After the surprising 1-1 tie between South Africa & Mexico, we wondered if this game will follow suit and Group A would even out at 1 point each.
(We also wondered when someone would step up and ban the use of the ridiculously distracting vuvuzelas in the game…).
The meeting of two former World cup Champions did end with another tie with neither being able to reach a goal. Although neither has opened well in recent world cups, this game proved to be more a snoozer than past openings with the two countries..
What we expect?
The two teams have met five times in the past with Uruguay leading the series 2-1-2. Of the five times, only two were World Cup games with Uruguay beating France 2-1 in 1966 and both sides tieing 0-0 in 2002. In the onset, things didn’t look good for Uruguay who has lost all of its last 12 World Cup matches against a European counterpart, but since this would be the first game without France’s Zinedine Zidane, we wondered whether Yoann Gourcuff would be able to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps.
First Half.. Snoozer.
The first half of the game started slow with Ribery making a run down the left and hitting a cross to Govou who missed from inside the 6 yard box at the seventh minute of the game. At the 16th minute Forlan takes a chance with a kick to goal that’s blocked by Lloris. A few minutes later, Ribery wins a free-kick that he hands over to Gourcuff who just can’t seem to get it passed Muslera. Gourcouff gets another chance 15 minutes later but again gets stopped by the Uruguay goalie.
Second Half..
Tensions ran high as the second half starts off with French midfield, Jeremy Toulalan receiving a yellow card. While it seemed that both teams were quite even throughout the second half the tables were turned when Uruguay’s Nicolas Lodeiro was hit with two yellow cards and taken out of the game. But even with 10 men for 9 minutes of the game plus the three minutes of injury time – France could not for the life of them get a goal in there.
What’s Next?
With everyone in Group A tied at 1 point – the second matches will be a nail biter.
Uruguay takes on South Africa on June 16, 2:15 ET while we can see France go head to head with Mexico June 17 at 2:15 ET.
