₦airaland Forum

What about Spain? Chile are playing some great football (they could draw or win), while Switzerland will probably beat Honduras. In that case Spain is OUT!

What's more - Chile despite having 6 points will most likely fail to qualify if they do not at least draw! They have an inferior goal difference to Spain and they need a draw!

I still think England and Italy will probably make it further. Slovakia won't beat Italy and I can't see New Zealand drawing Paraguay. England has a matchup with Slovenia, France is out almost definitely.

BTW: It is very possible at the moment that we will have a 1/8 final Holland vs Italy, Brasil vs Spain! And the winner of those matches meet in the 1/4 final! Looks like a lot of powerhouses are destined to an early exit.

Difference between 2006 and 2010 is that in 2006 teams like Tunisia, Angola or Togo were simpy outclassed by their opponents. This time around the African teams are playing equal games, but for various reasons can't pull a resut (apart from Ghana). Cameroon played the best game of any African team against Denmark, but lost. On any other day they could have won. Nigeria seemed in control against Greece. And gave the game away with a stupid red card. Cote d'Ivoire seemed the better side against Portugal, but the North Korea thrashing has basically made it nigh impossible for them to progress. Plus they got robbed of the possibility of a positive resut against Brasil by the ref (I'm quite sure the Ivorians woud have put up a fight when Gervinho came in and it was 1:0). And so on,

The only match at this World Cup where an African side was outclassed was South Africa - Uruguay.

Yesterday's handgoal was not an accident. At best it was the ref giving Brasil the benefit of the doubt because they are Brasil. At worst it was a corrupt decision.

I don't agree with the title.

There is nothing wrong with Ghana. ast time I checked they are topping the group and may very well progress (maybe even by winning the group). If they flop lets say ALL, but so far Ghana is the only that has not dissapointed.

And actually I think the team has one thing the other teams lack: A winning mentaity. They were down 1:0, but made a goal to equalize. Countries like Nigeria or Cameroon just tend to fall over and die.

I disagree. 2006 was even worse. At this cup at least Ghana is leading the group and has a good shout to win it. In 2006 after two rounds only 2 teams out of 5 had a decent chance to progress. This time around 3 teams have a shout and 5 are still in it.

That said the amount of referee cheating in 2006 was ridiculous: Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia were all cheated of penalties.

1 South Africa
Verdict: Almost impossible but actually more probable than Cote d'Ivoire. Mainly due to the total collapse of the French team.

2 Algeria
CORRECTION:
To qualify, they must beat USA by one goal AND  (hope that England beat slovenia by more than one goal, OR  England and slovenia play a draw or slovenia win) or beat USA by 2 goals or more

Verdict: Doable but difficult.

3. Nigeria

Verdict: Tricky but more probable than Algeria's task. Should come down to beating Korea which is well within Nigeria's capabilities.

4.CIV

Verdict: Unfortunately Cote d'Ivoire have been dealt a terrible hand,  plain unlucky. Woud probaby progress  if i.e. it was Portugal playing Brasil first. Or had they been in ANY OTHER GROUP.

5. Ghana
Verdict: I don't want to keep my hopes up but hopefully Ghana do Africa proud.

It's not like it's Cote d'Ivoire fault that Korea got whipped, Ivory Coast just got dealt a losing hand and there wasn't much they could do about it.

Korea doing their best to keep Ivory Coast very much alive! Portugal are crap!

kabukabu: Unfortunately African countries don't have the privy to score goals by playing volleyball like the Brasilians do.

"I watched the game in HD. Kaka definitely brought his elbow up as Keita was running into him. Keita was looking at the play and not at Kaka. Also, his face hit Kaka's shoulder as he received the elbow. He did embellish it, but there was contact.

In the 70th minute, Drogba make a run around Lucio. Lucio put his arm out impeding Drogba. Holding. As Drogba continues around him Lucio grabs his shirt, in the penalty area. Lucio lunges and plays the ball over the end line for a corner kick. CR is within 10 yds of the play, and Lucio's shirt pull is obvious. They showed it in slow motion replay.

Brasilians play beautiful football, but have zero integrity. After Fabiano's mugging of Tiene and 2 handling violations, the replay shows him denying it to the ref. The ref showed bad form in smiling and congratulating him on his clever skills. WOW!

The incident in front of the benches was handled very poorly. More cards should have been issued to both teams, Dunga should have been dismissed, and all 4 officials should have intervened.

Each day brings new failures by the crews. I am very disappointed. Diving, shirt pulling, tackles from behind, studs up fouls, dissent, phantom calls, simulation, faking injuries, bringing the game into disrepute and churlish behavior prevail. And that's just today's games. "

Why don't I see the same outcry about the Greek dude that pretended injury in the Kaita incident?

