Match 17|South Africa vs. Uruguay|16-06-10|Pre-match discussion

Yes! I got tickets and this is the first game I'll be going to!

Both team's last competitive matches:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg4o-G_N0wk"]YouTube- Spain vs South Africa 3-2 All Goals & Highlights [High Quality][FIFA Confederations CUP] 28.06.2009[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kQ1QZuNgu0"]YouTube- URUGUAY 1 COSTA RICA 1 REPECHAJE 1811 ELIMINATORIAS SUDAFRICA 2010 NARRACION VIVO CMD[/ame]

 

You are one lucky bastard. You have no idea how much I would give to be able to go to that one game, or any other Uruguay games. Maybe in 2014. This game, alongside every other game in this group, should be an unpredictable game, and yet exciting as hell

 

Based on the above video of SA vs. Spain, i cannot see why people think SA is such a bad team....

 

Cristian Rodriguez is now suspended for this game

 

The scuffle just after Argentina, game, no? Didn't he get four games?

The two Costa Ricas, France and S. Africa.

But I thought an appeal would get it reduced by one game....

 

You're right. A scuffle against Argentina. He already served two. We were planning on him serving another one in the FIFA friendly against Switzerland in March, but FIFA said no.

 

I don't think you can serve suspensions in friendlies...

Anyways, the more I think about it the more I can't decide who is the favorite here. I think both teams are pretty evenly matched with Uruguay have a slight edge in talent and South Africa having an edge for being at home.

I played this out as a series in PES2010 and Uruguay had the upper hand with 4 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss, for what it's worth.

 

South Africa, I believe that they can do it against Uruguay, and beat Uruguay since South Africa will be playing on home soil, on their home turf on their country turf, in front of their fans with home-crowd advantage and home-field advantage, that they will play their hearts out against Uruguay. Uruguay since they are going to be missing Cristian Rodriguez which is such a huge blow to their line-up, I don't see how they can get back into this game against South Africa

South Africa 2-1 Uruguay, the scoreline for this game, my prediction

 

We need to attack this game. Hopefully Tabarez realizes that. Also Cavani needs to start in place of Nacho. He played really well in that place before.

 

Neither team can afford another draw here. Hopefully that will open things up a bit.

 

Uruguay will probably open up a bit for this game. My guess is their goal was to draw with France. They played very conservatively and got their draw. Looking ahead, they probably feel that South Africa will be easier to beat than Mexico.

But...my impression is that Uruguay is not as good as Mexico. Based upon South Africa's showing against Mexico and the presumption they will play with fewer nerves than they showed against Mexico, my prediction is that South Africa will win this match. Should be an relatively open and entertaining match, with both teams probably thinking this is their best chance for three points.

 

Why do you say that? A draw would guarantee both teams (at worst) a tie for second going into the last game. Hardly a disaster, but probably worse for RSA with France left on the docket.

Still, I think both teams will have an incentive to attack. RSA knows they have the toughest team last, so will want to take 3 here. Plus, even if you lose, you can still advance with a win in the last game (most likely).

Uruguay didn't play defensive in qualifying like they did vs. France, did they? I caught a couple games and they had the lion's share of possession, even against Chile and Argentina.

 

Because you never want your third match to be a must win.

 

Uruguay needs to put Cavani in for Nacho, have Forlan at Nacho's spot, as he likes going back alot, and have a striker pair of Cavani and Suarez. With Abreu going in at the 2nd half where he is always lethal. He only works out when Uruguay is attacking alot. Today he came in at the wrong time. We will attack alot more in this game. If we win, things will be looking REALLY well for us, but its the same case for SA, so its win or go home pretty much, but hopefully they don't play to a draw again.

 

IMO, South Africa need to score early if Uruguay are going to attack regularly. I also want Caceres to start ahead of Maxi Pereira. Maxi sucked against France. Caceres will do better offensively and he can cross the ball well. I'd also drop Suarez and start Cavani. Suarez didn't do much with the ball and he was offside so much, he'd put Filippo Inzaghi to shame!

Any chance that we will see Gargano play?

 

Victorino should be the replaced. Actually I think that Maxi did it very good dealing with Ribery.

I think that Gargano or Cavani should be in for Gonzalez.
If we put Cavani we think in vertical attack, long balls looking for mistakes of SA defense. They looked phisically good, but very naif and rusty.
If Tabarez choose Gargano, we should press a lot more, and search for both pereira's deep game, which was not saw in the last game for the defensive function that they did.
Anyway, i think that Gonzalez will play another half time.

 

If Gargano goes in for Gonzales, our midfield will become even more defensive than it already is.

 

Yeap, but bafanas dont are good with the ball. We can press them in their field, and keep them playing deep balls, and give pereiras more freedom like offensive wings.
Anyway should be a wierd change. I think we will start with the same eleven.

 

I meant offensively. Defensively, you guys could stop Ribery but whenever Maxi went forward, he moved slowly or he didn't read the play properly. If Tabarez wants someone to go forward on the right, Caceres would give more offensively. He doesn't have blistering pace but I think he would be wiser with his ball usage than Maxi.

 

Looking at the first match I think SA will beat Uruguay easily with the ref behind them. The winner from this match will have high advantage to go through next round so it will be brutal.

 

I'm starting to feel that SA should really choose defensive players and fewer attacking players. I would almost say 5-4-1...in order to have both the captain Mokoeana and Booth in the team. Mokeana can play more central like he does on club level. Sibaya is also a good option and even though he plays midfield, Pareira tested him on defence before. Booth will need to be in this game for areal balls....but i cannot see the coach dropping either Mokoena or Khumalo...Booth is good in the air, but not as strong on the ground. Very wise to have not played against Mexico...

So my gameplan would be 5-4-1 with an extreme focus on counter attack...and extreme focus on blocking wings. Later in the game we can add more attackers, but SA is good enough and fit enough to attack with only 5 players if they play confidently.

 

We will not go to attack and rush over them, Tabarez already said that. Actually i think that a tie is a good result cause winning last game we are in.
And if RSA dont want go to win and be exposed against France they need attack us and we can play our counter attack.

I dont want to believe that Bussaca is that type of Ref. SA can tie and still having chance helping them against a France that was already helped.

 

Please don't tell me you are suffering the offside decision on Vela's goal.

Emmex, we have to win this game. If we play overly defensive then we risk either having to play catch up of drawing the game. Uruguay's attack is great but we can't just knuckle down and play a complete defensive game. If we can hold more possession this game then we can have better control of the game and give Uruguay less chance to attack. We already plan a fairly defensive formation, making it more so will be a huge blow to the teams confidence and to our goal scoring threat.