World Cup FIFA 2010 Friendlies; France and Netherlands Lead the Way
As the World cup approaches, teams are busy training and coaches are very ardently looking at their friendly matches to find their perfect eleven players to open their World Cup campaigns.
Two teams that won the recent round of international friendlies were France and the Netherlands. The French, who were last World Cups runners up want to go that extra mile to actually win the cup. The last time France won the cup was in 1998, but four years later they were subjected to a humiliating defeat at the hands of Senegal, which led to their ouster after the group stages.
This time around they want to do things differently by adding new blood and playing around with the formations. The trick though seems to be working for now. It was newbie; Mathieu Valbuena’s strike that helped them beat Costa Rica by two goals to one, boosting their confidence ahead of the World Cup. The French coach Raymond Domench, had some new tricks up his sleeve, playing a 4-3-3 formation instead of his usual 4-2-3-1. This again proved to be a winner against Costa Rica. But it was Costa Rica that opened the scoring with Hernandez netting the ball. The equaliser occurred but not at the behest of the French but sadly due to an own goal. And finally it was the young debutant Valbuena that gave France the win. This win is something that they would want to take along with them on their quest for World cup glory.
On the other hand, it was another European team that secured a win propelling their morale. Netherlands beat Mexico by two goals to one. It was Robin Van Persie that netted both the goals for the Dutchmen. The Dutchmen chose to rest a few players in search for their final eleven. Their usual suspects, Robben, Van Bommel and Sneijder did not play in the match against Mexico. But despite that, Netherlands outshone the Mexicans with Van Persie at the helm. He steered his team to victory. With this win, Netherlands will go into the group matches on a high, but it is the Mexicans that need to have a close look at their game and strategy. They have lost two games in a row; first to England by three goals to one at Wembley and now to Netherlands. They would have to pull up their socks and try and sort out their inconsistencies.
All teams are preparing themselves for the World Cup that begins on June 11th, which is just around the corner now. Reuters recently conducted a poll to see which team would hoist the trophy. Out of the seventy four soccer fan economists questioned, 24 believed that Spain would relive their Euro 2008 moments and become the world champions. 23 respondents believe that former champions Brazils can relive their past world cup glory and make it six world cup victories. Surprisingly only 1 economist polled that Italy would be able to successfully defend their title.
Players are trying not to concentrate on such polls or media reports that are making the rounds naming certain countries as favourites. They are trying to take every game as it comes. Coaches too have a tough job on their hand to maintain discipline amongst the team and make sure their players are fit to play. And that is not all; the coaches have to make sure that they trim down their squads before the deadline of June 1st to a twenty three man squad. That is a task that is sure to be tough, and a task that could eventually determine the future of the team in the South Africa world cup 2010.
With just 13 days left to the global footballing extravaganza, during the nervous build-up to the tournament, may everyone have a highly enjoyable 2010 FIFA World Cup!
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