 |
|
|
Argentina deny impressive Ivory Coast, T&T surprise
Day two started as poorly with an uninteresting England/Paraguay game. But the first major surprise of the tornament came in the second match of the day with Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) holding Sweden to a goalless draw. Argentina and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) also put on a fantastic attacking match as Argentian ran out 2-1 winners.
Expected to be the Group B whipping boys by far, the two small islands of T&T surprised Sweden with their resilience as they denied the likes of Freddie Ljungberg, Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic for 90 minutes or more.
Sweden went on the attack from the start when Ljunberg was brought down by T&T captain Dwight Yorke on the edge of the box. Larsson's free kick went agonisingly close. Ibrahamovic spent the next 30 minutes terrorizing the T&T defence. However his efforts, like the rest of his teammates failed to hit the target.
The first shot on target came from a T&T attack when Carlos Edwards struck a rocket at the Swedish goal. Rami Shabaan got to it to deny the Socca Warriors. Five minutes from hald time Sweden got their first shot on target when Christian Wilhelmsson forced Shaka Hislop to parry the ball over the bar. He then denied Ibrahimovic with a dive to his left. His efforts helped keep the result 0-0 at half time.
Unfortunatly for T&T, they are the first team to have a player sent off at the 2006 event when just 30 seconds into the second half, Avery John received his second yellow card for a two footed challenge on Wilhelmsson. There wasn't much arguing although John did stand there slightly shocked. Surely T&T couldn't hold on with just ten men!
Sweden pushed forward again and again but nothing came out of their attacks. Infact the closest effort of the night came from T&T substitute Glenn Cornell as his shot crashed into the crossbar. As the second half wore on, and Sweden's frustrations grew, T&T's efforts were doubled and they continued to deny Sweden. At the final whistle they celebrated like they had taken all three points, as did their fans. Sweden meanwhile mourned like they just lost, as did their fans.
Argentina and Ivory Coast provided an amazingly attacking display against each other in the night game. Dider Droba unleashed the first shot on goal five minutes in while Juan Riquelme was putting through perfect balls for his Argentine runners. It was end to end action.
Controversy arose when Roberto Ayala headed goalward. Ivorian keeper Jean-Jacques Tizie got his hand behind the ball at the very last moment to prevent the goal, grabbing it at the second attempt. The ball was 90% over the line as the Argentine attack all protested to allow the goal. But their protests fell on deaf ears as Belgian referee Frank De Bleeckere got a shake of the head from his assistant. Replays proved inconclusive, much like the England grand final goal in '66.
Argentina took the lead in the 24th minute through Hernan Crespo however after Riquelme put through yet another cross. It wasn't dealt with by the Ivorian defence and Crespopoked his toe at it to score.
They doubled the lead on 38 minutes as Javier Saviola beat the off side trap as he ran onto a Riquelme through ball. Tizie came out to collect but Saviola had to much pace and navigated it around the keeper and into the goal with one touch. (38 min)
The Ivory Coast kept attacking however and seemed bemused as to how their luck kept turning sour for them. Drogba was the target man as he missed chances on 59, 70 and 72 minutes, each one more frustrating than the last.
His persistance was rewarded however as Drogba steered a short cross into the net after being involved in the initial lead up play (82 min).
Maxi Rodriguez thought he had the match winning goal when he went thorugh and put the ball away with five minutes to go, latching onto a Tizie parry back to him. However the assistants flag was up, correctly calling him offside as the initial shot was taken. it mattered little however as Argentina took the match 2-1 to take a valuable three points in teh group of death.
As mentioned earlier, England and Paraguay played a dull, uninspiring match which ended up 1-0 to the English.
The goal came in the third minute when David Beckham put through a curling free kick into the box. Paraguayan captain Carlos Gamarra tried to flick away but instead found his own net, past keeper Justo Villar's diving efforts. His night became worse five minutes later when he was injured with a challenge on Michael Owen, being substituted just eight minutes into the match by second keeper Aldo Bobadilla.
The remainder of the match was boring and looked like neither side were interested in really attacking the game. England were happy to sit on a 1-0 lead and teh result between T&T and Sweden made their uninteresting win have some significance.
11 June, 2006 |
