pressure, and Ji Yun Nam floated his first ever World Cup goal over a sprawling keeper to give a well deserved portion of pride back to the North Koreans who, in the event, gave a very satisfactory showing against a team expected to make them look foolish. So well done to North Korea – even though they lost the game!

Unfortunately for North Korea, they are in the “Group of Death” and it is probably unwise to assume anything other than Brazil and Portugal being the teams to continue to the next phase. Just don’t underestimate the Koreans. They are a tidy defensive unit, and on today’s evidence look extremely difficult to break down – so Portugal beware! This evening’s game was possibly the best of the tournament so far. And who knows what tomorrow’s games will have in store – draws probably.