Great resilience from US, Aussies
YESTERDAY we saw England play quite well against Slovenia. The English always give themselves a mountain to climb, but Jermaine Defoe, as he has done so often for Spurs last season, scored early and England held on for a deserved win.
Wayne Rooney was back on form and looked happier, so all in all, it was a good day for the English team and supporters.
It was also an amazing day for the USA who scored in the 91st minute against a very organised Algerian side. Had Landon Donovan not scored so late, they wouldn’t have gone through, but in the end they managed to top the group.
Again, the USA displayed their great qualities — desire, commitment and discipline — which sum up the American people. When they had a goal disallowed in the first half, they did not complain and carried on playing. They deserved to go through top of the group.
Similarly, Australia played very well against Serbia to win 2-1 and finish third in the group. I compare Australia to the USA in that they both play with great spirit and determination regardless of the football infrastructure in their countries or their opponents, and even though they went out of the competition, they did themselves proud.
With Algeria now out, it’s likely Ghana will be the only African team to go through to the knock-out stages, as Cameroon need to win by at least three goals to have any chance of going through to the last 16.
It was a great result for Ghana though, who created a lot of chances against the much-fancied German side. They are a talented and disciplined team and fully deserved to progress from what was a very difficult group. They now carry the hopes of the African continent into the last 16.
Overall, the results threw up some interesting ties in the knock-out stages, with Ghana facing the USA, which will be a close game, but probably represents Ghana’s best chance of making the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time in their history.
Similarly, the Germany-England game promises to be an enthralling and close encounter. We are all acutely aware of the footballing history between these two nations — from the 1966 World Cup Final and the 1972 European Championships, to the 1990 World Cup and 1996 European Championships (both of which England lost on penalties) — so Sunday’s game should be a cracker and who’s to say it won’t come down to a dreaded penalty shootout again?