Good
Well in World Cup qualifiers week it was good for Spain, England, Brazil and Paraguay who all booked their places for the biggest football festival next year in South Africa, the World Cup. Spain and England have 100% records so far. The Spaniards beat Estonia 3-0, while England crushed the team that denied them a place in the Euro 2008 competition, Croatia, 5-1. Meanwhile Paraguay beat Argentina 1-0 to ensure the team from the centre of South America will appear in its fourth consecutive World Cup finals. Also good in qualifying for Ivory Coast who look guaranteed to make it after beating Burkina Faso 5-0.
It was also very good for the German women’s football team after their 6-2 thrashing of England in the European Championship final in Finland. This was their fourth tournament win in a row and with the next World Cup taking place in Germany they are already the odds-on favourites to win it.
Bad
One country that might not make it to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup is Argentina who lost both qualifying matches this week. First at home to Brazil 1-3 and then 0-1 away in Paraguay to leave Diego Maradonaa€™s side in 5th place in the South American qualifying section a€“ outside the direct qualification spots. Their next game is at home to Peru but then they play rivals Uruguay in their last game. To say that the pressure is on Diego Maradona, who we featured in our World Cup stars last week, is an understatement.
I didna€™t realize it, but the 5th of September was FIFAa€™s Fair Play Day campaign. It seems it wasna€™t just me that didna€™t know a€“ in China they celebrated the Fair Play campaign in style with the Chinese Super League, which has been constantly dogged by on and off-field problems, by putting on a display of bad behaviour that must have had FIFA officials crying into their Fair Play pamphlets. Spitting at a referee (that was Shandong Luneng’s Serbian striker Aleksandar Zivkovic), throwing a boot, no not Alex Ferguson, (that was Hangzhou Greentown substitute Wang Hongyou from the bench), brawls during and after a match between Changchun and Shanghai, not to mention a number of bad tackles and petulant behaviour around the league. Not a very good advertisement for the game, and definitely not fair play.
Ugly
Remarkable scenes from the MLS game between new boys Seattle Sounders and Washington’s DC United. Seattle won 2-1 but DC’s goalkeeper Josh Wick’s was sent off after stamping on goalscorer Fredy Montero. Pretty ugly indeed. You can see the video here.
Vocabulary
Crushed: Defeated easily; a heavy defeat
Consecutive: In-a-row; one after the other
thrashing: Heavy defeat
in-a-row: Consecutively; one after the other
odds-on favourites: Everyone expects them to win
an understatement: It is so clear (obvious) that it is not necessary to mention it
dogged: To have been constantly troubled
brawls: Fights
petulant behaviour: Childish behaviour
stamping: Jumping on the player; using the boot to injure another player
