Monday 16th August

Spain  2 - 0  Colombia

Group A

Half time: 2 - 0

A double from Antonio Martin sealed a 2-0 win for Spain and kept their 100% win record alive. Spain obviously on a high from beating England in the first game of the competition looked lively early on and enjoyed the majority of possession and forced Colombia onto the back foot.

This early pressure told and just ten minutes into the game Martin managed to bundle the ball home following a goal mouth scramble.

It took until midway through the half before Colombia managed to get their first meaningful attack with Juan Parra, who looked a threat in Colombia’s opening game with Japan, making the most of a half chance before firing wide of Gonzalez’s in the Spanish goal.

Colombia looked to be getting more and more into the game and wee starting to play much better football. However, with just seconds remaining Martin picked the ball up from a short corner before firing the ball straight into the roof of the net to send Spain in 2-0 up at half-time.

The half time team talk from the Colombian coach seemed to do the trick as his side came out with all guns blazing. Juan Parra was a force to be reckoned with shots flying in from all angles, unfortunately for him Gonzalez was stopping everything thrown at him.

With the Colombians doing most of the attacking it looked like Spain were comfortable with sitting back, absorbing the pressure and breaking on the counter. The game turned quite scrappy with this style of play and the brilliant attacking play of the first half was stifled by some strong defending.

Spain managed to hold on until the final whistle and the victory kept them at the top of the table and looking very good to progress from the group stages.

Spain

Alvaro Gonzalez (GK), Jose Luis Giera, Carmelo Garrido, Adolfo Acosta, Antonio Martin, Alfredo Cuadrado, Pedro Villa, Vicente Aguilar, Marcelo Rosado, Raul Diaz (GK)

Antonio Martin (2)

Colombia

William Aristizabal (GK), Freddy Lopez, Sebastian Sarate, Deivy Mendoza, Carlos Ortiz, Jhon Hernandez, Sergio Beserra, Juan Parra, Jadir Bello, Miguel Munoz (GK)

Match Officials: Iguchi Kenji, Germinal Lubrano, James Adcock, Wellington Souza

Attendance: 226

France  0 - 1  Brazil

Group B

Half time: 0 - 1

With both sides looking to maintain their 100% winning record it was always going to be a tight game, and for the main part that’s how it turned out. Brazil came out of the starting blocks quicker than France and star striker, Ricardo Alves had three or four good chances in the opening ten minutes but Grangier, between the French goal, kept everything out.

Brazil, starting with their two most exciting players, Alves and Jeferson Goncalves, looked ever more likely to break down the resilient French backline. With ten minutes of the half to go Goncalves broke free of his shackles, taking on two opponents before toe-poking the ball underneath the keeper.

Going a goal behind seemed to give the French the impetuous they needed to produce some of the football that they are capable of. Skipper, Frederic Villeroux, was at the heart of everything good about France and the first decent chance that they had fell to him but he fired just wide.

The game turned into a midfield battle with neither side really having a decent sight at goal and it wasn’t until the last kick of the game, a Goncalves shot, that the crowd saw any more real attacking action.

The second half was played out in a gritty manner with both sides clocking up the fouls and injuries. There were a few brighter points when Alves and Goncalves combining in neat movements before firing wide on a couple of occasions. Villeroux again proved, in flashes, to be an inspiration to his side and on one occasion struck the foot of the post with the keeper well beaten.

With the final whistle approaching Villeroux had a chance to snatch a dramatic late equaliser but his shot sailed wide and the game finished 1-0 to Brazil

France

Jonathan Grangier (GK), Yvan Kempengi, Martin Baron, Abderahim Maya, David Labarre, Arnaud Ayax, Frederic Villeroux, Charaf Ait Taleb, Frederic Jannas (GK)

Brazil

Fabio Vasconcelos (GK), Scharles Santos, Damiao Souza, Marcos Felipe, Jeferson Goncalves, Sandro Soares, Joao Silva, Ricardo Alves, Severino Silva, Antonio Carvalho (GK)

Jeferson Goncalves

Match Officials: Mariano Travaglino, Craig Grundy, Paul Leversuch, David Bryant

Attendance: 308

Argentina  3 - 0  Greece

Group B

Half time: 1 - 0

This was the first appearance in the tournament for Greece against reigning World Champions Argentina. Argentina were looking to avenge their opening game defeat to France by beating the Greek underdogs. They managed to do so 3-0, despite missing seven penalties.

