Today I'm going back 16 years to 2006 and a match at the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany. As usual, we had bought tickets "blind" before we knew who had qualified let alone before the draw was made. It added greatly to our interest in the draw itself and we ended up with tickets to four matches: two involving Saudi Arabia (oh well) and one involving Brazil plus this featured game today. Ivory Coast (or Cote d'Ivoire if you prefer the correct official name) against an International side that no longer exists: Serbia & Montenegro now compete separately but, for a time, they joined forces as they did at this World Cup.
As seems to be the case at most tournaments these days, the Official programme covered the entire tournament rather than individual matches and the version shown is, of course, the German language edition. In addition to the English language edition there was another that covered the knockout phase and an individual programme for the World Cup Final itself. I have the lot!
You may remember that in the run up to the selection of Germany to hold the 2006 World Cup tournament we were beseeched to back England's own bid. The crucial vote was held in Zurich, Switzerland in July 2000 with four candidates to choose from. South Africa were most peoples favourites to win but Germany secured the nomination by a single vote in the third round of voting (England and Morocco had been eliminated in the earlier rounds). Decisively, the Oceania delegate, who had been instructed to back South Africa once England had been eliminated, failed to do so and abstained citing "intolerable pressure". Had he voted in favour of South Africa then the vote would have been tied and FIFA President Sepp Blatter would have had the casting vote. He was known to favour sending the World Cup to Africa. Following Germany's success, a number of bribery and corruption allegations surrounding the German bid surfaced. There can be little doubt that a number of these allegations were true but, in the intervening years, the actions of the German bidding team look trivial compared to the shenanigans that have occurred since. The hosting of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is an absolute joke in my opinion and the stench of corruption has increasingly surrounded FIFA ever since 2000. Poor old Sepp Blatter looks like he will have to explain himself alongside his co-collaborator Michel Platini and I, for one, can't wait to see the old crook jailed but it looks like proceedings will drag on until Blatter is too old to stand trial.
Serbia & Montenegro no longer exists as a nation. Until 2003 Serbia and Montenegro were part of the former Yugoslavia. In February 2003, when Yugoslavia was broken up, a new state of Serbia & Montenegro was formed but that too disintegrated in June 2006 following Montenegro's decision to become an independent state. Serbia and Montenegro have operated as separate national sides since the 2006 World Cup.
Pride was all that was at stake in the featured match which ended up being a "dead rubber" as both sides had lost their opening two games and were already eliminated before the match was played. Ivory Coast had lost to Argentina and Holland 2-1 in both cases whilst Serbia & Montenegro lost their opener 1-0 against Holland before being hammered 6-0 by Argentina in their second game. Today's featured game was a cracker nevertheless. First blood went to Serbia in the 10th minute with a goal scored by Red Star Belgrade striker Nikola Zigic. Zigic would go on to join Birmingham City in 2010 but was far from prolific there scoring just 36 goals in 159 appearances for the Blues. Sasa Ilic made it 2-0 in the 20th minute following some desperate defending and the game looked to be getting away from the Ivory Coast until they secured a foothold in the 37th minute from the penalty spot following a ridiculous Serbian hand ball. Dindane, the scorer, displayed nerves of steel in having to retake his spot kick following initial encroachment but scored with the same placement both times. The weather gods were obviously displeased as the match played out against a backdrop of torrential rain and thunder and lightning.
In the second half, Dindane was on the score sheet again with a cute header to make the score 2-2 in the 67th minute. Then, with just four minutes remaining, the same Serbian player who handled the ball for a penalty in the first half did it again! This time however there was to be no penalty for Dindane and indeed no hattrick as substitute Bonaventure Kalou took care of business to win the game for (great nickname alert) the Elephants by 3-2. The result was enough to leave Serbia & Montenegro in the Group's bottom position with no points from their three games whilst Ivory Coast came a gallant third but were nevertheless eliminated.
CRB Match No. 1505
Comments
Post a Comment