"Bafana Bafana" not only finished the opening match of the "Copa Mundial Sudafrica 2010" at Soccer City against Mexico with a favorable result, but "The Boys" also got a favorable result from the second game at the Cape Town Stadium where 'defensive' Uruguay played "unpleasant Raymond Domenech"'s French team. It seems like the second games in Group A, which is one of the toughest groups in the tournament, will be a "football fiesta."
Mexico, looking very sharp, are my favorite team to top Group A, if Mr. Domenech keeps on going on with the same starting 11 - keeping Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda on the bench for the most part of the game, then substituting them with Nicolas Anelka and Yoann Gourkuff respectively and moving Franck Riberry towards center midfield! ... Excuse me? - However, not to underestimate are the solid performances of the South African and Uruguayan teams.
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Goal of the day: Siphiwe Tshabalala's terrific strike!
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Why Carlos Vela's disallowed goal actually was offside:
When watching the replay, you can see South African player Steven Pienaar positioned on the goal line. When South Africa goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune ran off his line to try and intercept the corner kick, he left Pienaar as the last defender in front of the goal.
The FIFA offside rule reads that a player is offside if he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent (with the last opponent typically being the goalkeeper).
In the case of the 2010 World Cup opening game, however, the goalkeeper was not there behind the defense. But the moment Vela passed Khune in the middle of the box, he was offside, regardless of Pienaar's position at the post.
Congratulations to Uzbek referee Ravshan Irmatov and his assistant for making this intelligent call!
"The first 90 minutes are the most important"
