June 17: The Daily World Cup Wrap

June 18th, 2006 | by: Daryl |

Today’s results have busted Group E wide open. Every team will now go into the final match with a chance of progressing and that should make for an exciting finale. Ghana’s 2-0 win over the Czech Republic mean African teams are no longer winless at this World Cup, while USA’s 1-1 draw with Italy is very repsectable for a team reduced to nine men. The less said about Jorge Larrionda’s trigger-happy performance the better.

Daily Wrap Awards:

Top Man: Jorge Larrionda. Only joking, he was rubbish.

Top Team: Ghana, of course.

Top Goal: Deco’s decisive strike.

Saw That Coming: USA rallying after their dismal first game showing.

But Not That: Czech Republic collapsing after their impressive first game preformance.

Portugal vs Iran | LiveBlog | Portugal World Cup Gear, Iran World Cup Gear

Portugal 2 (Deco 63, Ronaldo [pen] 80)
Iran 0

Portugal booked their ticket to the last 16, but it wasn’t very impressive. Rather than utilise their skills to outpass Iran, the Portuguese players looked determined to dribble. Maybe they all saw Arjen Robben’s performance for the Netherlands against Serbia & Montenegro and thought “I could do that.” Needless to say, this approach got them nowhere. Portugal should have paid attention to Argentina’s pass-tastic performance against Serbia & Montenegro instead, which proved much more effective.

Eventually, Figo did square a ball to Deco, who hit a screamer into the corner on 63 minutes. Cristian Ronaldo sealed the win with an 80th minute penalty, after Figo had been tacken down, just inside the box.

Iran worked hard, and couldn’t be faulted for effort but in hindsight it was a mistake to play Ali Karimi. He may be Iran’s most gifted player, but that doesn’t matter when he’s not in any condition to be on the field. Despite their respectable effort, Iran are out.

Video highlights here.

Fan Photos: Iranian and Portuguese fans…

Follow the links for more World Cup Blog photos and video, or submit your own to enter our photo and video contest. Thanks to Umbro and Subside Sports for providing the prizes.
Want to discuss todays action? Go to the Iran or Portugal team pages. .
Buy World Cup tickets to Portugal and Iran’s next matches.

Ghana vs Czech Republic | LiveBlog | Ghana World Cup Gear, Czech Republic World Cup Gear

Ghana 2 (Gyan 2, Muntari 82)
Czech Republic 0

Seems Ghana were only getting started with their impressive, but losing, performance against Italy. They delivered here, not just winning, but winning deservedly against a Czech Republic team that had looked so imperious beating USA in the first game. Once Asamoah Gyan struck the ball past Petr Cech from a Stephen Appiah corner after just 2 minutes, Ghana looked a confident aggressive team that the Czech’s couldn’t live with. Michael Essien once again bossed the midfield, and sometimes looked like a man playing against boys.

The Czechs were reduced to 10 men when Tomas Ujfalusi was brought down Amoah in the area. Gyan smashed the ball past Cech but the ref wasn’t ready. The goal was disallowed and Gyan was booked, meaning he’ll miss Ghana’s final Group E game. To add to Gyan’s misfortune his second attempt hit the post.

Petr Cech then produced a string of saves to keep Ghana from sealing the win, until Sulley Muntari lashed the ball high into the top of the goal. Nothing less than Ghana deserved as they’d taken the “attack is the best form of defence” maxim very seriously, never settling for their one goal lead.

Video highlights here.

Fan Photos: Ghanaian fans celebrate their famous win…

Czech Republic fans do what they can to recover…

Follow the links for more World Cup Blog photos and video, or submit your own to enter our photo and video contest. Thanks to Umbro and Subside Sports for providing the prizes.
Want to discuss todays action? Go to the Ghana or Czech Republic team pages. .
Buy World Cup tickets to Ghana and Czech Republic’s next matches.

USA vs Italy | LiveBlog | USA World Cup Gear, Italy World Cup Gear

USA 1 (Zaccorda o.g. 27)
Italy1 (Gilardino 22)

Jorge Larrionda must have been very proud of his shiny red card because he showed it three times during this game, turning what could have been a decent spectacle into, well, just a spectacle. The Guardian said “it was a talking dwarf and some gentle erotica away from being a David Lynch film,” which is stretching things a bit, but you get the idea.

USA had the upper hand early on, but Italy opened the scoring when Alberto Gilardino beat a poor American offside trap to head home from a free kick. The scores were level five minutes later when Italy’s Cristian Zaccordi swung his leg at a US corner kick with all the co-ordination of a drunken Peter Crouch, slicing the ball past Buffon to become USA’s top scorer at this World Cup. He must be so proud.

Daniele De Rossi was then sent off for a deliberate elbow to Brian McBride’s face. McBride bled for a whil then came back on, and then things got really wacky. Pablo Mastroeni made a late, but not particularly bad challenge and looked understandably shocked when Jorge Larrionda showed him a straight red.

Things got worse for the US at the start of the second half, when Eddie Pope received a second yellow and was also sent for an early bath. Kasey Keller made a couple of impressive saves to keep things level, but then substitute DaMarcus Beasley (out to prove a point after Arena criticised his performance in the first game) struck past Buffon. Larrionda adjudged Brian McBride to be off-side and interfering with play, as he was in Buffon’s line of sight, but USA will feel hard done by.

Italy top Group E with four points, USA bottom with one, but both could still either go out or go through. Don’t forget to check what our Referees blog has to say about Jorge Larrionda’s performance.

