France Send Anelka Home
France striker Nicolas Anelka has been sent home Saturday after refusing to apologise following his halftime bust-up during the Mexico match with France boss Raymond Domenech. Among encouragements for the coach to make love to his own derriere, Anelka also questioned the profession of Domenech's mother. There's no way back from that, but France look done anyway after the Mexico loss, with or without Anelka.
Anelka claims not to have uttered those exact insults, but France captain Patrice Evra seemed to confirm them at a Saturday presser. Evra was less angry at Anelka, but more at the unknown person inside the team who leaked Anelka's tirade to French sport daily L'Equipe. Evra claims there is a traitor in the dressing room. Super.
Holland 1, Japan 0
A brutal goalkeeping error by Japan's Eiji Kawashima gifted Holland a 1-0 victory. Wesley Sneijder drilled a ball straight at Kawashima, and rather than catch or punch, Kawashima turned the ball into the far corner of his own goal. Couple with the late game win by Denmark, the Dutch victory here ensures that Holland moves on to the knockout phase.
Sneijder's strike helped rescue a game where the Japanese set out only to defend from the opening whistle. The teams combined for only one shot on goal in the opening 45 minutes, a weak Japanese offering. Once the Dutch went ahead the Japanese had to come out of their shell, and each team had a couple chances in the final half hour.
Ghana 1, Australia 1
10-man Australia held Ghana to a 1-1 draw, but the Socceroos' hopes of reaching the knockouts are now hanging by a thread. Ghana's Black Stars moved atop Group D on four points, but will have to face the Germans in the group stage finale. Germany and Serbia are both on three points, and the Serbs face the Aussies who enter the last game on one point and -4 goals' difference.
There was plenty of action in a rather dirty first half that saw 16 fouls committed including 12 in the first 20 minutes. Ghanaian goalkeeper Richard Kingson clumsily fumbled a bouncing free kick and Brett Holman pounced to put the Socceroos up 1-0 on eight minutes. The referee gave Harry Kewell his marching orders for a handball off the line after 25 minutes, and Asamoah Gyan converted the ensuing penalty to draw Ghana level. As to the handball, the Aussies begged Italian referee Roberto Rosetti to consult the Jumbotron screen behind the goal, claiming the handball was inadvertent and the ball first hit Kewell's chest. The ref would have none of it.
The second half saw a few half-chances but littlerelse. The Australians will be without Craig Moore for the group stage finale after he picked up a second yellow card in two games.
Denmark 2, Cameroon 1
Denmark rallied from a goal down behind the play of Dennis Rommedahl to eliminate Cameroon from the World Cup. Denmark still needs a victory over Japan in the final group game to advance to the knockouts.
Denmark's atrocious defending in the opener against Holland carried over to this one as Christian Poulsen gifted Cameroon a goal with a bad clearance. Samuel Eto'o banged it in to put Cameroon up 1-0. Nicklas Bendtner equalized after a nice cross from Dennis Rommedahl on 33 minutes, but the rest of the half was a defensive horror show for the Danes. For reasons known only to the soccer gods, Cameroon could not capitalize on chance after chance. The Africans tried to respond with leaky defending of their own, but the teams went off to the locker room tied at the half.
Dennis Rommedahl put the winning goal in on 61 minutes. Rommedahl ran on to a ball at the top corner of the box, dragged the ball toward the middle, and slotted a wormburning shot home inside the post.
Danish defender Simon Kjaer came in for heavy criticism from this column after the first game. He had an up-and-down effort this time, but will miss Denmark's finale with Japan after accumulating a second yellow card in two matches. This might well be addition by subtraction.