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Confederations Cup: Matchday Three (Your Running Commentary)

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Today's slate of Confederations Cup matches feature a pairing of the Group A favorites, powerhouse Spain vs. Iraq (9:55am, ESPN2), and the group's lightweights, South Africa and New Zealand (2:55pm, ESPN2).

If you are watching today's matches (and yes, Spain and Iraq are at the half), please feel free to share your thoughts on these matches in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

Comments

  1. End Game

    White Bulls — Anyone NOT get a yellow card? Seems like Vicelich was feeling left out there until the end…

    SA — Too many awesome names NOT to hope they progress

    How do we (USA) NOT get out of this group?

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  2. teams in OFC (Oceania)

    American Samoa
    Cook Islands
    Fiji
    Kiribati1
    Federated States of Micronesia1
    New Caledonia
    New Zealand
    Niue1
    Northern Mariana Islands1
    Palau1
    Papua New Guinea
    Samoa
    Solomon Islands
    Tahiti
    Tonga
    Tuvalu
    Vanuatu

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  3. 88’Kagisho Evidence Dikgacoi (South Africa) executes a corner kick

    87’Andy Boyens (New Zealand) concedes a corner kick

    *huge swig*

    Not watching the game itself, but the commentary leads me to say that SA are largely playing against themselves at this point.

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  4. i can listen to derek rae say tshabalala all day. if only i was partaking in some alcoholic beverages, i might be giddy.

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  5. OCEANIA should fold and join AFC.

    new zealand can’t seriously be their best team can they? they make south africa look like spain.

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  6. Katlego Mashego (South Africa) is caught offside (2X more)

    Mr. Mashego … coach wants a word with you…

    *chug*

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  7. Katlego Mashego (South Africa) is caught offside (X 4 or 5 times now)

    GameCast at least lets me cut n paste commentary….also FIFA only has last names…though I like the field coverage pop-ups

    White Bull Boyens with the inevitable Yellow Card

    I’m going to need a 2-liter bottle to finish this one….

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  8. Why does it seem like every legitimate shot that South Africa sends at Moss gets saved and every ridiculous shot that they send goes in? The first goal came of Andrew Boyens’ behind and the second came off Parkers chest( althought it looked like his crotch).

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  9. Masilela involved in the build up for South Africa’s second goal with some great 1v1 on the left. I swear, we really need to look up some of these outside backs for MLS. Parker has his second of the match. Would you say he’s made up for the miss against Iraq?

    Can i participate in a drinking game with a soft drink like Sprite?

    Hey it’s Duncan Oughton!

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  10. From Gamecast—

    Kagisho Evidence Dikgacoi (South Africa) commits a foul on Leo Bertos resulting on a free kick for New Zealand

    *drinks Dr. Pepper*

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  11. I think Beasley should be given a chance in the Brazil game. We didn’t get any width in the Italy game until he came in. He did a better job of finding space on the left than Dempsey did.

    ——————Altidore—————–

    Beasley————Dempsey———-Donovan

    ————Bradley——-Feilhaber——–

    Bornstein—-Bocanegra—-Onyewu—-Spector

    ———————Howard—————-

    The way Dempsey was holding possession Monday was actually what we need out of one of our forwards. He was taking pressure off the defense and giving players time to make their runs. If we want goals from the run of play we need to get more width; Donovan and Beasley are the fastest players on this squad and are the only that, while not always perfect, provide service. They’re both very skilled going at players and are good at finding the spaces to run into and be available.

    EVery player goes through a slump. Like Adu our “Savior” (BS). No one seems willing to give up on him. I’m not willing to give up on Beasley either.

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  12. SA has a midfielder with a middle name of “Evidence”. If I ever needed a reason to root for SA….I now have one.

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  13. Poor Boyens, he’s having a poor match today. I love those horns. At old MetroStars matches a lot of people used to blow those. I think it makes the atmosphere fun. If you want to sit on your hands and be crotchety, buy expensive tickets to a Chelsea match.

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  14. i may have only watched this match for 30 minutes, but does anyone else think that booth from south africa could slot in nicely in central defense for rbny. he is very proficient and agile in the air. at 32, a short term answer, but a seemingly reasonable one. he did play in russia for 5 years. how expensive could he be?

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  15. The commies from Northern Half of the Korean peninsula are 45 mins away from returning to the WC for the first time since 1966… at least then we will know that they won’t launch a missle before then since it will be a big old propaganda machine for them… Kim Jong Ill is always reported to hit about 4 holes in one per golf round so you know the next thing will be that his son (his successor) will be the one that trained the North Korean team and now they are likely to win the World Cup… the question is will they let any of their citizens go to South Africa and how many will defect… all of them? hahah

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  16. good to see some MLS-ers and former MLS-ers in the South Africa v New Zealand game:

    Andy Boyens-starting All-Blacks defender (New York Red Bulls)
    Tony Lochhead- former Revs defender current All-Black defender
    Simon Eliott-starting All-Blacks central D-mid and Earthquakes D-mid

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  17. Player currently on the US squad in South Africa that you’d like to never see included in the team again?

    …Beasley by a mile for me…

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  18. anyone else notice the dullness to the espn gamecast with this cup. usually the commentator has some funny remarks to make about the game, but as of late it has been incredibly mind numbing.

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  19. Great effort by Iraq to hold European champions Spain to 1-0. Bora had his team hold their defensive shape the entire game and gave up nothing down the middle. They even had a chance to pick up a point at the end. Well done Bora.

    Spain missed the creativity of Iniesta, and Cesc. Good strategy, make Spain beat you wide.

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  20. this whole tournament i have really been hoping the underdog wins. would just be nice to see spain, italy, and brazil in shambles.

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  21. Iraq is actually doing a good job disrupting Spain. However, packing it in with 9 people in the box helps, too. 3 min. of stoppage time now.

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  22. at least if they lose, it’s nice to know the iraqis won’t be beaten, and jailed in their own fecal matter. they have that going for them.

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  23. those horns are called vuvuzelas by south africans, and they’re the trademark of local matches in the national league. better get used to em, they’re usually a lot louder. every single grown man had one at the games i went to in johannesburg.

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  24. Spain scores in the 54th to go up 1-0. Took about 52 minutes longer than I expected.

    Capdevilla cross to Villa header.

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