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Your support makes all the difference.Player of the day Patrick Mboma (Cameroon)
He became a hero when scoring the goal that beat Nigeria to win the African Nations' Cup two years ago and, if he does the same against the Germans, his reputation will be complete.
Ten years older than his strike partner, Samuel Eto'o, Mboma's career has flourished internationally, while stalling at club level. He scored 11 times as the Indomitable Lions retained their African title and qualified for the World Cup, but Parma of Italy have indicated they no longer want him, while Mboma still does not know whether he has a future at Sunderland, whom he joined on loan in February.
Curiously, his only period of sustained success came in Japan for Gamba Osaka, for whom he scored 25 times in 28 starts.
Venue of the day SHIZUOKA
While the Republic of Ireland are trying to win by two goals against Saudi Arabia in Yokohama, Cameroon and Germany have their own lunchtime mountains to climb in Shizuoka. The prefecture is not only home to Fuji-san, as Japan's icon highest peak is known, but two J-League teams – Jubilo Iwata and Shimizu S-Pulse. The region is true football territory, with 40,000 local registered players in 1,300 teams. It also supplies more players to the J-League than any other prefecture. The new Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, which holds 50,600, and is located out of town among the hills. Its design is intended to reflect the image of the nearby Ogasayama Mountains.
On this day 11 June 1978
Scotland 3 Netherlands 2 (Mendoza, Argentina)
Two nations who have been missed this year, for their fans and their football respectively, provided rollercoaster entertainment in a game the Scots needed to win by three clear goals to progress. They did not do it but Archie Gemmill's wonder-goal (beating Jansen, skipping Krol, nutmegging Poortvliet and chipping Jongbloed) was the finest they have ever scored.
Quotes of the day
We played as a team. With this type of attitude, the collective not the individual approach, it is easier to get the victories we have become used to.
The Portugal coach Antonio Oliveira's assessment of the 4-0 victory over Poland.
I felt bad that we drew because I bet my money on a 2-1 win. We did much better than the US but we lost many chances.
Kim Young-Ran, South Korea fan, on a moral victory in the 1-1 draw against the USA.
Team of the day
Nationwide League XI
(Players who play / used to play in England below the Premiership)
Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Japan, Portsmouth)
Efe Sodje (Nigeria, Crewe)
Gregg Berhalter (US, Crystal Palace)
Niclas Jensen (Den, Man City)
Pierre Issa (SA, Watford)
Mladen Rudonja (Sloven, Portsmouth)
Claus Jensen (Den, Bolton)
Robert Prosinecki (Croa, Portsmouth)
Paulo Wanchope (CR, Man City)
Sami Al Jaber (S Arabia, Wolves)
Patrick Suffo (Cam, Sheff Utd)
Phrase of the day Football sayings in another tongue
Es ist nicht vorüber, erst die dicke Dame singt
which is German for...
It's not over until the fat lady sings
TOURNAMENT STATISTICS
Goalscorers
4 - Miroslav Klose (Germany)
3 - Jon Dahl Tomasson (Denmark), Christian Vieri (Italy), Pauleta (Portugal)
2 - Marc Wilmots(Belgium), Rivaldo, Ronaldo (Brazil), Junichi Inamoto (Japan), Fernando Morientes, Fernando Hierro (Spain), Henrik Larsson (Sweden)
1 - Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina), Peter Van der Heyden (Belgium), Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho (Brazil), Patrick Mboma, Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Ronald Gomez, Mauricio Wright, Winston Parks (Costa Rica), Ivica Olic, Milan Rapaic (Croatia), Agustin Delgado (Ecuador), Sol Campbell, David Beckham (England), Michael Ballack, Carsten Jancker,Thomas Linke, Oliver Bierhoff, Bernd Schneider (Germany), Matt Holland, Robbie Keane (Rep of Ireland), Takayuki Suzuki (Japan), Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Jared Borgetti, Gerardo Torrado (Mexico), Julius Aghahowa (Nigeria), Roque Santa Cruz, Francisco Arce (Paraguay), Beto, Rui Costa (Portugal), Igor Titov, Valery Karpin (Russia), Papa Bouba Diop, Salif Diao (Senegal), Sebastjan Cimirotic (Slovenia), Quinton Fortune, Tebeho Mokoena, Siyabonga Nomvethe (South Africa) Hwang Sun-hong, Yoo Sang-chul, Ahn Jung-hwan (South Korea), Raul, Juan Carlos Valeron (Spain), Niclas Alexandersson (Sweden), Raouf Bouzaiane (Tunisia), Hasan Sas, Emre Belozoglu (Turkey), John O'Brien, Brian McBride, Clint Mathis (US), Dario Rodriguez (Uruguay). (Plus three own goals).
