The performance of the great teams at South Africa 2010 has been less than impressive in their group matches. There was a lot of excitement in the media about what to expect from them, months before the start of the tournament.
Now that they are all in South Africa, a lot of people are getting high blood pressure, due to their mediocre performances. Only three of the big teams (Brazil, Argentina and the Netherlands) have achieved 100% wins in their first two games so far.
Brazil won their first match against Korea DPR 2-1 and defeated Ivory Coast 3-1 in their second match. Argentina defeated highly rated Nigeria by a single goal in their opening match, then went ahead to beat South Africa 4-1 in their next match. They completed the group matches with a 2-0 victory over Greece, to maintain a 100% win rate. The Netherlands defeated Denmark 2-0 in their first match, and they also defeated Japan 1-0 in their next match.
Four-time champion and reigning champion, Italy could only achieve a 1-1 draw against Paraguay in their first match, and played another 1-1 draw against the New Zealand Underdogs groups. Three-time champions Germany defeated Australia 4-0 in their first match and then lost 0-1 to unknown Serbia in their second match. England, the 1966 champions, played a 1-1 draw against the United States in their first game, and another 0-0 draw against Algeria in the next. However, they were lucky enough to win by just one goal over Slovenia in their last match, courtesy of Jermain Defoe. The host and winner of the 1998 edition, France, drew 0-0 against the two-time winner, Uruguay in their opening, but lost their second game 0-2 to their North American opponents, Mexico in their next match, and then lost the last 1-2 against the host, South Africa.
Highly rated Nigeria lost 1-0 to two-time champions Argentina in their first match; and surprisingly lost their second game 1-2 against second-time contestants Greece, who had never won a world cup match before. They only managed a 2-2 draw against South Korea in their last game. Cameroon playing three-time African footballer of the year Samuel Eto’o lost 1-0 to Japan in their first game, and also 1-2 to Denmark in their next game to become the first African country to be eliminated. . in the first round of this year’s tournament. Ivory Coast with reigning African Footballer of the Year Didier Drogba, managed a 0-0 draw against Portugal in their first match, but lost 1-3 to favorite Brazil in their next match.
Algeria lost its first match 0-1 against little-known Slovenia and drew 0-0 against England. They finally crashed after losing 0-1 to the United States in their last match. Portugal played a goalless draw against Ivory Coast in their first match; they finally tried to redeem their name by beating Korea DPR 7-0 in their next match, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring just once.
So what happened to the great teams and big names like Miroslav Klose, Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Frank Lampard, Obafemi Martins, Yakubu Aiyegbemi, Osaze Odewingie, Didier Drogba, Gervinho, Salomon Kalou, Samuel Eto’o, Steven Pienaar, Fabia Canavalro, Camoranesi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco, etc.
France, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Greece and Slovenia have crashed in the group stage. We hope the other teams can give a better account of themselves as they seek to qualify for the round of 16. So far, only Argentina, South Korea, Uruguay, Mexico, England and the US have qualified for the round of 16.