Ghana 1-1 Australia

Brett Emerton played the full 90 minutes as the Aussies put their disappointing 4-0 spanking at the hands of Germany behind them with a solid performance and a good result against Ghana.

A side considered by many to be one of the best African teams at the World Cup, Ghana could have been expected to give Australia a lesson or two, but Australia showed they aren’t at this tournament just to make up the numbers.

They even had the audacity to take the lead, Brett Holman somewhat fortuitously hitting home after Mark Bresciano’s free kick was fumbled by Ghana keeper Richard Kingson.

Unfortunately for Australia, Harry Kewell handled the ball off the line, landing himself with a red card and Ghana with a penalty which Asamoah Gyan scored, precipitating the ridiculously over-exuberant celebrations that also took place in their first game against Serbia.

I’m all for goal celebrations, but only if the goal deserves it, and, in my humble opinion, scoring a penalty does not merit a 25-minute celebration.

Ghana dominated the shot count – often a deceptive figure if you ask me – but it was Australia who had the best chances, their best coming when Luke Wilkshire fired straight at Kingson when through on goal.

A draw was not ideal for Australia, but Brett Emerton and Vince Grella’s side do still harbour hopes of a place in the second round, although that requires them beating Serbia and Ghana beating Germany.

Cameroon 1-2 Denmark

Right back Lars Jacobsen has every chance of featuring in the next round after an excellent win for Denmark saw Cameroon become the first side eliminated from the competition, while it ensured safe passage to the next round for Holland.

It was a game of many missed chances, but a comedy of errors saw Cameroon take the lead after just 10 minutes. Poulsen gave the ball away on the edge of his box and Eto’o was able to give the African side the lead.

Denmark equalised when Simon Kjaer, who could find himself a sudden transfer target for many top sides if he performs as he did here regularly, sprayed a perfect 60-yard pass to Rommedahl, who squared it for Arsenal’s Bendtner to score.

It was Rommedhal who scored Denmark’s winner when he burst forward on the counter attack and slotted past Hamidou Souleymanou in the Cameroon goal.

The result means that if Denmark beat Japan in the third round of games, a result they will be expected to take, they, and Lars Jacobsen, will be through to the next round.

Italy 1-1 New Zealand

Ryan Nelsen captained his side to another historic draw against world champions Italy, winning ITV’s Man of the Match in the process.

The All Whites stunned everyone with this, the shock result of the tournament so far.

In a game everyone expected them to lose very heavily, Simon Elliott’s free kick somehow found it’s way to Shane Smeltz, who poked home from close range to give New Zealand a surprise lead.

Italy preceded to pile on the pressure and were rewarded when Tommy Smith brought down Daniele De Rossi in the box. Iaquinta put the resulting penalty away for Italy.

Controversy ensued when Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen claimed Italy’s penalty should never have been:

“I think their goal wasn’t a goal. I think the guys will be disappointed that we ended up drawing because it was a dodgy goal,” said the skipper after the game.

New Zealand go into the final match of the group stages level on points with the world champions, knowing a win against Paraguay, who currently top the group, could put unthinkably put them through to the next round.

Easy then, eh?

Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek has been roundly criticised for opting to take a defensive approach, a tactic his side are not really used to, and the critics could be right.

Brett Emerton suffered as a result of this negative style, being subbed in the second half to make way for the more defensive Mile Jedinak in a move that could only be described as damage limitation.

I’ll be honest, having been out for a curry with a friend in London, we missed much of this match. Then, when we did finally get back and put the telly on, that substitution was made so I never actually saw Emerton touch the ball.

For that reason, I won’t insult you by talking about his individual performance, only that, from what I’ve read, he was about the best of a bad bunch.

What I will say about the match is that I cannot understand all the fuss over Tim Cahill’s red card. The Everton midfielder could have broken Schweinsteiger’s leg with a very clumsy challenge and deserved to go.

However, it certainly isn’t over for Australia. This was as much a fantastic performance from Germany as it was a disaster for the Socceroos.

If Germany have slapped Australia 4-0, they have the potential to smash Ghana and Serbia, while Australia have the group’s most difficult tie out of the way and can concentrate on trying to win their next two matches.

I’m not saying those games will be easy, but it’s no use thinking it’s all over after one setback.

Watch this space for a look at Lars Jacobsen’s efforts for Denmark against Holland, which is just kicking off as I write this

No one really cares about it, but a few of the Rovers squad are involved, merely as a keep-fit exercise I presume, so it’s worth giving it a mention.

I do, of course, mean the football World Cup, and everyone’s excited.

Unfortunately for Rovers, a lot of our players haven’t quite made it. Keith Andrews’s Ireland, Morten Pedersen’s Norway and Zurab Khizanishvilli’s Georgia, among others, all failed to qualify, while Paul Robinson was not chosen for England and Pascal Chimbonda missed out on the France squad – no real surprise there.

Youngsters Martin Olsson and Niko Kalinic are both still in their national youth teams, Sweden and Croatia respectively, and Michel Salgado can’t find his walking stick.

However, four (soon to be three) Rovers stars will be hoping to bring glory to their nations.

Captain and centre back Ryan Nelsen will captain massive underdogs New Zealand, while Brett Emerton and soon-to-be-in-Turkey Vince Grella are in action for Australia and Lars Jacobsen will feature for Denmark.

