Tuesday 22 June 2010

Argentina through, France out, Greece never at the races


Enjoy it?

Business end of the World Cup began today with France, as inevitably as is possible, packing their bags and heading home........although there is an argument to say they never actually turned up at South Africa.  

IBWM along with the French government (not together mind) will wade in with its two penneth on that one in the coming days, but today the French, down to 10 men, stumbled to a 2-1 defeat to hosts South Africa.  In failing to do so, Bafana Bafana became the first host nation to fail making it over the qualification line in 80 years.  How they must rue that woodwork worrying against Mexico in the opening game.  Uruguay, unsportingly taking advantage in IBWM's drunken state that saw a hefty wager on a draw with Mexico, beat the Mexicans 1-0 to top Group A, with their opponents also going through.

Group B threw up an entertaining clash between South Korea and Nigeria, which ended 2-2 and included one of THE all time bad misses from Yakubu, enough for the Koreans to progress, finishing second to El Diego's Argentina.  

I should mention here that IBWM has taken the decision not to put all its eggs into Diego's basket and focus totally on Argentina (HEGS, Mundo Albiceleste and the lads at southamericanfootball.co.uk all do a much better job of that) in order to begin it's ultimate quest to concentrate on World Football in all it's glory, from all regions....... but we still love El Diego.  And so do his players, it seems.  

Sending out what could almost be described as a reserve side, sort of, through very squinted eyes, Argentina comfortably won 2-0 against the Greeks.  In truth, just the two flattered Greece, they were never in it.  Deciding that parking the bus was the way to go, the Greeks were comprehensively outplayed as Diego not only oversaw a win, but did a lot to keep morale high amongst his second string.  Captain for the night Leo Messi was again outstanding, but still failed to score, DiMichelis and Palermo doing the damage this time. 

Roll on the last 16.

Comments welcome.


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