Friday, June 11, 2010

Day One: results, thoughts, extras

South Africa's Siphiwe Tshabalala celebrates after
scoring the opening goal of the tournament.


Today's results

me: 1-3 Mexico win. Wrong result, half-wrong score. I did predict the flow of the game, but SA's keeper was brilliant in the first half to keep the Mexicans off the scoresheet. Good result for the hosts but they shouldn't have conceded the goal so easily.

me: 1-1 draw. Right result, wrong score. France continued with their difficulty in finding the net while Uruguay defended well and showed some flashes of attacking verve. France coach Raymond Domenech is a muppet; my boy D-Day expounds upon this at soccriligious.

Other interesting tidbits

The boys over at The Daily Gumboot have started the World Cup with a heated war of words. Who will win this scintillating tete-a-kopf? Tune in to find out. My money's on John, but Kurt has some tricks up his sleeve.

The vuvuzelas? I stopped hearing them after 5 minutes. They almost drove my girlfriend nuts.

Interested in picking a team to support based on their jerseys? See the (nearly) full range of kit on display here. (North Korea is missing.) I like Spain's.

Check out this interesting post on the freedom and development of the 32 competing nations:

The depth of suffering and oppression still prevalent in Africa—and in many other places around the world—can be glimpsed by taking a statistical look at the 32 participating countries’ political institutions and economic status.

That's Day One, folks. Thanks for tuning in.

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