Two European sides that the United States faced in friendlies during the last eight months get their World Cup runs started, as the Netherlands and Denmark square off in a Group E showdown at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg (7:30 a.m., ESPN/ESPN3.com).
The Dutch will be without star winger Arjen Robben, who suffered a hamstring injury in a friendly against Hungary about a week ago. The Oranje will turn even more to Inter Milan star Wesley Sneijder to be the pointman for the squad's potent attack.
Denmark, which impressed during World Cup qualifying, is buoyed by the news that Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner will be starting. He was initially expected to miss the match with a groin injury.
If you are watching the game, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the match!
Did you have issues before the World Cup? I’m sure 360 didn’t have nearly the traffic that’s going on during the World Cup.
I’ve had many issues with ESPN3 since it came on line, while 360 worked 95% of time. I wrote to the ESPN ombudsman about this. No real answer yet.
SHABALALA!
not like it would change anything, right?
yep. he won’t last without a red. it’ll probably happen against england in the box with a game deciding peanlty in play….
Ummmm, the very first of the tournament?
You ask too much … but I was blasting Harkes yesterday, so I’ll hold off today.
ESPN already breaking out the “Oranje Crush” headline. Over/under how many times we’ll see some version of that headline in this tournament?
Ha!!
can harkes talk about a game without talking about himself?
Hey, he’s currently joint top scorer of the tournament!
+1 Absolutely brilliant!
Is anyone else having trouble with the ESPN3 online feed? It’s very choppy and resets every couple minutes. It has even closed my browser multiple times.
Yes, the Germans put on a clinic in how the game should be played.
I don’t mind replays of goals. It’s when they show three replays and then super-slow motion of the player celebrating and then zoom in on the coach.
Someone needs to take out De Jong. He’s a dirty bird.
I find it kind of silly that the annoucer is blaming Poulsen there for the own-goal.
His header wasn’t great, but it went in off Agger’s back. If Agger hadn’t been turned the way he was, it would have deflected a different way. If he wasn’t there at all, it wouldn’t have gone in the net.
Podolski’s last night was pretty cool. But yeah, we’re still awaiting some classic goals and some high-scoring games.
Maybe he knew it would be replayed a thousand times and wanted to look nice for the camera.
What a terrible own goal. That guy was just smiling, like, “HAI GUYZ, THAT DIDN’T REALLY HAPPEN, DID IT, GUYZ?? YAH??”
That’s the problem, we do miss live action. Especially in USA-England, so many times the replays went too slowly, too long
Have we seen a great goal yet in this World Cup? It seems there have been more crap sloppy goals than ones you’d want to add to any highlight package.
scumbag, i hope gets sent off
Why was the guy smiling?! Yeah, really funny, dude!
Now, there is no doubt in my mind that this ball sucks.
Great
I like it this way
As long as we are not missing any important
live action
He is just dirty…not even a clean attractive side to his footballing..
De Jong tries to break another leg, this time gets carded.
Ugh I hate de Jong!
I’ve noticed an obsession with replays during this World Cup. Almost anything of note gets replayed about three times.
Also, you can try myp2p.eu
How about those camera shots. World class!
De jong studs up again.
You can usually find any match at atdhe dot net by clicking on live sports.
Anybody have an alternative link to a streaming of the game, both espn3 and univision are blocked here :-(.