Ivory Coast take a short corner right at the death but the ref doesn’t allow them go ahead with it, it’s all over and yet another bore-fest comes to an end. The game earlier on was crap but we kind of expected that, but we expected a lot better from the likes of Ronaldo, Drogba and company.
Both sides should have been all out for a win considering that this game is probably their most important of the group, with Brazil likely to take top spot, but instead all they cared about was not losing. The Ivory Coast showed slightly more ambition than their opponents but I can only remember a couple of half decent attempts on goal. Shocking stuff yet again in Port Elizabeth. Portugal 0-0 Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coast piling on the pressure in the last few minutes. Portugal hanging on.
Drogba with a last gasp chance for the Elephants after a lovely through ball from Keita, but he snatches at it with his left and drags it well wide of the far post.
Emmanuel Eboue has his shift done for the day, he’s been replaced by Romaric for the last few seconds.
Ruben Amorim replaces Raul Meireles for Portugal. A lot of players have tattoos these days but Meireles takes the biscuit. I couldn’t spot any clean skin at all, he’s covered.
Ivory Coast make a mess of yet another attack. Ronaldo gave the ball away cheaply in the middle of the park and Ivory Coast were 4 on 4 until Tiote’s pass rebounded off Dindane and out of harm’s way.
Kader Keita is on for the Ivory Coast instead of Gervinho, who looked quite impressive for backwards Ireland.
Chog from Tipp has added his two cents worth on how the game could be changed for the better.
“Have it as a law that you can only be offside if you are in the box. Anything is better than this crap“
A bit drastic perhaps Chog but we’re on the right track.
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Kolo Toure goes down with what looks like a bad case of cramp and the physios come on to apply the old magic sponge, which as everyone knows is the best treatment for all kinds of injury, however complicated.
Liedson tries an acrobatic bicycle kick but only succeeds in walloping Demel with a boot in the arm. It didn’t look too bad but of course Demel goes down as if he has been shot. Wimp.
Macced from Mayo has been in touch.
“I’ve only watched five minutes of this game and it’s shocking. Instead of end to end, it’s corner flag to corner flag“.
Dead right Macced, it’s been a big disappointment.
First touch for Drogba sees him kick fresh air with a speculative attempt at a volley. Lucky and all as is he is though, it rebounds to Gervinho in front of goal but he’s flagged offside.
We didn’t spot it, but Jim Beglin on ITV reckons that the ref went over and shook Drogba’s hand before he came on to the pitch. Strange, strange behaviour.
The big man is on and it’s his Chelsea team mate Kalou being withdrawn.
Drogba is getting stripped and ready on the sideline and receiving some last minute instructions from Sven…
Deco off, Tiago on for Portugal.
Dindane tries to slide Kalou in but his pass is way over hit and goes out over the endline. The Elephants looking the more likely at the moment.
Gervinho involved again connecting with a cross from Tiote but his header is high and wide. Gervinho causing the Portugal defence some problems. Drogba could do damage if Eriksson threw him on for the last half hour or so.
Liedson with a decent header for Portugal after Deco did well to dig out a cross on his left. Liedson was leaning backwards and couldn’t get any power on the header. Down the other end, Gervinho twists and turns Ferreira down the left but his cross is deflected over the bar. Better.
Simao on for Portugal instead of Danny, who was very disappointing.
Kalou stings Eduardo’s palms with a shot from the edge of the box but it’s straight at him. Ronaldo yet to be involved second half.
Just having a look at the ins and outs of the backpass rule on wikipedia. Apparently in Italia 90′, Packie Bonner kept the ball in his box for over six minutes during Ireland’s game with Egypt, just dribbling it back and over in the box. That must have been exciting. Anyway, back to the action in Port Elizabeth, still nothing of note in the second half.
The quality of football was so bad at Italia 90 that the backpass rule was introduced. If it keeps going like this in South Africa, what could do they do to make it better? A minimum of 2 players in the opposition half maybe? All suggestions welcome at shout@joe.ie
Kalou tries to get on the end of a cross but is ever so subtly nudged out of the way by Chelsea pal Paulo Ferreira.
Back underway…
Ronaldo and Guy Demel get a little better acquainted
Have to say that this game has been terribly disappointing and we thought it might rise above the drivel that we’ve seen in the tournament so far. Some of the tackles were a bit spicy, though. Funny to see that even though Ronaldo is Portuguese and playing in a Spanish league, he still swears in English… to a team whose players speak French.
I jest of course…
Hello folks, Conor Heneghan back with you again for the second half. Cheers to my colleague Shane Breslin for covering the first period and allowing me to nip down to Super Valu for a sandwich. Shane is only capable of 45 minutes of quality work per day so it’s perhaps best that I relieve him of his duties!
There’s the short peep of the half-time whistle. Ronaldo’s turn and shot apart, pretty uninspiring stuff. Again.
It feels like watching a Chelsea training session at times. Ferreira gives Kalou a kick on the shin. Carvalho and Deco kicking the ball out of play. Then we have a shot of Drogba looking lip-curlingly bad-humoured on the bench.
A minute left to the break. Another goalless first half – the seventh in 13 World Cup games, I make it.
Ivory Coast finishing the half well. On the front foot, as three-footed people might say.
