Word: match
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon - traditionally the dominant teams of West Africa - all have the talent to shake up the tournament. Ghana and Ivory Coast, in particular, bristle with confidence and star power. The dark horse of the African field is Algeria, which qualified only after a tense playoff match with bitter rival Egypt on Wednesday in Sudan following outbursts of violence by both teams' fans in Cairo and Algiers. The victory has catapulted Algeria into its first World Cup since the 1980s, when a "golden generation" of Algerian players upset West Germany in the first round...
...known as the "All Whites." In a tournament filled with millionaire, jet-setting athletes, the bulk of the Kiwi squad is made up of journeymen who toil in obscurity in lower-tier leagues in Europe and others who until recently were playing semi-professionally at home. A tied match, let alone one victory in South Africa, would be cause for celebration. (Read: "Rugby Hits the Big Time...
...where, as complete outsiders with 1000-1 odds to win the trophy, its team shocked the world by reaching the quarterfinals, beating Italy along the way and capturing the hearts of the English public. The current North Korean team lacks flair, but has shown a dogged resilience in qualification matches. A latter-stage match-up against South Korea, though unlikely, would be epic...
...through with embarrassment and even shame. "The Hand of God" was the ironic headline in France's sports daily l'Equipe, a reference to the notorious hand punch Argentine striker Diego Maradona admitted he'd used to score the winning goal over England in a 1986 World Cup quarterfinal match. "Les Bleus: Hands Up," echoed Libération in its coverage of what it called France's "holdup" of the Irish team that had utterly dominated Wednesday's game prior to Henry's pawing of the ball...
...simply adds two more fallible humans to the current four-person officiating teams. "Thierry Henry's handling of the ball should relaunch the debate on video in soccer, because viewing replays would have allowed officials to sanction the offense, disallow the goal and preserve the integrity of the match," former French referee Bruno Derrien told France Info radio. (Read "A 'Foreigner' Quota for Soccer...