A stylish performance by Chile in World Cup Soccer 2010
The World Cup in South Africa 2010 is into the sixth day and the first phase of the group stages is coming to an end. The first match was held between Chile and Honduras, with Chile being marked as the clear favourites to win the tie. Both teams started steadily and showed good defence in the beginning. As the game gained the tempo slowly but steadily, openings started to come in. However, it was a 34th minute strike from Jean Beausejour, which was followed by an error by the defender, who failed to clear the ball.
Coming into this match, Chile was missing one of their star strikers, Humberto Suazo, due to an injury. He was the one who led Chile’s campaign in the World Cup qualifiers, emerging as the top scorer in the South American qualifiers. Chile had qualified on second place from the pool, just below Brazil. However, Chile easily outperformed teams like Argentina, which is why they are highly favoured to do well in the tournament. The only let down in the qualifying campaign was their defence, as many goals were scored against them, but their attack was spectacular. In this match, their attack was lead by Alexis Sanchez, an Udinese forward, who is tipped as a wonder boy in South Africa 2010.
The 21-year-old Sanchez did not disappoint at all, as he led the attack from the front. He made some superb runs in the opposition half and delivered excellent crosses to the forward line. He remained the focal point of the attack and Sanchez led it brilliantly, earning the honour of being the man of the match. The 21-year-old has stolen the eye of many big clubs from around the world, including Manchester United and Real Madrid, and his performance in this match would only boost up his chances of making it into one of the biggest European clubs. However, Chile’s finishing was not sublime and they could not wrap up the match at an early stage.
There was a real spark in the Chile’s side, despite the absence of Suazo, in the presence of players like Sanchez and Beausejour. The Chile showed a great example of South American football, with incisive attacking and excellent display of football. There was a lot of flair shown by many players and the coach only had positives to take away from this match.
On the other hand, Honduras, a relatively weaker side, did not play a terrible football either. Honduras made it into the finals in South Africa from the North American pool, coming third below the United States and Mexico. They looked solid in defence except for one slight hiccup, and looked solid while going forward. They were also able to retain some possession in the midfield and kept pressing on the opposition goal. But a few chances that they got were mostly wasted by the players shooting from tough angles and long ranges. This only resulted in wild volleys and wastage of chances. If the players had used the space to set up their teammates making the runs in the box, the attacks could have been more purposeful. The chances wasted cost them some points which diminished their chances of moving into the next round.
The only negative of an otherwise good game was bad refereeing decisions. A wild referee displayed a number of yellow cards in the first half and missed a red card to Palacios in the second. There was a little rift in the game due to this, but overall, the show ran smoothly.
The victory for Chile means that they go on top of the Group H. Other teams in the group include Spain and Switzerland. Honduras is up against Spain in the next phase, and it seems to be a task that would be too hard to handle for the less-experienced Honduras side. Chile has shown better football today and it would be easy for them to counter Switzerland’s challenge in the next phase. In their last match of the group stage, Chile will be up against the Spanish side, which promises to be an excellent match to watch.
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