Prelude to South Africa 2010: the 2009 Confederation Cup

The Game Room
1

Beginning this Sunday, June 14th, we’ll get a preview of what next summer* in South Africa will be like. The Confederations Cupruns from June 14 - 28 in several of the locations that will be used for next year’s World Cup Finals. It’s not as inclusive or extensive as the WC, but several of the same teams will be involved, we’ll get to see the venues, and some semi-meaningful soccer over the next couple of weeks.

Here are the groups:

Group A
South Africa
Iraq
New Zealand
Spain

Group B
Brazil
Egypt
Italy
USA

Spain is the clear favorite in the first group; Brazil is probably the favorite in the second, although Italy might dispute that. Egypt are no slouch, although they continue to have a bad run of form in actual WC qualifying. USA are decent enough although probably only have a chance to go through if the other clubs don’t take them seriously enough.

Will anyone else be watching these? Not sure about the television schedule in Europe, but in the USA all of the American games will be shown live on ESPN or ESPN2. I imagine that the other matches will also be shown, either on ESPN, FSC, GolTV or the Spanish channels (Telefutura, Galavision). As I find out I’ll post info here.

2

All the games will be televised in Sweden - they’ve actually made quite of a hoopla about it in the sports programmes this last week.

As for the results. My money’s on Spain - easy.

I don’t have faith in Italy (which is sad, cause I like them) and even though Brazil is cruising in their WC-quals I don’t think they have the strength to upset Spain. All the others are also-rans.

ETA: The games are usually very entertaining, since there isn’t all that much pressure on the players compared to the WC (and EC). And who can forget Carlos’ banana-freekick in -97!!!

3

Bah. Spain will go back to being paper champions soon or later. I’ll take Italy.

4

Ok, just to be different, I’ll take Brazil. This is a southern hemisphere match and Brazil will get the best crowd support of any team not called South Africa.

Here is the ESPN match schedule:

GROUP STAGE:

Sunday, June 14th
South Africa vs Iraq (Johannesburg) Group A, 10am, ESPN2/360.com (Live)
New Zealand vs Spain (Rustenburg) Group A, 2:30pm, ESPN2/360.com (Live)

Monday, June 15th
Brazil vs Egypt (Bloemfontein), Group B, 10am, ESPN2/360.com (Live)
USA vs Italy (Pretoria) Group B, 2:30pm, ESPN/360.com (Live)

Wednesday, June 17th
Spain vs Iraq (Bloemfontein) Group A, 10am, ESPN2/360.com (Live)
South Africa vs New Zealand (Rustenburg) Group A, 2:30pm, ESPN2/360.com (Live)

Thursday, June 18th
USA vs Brazil (Pretoria), Group B, 10am, ESPN2/360.com (Live)
Egypt vs Italy (Johannesburg) Group B, 2:30pm, ESPN2/360.com (Live)

Saturday, June 20th
Iraq vs New Zealand (Johannesburg) Group A, 2:30pm kickoff BUT will be shown delayed - June 21st, 1am, ESPN2/360.com
Spain vs South Africa (Bloemfontein) Group A, 2:30pm, ESPN2/360.com (Live)

Sunday, June 21st
Egypt vs USA (Rustenburg) Group A, 2:30pm, ESPN2/360.com (Live)
Italy vs Brazil (Pretoria) Group A, 2:30pm, ESPN/360.com (Live)

SEMIFINALS

Wednesday, June 24th
1st Group A vs 2nd Group B (Bloemfontein), 2:30pm, ESPN/360.com (Live)

Thursday, June 25th
1st Group B vs 2nd Group A (Johannesburg), 2:30pm, ESPN/360.com (Live)

THIRD PLACE PLAYOFF

Sunday, June 28th
(Rustenburg), 9am, ESPN2/360.com (Live)

FINAL

Sunday, June 28th
(Johannesburg) 2:30pm, ESPN2/360.com (Live)

5

GROUP STAGE:

Sunday, June 14th
South Africa vs. Iraq (Johannesburg) Group A, 3pm, BBC Red Button (Live)
New Zealand vs Spain (Rustenburg) Group A, 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

Monday, June 15th
Brazil vs Egypt (Bloemfontein), Group B, 3pm, BBC Red Button (Live)
USA vs Italy (Pretoria) Group B, 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

Wednesday, June 17th
Spain vs Iraq (Bloemfontein) Group A, 3pm, BBC Red Button (Live)
South Africa vs New Zealand (Rustenburg) Group A, 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

Thursday, June 18th
USA vs Brazil (Pretoria), Group B, 3pm, BBC Red Button (Live)
Egypt vs Italy (Johannesburg) Group B, 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

Saturday, June 20th
Iraq vs New Zealand (Johannesburg) Group A, 7:30pm, BBC Red Button (Live)
Spain vs South Africa (Bloemfontein) Group A, 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

