Switzerland 2 South Korea 0
France 2 Togo 0
It was a day for Arsenal players and its alumni playing pivotal roles in sending their teams to the group of sixteen.
Phillipe Senderos scored the first goal for Switzerland and suffered a bloody cut. Johan Djorou kept the South Korean defenders at bay. Not before referee Elizondo kept the theme of controversial refeering alive. How could he not? Awarding Switzerland’s second goal when Alexander Frei was offside and the referee’s assistant clearly put up his flag. The South Koreans stopped playing and Frei went ahead and scored the goal.
France scored two beautiful goals through Patrick Viera and Thierry Henry. Viera played a part in the Henry goal as well. It was a very gratifying birthday for both Viera and Zizou. Jorge Larrionda was very restrained today and actually did a fairly decent job of officiating. Thierry Henry was finally able to reconcile his Arsenal persona with that of the national one, with immediate results.
South Korea played its heart out but they could not repeat their magical showing in the 2002 World Cup. Togo came and played hard and they have a good young team that will be back to play the qualifiers. Otto Pfister may not be around as the coach. And even Dick Advocaat might be on his way from the South Korean team.
Thus endeth the group stage and it’s onto the elimination round.
4 comments on “France, Switzerland through: It was day for Arsenal and its alumni”
indeed a good WC dy for arsenal players, but re. the 2nd swiss goal, it should be understood that the player was not offside, he was level, and the final through ball came as a result of an interception by a S. Korean plater, whi diverted a pass by the swiss. Whatever way you look at it, that is 3 (yes, count them) ways that was not an offside goal. And no I’m not swiss, but the commentator REALLY pissed me off yapping ‘it was offside’.
I could tell it was a backpass during the realtime action, without the need for a replay, and even after he’d seen a replay he kept on going on about it. Did the dude not know the rules???
indeed a good WC day for arsenal players, but re. the 2nd swiss goal, it should be understood that the player was not offside, he was level, and the final through ball came as a result of an interception by a S. Korean plaer, whi diverted a (sideways) pass by the swiss. Whatever way you look at it, that is 3 (yes, count them) ways that was not an offside goal.
And no I’m not swiss, but the commentator REALLY pissed me off yapping ‘it was offside’.
I could tell it was a backpass during the realtime action, without the need for a replay, and even after he’d seen a replay he kept on going on about it. Did the dude not know the rules???
indeed a good WC day for arsenal players, but re. the 2nd swiss goal, it should be understood that the player was not offside, he was level, and the final through ball came as a result of an interception by a S. Korean plaer, whi diverted a (sideways) pass by the swiss. Whatever way you look at it, that is 3 (yes, count them) ways that was not an offside goal.
And no I’m not swiss, but the bbc commentator REALLY pissed me off yapping ‘it was offside’.
I could tell it was a backpass during the realtime action, without the need for a replay, and even after he’d seen a replay he kept on going on about it. Did the dude not know the rules???
I’m trying to say objectively here. Even though it might not have been an offside (which I think it was), the assistant referee raised the flag and Korean players stopped running for the ball. That flag sure changed a lot.