Two matches, two draws. I took a mental health day and ignored politics in favor of World Cup soccer (or football, as I should say). First, I watched Mexico tie the host country, South Africa, 1-1. Then I wached a scoreless tie between France and two-time World Cup champion Uruguay. Both games had some highlights but they were ultimately kind of unsatisfying. The best moment of the day was definitely Siphiwe Tshabalala’s icebreaking goal in the 55th minute of the South Africa-Mexico game. It was a perfect shot made possible by a perfect pass from Kagisho Dikgacoi. Check it out.
Mexico tied the game in the 79th minute with a goal from Rafael Marquez. South Africa had a chance in the 90th minute but the ball bounced off the post. Mexico was the better team and dominated possession in a lopsided first half. South Africa missed an opportunity to get 3 points with a win. It’s hard to get too excited about games that end without a winner. And that was the case as well with the second game between France and Uruguay, which had the added let-down of not even featuring a goal. Uruguay played masterful defense and the French team lacked any coherent plan for attacking it. The overall skill level and speed of the second game was much higher than the first, but very few scoring chances were created. Based on what I saw, I expect France and Uruguay to advance out of this group. Mexico has a shot but they’ll have find a way to score. South Africa has little chance of doing better than a draw against either France or Uruguay.
Tomorrow it’s Argentina vs. Nigeria in the morning and England vs. the USA in the afternoon. I’m fairly certain that those two games will be livelier and higher scoring than today’s.
