One man deserves a very special mention: Iran's Ali Daei


This will probably be his last World CUp, and it's therefore especially nice that it's in Germany, where he spent happy times playing for both Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin.



Still an international striker at the age of 37, he has a phenomenal goal scoring record for his country; 109 goals in 147 games. Bear in mind that 1 goal every 2 games is considered very good indeed, and his record speaks for itself!

Arguably Daei's finest hour in an Iran shirt came against Korea Republic in the 1996 AFC Asian Cup, a match he has described as “the most unforgettable of my life”. With Iran trailing 2-1 early in the second half, Daei took the game by the scruff of the neck, setting up Khodadad Aziz for the equaliser and then striking four goals to secure a remarkable 6-2 victory.

He was supposed to be in my fantasy team, but I forgot. Shame, he's a great player.

i missed out on 10 pts by failing to bring in IBRAHIMOVIC Zlatan off the bench yesterday & 11 pts for not putting in LAMPARD Frank.

woo-hoo! I'm an idiot!

I was about to put in Ibrahimovic early yesterday morning & then time got away from me & the game started.

I hope Mexico hands Iran their ass.

Well, NED is up one early...
I think I have to check out the Men's Championship Final, Federer vs. Nadal, over in Roland-Garros Stadium...the re-match from last year...Federer will have his revenge today against that upstart long-pants wearer son of a guy that owns a fucking island! Nadal is great on clay though, there's no doubt about that.

Yep, Roger is up 3-0 in the first set. C'mon...money...

Long rallies not to be missed over on NBC, people...you can always watch soccer during the French Open commercials...Federer, who is probably the world's greatest athlete, made a stand to go up 4-0 now in the first set & has serve. 5-0 now & Federer is just intentionally manipulating Nadal's hopes allowing him in the last two games to come close with multiple deuces. He'll probably even let him have a couple before he crushes him in this first set.

Oh shit..Nadal has won 4 straight & is up 3-0 in the second. In the first game of the second, he was putting such forceful spin on the ball that Federer was having problems & still is as a result of the discombobulation. Nadal is about already tired out though even though he is much younger. I'm still thinking Federer will come back to win this second set. You guys are missing some killer volleys.

Federer 6, Nadal 1
I couldn't believe my eyes when I switched during Netherlands-Serbia&Montegro's half time.
I expected that game to take longer.
I've kept pestering friends with Federer since I saw a semi-final against Hewitt where he concluded a tie break 7-0. He won the final against Agassi (a tie-break there too, but only 7-1).
This man has elegance.
Won't comment about the football game for the moment.

the score is all tied up now...Federer won the first set 6-1 & Nadal won the second set 6-1. Did you see that Vaughniston was there, Bertrand? haha

I managed to still catch 2 shots on goal from NED & SMT just made a close miss from long...& a close miss from short just now minutes later. Ned just took a free kick & missed just barely. STM missed a header from a cross & NED keeps giving up the corners as STM is struggling to stay in it.

Game over...I think the next soccer game is on at 11:30, so that gives you thirty minutes to see this amazing tennis match. Nadal just broke Federer's serve and is up 3-2 in the third.

i fucking forgot to do my team! gah!

you can still do a team, you just won't get the points from the matches already played

yeah i know, im sick and lazy to to it now, maybe later!

Fifteen minutes 'till group D kicks off (5pm my time) - I've got high hopes that this group will provide plenty of entertainment! I reckon likely scores are Mexico 2 Iran 1 (edit: it was 3-1, but it was 2-1 for a while!), and Portugal 3 Angola 1. But I'll be way out with those probably. Who can tell?

Borgetti starts for Mexico - I'm hoping for some serious points from this man, so expect him to have a bad tournament!

Netherlands played well - they were in control for all bar a late ten minute period, really. The 1 -0 scoreline was a little more comfortable than it looked - Robben was genius, and van Persie played well too. That late van Persie free kick that nearly went in was nice, although he took an absolute age over it - I'm surprised he wasn't booked for timewasting. Good job though, as I think he's my captain today!

