The World Cup has started on a tepid note, featuring a lot of bad results and below-par performances. England, France, Greece and Mexico, supposedly big teams, faced a lot of troubles in their initial fixtures. Only Argentina was able to get a fair result, but they too faced a lot of problems on their course to victory.
The first match of the third day was between Algeria and Slovenia. The other match, played overnight between England and USA, produced a shocking result, as the big team in the Group C, England, drew against USA. It was a good result for the US team and a fair one as well. The draw meant that the winner from the second fixture would automatically go on top of the group and would earn a clear chance to get to the next round. Although pundits would always favour a European team to win a match, but as the Algerians had a lot of support in the ground, both teams were equally favoured to win the fixture.
Despite all the expectations, this match proved to be a dry one, probably the worst in this World Cup so far. At least the other matches in the tournament so far were a little interesting, as fans saw some hint of good football in those matches. However, this did not look like a World Cup match at all. Both teams were defensive and there were hardly any good moves made by the players. This was a disappointing feat for the fans, who must have felt cheated of their time and money. The only salvageable moment in the match was a goal in the 80th minute by the former West Bromwich player, Robert Koren, and because of that feat, he was also named Man of the Match.
The goal made the Algerian fans more furious and the Slovenian fans a little excited. It was a 25 yard shot which was deflected in the goal by the Algerian goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi. Ironically, both matches in Group C saw a similar kind of dreadful goalkeeping, as England’s Keeper, Robert Green, also deflected a goal in for the US.
There was another common factor in both matches of the Group C, i.e. the poor tactics played by the managers. England suffered at the hands of Capello, while in this match both managers played defensive tactics. Although an Algerian substitute Ghezzal was sent off in the second half, only after 14 minutes of being on the pitch, but still the Slovenians rarely changed any strategies. They hardly attacked and rarely showed any threat to the opponents, and the goal was just a lucky break.
The Algerian team, however, showed some commitment in the game, as they frequently made runs down the flanks. But the crosses that were fed in were again dreadful, and it rarely gave any real chance to the team. In short, this match was not worth a World Cup status, as the teams were expected to perform much better than they did.
Despite a victory for Slovenia, it is still believed that the group is wide open and pundits think that the teams going through to the next round would be England and USA, rather than Slovenia or Algeria. Both these teams have a record of playing well as underdogs, as Algeria beat Egypt and Slovenia beat Russia to earn their spots, but their recent performance is not worthy of a good side. Therefore, the challenge of England and the US would be too hot to handle for Algeria or Slovenia. Maybe we would see some tactical changes by the managers and some hard play, but little prospects are seen in the remaining matches. However, there can be sad news for the fans; as Slovenia has got all three points, it is quite possible that the manager might adopt a more defensive strategy and try to draw the rest of the matches. This would mean more boring fixtures lie ahead of us in the Group C of the World Cup.
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