Match Review 2010 Fifa World Cup Uruguay 0 – France 0.
Please don’t take “highlights” at face value – there were very few, if any, to be honest. It was a very boring, very frustrating ninety minutes of football blueprinted by Oscar Tabarez and his stifling crew of Uruguayan defenders and defensive-minded midfielders. France spent the game dominating the ball going forward, but looking for space which simply wasn't there. Simply a great defensive performance, something which seems to come along quite often during World Cup games – 'tis the tournament of conservative tactics, after all.
The game had a bit more back-and-forth in the opening minutes, even if it typically involved meters upon meters of air underneath with an offside Luis Suarez on one end and a Nicolas Anelka on the other with Uruguay kits riding him like a show pony. It looked to be France’s game when Franck Ribery cut a ball in from the left to Sidney Govou within the first ten minutes, but France’s #10 could only squib it wide and miss what would be France’s best chance all game long (though Yoann Gourcuff went close with a free kick soon after).
Despite their numbers in the back, Uruguay had two fairly good chances, both coming off the boot of Diego Forlan, who was already thinking about taking his shirt off, thus putting the cart before the horse. And goal. The first chance was a lovely little 1-2 and simple cut inside, the type of thing which great players do ever so simply, and peppered it off the Jabulani-fearing hands of Hugo Lloris. His second came on the other side of the half – not much to report in between – when he found himself all alone with a silver platter ball 15 yards and dead center from net. That one, unfortunately, didn’t even make the goal frame.
There were a number of other half chances, but it was well and truly a story of Uruguay’s defense and France’s inability to formulate any ideas which would create the space the South Americans were closing down so effectively.
Like any good World Cup match, however, it wasn’t without drama. Nicolas Lodeiro, one of the brightest youngsters in the game and a star in Uruguay’s qualifying campaign, came on in the 63rd and saw his second yellow in the 81st for going into a tackle on Bakary Sagna with the accuracy of buckshot. A red ensued and the tears flowed as he walked off the pitch, due a letter from FIFA with a suspension attached.
Source : worldcupblog