Nadal, who has not lost his serve since the 4th game of the first set, is now on serve for the match in the 4th set...yikes!

whew! Federer is still in it. This is nuts.

Federer loses in a tie-break; he has so much trouble against Nadal on clay who has now won 60 straight on clay.
Nadal has done it two years in a row at the French against the best tennis player in the world.

Even though he speaks English, Federer gave his concession speech in French & said that they would meet yet again next year. Nadal remarked that it was an honor to win over Federer again who he (rightfully so) lauded as the best player in tennis history, on all surfaces.
In the less formal courtside interview following, Nadal called Federer one of the best in history haha. Bud Cort (?) remarked that Rafael's spin was "inhuman".

Bravo to the Bravo goal for Mexico from the throw-in; that was wild.
I see on the replay that Iran bounced back.
Another for Bravo!
more more moregoals more destroy destroy them!

Mexico 3 Iran 1. Relief that Mexico won, although to be honest they were being matched by Iran until about 60 minutes, when the latter seemed to decide they were happy with the score. Always a dangerous tactic...

BRavo was man of the match with 2 goals and a fine committed performance. Emotional scenes at the end centered around the Mexican goalkeeper, whose father died a few days ago.

oh man this is too much

first i forget to put in Ibrahimovic & Lampard & lose out on 21 pts yesterday
then Federer loses the rematch
now Akwa has missed 2 overhead kicks for goals. & before I can even finish posting, he has missed yet another attempt, this one more conventional.

Whose team is Grand Popo?

i thought it was gonna end up about 6-0 after the first 10 minutes, but angola are defending well. Not really making too many opportunities for shots but doing alright

They really pulled themselves together after about 5 minutes, didn't they?

Fairly rubust defence.

That was a nice play by Angola (at about 88:30). They're looking pretty good, from my untrained perspective.

Better than many expected, certainly. But you have to say that the African teams that are here have qualified ahead of Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa - all traditionally 'bigger' African teams - so they obviously have some quality.

It's o o o's

yes, it's me.

figo really seemed in form tonight... in contrast, zidane, who has the same age, doesn't seem to be able to run like that these days...

i'm eager to see Ghana play tomorrow... although of course it should be difficult against Italy.

Italy are about to shine again, I think - this squad has the potential to do big things.

Tomorrow's USA vs Czech Republic game is interesting; the Czechs were very hot for a while, but that generation has aged a bit, and the new players aren't as good as those who reached the European Championship finals. The US have a chance to get off the ground with a win - if they do that, then they should be capable of beating Ghana.

Second place in the group would mean a match against Brasil, most likely.

yeah, nedved's still good but he's not as good as he used to be. Baros or Rosiscky is probably the main threat these days

I heard once that nedved has 3 kneecaps (or 3 bits of kneecap) in one of his knees

Robben's goal was nice, but I wasn't overly impressed with either side. Serbia & Montenegro looked very frustrated by that orange wall. It seems as though this group is a bit of a no brainer now.

Mexico - Iran had its moments, eh? Pretty impressive for el tricolor. As hard as that is to say...

Other than appearing extremely nervous in the first five minutes of the game, I'd say Angola still stands a chance a second place in this group.

USA tomorrow!!

I think the Netherlands were impressive in so much as they never looked i any danger of conceding a goal, but you're right.

Could be lots of goals in todays games, I suspect (cue 0-0 draws).

Australia vs Japan started 18 minutes ago.

I was just thinking - this is a very imprtant game for Australia. Apart from the obvious point that they want to have points before playing Brasil, it has to be said that although Japan are Asia's premier side, they tend to fail fairly miserably when they encounter non-Asian opposition. So if Australia have credentials, it could be argued that this is a great chance to show some of them and claim three points.

JPN floats one over everybody in the AUS box...I was able to catch the AUS goal around 84 minutes too...