Sunday, June 21st
Egypt vs USA (Rustenburg) Group A, 7:30pm, BBC Red Button (Live)
Italy vs Brazil (Pretoria) Group A, 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

SEMIFINALS

Wednesday, June 24th
1st Group A vs 2nd Group B (Bloemfontein), 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

Thursday, June 25th
1st Group B vs 2nd Group A (Johannesburg), 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

THIRD PLACE PLAYOFF

Sunday, June 28th
(Rustenburg), 2pm, BBC Red Button (Live)

FINAL

Sunday, June 28th
(Johannesburg) 7:30pm, BBC Three (Live)

6

or me when I’m back in Germany

Confed Cup 2009 LIVE im DSF:

Sonntag, 14. Juni, 15.50 Uhr
Südafrika - Irak

Sonntag, 14. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
Neuseeland - Spanien

Montag, 15. Juni, 15.50 Uhr
Brasilien - Ägypten

Montag, 15. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
USA - Italien

Mittwoch, 17. Juni, 15.50 Uhr
Spanien - Irak

Mittwoch, 17. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
Südafrika - Neuseeland

Donnerst., 18. Juni, 15.50 Uhr
USA - Brasilien

Donnerst., 18. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
Ägypten - Italien

Samstag, 20. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
Irak - Neuseeland oder Spa-
nien - Südafrika

Sonntag, 21. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
Italien - Brasilien

Mittwoch, 24. Juni, 20.20 Uhr

  1. Halbfinale

Donnerst., 25. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
2. Halbfinale

Sonntag, 28. Juni, 14.50 Uhr
Spiel um Platz drei

Sonntag, 28. Juni, 20.20 Uhr
Finale

7

I’m looking forward to this, although I’m pretty sure the US is going to be embarrased if they demonstrate anything like their recent form.

8

Amazing how one bad loss overshadows four quality matches played by the US team during this final round of qualifying.

-Piker

9

A 2-1 come from behind win at home against Honduras does not a quality match make.

10

+1

11

We still have a lot of writing left to do. And the players to do it with.

12

Enjoy that semi-final appearance. :smiley: You’ll be seeing a lot of them again.

13

You’re thinking of England.

14

Iraq and South Africa played to a 0:0 draw. I watched most of the first half and saw little to recommend either side.

15

The second half wasn’t much better. Did see a relatively unique occurrence, though. With about 5 minutes left in the game, South Africa had a clear chance on goal, the Iraqi keeper having flailed at and missed a cross. But the kick into the goal was blocked by another South African player with his back more or less to the ball, and the ball ended up staying out of the goal, where it was swept away by an alert Iraqi defender. Sort of the complete opposite of an “own goal”, an “own save.” :stuck_out_tongue:

Pitch was not very good, which doesn’t bode well for next year. :frowning:

16

I wouldn’t exactly call the Honduras match quality. They got the result, but their form in that match would have gotten them beat by a better team.

17

In an stunning first half, the Paper Tigers, current European Champions and record-setting FIFA’s number one ranked team, Spain, has managed to barely survive the Kiwi onslaught. The mediocre Spaniards, held only by barest of threads and managed to keep the score somewhat respectable – aided as they were by obviously biased officiating and a number of unlucky breaks on the All White’s potent attack.

Obviously, the latter are looking to settle the score of their last and only meeting – a measly 13-0 defeat to the Paper Tigers in the U-16 World Championships of ten years ago. Which, incidentally, Spain went on to win…

Off to watch more of the same.

18

Are we going to have to listen to those annoying as horns during the World Cup? Made me want to have a bowel movement or something.

19

That’s what I was thinking. I hope to be in South Africa next summer, but those horns will drive me mad.

20

Make it 13 victories in a row and 33 straight undefeated matches for The Red Fury – three years since our last defeat, two matches away from tying Brazil’s all-time record of 35 w/out a loss.

Not bad if I may say so myself.

As to the match itself, not much to talk about, other than it being a light training session for the European Champs.

That said, my picks for the game:

MOM for Spain: Iker Casillas w/out a doubt. Had it no been for him, The All Whites could have pulled out a stunner.

MOM for New Zealand: The nearside linesman. Played the off-side trap to perfection for the Kiwis. Without his magnificent field vision, La Roja could have easily tucked-away three or four more.

Best all around performance: Easily, The Crowd. Sparse as it was, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more enthusiastic bunch my whole life. One sided as the match was it was really heartwarming to see just how joyful they all were. I can only imagine what it will be like for the WC if they can fill their stadiums. That alone is worth watching – and Og willing, I shall…along with my best pal and Spain’s lucky charm, my then to be 20 year old son.

Olé España! Y con un par!