World Cup Roundup – Cameroon And Nicolas Anelka Are Out

The (inadvertent) theme of today’s World Cup action? Teams and individuals being knocked out of the tournament. You know that Koman Coulibaly might be gone, but now the nation of Cameroon and French player Nicolas Anelka definitely are.

Cameroon is out because of a 2-1 loss to Denmark, becoming the first team eliminated from the tournament in the process. Obviously a disappointing day for them, but on the other side Denmark must be feeling good. Danish defender Daniel Agger:

“When we finished the game we knew it was a really bad game. Especially the first half, we gave too many opportunities away. We didn’t play like a team. We didn’t play like we have to play if we want to progress in this competition. Clearly it wasn’t good enough, but if you can win on days like that, it’s positive.”

Like we said, feelin’ great! Interesting that Agger talks of missed opportunities, considering Cameroon took more shots (23, compared to 13 for Denmark) and landed more shots on goal (7 to the Danes’ 5). Match highlights:

Anelka, on the other hand, is out of the tournament for what he did off the field – namely, having a profanity-laced argument with his coach and declining to apologize publicly.

The linked article described Anelka’s career as “topsy-turvy” and he’d failed to impress in either of France’s games so far (in fairness to him, France as a whole has disappointed), but French captain Patrice Evra defended Anelka to some degree:

Evra said a “traitor” among France’s World Cup staff must have leaked details of Anelka’s rant.

It “came from someone in this group, who wishes the French team harm,” Evra said. “The problem isn’t Anelka, it’s the traitor among us, you have to say it.

“How can this come out?”

Strong words. In other action today, Australia salvaged a tie with Ghana despite playing the majority of the match a man down, and the Netherlands beat Japan 1-0 and showed it can win in an unexpected way – boring and offensively-challenged.

Tomorrow’s action: Slovakia vs. Paraguay first, followed by Italy vs. New Zealand and finally Brazil vs. the Ivory Coast. Are any other teams/players on the way out? Stay tuned!

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