Day 10: Everything Turned Out All White

Slovakia 0 – 2 Paraguay

Italy 1 – 1 New Zealand

Brazil 3 – 1 Ivory Coast

It was a day to remember at the World Cup as we saw the most surprising, inspiring result so far in the tournament, as well as an impressive showing from a dark horse and some refereeing controversy.

I’ll start, as ever, with the lunchtime kick-off (only one more of those left!) and Paraguay’s routine win over Slovakia. A win was always expected Gerardo Martino’s side but it’s fair to say that we were hoping for a bit more from Slovakia and their captain Marek Hamsik in particular, their best player who was disappointing against New Zealand and completely anonymous today. Paraguay took full advantage of an off-colour Slovakian performance to comfortably record a victory that puts them in pole position to qualify (and on this form they’ll be glad to have earnt a two point cushion before facing New Zealand themselves), this time moving to the formation I was hoping to see them play with three up front, Roque Santa Cruz returning to the starting lineup. There were worries that they might not have enough width but that really wasn’t a problem at all. Nelson Haedo Valdez, in a performance that reminded me more than a little of Carlos Tevez, put in a brilliant all-action shift on the left of the forward three giving support to the full-back Claudio Morel. Neither Santa Cruz nor Lucas Barrios really took up the same role on the right flank but Slovakia were poor enough not to offer Carlos Bonet any significant resistance on his trips up from right-back. Ironically for a strikeforce that a) has been so lauded pre-tournament and b) has done quite a lot to justify that so far this tournament, none of them have scored yet, with midfielder Enrique Vera popping up to snatch the first goal in great style, latching on to a wonderful pass by Barrios to flick the ball confidently into the corner while being tackled by a Slovakian defender. For me that was the goal of the tournament so far. Cristian Riveros sealed the victory with a powerful shot, although had Oscar Cardozo and Vera not got in each other’s way just before one of them might have scored instead.

Paraguay have started really strongly, as good as Argentina I would argue, though obviously in a different way. They are solid, athletic, with clever passing and a really energetic frontline who should cause any team in this World Cup problems. Valdez in particular has been a real star.

Things may yet get more complicated for them, though, because their final group game will be against a team who will believe they can do anything – New Zealand, who made today the greatest day in their footballing history by bravely and exceptionally holding on to a 1-1 draw against holders Italy. They shocked the reigning champions by taking the lead after just six minutes, although the debate will rumble on about whether Shane Smeltz was offside when he poked it past Federico Marchetti. I was worried that their will might break when Tommy Smith conceded a soft penalty by holding Daniele De Rossi’s shirt and Vincenzo Iaquinta calmly converted the spot-kick, but they clung on until half-time and during the second half produced one of the most resilient, determined defensive performances I’ve seen in a long time. Inspired by the magnificent captain Ryan Nelsen, they blocked every shot, intercepted every pass, won every header to emerge unscathed from a barrage of Italian pressure. They might even have won it if the thoroughly impressive substitute, young Chris Wood from West Brom, had had just a little more luck when he did really well to power past two defenders and get a shot away. It was only a matter of inches away from restoring their lead.

Ricki Herbert has clearly done a fantastic job motivating this group of players, some of whom, like today’s late substitute Andy Barron, are semi-professionals who had to ask for special leave from their day jobs to play at the World Cup. They have nothing to lose and have channeled that into two performances full of pride, and now they have as good a chance as anyone to make it to the second round. Not even a spot of disappointingly blatant cheating by some Italian players when it came to feigning injury from inocuous challenges (mentioning no names, Domenico Criscito) could stop them. Italy didn’t play all that badly, either – they constantly pressed and changed their formation to keep asking questions of the All Whites. It was just that New Zealand handled everything they threw at them. There are problems for Italy going into their decider with Slovakia, though – Alberto Gilardino looked lost again today and doesn’t look like scoring any time soon, and Claudio Marchisio, supposedly one of the great hopes of this new-look younger Italian side, also had another very poor game. Marcello Lippi may be tempted to bring back an old hand or two into the starting lineup to try to ensure qualification.

The most anticipated game of the day came this evening as Brazil met the Ivory Coast. Sadly, it turned out to be both a one-sided and quite dull game, despite the scoreline. For most of the first half Brazil were unadventurous and uninteresting but too solid for the Ivorians to get anywhere, the returning and obviously below-match-fitness Dider Drogba forlorn and isolated up front, and then out of nowhere they fought their way through and Luis Fabiano hit an unstoppable shot from an improbable angle to give them the lead. It was a very impressive strike indeed, as was his second five minutes into the second half – pity it should have been disallowed for not one but two handballs as he forced his way into a shooting position. There was a laughable image that followed as the referee simply asked Fabiano if he had handled the ball. No prizes for guessing the answer, and that was that.

If it wasn’t already, the game looked totally dead and buried when Kaka suddenly remembered he was a good footballer and made a great run out wide before cutting the ball back right into the path of Elano who made it 3-0, but soon after the Galatasaray midfielder was taken off injured, having been caught painfully right on the shin bone. No word yet on if he’ll be back, but Dunga, who’s always been a big fan of Elano despite his struggles for consistent good form at club level in recent years, will have his fingers crossed. That will be especially true with Kaka suspended for the final group game against Portugal. Yes, Kaka got sent off this evening, given a ludicrous second yellow by the referee who had no view at all of the incident where Kaka simply put his arm out to ward Kader Keita off, it bumped into the Ivorian’s chest and then Keita shamefully crumpled to the floor clutching his face and screaming in “agony”. The Ivory Coast, seeing their teammate on the floor, appealed, then started a stupid scuffle with the Brazilians as they tried to remonstrate with Kaka, and the referee, who had been looking the other way and therefore could not fairly give a card for the matter (which of course was nowhere near a booking anyway), judged by their reaction and showed the Real Madrid man his second yellow. It was disgraceful refereeing, and astonishingly we are now at nine red cards in just ten days.

Man of the Day: Honourable mention to Nelson Haedo Valdez but the best player today was Ryan Nelsen, who was always one step ahead of Italy and who marshalled a less experienced defence to a stirring result. I can’t help but also give shoutouts to Mark Paston, Winston Reid, Tommy Smith, Simon Elliott, Leo Bertos and Ivan Vicelich – it really was an oustanding performance all over the pitch for the All Whites.

Tomorrow, an iffy Portugal may just struggle against North Korea but will probably depressingly scrape it 1-0 or some such, Chile should beat Switzerland and I fancy Spain to regain some confidence by giving Honduras a mighty battering, and then that’ll be that for round two of the group stage!