Confederations Cup begins in South Africa

The 2009 Confederations Cup began on Sunday with Group A action and continued Monday with Group B. Today (Tuesday) has no matches on the schedule. The Confederations Cup will continue Wednesday with Group A.

In this post, I am going to give my overview and analysis of the matches of the last two days and my prediction for the next match day, which will take place on Wednesday.

Group A (Sunday June 14, 2009)

Match 1: South Africa vs Iraq: The host nation South Africa (ranked 72nd in the world, 17th in Africa) met Asian Champions Iraq (77th in the world, 7th in Asia) for the first time in world soccer/football history in the city of Johannesberg. The host clearly dominated over their Middle Eastern opponent but a stubborn Iraqi side refused to allow South Africa to find the back of the net as the match ended in a stalemate. I only got to watch the first half, but from what I saw, it was a very good start for Iraq under the Serbian coach that also coached the MetroStars in Major League Soccer a while ago. With Spain in the same group, I think South Africa and Iraq will have to battle for second place and a spot in the knockout round since Oceanian Champion New Zealand does not have much of a chance. For more on the match, see FIFA's official match report.

Match 2: Spain vs New Zealand: The second match that took place on Sunday was a little more one sided. Spain (ranked 1st in the world) did not have much of a challenge against Oceanian champion New Zealand, the weakest team in the Confederations Cup. Although New Zealand is ranked #1 in Oceania, a spot that Australia used to have before becoming a member of the Asian Confederation, they are 82nd in the world. Spain dominated the match throughout from beginning to end. One Confederations Cup record was actually broken in this match: Fernando Torres scored the fastest hat trick in the history of the competition, scoring three goals inside the first 20 minutes of the match (6th minute, 14th minute, 17th minute). Cesc Fabregas scored at the 24th minute making it 4-0 at half time. he second half saw only one goal for Spain and the match ended 5-0. For the official match report, click here.

Group A Standings (as of Tuesday June 16)

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1. Spain 1 1 0 0 5 0 +5 3
2. Iraq 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
3. South Africa 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
4. New Zealand 1 0 0 1 0 5 −5 0

As you can see, Spain is clearly at the top of the group with 3 points. Iraq and South Africa are tied with no clear tiebreaker since their match ended in a scoreless draw. New Zealand is at the bottom, but with Spain--European champions and the strongest team in the competition--out of the way, the champions of Oceania still have to play South Africa and Iraq. Although they are a weak team, I wouldn't count New Zealand out yet. They could be the spoiler of the group and affect South Africa's or Iraq's chances of taking the second place spot to advance.

Group B (Monday June 15)

While opening day for Group A ended with a pretty clear picture of who will most likely be the group champion, Group B is still a little bit hazy. It was also the most exciting of the two match days.

Match 1: The first match of the day saw a determined African side take on one of the best (I would say THE best) and highest paid player in the world in Kaka as African champions Egypt (ranked 40th in the world, 5th in Africa) took on South American champions Brazil (5th in the world, 1st in South America). Now, this match may seem one sided but it was anything but. The first half saw a strong Brazilian side score 3 goals. The scoring started with Kaka's goal in the 5th minute. Egypt tied it up 4 minutes later. However, Brazil dominated the rest of the first half scoring two more goals, ending the first 45 minutes with a score of 3-1. The second half was very different however. At the 54th minute, Brazil started to lose their dominance and Egypt became the better team. Egypt scored two goals in the 54th and 55th minute to tie the match 3-3. This score stuck until the very end of the match when Brazil earned a penalty kick in the 90th minute. Kaka scored the penalty ending this exciting match 4-3 for Brazil.

Match 2: USA vs Italy: This was a rematch of the 1-1 tie that these two teams played in the 2006 World Cup as the CONCACAF champions USA (14th in the world, ranked 1st in CONCACAF) faced the World champions Italy (4th in the world, 4th in UEFA). American citizens scored 3 of the 4 goals in this match but two of them were scored for Italy. No, no own goals occurred in this match. How can this be, you may ask? Well, Giuseppe Rossi was born in the United States and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, but when he was 13 year old, him and his father moved to Italy because he entered a football academy there. He kept his American citizenship but also became a citizen of Italy. This made him eligible to play for both teams, but while he always respected American soccer, he always dreamed of playing in (he plays for a club Italy) and for the county of his father's birth. Landon Donovan was the other American that scored. He scored in a penalty kick chance in the 41st minute. The Americans did not play that well in the first half hour or so of the match until a red card sent off Houston Dynamo midfielder Ricardo Clark, who was playing in his first major international match for the United States in his career, in the 33rd minute. This was pretty harsh red card, in my opinion, and the commentators on ESPN agreed. A yellow card would have been more than enough, but anyway, the Americans played the remainder of the match with 10 men but they played the rest of the 1st half very well, but their only goal was off Donovan's penalty kick in the 41st minute (this was Donovan's 40th career goal for the "stars and stripes". Italy scored all of their goals in the 2nd half. Final score was 3-1 for the Italians.

Group B Standings (as of Tuesday June 16)

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1. Italy 1 1 0 0 3 1 +2 3
2. Brazil 1 1 0 0 4 3 +1 3
3. Egypt 1 0 0 1 3 4 −1 0
4. United States 1 0 0 1 1 3 −2 0

At this time, Italy and Brazil are tied for 1st place with 3 points after one win a piece. Since Brazil snuck by Egypt with Kaka's penalty in the final minutes of the match, Italy winsthe tiebreaker because of goal difference. Unless the United States pulls off some kind of miracle against Brazil, they will most likely miss out on the knockout round. I think the United States has what it takes to defeat Egypt but they shouldn't take the African champions for granted.

Predictions for next match day (Wednesday June 17th)

Group A will go back into action tomorrow at 10 am and 2:30 pm eastern time in the United States. If you are watching the matches in the United States, ESPN2 will be showing both matches live.

The first match will be between Spain and Iraq. I don't expect Spain to have too much trouble with Iraq but Iraq will be a tougher opponent than New Zealand was. Iraq is not the same team that won the Asian Cup in 2007 and they were already eliminated from 2010 World Cup. However, Iraq is a stubborn team and I think the score will be tight. I predict a score of 1-0 for Spain.

The 2:30 pm match will see the hosts South Africa face New Zealand. South Africa should easily defeat the Oceanian champions unless South Africa messes up with a draw. I don't see South Africa losing to New Zealand though.

My predictions for the next Group B match day (Thursday) will come tomorrow when I wrap up tomorrow's matches.