Talking Balls: French Fried, Greeks Bearing Goals & A Great Escape

So it’s nearly time for the World Cup and the four year wait will be over. Before that all kicks off – and we make an effort to blog about it everyday – we’ve got a brief roundup of the sports happenings away from South Africa.

First of all. Team China beat France in the Europeans pre-World Cup warm-up match. The Chinese team was missing Zheng Zhi but still managed to win 1-0 courtesy of a Deng Zhuoxiang free-kick (after 3.30). The ball that made French ‘keeper Hugo Lloris look such a clown is the Adidas Jabulani. It’s the official ball of the World Cup so should make for some goals that will be worth staying up late for.

In the CSL, Beijing Guoan are struggling. The champions seem intent on not retaining their crown. Their most recent game - a draw against Shenzhen last Sunday – makes seven games this season without a win. Coach Hong Yuanshou might be held accountable for the team’s dramatic slide. The 62-year-old is said to be on the brink of getting fired.

Misfiring strikers are said to be to blame for Guoan’s plight. The finger has been pointed at Otto (or Erivaldo Antonio Saraiva, to his pals). The Brazilian has not hit the back of the net for 11 CSL games. In line to replace him is Greek international Theofanis Gekis (Bundesliga Top Scorer 05/06) who led Greece’s charge to the World Cup with 10 goals in 11 games. Another option is Angelos Charisteas, another Greek international plying his trade in the German top flight. Both strikers could play a part in Greece’s first World Cup game this Saturday. They play Korea at 7.30pm.

Finally, in Beijing Guoan-related news, the Green Machine united with Tianjin Police to trick Tianjin TEDA fans. The Tianin Police parked an empty bus outside of the stadium to make it appear that Guoan would depart on that. The TEDA fans surrounded the bus waiting for their rival’s players to come out but they never came because they had already “taken off like Kip Keino,” as the kids say, on a different bus. The Beijing Media has since shown great disrespect to Steve McQueen by calling the incident “The Great Escape.”

Read the blogtastic ModernLeiFeng’s take on the game with Tianjin here and watch highlights from the game here.

There’s also a new Griffiths brother in town – providing the town in question is Hangzhou. Adam Griffiths has moved from Adelaide United to Hangzhou Greentown. Will there be brotherly love when the teams meet after the World Cup break?