FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa : Group B

Nigeria

Nigeria were the biggest disappointment in Group B coming last with only one point, which they managed to get in the last game of the group stages.

The African nation which we are so used to playing their battling and team football was absent from the 2010 World Cup.

The performances of Nigeria were so bad that the Nigerian government have banned the National team from playing in any International tournaments for the next two years.

The situation is so bad that FIFA are believed to get involved in the decision as FIFA boss, Joseph Sepp Blatter already expressing his thought of politics getting involved in football.

Blatter, had criticized French President Nicolas Sarkozy after he said that he will personally be involved in an investigation on what went wrong with the France national side in the World Cup.

Nigeria expectantly lost their opening game against Argentina 1-0 but a 2-1 loss against Greece and a 2-2 draw against South Korea were not expected.

What made everything worse was the lack of passion from the players as we saw from the English side. It was as though the Nigerians were not psychologically hyped up for the competition.

Much more was expected from the country which had played in the final of the Beijing summer Olympics in 2008 and had ironically lost to Argentina.

Also Nigeria has never failed to reach the Semi Finals of the African Nations Cup for the last decade. All of this had hyped the fans and the whole nation, but the poor performance, lack of passion and team work all led to huge disappointment.

Greece
Greece was also disappointing in the World Cup in South Africa but the players showed the passion which was required.

The key game for the Greeks in the group stages was their opening match against South Korea where they lost 2-0.

Though at that point a stronger Nigeria was expected, the Greeks who won in EURO 2004 held in Portugal in some brilliant fashion just could not give the same performance.

But it is fair to say that the Greece side showed a little of the team work and talent which won them the EURO 2004, against the Argentineans in their last group game.

Though Argentina beat the Greeks 2-0, the score line certainly did not refer to the game played as the Greeks deserved at least a draw from the football they played, and indeed they missed a few glorious chances before falling foul to the wonders of Lionel Messi and the Argentinean strike force.

South Korea
Just like the 2002 World Cup held in South Korea and Japan, where the Asian side managed to come forth in the competition, Korea played their usual game of football.

Though the Asian side is relevantly new to football in the big arena compared with their European, Southern American, and African counterparts, South Korea showed their team work with some individual stars and made the difference which carried them to the last 16 of the World Cup.

South Korea were able to win Greece with a 2-0 score line in the opening game of Group B, but a 4-1 lose against Argentina were not expected by the Asians as though they were the underdogs, conceding four goals was not in the plans.

However in the last game, with the fixtures on the side of South Korea as Greece were going to play Argentina, South Korea managed a draw which was enough for the Asian side to get through to the last 16 where they face South American side Uruguay.

Though the South Koreans battled against Uruguay in the last 16 of the competition, they were not fortunate enough score that one goal which would have led the game to go to extra time and Uruguay beat South Korea 2-1.

Argentina
Argentina were their usual expected self in the group stages of the World cup with the Latin side winning all three of their group stage matches.

Though the Argentines started their opening game against Nigeria in a questionable manner by beating them 1-0, the Latin American side certainly managed to make up for their lack of goals by beating South Korea 4-1.

Messi again was his own self but it was Tevez and Higuain who shined. Especially the Young Real Madrid Forward, Higuain was extra deadly up front scoring a hattrick against South Korea.

However, against Greece the Latin side opened very late and were very unlucky not to go behind with some important misses from the Greeks.

Incidentally the Argentines were waiting for the last 15 minutes to open up and two late goals gave them the win, sending Greece out of the competition and themselves to the top 16 with maximium points.

Maradona’s performance was very professional and to the contrary of his critics, he was able to lead his relatively young but extremely talented stars out of the groups with ease.

Argentina faced Mexico in the Last 16 of the competition where they beat the Mexicans very convincingly, with a 3-1 win.

Argentina will now face Germany in the Quarter Finals of the 2010 World Cup and it could be said that they will have their biggest challenge.

The Germans were able to beat England 4-1 and have an up and rising new star of their own with Mesut Özil getting all the headlines.

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