Netherlands Beat Denmark: 2-0

Netherlands started their campaign with a 2-0 win over Denmark.

It was a goaless game during the first half. within a minute into the 2nd half Simon Poulsen's own goal , from there on Denmark failed to recover.

The second goal came in the 85th minute by Dirk Kuyt.

Netherlands ball possession was over 65% and they had almost 19 shots on the Goal, whereas Denmark only managed 13 shots.

Two Yellow Cards were shown to Netherlands and One to Denmark

Teams:

NETHERLANDS: Maarten Stekelenburg - Gregory van der Wiel, John Heitinga, Joris Mathijsen, Giovanni van Bronckhorst (capt.) - Mark van Bommel, Nigel de Jong - Dirk Kuyt, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart - Robin van Persie.

Coach: Bert van Marwijk

DENMARK: Thomas Sorensen - Simon Poulsen, Simon Kjaer, Daniel Agger, Lars Jacobsen - Christian Poulsen, Martin Jorgensen (capt.), Thomas Kahlenberg, Thomas Enevoldsen - Dennis Rommedahl, Nicklas Bendtner

Coach: Morten Olsen

The Axe Effect: Who will FIFA kill? Portugal, Spain or Brazil?

The above headline has appeared in many newspaers and my take on this is completely different. I think people fail to note that Portugal due to their bad performance in the qualifiers where they barely managed to get into final 32.

If Brazil meeting Spain both play according to their rankings then they will meet in the final. So you asked the wrong question,its which team will kill itself not FIFA

The FIFA draw is conducted based on performance in qualifying not the actual ranking.

Football World Cup kicks off today in South Africa

Finally the D day has come. today evening (IST) 32 countries will start their campaign to conquer the cup.

For South Africa,the World Cup has provided employment opportunities and revenue. all the bad things would be forgotten once the games start. people would be more than happy discussing the game rather than complaining about other things.

The opening game is South Africa taking on Mexico in Soccer City, followed by Uruguay vs France in Cape Town.


Also this could easily be the largest recorded congregation of foreign visitors in a country. It would certainly be the highest ever viewed event. With 43,600 broadcasts across 214 countries at an average 73,072 hours of viewing, and an estimated cumulative viewership of 26.29 billion.

The Teams

Group A:
South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay and France

Group B:
South Korea,Greece, Argentina and Nigeria

Group C:
England, U.S.A., Algeria and Slovenia

Group D:
Serbia, Ghana, Germany and Australia

Group E:
Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon

Group F:
Italy, Paraguay,New Zealand and Slovakia

Group G:
Ivory Coast, Portugal, Brazil and North Korea

Group H:
Honduras, Chile, Spain and Switzerland

The Tournament

FIFA World Cup 2010 format involves 32 teams, and they would be competing for the title over a period of one month. still date there has been 18 world events and only seven nations have won the title.

Brazil has won 5 times and they are only th eteam which has participated in all the 18 events. Defending champions Italy has won the cup 4 times and followed by Germany - 3 times. whereas Italy and Uruguay has won in 2 times each. Both England and France holding the cup - 1 time.

Official Ball:
the ball has 11 different colours used in the design represent 11 official language of South Africa and its 11 tribes. The circumference of teh ball is 69(+/- 0.2) cm and weight is 440 gms.