Many words have been written in many places concerning the England performance against Algeria
on Friday. So many were written in the heat of the moment, without reflection and analysis. The
mainstream media have already made manager Fabio Capello the scapegoat (and this was always likely
to be the case, but that's another column for another day), with the convention wisdom being that
not all of the players were playing in their favoured position.
It was nail-biting the whole way through, with the anxiety escalating with each tick of the
clock beyond the 70th minute mark. Surely we'd progress, all USA fans felt after we played
our best first half of the tournament, wherein we were once again robbed by poor officiating: on
replay it was clear that Dempsey was indeed level with the last defender before tapping it in by
the far post.
Amistosamente no dia 11/08/2010, na cidade de Argel, no Estádio 5 de Julho, jogaram as seleções
da Argélia (33º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção do Gabão (34º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo2006Port-Gentil 08/10/2005 GAB0:0ALG Second stage2006Annaba 05/09/2004 ALG0:3 (0:0)GAB Second
stage
Copa da Africa2000Kumasi 29/01/2000 GAB1:3 (0:2)ALG First stage
Amistosos2006Aix-En-Provence 15/08/2006 ALG0:2 (0:0)GAB 2003Algiers 24/09/2003 ALG2:2 (0:1) 4:3 PSOGAB
1995Libreville 30/11/1995 GAB2:1 (1:1)ALG
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Abdel Alia Omar-EGY.
Well after yesterday's dramatic draw, let's hope today's matches (Malawi v Algeria and Côte
d'Ivoire v Burkina Faso) don't fail to live up to the strong start of the tournament.
Malawi boast Chiukepo Msowoya who lead the Flames with six goals from the qualification
rounds. 27-year-old Esau Kanyenda also has finishing ability.
GOALKEEPERS (4): Fawzi Chaouchi (ES Setif), Lounes Gaouaoui (ASO Chlef), M'bohi Rais Ouhed (Slava
Sofia), Mohamed Liamine Zemamouche (MC Alger) DEFENDERS (8): Habib Belaid (Boulogne), Nadir Belhadj
(Portsmouth), Madjid Bougherra (Glasgow Rangers), Rafik Halliche (Nacional Madeira), Abdelkader
Laifaoui (ES Setif), Carl Medjani (AC Ajaccio), Djamel Mesbah (Lecce) Anther Yahia (VfL Bochum)
MIDFIELDERS (10): Djamel Abdoun (Nantes), Riad Boudebouz (Sochaux), Adlane Guedioura
(Wolverhampton), Fouad Kadir (Valenciennes), Medhi Lacen (Racing Santander), Yazid Mansouri
(Lorient), Karim Matmour (Borussia.
Things will be coming fast and furious now with the big event just 37 days away! Wow that's soon. I
can't wait. Today, Algeria announced a preliminary 25-man squad that will be trimmed to 23 for the
big show. What do you think of the roster? How will the U.S. stack up against them? Don't have any
idea?
Algerian national team coach Rabah Saadane has named his 23-man final roster the 2010 FIFA World
Cup. Algeria and the USA will meet on June 23 to finish first-round play at Loftus Versfeld Stadium
in Tshwane/ Pretoria. Only three of the 23 players play their club soccer inside Algeria. Seven
players perform for clubs in France, three in England and three in Germany, including Michael
Bradley's Borussia Monchengladbach teammate Karim Matmour.
Clint Dempsey and the USMNT are ready...are you? (Getty Images)
It comes down to one final group to preview. Of course I had to do the US's group last, I
couldn't find it in myself to preview it right away when we started this last week anyways.
This preview will be slightly different as I asked WVH writer Geoff Reid to pipe in his thoughts
on the group as well.
This match isn't, as Gary Lineker insists twice, just for "you Americans and Algerians."
England's struggles to date have turned this into a tight group where three teams need a win, so
the natural choice for the neutral is surely the match with two of them. Such are the vagaries of
the group that both sides are likely to still need the win right to the end, which could only help
the entertainment value.
Telegraph.co.uk FIFA looking at complaint against Algeria's Saifi Gaea Times (blog) By AP
JOHANNESBURG — FIFA is investigating a complaint against Algeria striker Rafik Saifi following an
altercation with a journalist at the World Cup . ... World Cup 2010: Algerian player attacks female
journalist Afrique en Ligue World Cup reporter slapped by Algerian player USA Today Posted by
Jemele Hill ESPN Premier League FanHouse (blog) - SportingNews.
There has been a lot of anger directed against Ricardo Clark for giving up that ball to Kevin
Prince Boateng. He was guilty as charged.
But he is not the cause nor the solution to this problem that has dogged the team from the very
outset. A "collective asleep on the wheel" in the early minutes.
