GROUP F continues its first matchday with Sweden going head-to-head with South Korea in Nizhny Novgorod.

It precedes Belgium’s match against Panama, which begins at 1am, before the final game of the day between Group G sides Tunisia and England.

Cahill ‘fuming’ at Cup snub

Veteran Socceroo Tim Cahill was reportedly livid at being snubbed an opportunity to take the field for Australia as the underdogs went down 2-1 to France on Saturday night.

Herald Sun football reporter Dave Davutovic revealed the 38-year-old, who sat on the bench the entire game, was fighting against Australia’s already bursting pack of strikers to get a run.

“He didn’t play, he was warming up, and he is absolutely chomping at the bit,” he told SEN radio Monday.

“I can tell you, he was privately fuming that he didn’t come on. Not for any other reason but he thinks he can come on and make an impact.

“I think he will play in at least one of these games, potentially two. The issue is I guess there are four strikers in this squad and Bert van Marwijk only plays with one upfront.

“He started with Andrew Nabbout and Tomi Juric did well coming off the bench.

“I can’t overstate how highly motivated Tim is to join some of the games greats in scoring at four separate World Cups.

“Only four players have done that, with Cristiano Ronaldo just joining the elite company that includes Pele, and Timmy is absolutely itching to be a part of that.

“I think he is capable to make an impact.”

Incredible spying and subterfuge spices Cup clash

South Korea’s coach Shin Tae-yong said Sunday he deliberately made his team wear different numbered shirts in recent friendlies to confuse World Cup opponents who cannot tell his players apart.

He said all but star player Son Heung-min and captain Ki Sung-yueng were given different shirts in games against Bolivia and Senegal in Austria earlier this month to outwit anyone checking up on his team.

The astonishing claim came just 24 hours before his side open their World Cup campaign against Sweden, a seemingly tame encounter which has been spiced up by claims of spying as well as the Korean coach’s shirt subterfuge.

In his press conference, Swedish coach Janne Andersson was forced to apologise after it was claimed one of his scouts had been caught spying on Monday’s opponents at a closed training session in Austria.

But the claim by his Korean opposite number added an extra layer of intrigue to the Group F clash.

“All of the others played in numbers a little bit confusing, that’s why we switched the numbers,” Shin Tae-yong told reporters.

“It’s very difficult for Westerners to distinguish between Asians, that’s why we did that.”

The plan may have backfired on the Koreans though as they lost to Senegal 2-0, and drew with Bolivia 0-0 in their final warm-up games for Russia.

Asked about claims that Sweden had spied on his team, Shin Tae-yong was calm, saying: “I don’t think that’s bad”, adding that all teams needed to know about their opponents.

There have been counter-claims that the Koreans also spied on the Swedes in the run-up to Russia.

The row centres on Swedish scout Lasse Jacobsson who reportedly covertly watching the Koreans prepare for the World Cup.

Jacobsson had apparently rented a house in the town of Leogang, near Salzburg to ‘spy’ on Sweden’s first opponents.

“He heard about a practice session, he didn’t understand that it was a closed session, he didn’t understand and he watched from a distance,” said Andersson, attempting to downplay the incident.

...[ Continue to next page ]

Share This Post