Italy, France knocked out
The 2010 world cup has not been kind to the finalists of the 2006 world cup. The previous cup winner, Italy, was knocked out of the tournament with a loss to Slovakia while France was knocked out with a final loss to the host nation, South Africa. Both nations finished last in their group, and this marks the first time in history where both finalists of the previous cup failed to reach get out of the group.
Italy finished the tournament with a record of 0-1-2. This was only the fourth time in world cup history that a defending champion failed to reach the knockout rounds of the tournament. Italy’s tournament was characterized by uninspired play, few goal scoring chances, and falling behind early. Perhaps Italy’s lowest point was their 1-1 draw against New Zealand. New Zealand is only ranked 78th in the world, and their draw against Italy goes down as one of the major upsets in world cup history. Italy’s best stretch of play came in the last 20 minutes of their game against Slovakia. Already looking at a 2 goal deficit though, it proved not to be enough.
France finished the tournament with a 0-2-1 record. They tied Uruguay and lost to Mexico before being eliminated in their final game, losing to the host nation South Africa. France were unable to gel as a team, and had many conflicts with their coach, raymond domenech. Domenech expelled forward Nicolas Anelka after the two argued tactics following their loss to Mexico. When the team protested Anelka’s expulsion, Domenech stripped Patrice Evra of his captaincy then expelled him as well. France went into their final game with South Africa in disarray, and were unable to salvage a win in the tournament. Coach Raymond Domenech has already been replaced by Laurent Blanc.
France and Italy both struggled to mix their young players in with their older, experienced players. Both teams also made some very controversial cuts to their squad before entering the world cup. France cut midfielder Samir Nasri and forward Karim Benzema. Nasri not only plays, but starts for Arsenal in the premiership while Benzema is quite an influential player for La Liga’s Real Madrid. Italy cut forward Guissepe Rossi and defender Fabio Grosso. Grosso scored Italy’s world cup winning penalty kick in 2006 and was a part of their suffocating defense. Rossi is a rising star and could have been quite helpful given Italy’s struggles to find goals this tournament.
Both teams exiting the tournament this early is beyond shocking, and both face a long rebuilding period in the next 4 years.
Goal-Fests See the Favorites Through
If you were looking to see a bunch of goals today you were rewarded. 10 totals goals between the two matches that sent 2 to the quarter-finals and ended the European campaigns of a couple more.
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Champions League Preview: March 9th, 2010.
It’s that time of year again. Time for two teams to bow their way out of the Champions League knockout stages. And while this will happen a little bit later thanks to the new (and stupid) 2nd round format and an international break, the field of contenders will indeed be down to 14 after today, and 12 after tomorrow. Today’s games are a couple of dandy’s. Arsenal vs FC Porto and Fiorentina vs Bayern Munich.
You can also join us both today and tomorrow as we resume live blogging of CL games.
Arsenal 1 Lucasz Fabianski -2
FC Porto will head to London with a 2-1 lead thanks in large part due to some shoddy goal-keeping from Lucasz Fabianski.
Don’t get me wrong, Porto deserved their win; they controlled play and produced more quality chances. But both of their goals were off of some of the worst mistakes you will ever see out of a goalkeeper past the fourth grade.
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