Video highlights here.

Fan Photos: Italian fans…

This USA fan looks unimpressed, but was it the refereering or our photographer?

Follow the links for more World Cup Blog photos and video, or submit your own to enter our photo and video contest. Thanks to Umbro and Subside Sports for providing the prizes.
Want to discuss todays action? Go to the USA or Italy team pages. .
Buy World Cup tickets to USA and Italy’s next matches.

Have a look what today’s results have done to the group tables.

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Julian

An interesting day with a few unexpected results! It makes the group very interesting. Good to see Ghana take a win, but the Czechs should have done better…
Ali Siddiqui

I’m especially excited to see that Ghana have pulled through. Good to see an African underdog team doing so well! :D
Luis

I guess Portugal will have to win the title in order to win any respect. They didn’t play a perfect game but they are improving with every match. I would rather they peak in the final anyway.

Nobody has played a perfect game yet. With the exception of Argentina perhaps, but a 6 – 0 result is deceptive when your opponent gives up after the second goal. Nonetheless, it certainly was a show for other teams to learn from.
http://www.sportinformer.com jonathan

well what an intresting group. anybody can still qualify. tip ghana , czech to qualify. really enjoying this worldcup and i am also blogging on it also.what do you think of ghana in the quarter finals?
http://www.originalrudeboy.com/ Tomislav Chagall

ghana ought to reach the final, that would be dope.
http://wworldcup2006aol.com zzel

ghanna reminds me of the old brazillian team attacking attacking attacking and winning if they play the same way they play they should beat the usa 3 nothing
http://ecuador.worldcupblog.org/ Trent

I think the USA and Ghana are both inconsistent so that it’s hard to predict what their match might hold.

Either way, Group E is finally proving to be (1) the most entertaining group and (b) the real group of death.

Group C turned out to be a walk in the park for the expected qualifiers.
http://www.aresthetics.ch/trav Adrian Wagner

I wouldn’t excactely call it a walk in the park, as Holland and Argentina had to fight hard and stay disciplined to get past the Ivory coast, which has played good games and football. I would give Ivory Coast the round of 16 spot instead of England or Italy in a split-second.
Foobar

When the CR and Italy play, all they have to do is draw 0-0, and the US is automatically eliminated, unless they beat Ghana by 4 points. And they will probably do this, because it’s the European buddy-buddy kind of thing to do. :P The risk is that if they do draw and Ghana beats the US, then Italy will be eliminated.

Even if CR beats Italy by 1 point, and the US beats Ghana, the US will still not advance without a 4 point goal differential against Ghana.

However, if Italy beats CR by any margin, the US can beat Ghana by any margin and qualify (only to play Brazil).

If Italy does not play hard against CR, then we can conclude there is a personal thing against the US qualifying. :P

To summarize, here’s probably the only feasible way for the US to advance:

Italy beats Czech Rep.
US beats Ghana.
dirk

Great games on Saturday. Entertaining from start to finish. Go Germany, US and . . . Socceroos
diego

I think no team in group E will want to play Brazil in the round of 16. I don’t see Italy playing for a tie against the Czech when they know that a victory from Ghana against the USA will force them to face Ronaldinho and Co. right off the bat.
prastuh

i would liek to reply to
Foobar

u say The risk is that italy czech draw and Ghana beats the US, then Italy will be eliminated.
in that case czech republic will be eliminated and not italy..
bcos then italy has 5 points ghana 6 and czech 4
so even a draw and italy will qualify….

correct em if wrong
http://beezhouse.com oz

In response to Luis – I loved that Portugal game. They were patient with possession, creative in attack and didn’t leave themselves exposed in defence. A 1-0 scoreline isn’t exciting but it’s still a win. They had plenty of quality opportunities.

The Italy-US game was, while incredible, a joke. Hand out three red cards and everyone backs off. No challenges, no need to be as creative with the ball. Italy didn’t look as strong as the previous game. Hopefully the Czechs will make them lift their play and push them further in preparation for the next round.
Jodido

Group E turns out to be the real Group of Death, so I guess we could say that the idiot commentators on ESPN actually got that one right. If Group C did not have Serbia it would be the real Group of Death – my goodness am I sad to see Ivory Coast going home. They deserve success.

If Brazil plays Ronaldo, then there’s always a chance for whatever team plays them. He’s like a lard anchor up there. I’m interested to see how Aus fares today, and if “El Gordo” plays.
David

—Don’t forget to check what our Referees blog has to say about Jorge Larrionda’s performance.—

Everyone knows what they get when they click that link, Aaron making excuses for bad referees. His comments on the Spain/Ukraine match still have me laughing.
Eric Yuan

Congratulations to the American team who put up an amazing game against the Italians in this “roller coaster” feel like game!

I am happy that the that the game ended as a draw. In the last 35 minutes, Italy supposedly should have had control of the game when they had an advantage of an extra player in the field, but the American team put all its efforts to this 1-1 outcome. This is a good thing for the Italians which reminded them that they were not the best in their group; and I am sure this lesson will lead them to a better performance in their next match against the Czechs.

The US-Italy match was indeed very tough, but many of us agree that Jorge Larrionda is a terrible referee who lacks judgement. The second card for Pope which lead to red card was totally unecessary.

Let me remind you that during the 2003 Confederations Cup, the same Uruguayan referee awarded a controversial penalty kick to the Turkish against the Americans.

All China wishes the Americans good luck in their next match!