FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009

GROUP A: South Africa, Iraq, New Zealand, Spain
GROUP B: Brazil, Egypt, USA, Italy

Group Play Matches (All games will be on ESPN2 - times are for our time zone)
1 6/14 @ 10:00am: South Africa v. Iraq
2 6/14 @ 2:30pm: New Zealand v. Spain
3 6/15 @ 10:00am: Brazil v. Egypt
4 6/15 @ 2:30pm: USA v. Italy
5 6/17 @ 10:00am: Spain v. Iraq
6 6/17 @ 2:30pm: South Africa v. New Zealand
7 6/18 @ 10:00am: USA v. Brazil
8 6/18 @ 2:30pm: Egypt v. Italy
9 6/20 @ 2:30pm: Iraq v. New Zealand
10 6/20 @ 2:30pm: Spain v. South Africa
11 6/21 @ 2:30pm: Italy v. Brazil
12 6/21 @ 2:30pm: Egypt v. USA

6/14/2009 11:21:27 AM

South Africa 0-0 Iraq in the 66th minute

6/14/2009 11:28:19 AM

Hey, Big4Country, I found the other guy who cares about this.

6/14/2009 11:29:09 AM

it looks like SA is working them but just can't finish

6/14/2009 11:29:25 AM

I will miss the USA game tomorrow b/c of work. They will have a replay of the game at 8pm on ESPNU and 10pm on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD

6/14/2009 11:33:45 AM

lol, the South African player prevented a goal to score on Iraq.

6/14/2009 11:46:48 AM

ouch, tough break for RSA

6/14/2009 11:46:53 AM

that was amazing... South Africa = FAIL on that play

6/14/2009 11:47:27 AM

They took his ass right out of the game.

6/14/2009 11:49:04 AM

This is a pretty meaningless tournament BUT there should be some good play as we get deeper. Spain, Brazil, Italy.... and the US have all brought A-to-solid teams...

This game has been terrible though... sounds like a nice atmosphere at least.

6/14/2009 11:53:59 AM

Final
South Africa - 0
Iraq - 0

lunch break... then back for Espana v. All Whites

6/14/2009 11:55:46 AM

what channel is this on?

6/14/2009 12:01:54 PM

it's in the first post...

6/14/2009 12:11:17 PM

Spain v. New Zealand is starting right now.

6/14/2009 2:27:52 PM

I can't believe ESPN is showing every game... I figured they'd only be showing the US games and the final

6/14/2009 2:32:49 PM

new zealand is going to lose by a lot

6/14/2009 2:36:29 PM

This could get ugly. gg Torres

6/14/2009 2:36:46 PM

Nice I turn it on and a goal for Torres.

6/14/2009 2:38:38 PM

aaand another

and another

Torres 3 NZ 0

[Edited on June 14, 2009 at 2:47 PM. Reason : .]

6/14/2009 2:44:41 PM

hat trick in 17min

6/14/2009 2:47:08 PM

lol

hat trick

6/14/2009 2:47:11 PM

Hat trick in 17 min

unbelievable

6/14/2009 2:47:24 PM

holy fuck

6/14/2009 2:49:02 PM

#4

6/14/2009 2:54:47 PM

great stat for Torres...

Fastest hat trick in Confederations Cup history:
F. Torres - 17 minutes
2nd place - 59 minutes

[Edited on June 14, 2009 at 3:23 PM. Reason : ]

6/14/2009 3:22:04 PM

#5

6/14/2009 3:35:39 PM

Jesus Christ, what is ANY national team player anywhere doing whiffing a ball as easy as that coming across. I'm fairly certain you could round up an indigenous tribe, show them the game of soccer for 20 minutes, break one one of their legs, and even they wouldn't whiff that hard.

6/14/2009 3:36:28 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtF9tl5SLdA

shit happens dude

6/14/2009 3:43:30 PM

i didnt get to see what happened but when it comes to misses, this tops the cake imo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0IGvPzu7no

6/14/2009 3:59:17 PM

Final
Spain - 5
New Zealand - 0

Group A standings:
#1 ESP 1-0-0, +5, 3pts
#2 RSA 0-1-0, +0, 1pt
#2 IRQ 0-1-0, +0, 1pt
#4 NZL 0-0-1, -5, 0pts

6/14/2009 4:19:14 PM

this tournament is as serious as this play:

6/14/2009 4:24:57 PM

For fuck sake... this is an international tournament, which takes three years to compete the qualifying tournaments. Is this the FIFA World Cup? No, nothing else is. This is a tournament of champions, some of the best tallent around the world on an international stage. It matters. This is not a collection of exhibition games - the winner gets a trophy. Tell the eight teams in this tournament that it doesn't matter.

6/14/2009 4:37:54 PM

Quote :

"Jesus Christ, what is ANY national team player anywhere doing whiffing a ball as easy as that coming across. I'm fairly certain you could round up an indigenous tribe, show them the game of soccer for 20 minutes, break one one of their legs, and even they wouldn't whiff that hard."

