Showing posts with label FIFA WORLD CUP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FIFA WORLD CUP. Show all posts

RUSTENBURG: A stoppage time equaliser by defender Winston Reid saw New Zealand claim the first World Cup point in their history with a 1-1 draw with Slovakia on Tuesday.The All Whites, who lost all three matches in their only other finals appearance in 1982, looked destined for defeat after Robert Vittek had headed Slovakia into a 50th-minute lead in the Group F match.But three minutes into injury time, Reid popped up at the back post to head Shane Smeltz's cross in off the post to deny Slovakia victory in their first World Cup match as an independent nation.It was no more than New Zealand deserved from a scrappy encounter in which Slovakia did little that will worry group rivals Italy or Paraguay, who also drew 1-1 when they met on Monday.With Slovakia struggling to get their passing game going in cold, windy conditions, it was the All Whites who had the better of the chances with both Chris Killen and Smeltz (twice) failing to take good chances before Reid found the net.Middlesbrough's Killen needed only five minutes to underline the threat he poses in the air, outjumping both centrebacks to meet Simon Elliott's inswinging free-kick with a header that was directed straight at Slovakia's goalkeeper Jan Mucha.Twenty minutes had elapsed before Slovakia produced a moment of menace, captain Marek Hamsik curling a shot beyond the far post.Gradually they began to assert themselves and, after being played into the box by the lively Vladimir Weiss, Stanislav Sestak toe-poked a shot inches wide of Mark Paston's left-hand upright.Paston, who had already flapped hesitantly at one cross, was fortunate to escape unpunished after completely missing the ball as he attempted to punt the ball clear from the left edge of his box.Vittek then sent a long range effort wide before New Zealand's best chance of the opening period fell to Smeltz. The forward's strike from a tight angle was cleanly struck but Mucha's touch was enough to deflect it into the side netting.Hamsik's dipping shot had to palmed over by Paston just before half-time and, five minutes after the restart, the Slovakians broke the deadlock.Allowed time on the right, Sestak whipped in a cross and Vittek, who may have been fractionally offside, got away from Reid to send a header beyond Paston and into the bottom corner.Vittek should have made it two at the end of a sweeping counterattack with 20 minutes left, only to be frustrated by Reid's full-stretch block.With three minutes left, Smeltz got above Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel only to steer his header wide. New Zealand's last chance looked to have gone but Reid had other ideas.


JOHANNESBURG: FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Monday the South African stadium stampede that left a policeman seriously injured is like a wake-up call to warn World Cup organizers.
Blatter said FIFA regretted Sunday’s incident at the World Cup warmup between Nigeria and North Korea, which left 16 people injured outside Makhulong Stadium in the township of Tembisa near Johannesburg.
“I am sure, and you are sure, that this is like an alarm clock and this will not happen at any match at the World Cup,” Blatter said after a two-day meeting of FIFA’s executive committee.
“The security is always a matter for the state where the sport event is played. The FIFA organization, with all its ramifications, we have no police force. We cannot even take out a spectator from a stadium. We cannot do that. It is not possible.”
About 10,000 tickets were given away free for the match, where police saw a crowd twice force open the gates to the stadium.
“In terms of organization, please be sure that the level of organization we have at the World Cup is definitely higher than the one we have seen there,” said FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who was sitting alongside Blatter at the media briefing.
“We have to make sure that the police working around the World Cup stadiums will do better than what we have seen yesterday.”
Taiwo Ogunjobi, the Nigerian federation’s technical committee chairman, told website kickoff.com they had no alternatives other than Makhulong stadium, an outdated venue which has no turnstiles for fans.
“We had no choice,” Ogunjobi said. “That was the only venue available to us. FIFA had taken control of all the stadia we could have used, and we had to settle for this one because we needed to play this match.”
But Valcke denied FIFA had control of all other possible venues.
FIFA said Sunday in a statement that the match had “no relation whatsoever with the operational organization of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,” and Nigeria media officer Idah Peterside said the match “was organized by the two FAs.”
Blatter also said it was a “good idea” that Brazil recently played a match in Zimbabwe despite players like Kaka and Robinho shaking hands with President Robert Mugabe, who has been accused of running a campaign of political violence in his country.
“We have seen the enthusiasm of the people and how football connected people and that’s all,” Blatter said of the visit by the five-time World Cup winners. “I think it was a good idea to go there.”

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