Review of Early Games

Group B
Korea 2 - Greece 0
Argentina 1 - Nigeria 0

Korea dominated much of today's first match in South Africa. The defensive minded Greeks failed to create many chances. Lee Jung-Soo scored Korea's first goal in the seventh minute off a free kick from teammate Ki Sung-Yueng near the left corner flag. Korea captain and Manchester United player Ji-Sung Park scored in his third World Cup in the fifty-second minute off an intercepted pass and eluding two Greek defenders. Besides a couple of missed shots by Greece this was all Korea dominated and the Greeks failed to counter attack and played very cautiously and looked very much shell shocked after the early goal. This is Greece's second World Cup appearance, their last coming in USA 1994 and they are now 0-4 in four games with no goals scored (I said that they are defensive minded and that was not an exaggeration). Up next for Greece is Nigeria and Korea plays Argentina next week.

The second game was not nearly as close as the score indicated. The fact that Nigeria had a shot to tie it up late was thanks to their goalkeeper and man of the match Vincent Enyeama. Lionel Messi and co. played skillfully and seemed very much in-sync but shot after shot failed to find the net or was masterfully saved by the Nigerian 'keeper. The only goal of the game was scored early on off a corner-kick by defender Gabriel Heinze who was left all alone, like Rafa Marquez in yesterday's opening match.

It seems to me as if Nigeria respected Argentina too much and consistently crowded the box throughout the game to avoid giving up more goals. That weakened their counter attack, and the few chances they had on goal went wide of goal. Late in the game Nigeria seemed content to get out of there with a 1-0 loss and it seemed obvious most of the players accept that at least they weren't down 4-0 like they could have been.