Dude, whiffs like that happen all the time. They're less common on the international level, but I see at least 2-3 a week in my rec league that are just as bad or worse.



Is Torres' hat trick a record on any other level? I know for Confed. Cup, but for international play as well maybe?

6/14/2009 4:57:56 PM

Oooooh, a trophy!

The Carling Cup is also highly important!

6/14/2009 5:15:59 PM

Quote :

"but I see at least 2-3 a week in my rec league that are just as bad or worse."

Thank you for reaffirming my comment.

Quote :

"shit happens dude"

Even though some keeps have plenty of foot skills, if a monstrous whiff were going to happen in a similar situation to any player on the field, I'd expect it out of him, but not a back with no one around him and one of the nights easiest balls to clear.


Oh great, assbandit being contrarian for no fucking reason at all again. Douche.

6/14/2009 5:35:28 PM

It was New Zealand, man. What do you expect?

6/14/2009 9:30:08 PM

Quote :

"Oh great, assbandit being contrarian for no fucking reason at all again. Douche."

Except he's not. This conversation comes up all the time in the USMNT thread and the consensus is that this tournament is dumb.

6/14/2009 9:39:50 PM

There is nothing dumb about the national teams getting together at the same spot and playing each other, especially when ESPN is generous enough to broadcast the games. If by dumb, you mean awesome, then yeah.

6/14/2009 10:13:10 PM

Actually, by dumb I meant completely meaningless. I guess that could change, though, if teams continue to send their best players.

6/14/2009 10:15:22 PM

Simply, there is nothing meaningless about national teams getting together to play.

6/14/2009 10:19:09 PM

Maybe if we keep this up one of us will change his opinion.

6/14/2009 10:21:34 PM

Well, at the very least my position has a reasonable basis without even needing to articulate it. Yours, not so much.

6/14/2009 10:36:27 PM

I'm not saying I won't watch and enjoy. But you have to realize it's a tournament devoid of any history that up until this year was mostly played by B-squads and U-21 guys. Winning or losing means nothing and won't change the international stance of any team. It's just a glorified exhibition with nothing on the line that lets the WC host work the bugs out for next summer. I hope the US does well, but I don't really care either way.

6/14/2009 10:45:36 PM

^Winning the World Cup doesn't really change anything either besides someone gets to claim at least their first title. But yeh, it isn't as big of a deal as the World Cup, Champions League, Euro Cup, etc.

btw, these groups suck. I know it was a somewhat of a blind draw, but they could have at least switched New Zealand, or Iraq with the USA, or Brazil to make group A a little more entertaining.

[Edited on June 14, 2009 at 11:39 PM. Reason : .]

6/14/2009 11:37:32 PM

Quote :

"Simply, there is nothing meaningless about national teams getting together to play."

USA vs. NZ in Richmond, years ago.

TOTALLY MEANINGLESS.

The Kiwi goalkeeper was more concerned with playing jokes with Sam's Army than he was with stopping shots. We played Kyle goddamned Martino.

IT'S A TOURNAMENT OF FRIENDLIES.

Enjoy if you want, but don't try to force anyone else to enjoy it.

6/15/2009 5:38:28 AM

Quote :

"Winning the World Cup doesn't really change anything"

6/15/2009 7:41:45 AM

Quote :

"It was New Zealand, man. What do you expect?"

haha not only that, but the dude that missed it plays in MLS! M-L-S!!! c'mon


^ haha I almost commented on that but its not even fun for me to respond to stuff he says anymore


[Edited on June 15, 2009 at 7:43 AM. Reason : .]

6/15/2009 7:42:18 AM

FIFA World Rankings of teams in each group:
Group A
1. Spain
72. RSA
77. Iraq
82. New Zealand

Group B
4. Italy
5. Brazil
14. USA
40. Egypt

Also, I would like to know why Australia is classified in the Asia group and not Oceanic.

[Edited on June 15, 2009 at 9:43 AM. Reason : Australia]

6/15/2009 9:40:36 AM

I'm pretty sure they were part of the OFC during WC 06. No idea why they switched.

6/15/2009 9:51:16 AM

Quote :

"No idea why they switched."

so they could pretty much guarantee WC qualification

Oceania winners used to have a playoff with the 5th place South American team... now they have a playoff with an Asian team so Australia switching basically gives them a bye from playing crappy Oceania teams

well I guess there were some other reasons... from wiki

Quote :

"Many commentators and fans felt that the only way for Australia to progress was to abandon the Oceania Football Confederation. Football had developed over time to place increasing importance on tournaments rather than friendly matches. This established the Continental championships and their qualifiers as the major source of competitive matches for national teams. This served to starve Australia of potential opponents and resulted in long gaps between fixtures for the national team."

[Edited on June 15, 2009 at 10:01 AM. Reason : wiki]

6/15/2009 9:59:51 AM