Tuesday, May 25, 2010

World Cup Friendlies : England win, Portugal embarrassed

England were second best for much of the game, but came away from Wembley with a 3-1 win over Mexico in their friendly.Goals from Ledley King, Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson sealed victory for Fabio Capello's side with Mexico's sole reply coming from Guillermo Franco. But Capello will be wary of the need for his side to tighten up defensively with Robert Green twice denying Carlos Vela while Carlos Salcido struck a post.
The Cape Verde Islands provided one of the shocks of the year as they held Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal to a 0-0 draw. The result adds weight to the claims of many for coach Carlos Queiroz to get the sack, and does not bode well for Portugal's 'Group of Death' campaign when they come up against Brazil, Ivory Coast and North Korea this summer.Queiroz selected a full-strength starting line-up with the likes of Ricardo Carvalho, Miguel Veloso, Nani, Deco, Liedson and Ronaldo all named.The hosts predictably dominated the encounter at the Complexo Desportivo in Covilha but lacked a cutting edge with Real Madrid forward Ronaldo in particular guilty of a string of misses.Argentina said goodbye to their home fans before their World Cup trip with a 5-0 win over Canada.Maxi Rodriguez got an early double to aid Argentina's win with a convincing performance despite their rivals' obvious weakness. Eight minutes before half-time, Angel Di Maria widened the gap from outside the box with the left foot as his shot went in off the left post.In the 62nd minute, after a defensive mistake by Andre Hainault, Gonzalo Higuain assisted Carlos Tevez to beat keeper Pat Onstad. Sergio Aguero replaced Tevez in the 70th minute and the Atletico Madrid forward only needed a few seconds to evade Richard Hastings and make it 5-0.World Cup hosts South Africa continued their build-up to the big event with a promising, yet ultimately disappointing 1-1 draw with Bulgaria in Johannesburg.Siyabonga Sangweni gave Bafana Bafana the lead just before the midway point of a first half they dominated but Valeri Bojinov's 31st-minute strike pegged the home side back.
Earlier in the day, substitute Brett Holman struck with the last kick of the game to give Australia an undeserved 2-1 victory against New Zealand at the MCG.New Zealand had gone ahead thanks to Chris Killen's close-range strike after 16 minutes and they should have also had a man advantage at the break after a horror challenge by Vince Grella on Leo Bertos was met with only a yellow card. It took a debut goal from young midfielder Dario Vidosic to bring Australia level after 57 minutes before Holman clinched the win late on.Japan's final game on home soil prior to the World Cup finals ended in a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of South Korea.Takeshi Okada's side fly to Europe and their Alpine training camp on Wednesday but were unable to generate any momentum at Saitama Stadium. Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung scored with a fine effort from the edge of the penalty area after six minutes and Monaco forward Park Chu-young added a second with a late spot-kick.

No comments: