Portugal#39;s Tiago, top, and Spain#39;s Sergio Busquets grapple for the ball during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Spain and Portugal at the Green Point stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. Spain leads Portugal 1-0 of their second-round World Cup match on David Villa#39;s fourth goal of the tournament. Villa was sent through down the left in the 63rd minute by a Xavi Hernandez heel pass, but his left-footed shot was saved by Portuguese goalkeeper Eduard
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For Germany, the damage may be only superficial. They will still confidently expect to clamber safely out of Group D but they have now been shown as fallible when the perception was previously that, when it comes to the World Cup, there is no side who are better prepared or more clear-eyed about their objectives. After swatting aside Australia with almost contemptuous ease in their opening match, Germany were beaten here by a 38th-minute goal from Milan Jovanovic, newly of Liverpool, and the failure of Lukas Podolski to score from the penalty spot after Nemanja Vidic’s handball on the hour. The result ends a run of five consecutive World Cup defeats for Serbia and, in the process, represents the biggest shock of the competition to date bar Switzerland’s victory over Spain. • Follow the Guardian’s World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our great Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on every player • The latest team-by-team news, features and more There is now considerable pressure on Germany going into their final match against Ghana when Joachim Löw’s side will be missing their most prolific striker Miroslav Klose, who was sent off in a match that will mark the name of Alberto Undiano into every black book of every student of refereeing demonology. The Spanish official brandished 11 red cards in 17 games in La Liga last season and his performance here marked him down as a referee other teams in this competition will want to avoid. In total, he showed his yellow card nine times and that actually seemed conservative given the rate at which he was reaching for his pocket in the first half. In that period there were seven, two of which went to Klose to leave Germany a man down for 64 minutes of an eccentric and entertaining match. The protests from Germany were long and vociferous but, in both cases, Klose was guilty of taking down a player when they had run away from him, even if there was no malice in either challenge. The first came after 12 minutes when Branislav Ivanovic burst out of defence. Klose, chasing back to make the tackle, clipped his opponent’s heels, at least with a degree of cynicism. After that, the striker was as culpable of naivety as well as poor tackling because it was soon obvious that Undiano was not going to show leniency to anyone. After 36 minutes, the Serbia captain, Dejan Stankovic, got a yard away from Klose, and as the Bayern Munich player extended one of his legs to try to prod the ball away he caught his opponent’s heel. The damage was exacerbated two minutes later when Milos Krasic’s cross was knocked down by Nikola Zigic for Jovanovic to turn in the game’s decisive moment. In the circumstances, an argument could be made that Germany acquitted themselves well, putting together a number of scoring chances after the interval. Unfortunately for them, this was a day when Podolski’s finishing was encapsulated by his weak effort from the penalty spot and a late onslaught came to nothing. World Cup 2010 Group D Germany Serbia World Cup 2010 Daniel Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Germany 0-1 Serbia | World Cup 2010 Group D match report
Tagged alberto-undiano, competition, dejan-stankovic, even-the-world, Game, ghana, investigative, Match, News, opponent, palestinian, serbia, tournament, yellow
• Final round of matches considered high-risk • Fifa says betting on throw-ins and bookings harder to track The final round of World Cup group stage matches are most at risk to match-fixing and will be closely scrutinised by to ensure they are totally clean, Fifa has said. Every match in the tournament is monitored by the Early Warning System that detects irregular betting patterns. But Marco Villiger, Fifa’s legal director, told a media briefing it keeps a particularly close eye on high-risk games which complete the first round at the finals. The top two advance from each of the eight first-round groups of four, and by the time teams play their final group match some have already clinched a second-round place while others know they have no chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. “These are the high-risk matches from a betting perspective,” said Villiger. “Match-fixing is the biggest threat facing football at the moment and there is a big risk in the last group matches, especially if a team is involved which has already qualified, or is already out. “We use our all our means to focus on those who have already qualified or are out. The question is, are these high-risk matches and the answer is yes, they are.” Fifa informed every national association, player, coach, delegation member and referee before the start of the tournament that they would watch out for irregular or illegal betting patterns. “I would not believe the World Cup could be a target for the betting mafia but in the meantime we have to be prepared that even the World Cup could be, not just lower-league matches.” A telephone hotline has been set up so that anyone involved in a match – players, coaches or referees – approached by a third party offering them money or a bribe for betting or match-fixing can inform Fifa in confidence immediately. “The threat is here,” said Villiger, “but we’re working closely with our colleagues at Uefa, with Interpol, with 400 bookmakers around the world, to do all we can to keep the game clean.” He added that live betting – for example when bets are placed on the first throw-in or yellow card at a match – was harder to track. “For this World Cup we are focusing much more on the investigative part of betting. We have international co-operation with Interpol and we have a number of informants who provide us with high-level information.” So far Fifa has not detected any signs of irregular betting at the finals but it is not resting on its laurels. “The World Cup, the Euros, the Champions League, other big tournaments are always vulnerable to the betting syndicates. We are binding all our forces together to fight this threat.” World Cup 2010 Fifa guardian.co.uk
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World Cup group matches to be scrutinised for evidence of match-fixing
Tagged countries, even-the-world, investigative, Match, match up, netherlands, palestinian, Spain, tournament
Can ITV recover from missing Steven Gerrard’s goal and Robbie Earle’s sacking? As ITV bosses anticipated the World Cup and its bonanza of bumper ratings and revenue, only in their worst nightmares would the events of the first few days have unfolded as they actually did. There was, briefly, a dream start: England’s opening game was minutes old when captain Steven Gerrard scored . Unfortunately 1.5 million viewers missed it because ITV1 HD had gone to an unscheduled ad break . On the upside, the 15 million watching on standard ITV1 didn’t miss it; on the downside the World Cup is the defining moment for the push into high-definition television. And then ITV found itself embroiled in a row about ambush marketing. Most people have little sympathy for Fifa’s obsession with brand rights and its outrage at the 36 women in orange dresses (hardly inappropriate for a Holland game) advertising Bavaria beer . But, it was ITV’s grave misfortune that they were using tickets obtained via Robbie Earle, an ITV pundit. Earle says he was “naive” – and I hope he was [Full disclosure: I am a Port Vale fan and Earle is a Vale legend ]. ITV had little option but to sack the former Jamaican international . All of which has been unfortunate for ITV when its coverage has been every bit as good as the BBC’s. Adrian Chiles has made a smooth transition to the ITV host slot and is, if truth be told, a much more interesting broadcaster than Gary Lineker. Personally I find the ITV panelists much more interesting than the same old faces on the BBC. In the post-match stakes it’s Colin Murray v James Corden : a battle of the annoying, but I’m voting for Corden on this one (even if it is only because he’s Shouting for England with Dizzee Rascal ). Meanwhile, ITV might even have the edge with commentators in this tournament. Although Clive Tyldesley is not to everyone’s taste he is a familiar voice and has plenty of experience. Meanwhile the BBC will be without John Motson for the first final in aeons. Motty should have been pensioned off years ago, what with his inability to work out what was actually happening on the pitch. Guy Mowbray will instead commentate on the final for the BBC , although I think Jonathan Pearce would have been a more interesting choice. Anyway, unfortunately for ITV, when it comes to the simulcasting of big games, the public choose the BBC without thinking, meaning that the channel will end the World Cup much as it started it: unappreciated. Sport TV ITV BBC World Cup 2010 Steve Busfield guardian.co.uk
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World Cup 2010: BBC v ITV
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The US Open 2010, or the 110th US Open, officially started today, June 18, 2010, at Pebble Beach in California. For tournament starter Ron Read, 65, it could be his last time to officially start a US Open. The tournament also marked the comeback of the controversial golfer Tiger Woods after facing a crisis. The following are the highlights and their respective airing schedule thru USOPEN.COM June 17, 2010 11:00 a.m. EDT: Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Y.E. Yang June 17, 2010 4:36 p.m. EDT: Lee Westwood, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods Other schedules will be published later. US Open Golf Tournament 2010 (USGA) Updates is a post from: Daily World Buzz Continue reading
How does this world cup compare to previous tournaments? Take a look at the data • Get the data Well, we’re at the end of the group stage of World Cup 2010 and what have we learnt so far? Opta (this is their Twitter feed ), which covers 30 different sports in around 70 countries, has agreed to let the Datablog publish the complete statistical analysisall the games so far in the tournament. Owen Gibson writes today that “At the end of Spain’s shock defeat by Switzerland, which may actually prove to be the moment at which the tournament caught fire, there had been a total of 1.56 goals per game.” Opta’s statistics, which measure the opening round of games against the same stage at the last three World Cups, show that the goal per game ratio compares poorly. In Germany in 2006, it was 2.44, in Japan-South Korea in 2002 it was 2.88 and at France 98 it was 2.31 … Opta’s figures show that the number of shots in each game is about 10% down on 2006. They also show that the goals-to-shots ratio, at 7.9%, is also well down. In the past three tournaments, it never went below 10.8% in the opening round of matches. Shooting accuracy – the ratio of shots to efforts on target – is 33% at this World Cup so far, compared with 40% at the same stage in Germany, 43% in Japan-South Korea and 41% in France. At the top of the page is how we visualised the data in today’s paper (click on it to get the full graphic) – you can download the data below too. What can you do with it? Download the data • DATA: download the full datasheet World government data • Search the world’s government data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group or mail us at datastore@guardian.co.uk • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter Data summary World Cup 2010 Fifa World Cup 2010 Group A World Cup 2010 Group B World Cup 2010 Group C World Cup 2010 Group D World Cup 2010 Group E England Simon Rogers guardian.co.uk
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Opta world cup 2010 data: every shot, every tackle and every goal
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• British sprinter withdraws for personal reasons • Pull out not linked to crash on Tuesday The British sprinter Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour of Switzerland. His exit comes two days after crashing with stage four victory in sight, although it is understood the decision is for personal reasons rather than injury. The HTC-Columbia rider, who suffered skin rash and bruising in the pile-up on Tuesday , did not start the 214km sixth stage of the tour in Meiringen today. Cavendish and Germany’s Heinrich Haussler collided close to the finish in Wettingen, causing a dozen riders to fall. The rest of the peloton staged a two-minute protest before yesterday’s fifth stage in response . Team Columbia officials said yesterday that Cavendish’s participation in the Tour de France next month was not under threat. Mark Cavendish Cycling guardian.co.uk
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Mark Cavendish pulls out of Tour of Switzerland
One of 2009’s quartet of unexpected major winners is looking to claim the trophy again, now his wife has helpfully sent it back Ask the person sitting at the next desk who won last year’s US Open and it’s a fair bet they won’t remember. Not without resorting to Google, at least. Even Lucas Glover seemed to be having trouble remembering he had won it leading up to the defence of his title at Pebble Beach today, admitting earlier this week that he had forgotten to return the trophy, leaving the PGA to politely ring his wife and ask her to send it back. Glover’s victory amid the mud of Bethpage, only his second ever on the tour and coming four years after his first, was the stuff of fairytales. Ranked 71 in the world at the time, the then 29-year-old had even double-bogeyed his first hole of the tournament. But “I didn’t slam a club,” he said at the time, “didn’t do anything. Walked over to the second tee and said: ‘Hey, it’s the US Open. It’s going to be a long week.'” So it proved. As the rain on Long Island, New York, continued and the tournament dragged on into day five, the weather was generating more publicity than Glover. He and the rookie Ricky Barnes were five shots clear going into the final round, but it was first Barnes who caught the eye as his game imploded; then came the charge of the world No2, Phil Mickelson. When Glover hung on at four under par to win by two shots from Barnes, Mickelson and David Duval, no one had really expected him to be there. One year on, at Pebble Beach in California this week, when Mickelson left the press room to be replaced by Glover, 83 out of 100 journalists followed Lefty out of the door. In fairness, 2009 was a somewhat under-the-radar year for major winners, with longshot champions also coming at the Masters (Angel Cabrera), the Open (Stewart Cink) and the US PGA (YE Yang). And Glover certainly does not seem to mind the lack of attention. “It’s been a little busy, but it’s been fun” Glover said when asked what winning a major had meant. “It’s hard to believe it’s been a year. Phone rang a little bit more. I signed a few more autographs, but nothing too crazy. And that’s probably the way I would want it.” After winning at Bethpage he missed the cut in the next major, the Open at Turnberry, but was an impressive fifth at the US PGA, then tied for 36th at this year’s Masters. Glover even won the off-season PGA Grand Slam of Golf, beating Cabrera, Cink and Yang in Bermuda. But in the run-up to the defence of his title he has managed only two top-10 finishes on tour and will be desperate to avoid entering the hall of infamy, alongside Mark Brooks and Steve Jones. Brooks and Jones won the PGA Championship and US Open, respectively, in 1996, but neither have won anything on tour since. There is, however, a caveat when writing off Glover. One of his top-10 finishes came when he finished third in last month’s Players Championship, two shots behind the winner, Tim Clark, but two ahead of England’s Lee Westwood and seven ahead of Mickelson. After hitting at Pebble Beach this week, Glover felt back to where he was a year ago. Perhaps the forgotten man is recalling his best form just in time to pen a sequel. US Open Golf guardian.co.uk
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Lucas Glover tries to recapture – and remember – US Open-winning form
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• Socceroos midfielder had feared a two-match suspension • Everton player will only miss Ghana game on Saturday Tim Cahill has been reprieved to continue in the World Cup after Fifa decided to show him leniency for the red card that had threatened to end his tournament. Cahill was sent off for a challenge on Bastian Schweinsteiger during Australia’s 4-0 defeat to Germany in Durban on Sunday. The Everton player broke down in tears after the match, believing it would mean a two-match ban that would rule him out of the rest of Australia’s group matches. Instead Fifa’s disciplinary panel have decided the offence merited only a one-game suspension, meaning Cahill will be unavailable for the game against Ghana on Saturday but can play against Serbia next Wednesday. Australia World Cup 2010 Group D World Cup 2010 Daniel Taylor guardian.co.uk
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World Cup 2010: Australia’s Tim Cahill gets one-match ban
The J.P. Morgan report “A Quantitative Guide to the 2010 World Cup ” predicts that according to the forecasting algorithm used, England is likely to win the 2010 World Cup edition. Although the initial World Cup Model Score shows Brazil as the strongest team taking part at the tournament, further correlations with the fixture table give England as the World Cup winners, followed on the 2nd place by Spain and on the 3rd place by Netherlands. Source: J.P. Morgan 2010 – A …
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