World Cup Friendlies Recap: There’s No Place Like Home. (When Home Is Soccer City.)

May 27th, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

The glory friendlies, at least in name, took the day off, so we were left with the hosts (that’s South Africa), Denmark and Honduras. Luckily South Africa put on a show in front of the Soccer City fans, full with plenty of ear drum-shattering vuvuzelas, men in epic makarabas (to the left) and women dancing with giant…err…flags.

But best of all: it was in front of 75,000. No worries for South Africa’s attendance during this World Cup then. (Added bonus of Carlos Alberto Parreira in a pinney in that link.)

Elsewhere, Honduras played Belarus in front of family & friends while Christian Poulsen gave the world more reason not to like him. Quickies after the jump.

South Africa 2 – Colombia 1

Controversial refereeing calls? World Cup hosts? Never!

After saving Teko Modise’s first penalty, it was determined Colombia’s keeper had moved off the line too soon, a call which is made…well I don’t know when that’s called. Rarely, if ever. Thus South Africa were given another penalty, which was converted by Teko (great name). A few minutes later a Colombian was launched into orbit, and the score became 1-1. In the second half, South Africa were awarded another penalty which has raised flags (apologies), but is tough to determine from our angle (it looks suspiciously like he’s a big, fancy pants wearin’ whiffer). It’s Soccer City, a friendly, so you can maybe be a bit forgiving.

But I’d still like to change my Group A prediction to include South Africa in the knockouts. Call it a hunch.

Denmark 2 – Senegal 0

One can only assume there are only a handful of people on the planet who like Christian Poulsen. If you can piss off Kaka, there’s something awfully wrong goin’ on.

Whether Jon Dahl Tomasson’s on that list, we don’t know. But Poulsen stole his goal yesterday in a friendly. An entirely meaningless friendly, so you’d think it’s not a big deal, until you consider this goal would’ve equaled Tist Nielsen’s all-time Danish record of 52. His teammates didn’t care, but maybe Jon did.

Of course maybe Christian was saving JDT from a lifetime of goal montages where his record-equalizer was a sloppily executed overhead. So don’t say Poulsen’s not a good guy at heart. At least until he punches you in the stomach – then it’s okay.

In other news, Simon Kjaer was stretchered off, which you’d expect to be bad news for Denmark, but no details as of yet.

Honduras 2 – Belarus 2

Much like Soccer City, this one had a packed house: 400. Why they needed to approximate when they could’ve counted heads, no one knows.

It also looks as though it may have been played at a neighborhood park in Austria, which is simply awesome. Could you imagine walking the dog and running into an international friendly? I’m enthralled by the possibilities of this becoming a proper tournament. Hold a Neighborhood Park World Cup in which two international teams are flown to a random park around the globe for legitimate group game with no notice whatsoever. Just shove them off to the airport with an envelope full of tickets they’re not allowed to open until security, then play Brazil v Germany at the end of a cul de sac in Luxembourg with twelve people in attendance, eleven of whom are entirely oblivious, and one Bichon Frise relieving himself on Jogi Loew’s loafer.

Somewhere, someone must be devising this as we speak. They have to be.

(Oh, and the game was a draw.)