Group B final set of games

South Korea 2-2 Nigeria

Nigeria came into the game knowing that they could qualify with a win, providing that Argentina beat Greece. South Korea knew they probably only needed a draw (assuming Greece didn't beat Argentina).

As a result Nigeria came out with positive intent, and it was they who opened the scoring after only 12 minutes. Odiah took it past two South Koreans down the flank before sending a low cross in, Uche ghosted in front of the defender and finished with aplomb. It was a combination of South Korea showing weakness in defence and Uche showing a cutting edge to score.

The impressive Uche could have made it 2-0 soon after. A venomous long-range shot smacked into the post as Nigeria came tantalisingly close to putting one foot in the second round. Instead South Korea were to get the equaliser not long before half-time. Awarded a free kick on the left flank Ki Sung-Yong swung in the free kick and Lee Jung-soo bundled home, unmarked thanks to an error from Afolabi. It was an odd goal as it came off Lee Jung-soo's head and then knee on the way into the net.

South Korea took the lead early in the second half. Shittu committed the foul and Park Chu-Young converted the long distance free-kick. Enyeama was wrong footed by the shot and perhaps should have been positioned better. It wasn't the best free-kick but it crept in at the far post.

Errors were costing Nigeria dearly. Now behind they had to throw caution to the wind. As the game wore on we witnessed one of the misses of all time. Ayila squared the ball to an unmarked Yakubu who had an open goal in front of him. He inexplicably put the ball wide. A couple of minutes later he was able to atone for the error, converting a penalty after Kim Nam-Il had brought Obasi down in the box. It was a frantic ending to the match as Martins and Obinna had a couple of good chances each but were unable to profit. Inches away from the second round...

Nigeria would rue their defensive errors. South Korea had played some nice football and had more chances than my review has indicated. Park Chu-Young was the most impressive South Korean in my opinion. For Nigeria both Uche and Obasi had looked quality. Nigeria were eliminated and overall they would rue defensive lapses, wasted opportunities and ill-discipline in the Greece match. South Korea qualified for a second-round date with Uruguay.

Argentina 2-0 Greece

Greece went into this game knowing a win might not be enough to qualify, but a draw might. In other words the Group had a number of permutations and they knew they had to win to give themselves the best chance possible. Argentina had already qualified and only needed a draw to ensure top spot. As a result they rested a few players.

Despite this Greece did not go into the game attempting to attack Argentina from the offset. Instead they were happy to defend, soak up the pressure and hit Argentina with a fast counter-attack. Argentina looked very exciting moving forward and it was thanks to some impressive saves from Tsorvas (as well as some good defending in general) that it took Argentina until the 79th minute to open the scoring. Demichelis stabbed home from a corner kick after his intial shot was blocked by fellow team-mate Milito. The second goal came when Messi beat a couple of players and thundered a spectacular shot which hit the post - veteran striker Palermo was alert to slot home the rebound. Messi had shown a number of flashes of brilliance throughout the game as he continued his run of playing very well but not scoring.

Greece had had a few chances throughout the match, these mainly falling to Samaras. He was unable to convert any of them however. One of them in particular he really should have scored.

But it was Maradona's Argentina to finish first in the group (they will take on Mexico in the second round) and Greece to take an early flight home.

Group B's second round of games

Argentina 4-1 South Korea

Argentina were thoroughly dominant against South Korea. The South Americans were lively and creative in the opening stages but hardly had a shot on target before they were ahead. A well delivered cross from Messi was botched by the defence, Park Chu-young turning it into his own net. Soon it was 2-0 with a goal from Higuain, but with half-time fast approaching Argentina failed to take a deserved two goal lead into the break - Demichelis criminally lingered on the ball too long allowing Lee Chung-yong to latch onto it before firing home. The South Koreans had one spell of sustained pressure which came midway through the second half - Yeom Ki-hun had a wonderful opportunity to equalise but his shot hit the side netting. Normal service was resumed and Higuain completed a hat-trick. His finishes were all simple and all the goals came as a result of sumptuous build up play from the Argentinians, Messi being the common denominator of them all. South Korea had had very little answer to an Argentinian master-class.

