The opening day of 2010 FIFA World Cup saw the hosts South Africa take on Mexico and runners-up of 4 years ago, France start their campaign against Uruguay.
Since I have not seen this match, I'm left with precious little to write about it. However, I do believe that South Africa's goal scored by Tshabalala had quality written all over it and while Rafael Marquez' equalizer 11 minutes from time may have proved spoilsport for the hosts, they can feel mighty proud of their achievement. Though when it comes to pride, their head coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, will feel greater sense of accomplishment, since he becomes only second man in the history of the World Cup to have coached 5 different teams at the final (the first being Bora Milutinovic): his native Brazil (1994 and 2006), Kuwait (1982), United Arab Emirates (1990), Saudi Arabia (1998), and South Africa (2010).
France have been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late, what with rumors stoking an already-pessimistic view of Les Bleus prospects in this championship. Raymond Domenech must have felt enough was enough when Florent Malouda admitted to serious flaws in the French set-up and decided to start with Franck Ribery and Sidney Govou flanking Nicolas Anelka. Both Govou and Anelka fired blanks constantly, Yoann Gourcuff huffed and puffed but only ended up getting himself breathless and the over-enthusiastic Ribery contrived to run rings around himself. Henry and Malouda did make late appearances as substitutes, but Uruguay's safety-first defensive approach ensured that they would rather settle for a goalless draw than lose their opening match.
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