Both sides came out in a positive manner but it soon became apparent that it was a case of how long Greece could hold out. In the opening ten minutes Argentina had five or six good chances to take the lead but Ampatzis held firm in the Greek goal.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 12th minute when Silvio Velo burst down the middle and hit a shot that Ampatzis found to hot to handle, despite getting a strong hand to the ball.

From then on Greece decided to make it a physical contest and soon clocked up the allotted three fouls. They didn’t stop there, however, and ran up four more fouls giving the Argentineans a penalty each time, all of which they missed.

The Greek mentality didn’t seem to change in the second half and they looked content distributing the rhythm of the Argentineans. Both Dimos Zacharos and Efstratios Chatziapostolidis were booked and on top of that Captain, Charalampos Tokatlidis, was excluded from the rest of the game for accumulating five personal fouls.

Argentina kept going in the hunt for more goals and they came in the shape of Silvio Velo who banged in two more to complete his hat-trick. His first came from a good run and shot which went in off the post and his third goal was a brilliant strike which he lifted over the keeper and into the roof of the net.

Despite being awarded three more penalties Argentina were unable to convert any more chances and the score at full time ended 3-0.

Argentina

Dario Lencina (GK), Angel Deldo, Eduardo Diaz, Silvio Velo, Diego Cerega, Ivan Figueroa, Lucas Rodriguez, Oscar Asiar, Gustavo Maidana, Erensto Juani (GK)

Silvio Velo (3)

Lucas Rodriguez

Greece

Georgios Ampatzis (GK), Stefanos Efremidis, Charalampos Tokatlidis, Georgios Tokatlidis, Theodoros Siotas, Dimos Zacharos, Dimitrios Feimoglou, Efstratios Chatziapostolidis, Panagiotis Stefanidis (GK)

Theodoros Siotas, Dimos Zacharos, Efstratios Chatziapostolidis

Match Officials: Niels Haupt, David Bryant, Iguchi Kenji, Paul Leversuch, Kevin Shingler

Attendance: 408

England  2 - 1  South Korea

Group A

Half time: 0 - 0

Whilst England were looking to avoid a second straight defeat in the competition their opponents South Korea, were looking to get the campaign underway with a winning start.

The first half was a very tentative affair with neither side looking to have the creativity to break down their opponents.

With chances few and far between it seemed that both teams were playing just not to lose the game.

However, there were one or two good moments in the match involving both teams number 7’s, England Captain David Clarke and South Korea’s Yun Cheol Shin, who had a half chance each, both firing wide of the posts.

With England boss, Tony Larkin’s half time team talk ringing in their ears England came out a much improved side in the second half.

Clarke picked up the ball and skipped past a couple of tackles before laying the ball into the path of Gribbin who lashed home into the top right hand corner of the net.

The goal opened up the play and both teams started to play better and more attractive football but England still held the upper hand. In an attempt to stop England running riot Korea racked up the foul count and midway through the half racked up their foul count.

A minute later England were awarded a penalty for a fourth foul, but Gribbin fired wide. A fifth personal foul by Kyung Ho Kim saw him excluded from the pitch and England awarded another penalty but again Gribbin fired wide.

England were made to rue the opportunity to extend the lead when Yun Cheol Shin latched onto a through ball and slotted in under the diving James.

However, it wasn’t long before another penalty was awarded to England and this time skipper Clarke stepped up and calmly slotted home.

Despite another penalty miss late on, England held on to their 2-1 lead until the full time whistle, giving them a great chance of progressing from the group.

England

Dan James (GK), Simon Hill, Will Norman, Keryn Seal, Robin Williams, Dan English, David Clarke, Jonathan Heenan, Jonathan Gribbin, Lewis Skyers (GK)

Jonathan Gribbin, David Clarke

South Korea

Sang Won Kim (GK), Yeong Jun Jang, Yun Cheol Shin, Seung Woo Park, Meong Su Park, Yong Kyun Oh, Ji Young Ha, Chang Hyun Kwak, Kyung Ho Kim, Hyun Chul Shin (GK)

Yun Cheol Shin

Match Officials: Francois Carcouet, Wellington Souza, Iguchi Kenji, James Adcock

Attendance: 630