“Deco just looks a yard short,” says Jim Beglin. Harsh. Not his fault – it’s in the genes, after all.
Dindane will be playing in Qatar next season.
Wonder what took him there?
Liedson, the Brazilian who became Portuguese a short time ago just for this tournament, is doing his best to fulfil the long tradition of un-threatening Portuguese strikers. Speaking of which, just spotted Danny. He must be camera-shy – haven’t seen him for the first half hour.
Portugal are all about one man. If He doesn’t do it, no-one will.
That tackle was crunching but it wasn’t fair. Pedro Mendes with a leg breaker on Eboue. There have been a few of those this tournament. Probably more of them than goals. This one doesn’t get a red. It doesn’t get a yellow. It doesn’t even get a free. Eboue needed a bit of a rub but he’s alright.
There have been a few crunching – but fair – tackles so far. Yaya on Himself. Carvalho on Gervinho.
Gervinho skips past two Portugal defenders in the box but Paolo Ferreira – Chelsea’s 17th choice right back – gets across to hack it into the crowd. I worry for Portugal at the back – Alves is shoddy, Ferreira is finished, Carvalho hasn’t looked the same player for the past 12 months or so. The left full, Coentrao, looks decent though.
ITV have been dissecting the replay. “It wasn’t a dive, it was a drop,” says Jim Beglin. Explain that one to me at shout@joe.ie.
The Ivory Coast defender, Guy Demel, gets a yellow too. Maybe it was for the kerfuffle afterwards. He’ll have to watch himself now, though. Another one and you’re off, Ronny.
Ronaldo wasn’t too happy with that one. Twenty minutes in and it’s his second dive of the game. This one gets a yellow card.
Pablo has been back on. He is Irish. It’s just a nickname. Ivory Coast look good enough, Pablo. They’d be even better if Didier was out there tormenting the Portuguese defence. Bruno Alves and Ricard Carvalho are the central defenders. Have seen a bit of Alves with Porto. As solid as crushed cornflakes.
Free kick for Ivory Coast, 25 yards out. It was about three yards wide and quite tame, but still better than about 95 per cent of the free kicks at this World Cup so far.
Portugal are something like 20 months unbeaten by the way. So the ITV commentator – Peter Drury? Gary Bloom? Kenneth Wolstenholme? – says anyway. One of those games was a draw with Cape Verde, though.
Actually, I take my hat off to Him. As good a bit of skill as we’ve seen so far and He cracks one off the post from 30 yards. Barry was beaten all ends up there. Brilliant stuff from Ronaldo – wonder can he wrest back the title of world’s best player from Messi this month. You never know, this tournament may turn out to be good after all.
From the free, Himself wound up from about 45 minutes. Everyone else has struggled to keep the new Jabulani in the stadium, so it’ll be interesting to see what He makes of it…
…it goes straight into the wall.
Ronaldo had touched the ball three times – and been fouled twice. Yellow for Zokora for a “foul”. Ronaldo went down without being touched. Amazed he’d do something like that.
To be fair, the Ivory Coast look the best African team – and there’s only been six minutes. Dindane and Kalou both showing a bit of threat.
One early email. Pablo in Drogheda – you’re not Irish, Pablo, are you? – has been on to say he’s backed Ivory Coast at 40/1 for the tournament. Hope they’re better than a few of the African teams in this tournament so far, Pablo. Cameroon and Algeria have been pitiful.
Game on here. Ivory Coast in orange. Portugal in a slinky white outfit with red and green stripes down the middle. Cristiano wil look well in that.
The ad for that [British high-street bookmaker, red branding] is a bit annoying. The phone number ends in 1966.
Looking through the Ivory Coast team, even Drogba-light they look like they could do a bit of damage. Didier Zokora might not have made the grade at Spurs but he’s a right good defensive midfielder – and defensive midfielders have been the new number 10s at this tournament. Dindane looked plenty good enough at Portsmouth. Kalou had a good end to the season with Chesea. Yaya Toure – so good they named him twice.
Have my doubts about Kolo, though. He was as safe as an Icelandic bank for Man City this season.
Ah, Sven. Looking dapper as usual, eyeing up the Portuguese girls in the crowd behind him. C’mon Sven, mind on the job.
In team news, Didier Drogba is on the bench for Ivory Coast. He’s wearing a protective cast on the elbow he broke just eleven days ago.
With Ronaldo, Danny, Deco & Co, Portugal look decent on paper. This one’s on grass, though.
Ivory Coast: Barry, Demel, Kolo Toure, Zokora, Tiene, Eboue, Yaya Toure, Tiote, Gervinho, Dindane, Kalou.
Portugal: Eduardo, Ferreira, Bruno Alves, Carvalho, Fabio Coentrao, Deco, Mendes, Raul Meireles, Ronaldo, Liedson, Danny.
Referee: Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay).
So, another piece of unadulterated drivel earlier, with New Zealand hitting back in injury time to take a 1-1 draw with Holland. This one should be better – if only for the fact that Brazil’s presence in Group G makes it virtually impossible for both teams to go through, so they should at least be going for the win.
Or maybe it’ll just mean that they both go into defensive mode, like around 20 of the other 24 teams who’ve played so far. We have some reasons why the World Cup has been shite – you can read them here.