New Zealand

Nelsen will have a job on trying to keep New Zealand in the competition beyond the group stages. Group E has pitched them against Paraguay, Slovakia and Italy, and as a realist you can’t see them progressing.

The lack of optimism isn’t helped by the fact their two best players are Nelsen and Plymouth striker Rory Fallon …

Still, every World Cup has a surprise package, and a couple of surprise results could see New Zealand surprise everyone. I doubt it, though.

The Rovers Return prediction: Bottom of Group E

Australia

The Aussies are a decent side, especially with Tim Cahill in there, and have a decent group if they dig in and concentrate.

Brett should be a first teamer for them throughout, and he could even line up against England in the Second Round.

Looking at their squad, they only have three forwards, the most notable of which is Harry Kewell, so expect to see some defensive displays – especially with solid players like Lucas Neill and  Craig Moore in their side.

The Rovers Return prediction: Lose to England in Second Round (Winner Group C v Runner-up Group D)

Denmark

Denmark are a shadow of the side that won the 1992 European Championship, and who can forget the 3-0 tubbing they got from England in the 2002 competition? Oh, that’s right, everyone. That’s how easy it was.

Lars Jacobsen is a good player, and was unlucky not to get more first tam action for Rovers last season, but his side will struggle here I reckon.

They do have some quality players – Christian Poulsen, Jesper Gronkjaer and Jon Dahl Tomasson to name a couple – but they have a deceptively tough group.

There are no world-class sides in Group E, but all four are decent. Holland haven’t been great in recent years, but will always be solid, while Japan and Cameroon will believe they have a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition.

If they were to qualify, you would expect it would be in second place behind Holland and they would be faced with Italy in the Second Round – if everything goes as you would expect.

The Rovers Return prediction: Third in Group E

Three World Cup finalists have played for Rovers – Ossie Ardiles, Dino Baggio and Youri Djourkaeff – could this be the year we add to that list?

I kind of doubt it …

Check back after New Zealand, Denmark and Australia matches for a Rovers at the World Cup player watch

Bolton at home: Conclusions

- Something seems to be wrong with Big Sam’s pre-match team talks. We were shite here, absolutely diabolical, and we weren’t much better against Newcastle in the first half. He seems to do something right at half time though!

- Kevin Davies, I’d love to rip his face off. Fat waste of money. As soon as he scored I was straight down for a pint!

- In the second half we were superb. If we were to play like that for the whole game we’d have walked it. Unfortunately we didn’t.

- Is Benni allergic to Jussi Jaaskelainen? This isn’t the first time the Finn has saved his penalty! It was a shite penalty though…

- Good to see Warnock on the scoresheet. The cheeky Scouser is a good player and a likeable character to have in the team, I’m not sure if he meant to fire it into the net but he did!

- Benni made up for his miss by banging in the equaliser. The South African really is in form again and it’s great to see him recapturing the sort of form that made him such a sought after player after his first season!

- In the second half Big Sam brought on Tugay and Roque. They made the difference. Tugay was able to open play up and spread the ball when given the opportunity and Roque was a constant thorn in the Bolton defence’s side. He also got a better reception this time!

- Seeing a last minute shot come back off the post was agonising, this game was about as important as they come and could have given us a real gap between the bottom three, at least we avoided defeat though!

Boro away: Another missed opportunity

Another game we should have won. A Pedersen miss and a great Fulop save kept Boro in the game in this relegation scrap. We really should have won and, with Stoke’s win over City putting us in the bottom three, things are looking a bit dicey.

The other bad news to come out of this was the injury to Brett Emerton. He will be out for nine months and that is a huge blow for us, and indeed his national team!

Our little purple patch of league games has now ended and we have finished with only two wins and five draws. An inability to turn these draws into wins could prove our downfall when we look back on this season!

Especially when you consider the games we have ahead: Villa (H), United (A), Hull (A), Everton (H), Fulham (A) and Arsenal (A). How many points can we realistically expect from those games?

Transfer round-up

A boring transfer window really. Citeh never blew anyone out of the window, despite the daft Kaka saga! That included us, with the speculated £25-million transfer fee being too much for Hughesy to stretch to.

We let Jamie Clarke go to Rotherham, a youngster who never seemed as though he was going to make it and also allowed Alan Judge to join Paul Gallagher on loan at Plymouth while Rostyn Griffiths got a great deal for himself with a loan move to Australian side Adelaide United! Lucky for some!

The only incoming transfer towards the end of the window was Sunderland’s El-Hadji Diouf. An interesting signing to say the least.

The attacking midfielder has played under Allardyce before at Bolton and there is no doubting the lad has talent, albeit he didn’t show it at Sunderland, it’s just we all know what else he is capable of.

My main memory of the player is seeing him take a dive in front of the Blackburn End against Bolton, the resulting penalty saw Bolton score and win the game 1-0. An annoying memory to say the least!

Having said that if he comes on and bangs in a hattrick against Villa I’ll be a happy man! (Provided Villa don’t score four!) It was also very insightful of Allardyce considering Brett Emerton’s injury two days later!

Sunderland again

What can I say? We’re playing Sunderland. It’s not unusual. Having seen Burnley win I would like to see us progress though!

With Emerton out it will be interesting to see what Big Sam’s team looks like as Diouf is cup-tied.

Come on you Blues!