Red cards
Suspended for next match
SENEGAL: Salif Diao
FRANCE: Thierry Henry
Suspensions served
CROATIA: Boris Zivkovic
TURKEY: Alpay Ozalan, Hakan Unsal
Yellow cards
Two cards (suspended for next match)
FRANCE: Emmanuel Petit
PORTUGAL: Piotr Swierczewski
TUNISIA: Hassen Gabsi
One card
ARGENTINA: Walter Samuel, Diego Simeone, Gabriel Batistuta
BELGIUM: Peter van der Heyden, Gert Verheyen, Jacky Peeters, Eric van Meir, Daniel Van Buyten
BRAZIL: Denilson, Ronaldinho, Roque Junior
CAMEROON: Raymond Kalla, Pierre Womé
CHINA: Li Tie, Xu Yunlong, Li Xiaopeng
COSTA RICA: Luis Marin, Mauricio Solis, Ronald Gomez, Walter Centeno, Gilberto Martinez, Carlos Castro
CROATIA: Robert Kovac
DENMARK: Jan Heintze, Martin Laursen, Ebbe Sand, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Thomas Helveg, Christian Poulsen
ECUADOR: Augusto Porozo, Ulises de la Cruz, Cleber Chala, Ivan Kaviedes, Jose Cevallos, Raul Guerron, Carlos Tenorio, Agustin Delgado
ENGLAND: Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Emile Heskey
GERMANY: Christian Ziege, Dietmar Hamann
ITALY: Fabio Cannavaro, Christian Vieri
JAPAN: Kazuyuki Toda, Junichi Inamoto, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Koji Nakata, Masashi Nakayama
MEXICO: Gerardo Torrado
NIGERIA: Efe Sodje, Taribo West
PARAGUAY: Julio Carlos Caceres, Denis Cañiza, Ricardo Tavarelli, Juan Carlos Franco, Francisco Arce, Diego Gavilan, Roque Santa Cruz
POLAND: Jacek Krzynowek, Tomasz Hajto, Arkadiusz Bak
PORTUGAL: Beto, Petit, Nuno Frechaut, Jorge Costa, Rui Jorge
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Jason McAteer, Steve Finnan, Steven Reid
RUSSIA: Igor Semshov, Dimitri Alenichev, Ruslan Pimenov, Andrei Solomatin, Yuri Nikiforov
SAUDI ARABIA: Mohammed Noor, Al Hassan Al Yami
SENEGAL: Aliou Cissé, Khalilou Fadiga, Salif Diao
SLOVENIA: Amir Karic, Sebastjan Cimirotic, Muamer Vugdalic, Zeljko Milinovic, Ales Ceh, Miran Pavlin
SOUTH AFRICA: Aaron Mokoena, Pierre Issa, Benedict McCarthy, Sibusiso Zuma, Lucas Radebe, Tebeho Mokoena
SOUTH KOREA: Park Ji-sung, Cha Doo-ri, Hong Myung-bo
SPAIN: Juan Carlos Valeron, Ruben Baraja
SWEDEN: Marcus Allback, Andreas Jakobsson, Johan Mjallby, Niclas Alexandersson
TUNISIA: Ziad Jaziri, Kais Ghodbane, Hatem Trabelsi, Mourad Melki
TURKEY: Fatih Akyel, Emre Asik, Tugay Kerimoglu, Emre Belozoglu
UNITED STATES: DaMarcus Beasley, Frankie Hejduk, Jeff Agoos
URUGUAY: Gustavo Mendez, Pablo Garcia, Sebastian Abreu, Marcelo Romero, Dario Silva
Highs and lows
Highest aggregate: 8: Germany 8 Saudi Arabia 0.
Most goals by a team: 8: Germany 8 Saudi Arabia 0.
Biggest margin of victory: 8: Germany 8 Saudi Arabia 0.
Most goals by a player: 3 Miroslav Klose (for Germany v Saudi Arabia)
Hat-tricks: Klose (for Germany v Saudi Arabia)
Fastest goal: 4 min: John O'Brien (for US v Portugal), Siyabonga Nomvethe (for South Africa v Slovenia)
Biggest crowd: 66,108 (Japan v Russia)
Smallest crowd: 24,000 (Spain v Paraguay)
Most bookings in a match: 8 (Paraguay v South Africa)
Fewest bookings in a match: 0 (Germany v Rep of Ireland)
Most fouls in a match: 62 (Japan v Russia)
Fewest fouls in a match: 20 (Brazil v China)
Most shots on target in a match: 18 (Brazil v Turkey)
Fewest shots on target in a match: 6 (Japan v Russia; Tunisia v Belgium)
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