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Match Day 5 > Tuesday 13Jun06

   TEAM USA UPDATE: DAMARCUS BEASLEY has had a private meeting with Coach ARENA and will have to have another one this afternoon .. .. After the disgrace yesterday, GATORADE has asked all networks to stop showing their ‘Take me Out To The Ballgame’ commercial ad .. ..

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Match 14: SOUTH KOREA v. TOGO

Booking: CLAP!

Surprisingly > It was this star-crossed match that highlighted bravery and courage, unlike yesterday’s USA disgrace .. .. Both sides were poor early, but once the game opened and TOG’s MOHAMED scored, it became fun .. ..

KOR had a hard time linking and really didn’t start rolling until the TOG defence became stretched and had a man sent off .. .. Took full advantage of ABALO’s sending-off when LEE rammed home his FK .. .. AHN’s goal was a bit lucky as his bomb came off the back of a defender .. ..

TOG’s MOHAMED’s strike was top class and highlighted the potential of African football, but they lost because of their lack of tactical and technical discipline by becoming stretched and taking very bad fouls .. .. 

KOR MoM: #14 LEE CHUN-SOO was active and running throughout, trying to set up his teammates .. .. Fired home the equalizer when he curled home his FK from the top of the box .. .. One of the many KOR stars from 2002 who tried to parlay their success in Europe with a ₤2.1 Million transfer to Spain and became Korea’s biggest-ever transfer .. .. Has since had to return home to find his form again .. .. 

TOG  MoM: #17 KADER MOHAMED was a huge threat all day long and forced many saves from LEE before ramming home his class goal .. .. He split two markers after he settled the ball off his thigh and then at full stretch, rammed home the goal from the left-box and got it home off the left-post .. ..

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Match 10: FRANCE v. SWITZERLAND

Booking: CRAP?

Precious few clear chances – Precious few ideas – Precious little quality .. .. FRA created a few more chances but SUI came closer to scoring and forced BARTHEZ into a couple of saves .. ..

FRA just looked old and in different pages .. .. Little wonder they were booed off the pitch in their final WC warmup in Paris .. ..

SUI was bound to chase the match all match but fought and came inches from scoring a couple of times .. ..

FRA MoM: None

SUI MoM: None

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Match 9: BRAZIL v. CROATIA

Booking: CLAP!

Despite an evening start and both sides running at each other, there was no threat from both sides until KAKA curled in his goal just before the break .. .. Build-up play was good and CRO showed no fear of BRA despite a good number of their squad fighting a virus during their run-up to the Tournament .. .. Getting that telling pass through let both sides down .. .. But, both sides fired their best shots for their first match .. ..

BRA MoM: #8 KAKA broke the game open with his perfect left-footed bomb from the ‘D’ just before the half .. .. Not bad for a kid who was nicknamed ‘KAKA’ because his baby brother couldn’t say his name and appeared in just one match @ WC 2002 .. ..

CRO MoM: None