End of the day both Kaita and Kaka deserved the red card. I wouldn't mind a yellow card for the Greek and Keita for playacting, but there shouldn't be double standards. Also the Brasilians should get liek 10 yellows for playacting and playing volleyball to score goals.

In what way was Keita's dive different than the dive by the Greek guy that had Sani Kaita expelled? Yet everyone talks about Keita, but the Greek guy gets off free.

Anyone else think that this infighting may actually give South Africa a shot at winning big? It looks like France are practically throwing the game.

Kaka knew what he was doing. Yes, Keita playacted, but Kaka should not have elbowed Keita. Good red card.

I can see a pattern,
Argentina's goal against Nigeria scored from a foul.
Uruguay's second goal against RSA from a PK after an offside play.
Greece's second goal against Nigeria after a foul on a Nigerian defender.
Denmark's second goal against Cameroon after a foul on the Cameroonian defender plus two denied PK for Cameroon.
Brasil's second goal against  from some piece of volleyball.

I'm sorry, but their hasn't been a single dubious decision going Africa's way this whole tournament. It's rascism as usual. And Africa gets f&&ked in the a$$

Here's hoping for North Korea to show up tomorrow

Watch the replay carefully before you comment

I did. Kaka made a backward movement with his elbow. It looked deliberate and unnatural. Definite yellow. Although the Ivorian made the most of it (vide Rivaldo in 2002)

The most shocking moment however was the ref laughing about the handball goal with Fabiano! Shocking!

Yes, the Ivorian dived ala Rivaldo. But Kaka deliberately elbowed the Ivorian. Therefore got red card.

And the second goal was totally bogus and the patting on the back when that goal was scored between the ref and Fabiano - disgraceful and should be looked into.

This ref should never officiate at the world cup again!

Unleash the DROG!

I'm sorry, but the goal for 2:0 did destroy the game. Unfair call no matter how you look at it.

Is it true that Brazil has never lost to an African side at the senior level?

Not true. For example they lost 1:0 to Cameroon back in 2003 at the Confederations Cup with a brilliant Eto'o goal.

Ivory Coast has fallen apart.

The second ball was handball. End of story.

Yes, the better team is winning, but that call ruined Ivory Coast's morale.

Did you see that replay? They showed the ref pointing to his hand! The ref say the handball but didn't whistle! Terrible!

My god are referees rascist! If he had a doubt he should have whistled!

If Ghana come in second they will probably avoid playing any big team until the semifinal:

Group C winner is probably USA or England. England have been subpar and USA are beatable.
Than in the quarters they would avoid Argentina and play: Uruguay, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea or Greece.

All are within Ghana's reach! After that it gets tough with probable opponents: Brasil, Holland or Italy.

Has any of the African teams on show been totally outclassed by their opponents?

Apart from the SA-Uruguay game which i didn't watch so i'm not sure what really happened, has any other african team been as outclassed in this tournament as your rantings seem to be suggesting?

The RSA-Uruguay game and possibly the Argentina-Nigeria game. Apart from that the Africans were at least equal to the opponent but couldn't get a result.

Ghana are clearly not good enough if they could not defeat a 10-man socceroo - in 2 games, they haven't scored a goal in open play.

Had Kewell not handballed IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOAL FROM OPEN PLAY!

Did you people watch the game? Geremi had a great game and really should have won the game, the problems were with players like Webo wasting chances and players like Bassong being easily beat by a simple dribble.

Emana, Song, Geremi all played beautifully today.

Plus there were 2 penalty shouts and the second goal came through a foul.

No one mentioned it but Emana was clearly pulled to the ground in the penalty area by a Danish defender (just before Aboubakar shot on goal).

Really? It seems that only Enyeama prepared for Argentina

I agree with Adefemi and Okoronkwo. They could be gamechangers. The best players from the Olympic squad aren't playing (Emmanuel Ekpo, Solomon Okoronkwo) plus Rabiu Ibrahim at least should have been given a chance. Just watch Ghana - they don't worry about clubs and names. They even benched Sulley Muntari for a player who played in Ligue 2 last season.

South Korea were semi-finalists in 2002 with their pacy and heavy teamwork football.

Youy forgot to add: "And naturally some very very beneficial refereeing."

There is no math. Nigeria need to win the last game and in all likeliness they are through.

MJackson's:

If Nigeria score one goal they will have 2 goals scored and 3 conceded while Korea will have 3 scored and 5 conceded. NIGERIA NEED ONLY WIN. By any margin.

I'm sorry, but Argentina should beat Greece. I would be surprised if they didn't.

This scenario isn't unlikely. IT IS VERY LIKELY. Given Nigeria win the game!