Chapter 102: Unexpected, Reasonable

After the first round of the group stage, the qualifying situation of each group is still in a fog, and then the second round of the group stage will be launched, and in the second round of Group A, Uruguay, who took the lead, defeated the host South Africa 3:0, accumulating four points.

In the first half, Forlan's long-range shot was refracted into a strange leaf ball into the net, and in the second half, South African goalkeeper Kune tackled Suarez and was sent off with a red card. Pereira added another in stoppage time.

South Africa's fate was sealed even after the first match, as they unexpectedly drew with a mighty Mexico and were favoured by the great Pele.

"African teams will advance to the final."

After the "woe comes from the mouth" of the king of the ball, the African brothers began to fall one after another, especially South Africa, after the opening of the second round, they encountered a sad situation.

In front of Uruguay, South Africa was beaten back to its original form, three goals conceded, one red card, the image of the World Cup hosts has always been a surprise, this time here in South Africa is a complete disappointment.

After the draw with Mexico, South Africa coach Pereira was full of confidence, and when he was interviewed by reporters, he almost booked the right to qualify from the group in advance, but in front of Uruguay, Pereira was like being poured cold water, and the score of 3:0 ruthlessly extinguished all his enthusiasm.

The South African players also seemed to be a little too easy to win because of the draw against Mexico in the opening game, and many South African players said before the game that "if you win against Uruguay, you will qualify".

But the reality is cruel, in front of Uruguay, South Africa is completely unable to organize an effective attack, South Africa only had three shots on target in the whole game, and in the first half of the game, South Africa did not even have a single shot on target.

It took 65 minutes for South Africa to make their first threatening attack against Uruguay. After Forlan scored the penalty, many South African fans had already started to leave the stadium and they lost interest in their team's performance.

After two group games, South Africa have only scored one goal and have a minus three goal difference, and now the South African team can only look at the faces of others if they want to appear. In other words, he looks at the faces of others and is only theoretically possible, first he wants to beg Mexico and France to have a better draw, and then beat France in the final round, and on the premise that South Africa has to pray that Mexico and Uruguay will not go wrong in that match.

All in all, the South African team can actually say goodbye to this tournament now, and they will probably be left with just one goal, a goal difference of more than three, and of course, small cards of all colors.

If France loses to Mexico next, then South Africa's big win over France in the final round is likely to be a mix of Spain's 1998 World Cup situation, where the players wiped their tears while scoring goals, and when the game was over, they hugged each other and cried.

The so-called theoretical emergence may soon be ruthlessly broken by the French, as former world champions, they were beaten to the point of no defense in the match against Mexico, and finally lost 0:2.

France's defeat stemmed from their infighting, and to the embarrassment of head coach Domenech, his side still couldn't get out of a goal drought, with two goals to be scored in two games that was an embarrassment for the former World Cup winner.

Ahead of the game, Domenech publicly expelled the team's striker Nicolas Anelka after he was rude to his old man in the dressing room.

Domenech may have intended to make an example of the team and cheer up many of the big names in the team, but as a result, he overestimated his weight in the hearts of the players, and this time many players chose to side with Anelka and fight against him.

The loss of the general, coupled with the defeat in this game, made the prospects of the French team qualifying, bleak.

An embarrassing record for the French continued, and that was a winless streak in the main draw of the World Series, in the 2008 European Championships, they went home with 2 losses and 1 draw in the group, and two years later at the World Cup, they still did not win in the first two rounds of the group with 1 draw and 1 loss, and did not score a goal.

If France are eliminated from the World Cup, there is one country where fans will be rejoicing: Ireland, who believe that France should not have been in the World Cup in South Africa in the first place. In the European qualifying play-offs, France relied on Thierry Henry's handball to beat Ireland to advance, who protested and demanded a replay, and in their opinion, France's qualification for the World Cup was stolen, Domenech's side did not deserve this place, and if they were out of the group, it would be fate.

In fact, since the 2002 World Cup, the French team has indeed not matched the reputation of the strong team, the 2006 World Cup was trampled by Belgium led by Degan, the 2008 European Championship was defeated, and the South African World Cup qualifiers were promoted in a scolding, which shows that Domenech's team is completely unable to compare with the dynasty division around 1998 to 2000, Henry, Gallas and other veterans have already entered the end of their careers, and the new generation of players does not have the ability to take the lead.

In this World Cup in South Africa, the French team is the worst World Cup champion team so far, Argentina and Germany are proud, Brazil is in a difficult process but after all, three points are in hand, England and Italy have a bad start, but they also scored goals and got points, and Uruguay in the same group has 1 win and 1 draw to get 4 points, among the seven World Cup champion teams, France has become the most watery one.

What is puzzling is that after the European Championship fiasco, Domenech, who should have gotten out, was not fired Domenech, and let him lead the team until today, under the leadership of the poor coach, the French team played today's results, which can only be said to be a historical necessity, and if the Gallic Rooster wants to regain its prestige, it may only be able to pin his hopes on the new coach Blanc who took office after the World Cup.

Of course, Domenech can still find an excuse for his defeat, and that person is Abidal, the French defender suddenly lost his mind when his team was behind and was on a massive comeback, and fell to the ground prematurely, giving the opponent a precious penalty that ended the game.

A similar scene occurred in the European Championships two years ago, in the final round of the group against Italy, Abidal stupidly fouled in the penalty area, not only sent a penalty, but also was sent off with a red card, that game France lost 0:2, out of the group, this time lost the second round of the World Cup, Abidal made the same mistake.

