South Africa 1-1 Mexico Match Review is a post from: Just Football

Siphiwe Tshabalala is likely to go down in South African sporting history. The man who scored the first goal on African soil in a World Cup finals. The South African team may be disappointed that they didn't claim all 3 points in this game, but in reality it would have been an injustice if Mexico had come away tonight with nothing.

Ah, the wind-filled sails of patriotism, hope and World Cup fever. They inspire many things, like bold proclamations, regret and public humility traditionally in that order. Takeshi Okada has learned first hand, and has become something of a whipping boy for the World Cup with no one flogging harder than the Japanese provided the complete mental block of Diego Maradona has begun.

Ivory Coast 0-0 Portugal Group of Death left on knife-edge by stalemate is a post from: Just Football

It was the game hyped to break the shackles and to start a relentless assault of goals in South Africa, so inevitably Portugal and Ivory Coast both played out a goalless draw. The game may be criticised for epitomising a continuing trend of a lack of goals in this year's World Cup, but in honesty it gives us more of an insight into the teams than it does the World Cup itself.

Preparing for their important EPL game this weekend, Manchester City's coach, Roberto Mancini, is really having a bad headache as his team are short of fit defenders ahead of the match against Chelsea.

The former Inter coach revealed the problem after the Carling Cup game against West Bromwich Albion, hoping that that he could at least have Micah Richards available for Saturday's clash of the titans.