ATWC : GROUP E

The group, the schedule, the stadiums, the squads, the games (please click on the pictures for a better view).

THE GAMES

DAY 1 :

GERMANY - JAPAN at Estadio do Morumbi, São Paulo (capacity 66.700)

GERMANY - JAPAN : 3 - 1

A pleasant game between two countries that knew several exchanges in their history, and a winning German team in the end. The Mannschaft never flinched and was more efficient in front of the goals. Thanks to a certain Müller Gerd who netted twice (out of five great chances). Japan had deployed their full force, though.

GOALS (Matthaüs, Honda, G. Müller, G. Müller)

25' : Matthaüs with a traumtor (!), opens the score for Germany.

36' : Nakamura crosses the ball to Okazaki... it's no cleared well enoug by Förster... Kagawa follows and pass it to Honda who arrived from the right... goal Japan !

74' : Breitner finds G. Müller in the penalty area for one of his rare incursions and the centre forward transforms this gift in a goal in no time.

78' : G. Müller, assisted by Netzer with a long ball that landed in Müller's feet. And that's a brace for Müller in less than 5 minutes !

Yellow cards : Lahm (44'), Ihara (50'), Honda (61'), Breitner (70').

Man of the Match : although Bernd Schuster gave an impressive performance the trophy for the man of the match landed in... Gerd Müller's hands, he who was the scorer of two goals !

RATINGS :

Germany :

Maïer 5,5 - Lahm 5 - Förster 5 - Beckenbauer 5,5 - Breitner 5,5 - Schuster 7 - Netzer 5,5 - Matthaüs 6 - Seeler 5 (Klinsmann) - G. Müller 7 - Rummenigge 5 (Overath). Tot. : 62.

Japan :

Kawagushi 4 - Uchida 6,5 - Nakazawa 4 - Ihara 4,5 - Nagatomo 5 - Nakata 5 - Hasebe 4,5 (Inamoto)- Honda 5,5 (Doan) - S. Nakamura 5,5 - Kagawa 5,5 - Okazaki 4,5 (Takahara). Tot. : 54,5.

On the bench, Kazu Miura was very disappointed as he was not used at all, here, in Sao Paulo where he started his career. A similar feeling was felt by Okudera, who was the first ever from his country to play in the 1. Bundesliga.

USSR - SOUTH AFRICA at Estadio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre (capacity 50.800)

USSR - SOUTH AFRICA : 3 - 0

The South Africa team played some real good football but the former-USSR trident shown no mercy as the rest of the team perfectly did his job. Yashin only had a couple of saves to do, including a real fantastic one, on a superb shoot by Moshoeu.

GOALS (Blokhin, Streltsov, Shevchenko)

38' : Demyanenko to Blokhin who takes the inside left channel to beat everybody on its way before to beat the goalkeeper.

60' : Streltsov is there to recover a cleared shot from Blokhin. He turns a bit and blast a terrific low strike ! It's in, and well.

69' : Shevchenko, assisted by Streltsov.

Yellow cards : Radebe (11'), Motaung (26'), Fortune (70').

Man of the Match : Eduard Streltsov left a big impression for his first match ever in a World Cup. Scorer, passer, he seems to have it all ! The crowd certainly will remember for a long time the backheel passes challenge he had with John Moshoeu. An already cult moment of this FYT All-Time World Cup !

RATINGS :

USSR :

Yashin 6 - Chesternev 5,5 - Khurtsilava 6 - Kaladze 5 - Beszonov 5,5 - Voronin 5,5 - Netto 5 (Buryak 71') - Demyanenko 6 - Streltsov 7 (V. Ivanov 81')- Shevchenko 5,5 - Blokhin 6,5. Tot. : 63,5.

South Africa :

Khune 3,5 - A. Mokoena 3,5 - Fish 5 - Radebe 4,5 - Motaung 4 (Nyathi 75') - Khumalo 5 - Sibaya 5 - Fortune 5 (Bartlett 75') - Moshoeu 5 - Pienaar 4,5 (Masinga 78') - McCarthy 5. Tot. : 50.

That's a lot to practice to master the backheel technique like Streltsov does

McCarthy tried a lot, but he hasn't done any damage to the Reds