World Cup Friendlies Rewind

For a day filled with meaningless friendlies, this sure turned out to be a fun one. We saw a keeper score for Colombia, Peter Crouch do the robot dance after he scored a pretty goal, and Germany storm back against Japan. All the while, I never did get that Argentina-Angola stream to work, but in the process I picked up some innovative computer viruses from China/Israel. All in a day’s work. Here are some recaps.

Czech Republic 1 – Costa Rica 0
Vratislav Lokvenc (try saying that name three times quickly) scored in the 82nd minute to power the Czech Republic past the Ticos. Both sides used their benches extensively and the highlight for Czech fans was seeing Jan Koller make his return from injury. He played 71 minutes. Costa Rica continues to struggle in their World Cup preparations. Will they score any goals in Germany? Maybe when they play Poland….

Colombia 2 – Poland 1
…who not only lost to Colombia at home, but also conceded a goal to Colombia’s keeper Luis Martinez. Poland fielded mainly a reserve unit, which received mocking cheers from the home crowd. Poland’s run up to the World Cup hasn’t exactly been smooth, a common theme for the teams in Group A….

Japan 2 – Germany 2
…including Germany, who had a slightly harder time with Japan than they did last game against Luxembourg. Naohiro Takahara scored twice in the second half to put Japan up by two goals, but Germany stormed back to earn the draw thanks to goals by Miroslav Klose and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Neither keeper scored in this one.

Cote d’Ivoire 1 – Chile 1
Aruna Dindane converted a penalty kick for the Elephants in the second, but mere minutes later Humberto Suazo got the equalizer for Chile. I’m kind of hoping that Cote d’Ivoire is taking it easy in these friendlies since I’ve tapped them to advance from the Group of Death and I would hate for them to make me look bad. That happens all too often as it is.

Tunisia 3 – Belarus 0
Tunisia is another team I have going through to the round of 16 and fortunately the Carthage Eagles are looking good. The team has virtually no injury concerns at the moment and played a solid match against Belarus. Hamed Namouchi, Francileudo Santos and Issam Jomaa notched the goals. Keep an eye out for Santos. The Brazilian-turned-Tunisian can play.

England 3 – Hungary 1
John Terry and Steven Gerrard scored off of set pieces from David Beckham, and Peter Crouch spun and delivered a goal to give England a win at Old Trafford. Crouch showed that white men in fact can dance by showing off his robot skills in his celebration. Picture a blade of grass blowing in the wind and you get the idea. Overall, England played a decent enough game, although Hungary had a few more chances on goal than Sven and gang would probably have liked.

Argentina 2 – Angola 0
The result wasn’t what a hardcore Angola fan like myself would have wanted, but in the end the team played with pride and gave itself a few opportunities to get on the board. Maxi Rodriguez and Juan Sorin notched the goals for Argentina. Also worth noting that Lionel Messi and Gabriel Heinze both saw action as they continue to work their way back from injury.

Finally, Brazil also played and credit goes to Lucerne for holding them under 10 goals.

As always, head on over to the team blogs for analysis and more opinions. The fun continues tomorrow with more meaningless, yet enthralling games including:

20:00 Saudi Arabia-Turkey
20:15 Slovenia-Trinidad and Tobago
20:30 Paraguay-Georgia
20:45 Iran-Bosnia-Herzegovina
20:50 Switzerland-Italy
21:00 France-Denmark

All times CET. If you don’t live in that time zone, I suggest you move there.

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