Our Australian-friendly commentators are claiming that Japan's goal was produced by a foul on the Australian keeper (ie by a Japanese player barging into him), but the Japanese lad was very deliberately pushed by an Australian defender - it was the push that caused the collision. So the goal stands...

Australia 3 - 1 Japan

Australia have laid down a challenge to the other teams in this group; it's not so long ago that players like Davor Sukur would have made Croatia a guarantee for qualification, but when they play Australia, they are going to face a serious threat and possible first-round elimination.

Japan had many chances but failed to finish the game off. They were also denied what may prove to be the clearest penalty of the tournament. Australia had the confidence to belieev that they could turn things around, and so it proved.

Way to go Socceroos!

Fantastic finish!

I think Koller may have just ended Keller's career.

i think that on paper the current dutch squad has their least impressive defense ever, but nevertheless they didn't even look that bad. although serbia and montenegro started way too defensively and paid the price for it when they were unable to change their playing style in the second half. after the game their players even openly criticised petkovic for his tactics. everything's still possible in group c though.

guus' luck from 4 years ago with south korea seems to be continuing with australia. cahill should have been sent off and japan given a penalty. other than that a good result for australia.

group d games today will be interesting; czechs leading 1-0 vs usa at the moment. but i'm mostly curious about italy vs ghana.

usa v czech republic. all the american boardies watching as you get yr asses a wooped?

hmmm, usa almost scored the equaliser just a minute ago... but hitting the post.

Seems like we just can't pass. We have the ball most of the time but can't do anything with it.

HT. Czech 2 - 0 USA

Thye US haven't played badly so far, and they have had plenty of possession, haven't they? If they apply that possesson they can create real pressure, but it'll be very hard to get back into the game fully.

The Czechs have been so clinically - good passing, timing their runs just right. The Rosicky goal was a bit special. I'm hoping to see the US come back a bit next half.

I have to add that in the first half, refereeing decisions were going the way of the Czechs.

Ouch.

Indeed.

Nedved and Rosicky were the key - everything that the Czechs did went through one or both of them. Rosicky will do well in the Premiership next season (he's just signed for Arsenal, I think).

The US had possession and showed some ability, but failed to get the ball around the Czech back four. A shame. But the Czechs were on form, although Koller may miss the rest of the tournament.

Italy vs Ghana tonight. On paper, a fairly straightforward Italian victory, but the Ghanaians will play a more physical game than the Italian league players are used to, so there may be a chance for Ghana to get an early start whilst the Italians adjust. It'll be tough, but it still shouldn't be too much of a problem though.

I'm proud to say that I didn't believe the us hype...Reyna looked like he should be playing for some other team...that other guy

CZE lookin' sharp as the #2 seed...Brazil better watch out for them & ARG

Rosicky = sick

too bad about Koller; hopefully he can recover

too bad i had Nedved in as the team captain...i think he may have gotten an assist for that last goal though...
there was one point where Neved got three penalties in a matter of minutes...ouch.

So far, the African teams have been playing impressive defense in many ways, so it might not be such a cakewalk for ITA versus GHA.

Carlos Edwards for Trinadad & Tobago (the tourney's lowest ranked-team) played with amazing defense against the tenacious Freddie Ljungburg the other day. Cool to see Hislop fend off so many strikes too.

whjat a goal for the italians! Up until now ghana were doing well. Gilardino is my captain today and the commentator just said he got the last touch, hope so!

Didn't get to see the games earlier, but I had eddie Johnson off the bench and up front for today and apparently he was the best for usa although he didnt score

HT, Italy 1 - 0 Ghana.

Luca Toni is my captain for the day (and Buffon my keeper), so I'm hoping he'll score one or two in the second half.

Ghana are playing really well - if only Michael Essien and Asamoah Gyan has taken their opportunites!

balls, both my italians are substitued

At least they won't be yellow carded!

Ghana are lucky that Italy haven't capitalised further - there have been gaps in the Ghanaian defence this half, as they try to equalise.