However, it is not only the players who should really reflect on it, Domenech is also to blame, Abidal is a left-back, and it is inevitable that he will not be able to play as a cameo at central defender.

The first goal conceded by the French team on the spot, Mexico's anti-offside position was successful, and it was Abidal who was dragging behind in the French backline, as a central defender, in terms of positional sense, caution in the penalty area, etc., the requirements were naturally different from the fullback, and Abidal obviously could not fully adapt to his current position.

Two years ago, the European Championship had already proven that Abidal was not suitable for playing at centre-back, so why should he use it again in today's World Cup?

It can only be said that Domenech is stubborn to the extreme, the French team has planted the same person twice, and the head coach's decision-making is naturally responsible, and they all say "eat a trench and grow wise", but it is clear that Domenech may have never heard this.

In fact, France is not without other candidates, Sevilla's Squeiraci and Bordeaux's Pranus are not as famous as Abidal, but they are the main choice of central defenders, and they have performed well for the club this season.

In addition, there is the famous Mex, who is not even selected for the World Cup squad, Domenech prefers to use a person who has never played as a central defender in the club to play such an important position, and it is inevitable that he will suffer, and the penalty given by Abidal can only be said to be a retribution for his stubbornness.

If the choice to play Abidal at centre-back was the wrong man for Domenech, then the use of Govu was the wrong man.

Is it eleven that France sent this time?

Who's on the right?

After France's 2-0 defeat to Mexico, there will certainly be people who ask such questions, and Govu, who started the game on the right flank, has rarely even come into the limelight, and it is purely normal to forget about him.

Malouda is very active on the left flank and is arguably the best performer in France, and Franck Ribery in the middle is limited, but at least his efforts can be seen, but Govu has little evidence of his presence on the pitch, and the Invisible Man is the nickname he deserves after this game.

Govu can't be said to be hard working, and he is very active in running on the field, but the problem is that he has done almost nothing but run, with 0 shots on goal, 0 assists, and 0 breakthroughs throughout the game.

God knows what Govu did in this game, maybe his real position should be a "spectator" watching the game.

In two consecutive group games, Govu was the starting right winger, but his performance disappeared as in this game, and Domenech insisted on using him.

Govu's best performance for France came in a 3-1 win over Italy in the 2008 European Championship qualifiers, where he scored two goals on his own, and it is unclear if that game impressed Domenech so much that he still remembers Govu.

However, in these two rounds, Govu failed to play the whole game, the first game against Uruguay was replaced in the 85th minute, today it is 69 minutes, and the departure time is getting earlier and earlier, Domenech seems to have gradually realized the "role" of Govu, but unfortunately it seems to be a little late now.

In this game, the former No. 10 Zidane of the French team came to watch the game, and he must have been disappointed in the successor of his number.

Among the seven World Cup champion teams No. 10, Govu is probably the most indiscriminate one, Argentina's Messi needless to say, Brazil's Kaka, England's Rooney are all famous superstars, Germany's Podolski, Uruguay's Forlan are all utilitarian players, Italy's Di Natale may be relatively less famous, but after all, he is also the top scorer in Serie A, only Govu can't take anything, France's No. 10 has fallen to such a point, a few grades lower than the Zidane era.

After the two rounds of Group A, South Africa has basically been out of the tournament in advance, and France, with its fame, although it is still surviving, there are too many prerequisites to appear, so much that it is almost impossible.

The former World Cup and the European Cup double may really come to the point where it is time to wash and sleep.

In the second round of Group B, which began the next day, Argentina and Nigeria were the first to appear, and the two old rivals had the experience of playing each other in the 2002 World Cup, when Argentina won 1-0 thanks to a goal from the god of war Batistuta.

This time the result was strikingly similar, it was still a 1-0 result, the same header scored, only this time it was defender Heinze who scored.

In the first round of the group stage, Higuain, who scored a hat trick, completely disappeared in this game, and although Messi worked hard, there were not many bright spots.

However, a victory can already ensure Argentina's qualification from the group, but behind such a victory, what did Argentina get?

The irony came after the game, when there was speculation about whether Messi or Heinze would be the best player of the game, but FIFA gave the honor to Nigeria's goalkeeper Enyeama.

A goalkeeper who almost single-handedly avoided a big defeat.

Facing Messi, Higuain, Tevez and Milito, Argentina with the best strikers in the world, Enyeama was high and low throughout the game, almost saving the whole team by himself, and Nigeria only lost by one goal, and he played a great role.

N Yeama is not yet 28 years old and is at the beginning of a golden goalkeeping career, but he was already Nigeria's starting goalkeeper at the 2002 World Cup and has made 55 appearances for the team to date.

Although Nigeria has not yet scored a single point after two rounds of matches, and the results achieved are not even as good as those of South Africa, Enyeama's performance is eye-catching.

In the last game against Digan's Belgium, Enyeama ate three eggs in one game, but it is not difficult to see from this game against Argentina that the heavy defeat in the first game did not affect the goalkeeper's psychology, and his performance in today's game is worthy of the title of best player.

Although it was not defeated by Argentina, it was immersed in two games, which also made Nigeria the first team to go out of the South African World Cup.

The next game to come is the turn of Degan's Belgium, who will face the Asian Red Devils South Korea in their second game.

In the face of this game, the most complicated mood at the moment is probably Digan's girlfriend Park Ji-yeon.

Who should be supported?

This has become a difficult problem in front of Park Ji-yeon.