Greece 2-1 Nigeria

Greece picked up their first ever victory in a World Cup finals match. Nigeria scored an early goal thanks to the Greek keeper Tsorvas moving to a spot where he predicted Odemwingie would aim his header - instead Odemwingie ducked under the ball and let it bounce invitingly into an empty net. It was in truth, poor goal-keeping. Greece came right back into the game when Kaita of Nigeria had a brain explosion and was rightfully sent off. The ball had gone out for a throw and Kaita was so enraged that he kicked out, studs up at Torosidis. Torosidis may have gone down like a sack of spuds and wrongly started clutching his face but it was a clear red, and one that had severely dented the Nigerians chances of hanging on. Salpingidis equalised not too long after thanks to a massive deflection off Haruna.

The second half saw Greece dominant. It was as if the sending off had left Nigeria bereft of any ideas and had completely turned the tide the opposite way. Enyeama was again on inspired form again so it was a pity that it was he who made the mistake that caused an equaliser for the Greeks. He failed to hold onto a shot that should have been saved from Tziolis, helping the ball into the path of Torosidis to stab home. It was perhaps the first goalkeeping mistake I could put partly down to the swerve of the Jabulani ball (or was it the altitude) and it was a great shame after such brilliant performances in both games, that Enyeama would provide the basis for the goal. All 3 goals of the game were down to errors and the sending off had completely changed the complexion of the match, but the long and the short of it was - Greece had a first World Cup win and Nigeria were left ruing what might have been.

Group B opening games

South Korea 2-0 Greece

South Korea were dominant throughout the match and very worthy of their victory. Greece's reputation for being built on a solid defence was in tatters after the game as it was two very poor errors that handed South Korea both goals. Lee Jung-Soo was not picked up when the ball was crossed in for the first goal. For the second Vyntra inexplicably gave the ball away when receiving a routine pass from Seitaridis, Park Ji-Sung profited going off a nice run before finishing adroitly.

It could have all been so different had Torosidis not failed to convert a fantastic opportunity from six yards in the early minutes. But apart from that Greece had little in the way of goalscoring opportunities, save for 3 or 4 during a sustained 5 minutes of pressure midway through the second half. Top goalscorer in European qualifying Gekas was off his game but in fairness he just didn't get the service from a midfield lacking in imagination. In truth Greece were fairly abject throughout the field and will need massive improvement if they are to have any chance of doing anything other than make up the numbers in Group B.

But let this not take away from a quality performance from South Korea who kept possession well, defended well and played with an air of class. They played a very good game and easily deserved their 2 goal victory.

Argentina 1-0 Nigeria

In terms of quality football being played this has been the best of the first five games. Messi was top quality and was only foiled by some spectacular goalkeeping from Vincent Enyeama. Veron was off-colour with some of his passing and the Argentinian defence looked a bit suspect, a better strikeforce than Nigeria's would likely have made them pay. Their defence lacks pace with the likes of Samuel and Demichelis so it was an area that could have been exploited.

It was funny that with all Argentina's attacking quality the goal came from the head of defender Heinze. Argentina started with four highly attack minded players and ended up with five (when Maxi Rodriguez came on). This left Mascherano doing a helluva lot of work in defensive midfield. And with Gutierrez, normally a right winger, playing at right-back attack was concentrated down the right, leaving Di Maria fairly anonymous at times.

Nigeria played a 4-4-2 formation when a 4-3-3 would have been better. Particularly as Obasi likes to get forward. They performed better when the classic winger Odemwingie came on as he was able to exploit Gutierrez down that flank. The introduction of Martins also meant there was more pace available. Nigeria had a few reasonable chances but were unable to profit from them, continuing their general weakness of being goal shy. It was also exceptionally poor marking that enabled Heinze to ghost in completely unmarked for his goal.

There was this comment I enjoyed from another website which I happen to agree with: "Diego’s idea of throwing square pegs into circular holes simply because they’re carved of a higher quality wood will not work against good sides".