We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Ordinarily a match between South Africa and Iraq wouldn't be interesting enough to get me out of bed on a Sunday. But this is our first chance to see the Bafana Bafana and the South African set-up ahead of next summer. Join me from 9:55 on ESPN2 for all the action.
posted by The Blue Devil @ 8:58 AM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
30 Comments:
The coverage on ESPN2 has started. Lexi Lalas in the studio. Lovely jubbly.
Uh oh, I spoke too soon. It's Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth on the commentary. We thought we'd said goodbye to these two tossers but here they are.
Don't know a lot about the current incarnation of the Bafana Bafana. I was surprised to see in match previews that one of their key players is the nippy Everton winger Stephen Pienaar.
And apparently Pienaar has picked up a knock and won't play today. So it's a particularly unknown side for me.
And what I know about the Iraqis comes principally from the excellent book on Middle Eastern footie that Gooner passed on to me, "When Friday Comes" They've recently taken on that old warhorse Bora Milutinovic, who's led more than one side through to the knock-out stages of the World Cup finals.
Good crowd noise ahead of the match, albeit a bit horn-centric and farty.
And we're off on the Confederations Cup 2009!
And the Iraqi striker Kasim has been knobbled in the early stages. He's been stretchered off.
The stadium looks pretty decent at first look but the pitch leaves something to be desired. Definitely a look of bobbles in the early going here.
Karrar Jasim is back up and attacking down the left. Iraq have had the better of the initial stages of this match. Not a good sign for the hosts.
Why no Benni McCarthy in this Bafana Bafana side?
Not a lot of quality on display here. It's making that KC vs. NE debacle last night seem like the Premiership. It'll tell you what - England will be praying that they get stuck in the group that South Africa are seeded in. They look pants!
I am enjoying this big bloke at the back for South Africa Matthew Booth, who looks a bit like Lurch and is getting the "Boo...." treatment from the crowd at every touch. He's rubbish but could be a good character for next year's tournament.
First corner in from Nashat and it went straight through the SA area! That could have gone anywhere.
The SA boys are really dishing it out. Younis went down like a lump there. The ref's got to be showing some cards soon or this one will get out of his control.
FIFA have apparently tried to ban the plastic horns favored by SA fans. I'm with them. It's quite an unattractive din they're making.
Sibaya with the first real shot on goal for SA. Good tip around by the Iraqi keeper Khune.
Fifteen minutes gone and that Sibaya shot is the highlight of it so far.
The horns are really getting on my tits now. It's worse than the jingle bells at Fratton Park.
Tommy comments that "we haven't seen a lot of football yet" and for once the Irish git is quite right.
Free kick to Iraq in a useful position on the left here.
High wide and horrible.
The pitch is already starting to cut up badly.
Half an hour gone and not really the curtain raiser that the hosts or FIFA would have wanted.
Nashat to line up the best free kick opportunity for Iraq so far....
Straight into the wall. Not impressive.
In the end, this match is really about second place. Spain will likely romp all three matches. Each of these sides will look forward to meeting New Zealand, surely the weakest team in the group, so a win here would virtually assure a semi-final berth.
Neat move from SA but the eventual shot from Parker was always going to be speculative.
An Iraqi defender has taken a blow to the face and will have to go off for treatment.
I'm hoping for an Iraqi goal here just to shut up the infernal horns.
Now the Iraqi keeper is in some discomfort.
Coming up on the end of the first half and I'll be looking for a real clinic from Spain this afternoon after this drab affair.
0-0 at the interval.
And 0-0 at full-time. Honestly, that match was almost comical, particularly a couple of moments at the death when SA had clear chances to score and either stumbled, played the ball behind the forward or the forward saved the ball off the opponents' line.
I think it's fair to say that neither side is going to grace next summer's tournament with their presences.
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