Goals Galore in Group G

We come to Group G and one of the tastiest looking groups in the competition - The perennial heavyweights of Brazil, always tricky customers Portugal, most people's fancied Africans The Ivory Coast and the the unknown entity that was North Korea.

Brazil and The Ivory Coast both entered the competition looking strong from qualifying and appearing relatively comfortable on the road to South Africa. Brazil always look like they are capable of something special even if their team does not boast the strength throughout the side of previous Brazil sides. Ivory Coast have got some very talented players including the talismanic Didier Drogba who is always good for an attention grabbing moment - we just hoped it was due to his football.

I was then backing these two to come out of this group - however Portugal would definitely have something to say about this. Though Portugal were looking to be a shadow of the team that had been narrowly defeated in the 2004 European Championship final against Greece. They were taken to the wire in a Play Off match to get to South Africa - and would look to be overly reliant on Cristiano Ronaldo to spear head their campaign.

The other team making up Group G was North Korea - they had perhaps shocked a few teams by even qualifying for the World Cup and were heavily tipped to be the whipping boys here. Little was known about the players though as the vast majority only play in their native country, what we could expect however was hard work and discipline as the team had been taken on a rigorous world tour to prepare for the tournament.

After all that - in true ironic World Cup style - when we were expecting a hummdinger of a game between Ivory Coast and Portugal both teams seemingly conspired to play out a bore draw. No performances of note from any of the top class players on show as it seemed both teams were more keen not to lose than either one of them was to win.

To give Didier Drogba his due he entered this game as an unlikely participant having looked to be out of the World Cup due to a broken arm in a warm up game, this must have adverse affects on the Ivory Coast team and had a major impact on their preparations. As for CR7 - I think he had just forgotten how to play for his country. One thing was for sure - at least one of these teams would be regretting this performance come the end of the group stage.

Attention turned to the other opening game in the group with the expectation of seeing a bag full of goals  at one end of the pitch. To surely everyones, even North Korea themselves, surprise after 45 minutes the score was Brazil 0 - NK 0. OK it didn't last, but for a moment North Korea were on top of the world and competing with the most illustrious international side around. Eventually Brazil broke through with the skill and precision that they possess, however North Korea scored a goal to lose out only 2-1 in the final reckoning - a great performance.


The second round of games were a bit more familiar - with Brazil looking too strong for the Ivory Coast and seeming more like the South American show stoppers we know and love. Ivory Coast looked capable without ever really being on top and their frustrations showed when they managed to get Brazilian midfielder Kaka red carded for an innocuous incident. The victory for Brazil secure before this however was a fair result.

The Ivory Coast had every need to get frustrated though as elsewhere Portugal would provide the landslide victory that everybody has expected against North Korea. Somewhat surprisingly Portugal managed to succeed where Brazil had failed and break down the stubborn defences of the communist state. In the end even Cristiano Ronaldo got in on the act in a 7-0 drubbing. Bad news for Ivory Coast indeed as they would now require a minor miracle to turn around the goal deficit in the final game.

It all went a bit predictable from here with the Ivory Coast huffing and puffing away to score as many goals as they could against North Korea. They did manage to record a 3-0 victory, but it was all shown to be in vain as elsewhere Brazil having already qualified seemed to rest players and take their foot off the gas in a non event of a 0-0 draw that put Portugal through without need for any last minute goal tallies.