France 3, Honduras 0
After waiting four long years, France desperately wanted to erase the pitiful memories of their disastrous 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where they humiliated themselves with infighting of an epic proportion, making attention-grabbing headlines around the world for all of the wrong reasons.
They cleared house after that, not without controversy. But new coach Deschamps made some changes, including a philosophy that the best players would not necessarily make the best team, a philosophy that obviously caused some controversy.
Plus, France struggled just to qualify for this World Cup. There were some good reasons to cast a shadow of doubt on this French team.
But they put much of those fears to rest yesterday with a convincing 3-0 victory over Honduras, answering those whom felt that they were ripe victims for an upset.
Karim Benzema scored three goals, in effect, in the game. Two goals he scored outright, while the second goal hit the post and went kind of behind the goalie, who, in trying to block it, accidentally assisted in putting the ball behind the goal line, giving France a 2-0 lead.
By adding 3 goals in all, and not allowing any, France has placed itself in solid position to make it to the second round, and possibly to take the Group outright, although they would still most likely need at least one more win against either Switzerland or Ecuador.
With a dominant performance, France earned it's first World Cup win in eight years, since they made the Final in 2006, losing to Italy. It was also the most convincing victory that France enjoyed at this stage since their historical 3-0 victory against Brazil.
So, France now can breathe a little bit more easily, looking towards a showdown with Switzerland, a team that always seems to give them a hard time.
Plus, a big win just feels good. Benzema felt so good about it, that he said that France "can do something extraordinary" during this World Cup.
Very different news line from four years ago, non?
Benzema believes in France published at espnfc.com:
http://www.espnfc.us/france/story/1887755/karim-benzema-says-france-can-do-something-extraordinary
Switzerland 2, Ecuador 1
Ecuador had played quite well all day, holding off the favored Swiss, and looking at times capable outright of winning.
Trying to break a 1-1 tie late in the game, Ecuador very nearly got what likely would have been the deciding goal, although it did not ultimately go for them.
Unfortunately for them, they focused so much on offense, that they forgot to take care of matters on the defensive end of things.
Enner Valencia gave Ecuador the early lead by scoring in the 22nd minute, allowing Ecuador and their fans to dream of an upset, and showing that this team was for real.
But Admir Mehmedi was able to get Switzerland on the board early in the second half, scoring in the 48th minute to nod things up at 1 apiece.
It looked to one and all that it would end in a 1-1 draw in the waning moments of extra time, until Switzerland got what almost amounted to a de facto "Golden Goal", as Haris Seferovic was able to get it past Ecuadoran goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez to earn the miracle win for Switzerland.
Argentina 2, Bosnia-Herzegovina 1
Sead Kolasinac of Bosnia-Herzegovina accidentally scored a goal against his own team, allowing Argentina to take advantage of a very early goal in the 3rd minute, giving favored Argentina the early lead, and forcing Bosnia-Herzegovina to face an uphill battle for the rest of the day.
Argentinian star Lionel Messi did not need any help from the other team when he added to Argentina's lead in the 65th minute, providing them with a comfortable 2-0, second half lead.
Bosnia-Herzegovina did battle back, trying to get back in the game. Vedad Ibisevic finally was able to break through finally in the 84th minute, giving them a chance to get back in the game in the closing minutes, and at least ending the threat of a shutout.
But they were unable to follow up, as Argentina held them off, and earned themselves the important win to open up this World Cup in the manner that they obviously wanted.
No comments:
Post a Comment