COME ON ENGLAND

By Since66
June 21 2010

If you think England have their problems, the French have far more serious ones. In the aftermath of Nicolas Anelka being sent home for his verbal tirade at coach Raymond Domenech, the whole French squad refused to train yesterday in respect for their fallen comrade.

In addition to the already chaotic scenes, Patrice Evra had a row with the fitness coach and a senior team official resigned and joined Anelka on his way home.

The chaos descended into farce when the French players discovered a traitor within their ranks, as Anelka's comments were leaked to the press.

Jean-Louis Valentin said of his resignation, "They don't want to train, it's a scandal. It's a scandal for French people, for the youngsters who came here to watch them train. I'm resigning. I'm leaving the Federation. I have nothing more to do here. I'm going back to Paris."

The reigning World Cup champions Italy, were held to a shock 1-1 draw by New Zealand in the 2nd game of the day.

New Zealand shocked the holders when they took the lead in the 7th minute through a Smeltz header and Italy's equaliser came by a penalty which Iaquinta scored on 29 minutes.

Paraquay started the day with a 2-0 win over Slovakia, who can still qualify for the last 16, if they beat Italy next Thursday and little New Zealand can qualify if they can beat Paraquay on the same day.

Miroslav Stoch came on as a sub in the last five minutes but by this time Paraquay were two goals up through Vera and Riveros.

Didier Drogba started for the Ivory Coast in the last game of the day against Brazil in Group G and scored Ivory Coast's consolation goal in the last ten minutes with a sweeping header.

Fabiano (2) and Elano were the Brazilian scorers.

Kaka was sent-off after a collision with Keita who embarrassingly clutched his face writhing on the ground, when no part of Kaka's body touched him in the face.

In more unsavoury incidents, the majority of the Ivorians chased Kaka around the Soccer City pitch looking for redemption although the referee didn't produce anymore cards.

With England, France, Italy, Germany all having problems, Brazil now join them as Kaka's red card suspension could be increased to two, three or four matches if FIFA decide his actions on Keita were deemed as violent conduct.

Today's Fixtures:

Portugal v North Korea 12.30pm

Chile v Switzerland 3.00pm

Spain v Honduras 7.30pm