<p style="text-align: center;">(<strong>Results of the day:</strong> <em>Algeria 0-1 Slovenia, Serbia 0-1 Ghana, Germany 4-0 Australia</em>)</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Although day three of the World Cup started off with a dismal contest between Algeria and Slovenia, it got better as the day progressed; finally culminating in a fabulous German performance that sent a <em>"This is how it's done" </em>message to England, France and Argentina. When it comes to refereeing decisions, it was the most eventful day of the cup so far, as the three matches had one player each sent off. There was also a certain symmetry in the day's play. All teams that went down to ten men, eventually lost the match.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Day three could well be called a <em>'day of gifts'</em>. While Algerian goalkeeper gifted Slovenia a crucial win to allow them to top Group C, Serbian Kuzmanovic's inexplicable handball handed Ghana a narrow win. The third gift of the day was for Germany, in the form of the Australian defense. Though Germany was in irresistible form, Australia's defense was in 'sixes and sevens' throughout the game. The Germans only semi-exploited this weakness, and still won comfortably.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Here's a round up of the day's action..</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Player of the Day</strong></span></em></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Mesut Ozil's (Germany)</strong></span><span style="color: #000000;"> movement off the ball, and brilliantly arrowed passes caused mayhem in the Aussie defense. The attacking midfielder from German club Werder Bremen could have easily had two goals against his name, but wasted a couple of one-on-one opportunities. Nonetheless, his mobility accounted for Germany's first and last goals, and initiated other attacking moves as well.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><em>Goal of the Day</em></strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">The sheer bravery, execution, brilliance and yet, simplicity of</span><strong><span style="color: #000000;"> Miroslav Klose's (Germany) </span></strong><span style="color: #000000;">headed goal against Australia to virtually wrap up the game before half-time was the best goal of the day. You must have often heard pundits and commentators mentioning an 'old-fashioned centre forward's goal'. Well, this was it, and it was pretty straight forward.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><img style="border: 0px none currentColor;" title="Germany vs Australia" onmousedown="return false;" src="http://view.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9105172/germany-australia/germany-australia.jpg?size=500&imageId=9105172" border="0" alt="June 13, 2010 - Durban, South Africa - epa02200230 Germany's Miroslav Klose (C) scores the 2-0 against Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer (R) and Lucas Neill (L) celebrates after scoring the 1-0 lead during the FIFA World Cup 2010 group D preliminary round match between Germany and Australia at the Durban stadium, Durban, South Africa, 13 June 2010." width="350" height="391" /> </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><em>So Klose, yet so far, for Schwarzer! </em></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">While most strikers, who are not named Didier Drogba, would have backed out from a wonderful cross by German skipper Phillip Lahm, Klose did not worry about a charging goalkeeper and met it with great courage to rifle the header into the back of the net. The man, however, doesn't seem to be able to score with his feet.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em>Team of the Day </em></span></strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Germany</strong> makes it a hat-trick of awards. A magnificent and a headline-grabbing performance against Asia's number one qualifier made the world stand up and take notice of a team that was discarded from being World Cup contenders, in many parts of the world. Joachim Loew's men also gave this World Cup a much needed dose of free-flowing attacking football. Erase all your doubts because Germany are set to go far in this year's competition.</span><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><em> </em></strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">Miss of the Day</span></strong></em></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><span style="color: #000000;">Miroslav Klose (Germany)</span></strong></span> missed plenty of sitters in the match. Just before scoring a marvelous headed goal, an unmarked Klose failed to convert a Podolski cross, when all he needed to do was to hit the target.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><em><span style="color: #ff0000;">Stupidities of the Day</span></em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">When <strong>Abdelkader Ghezzal (Algeria) </strong>was introduced just before the hour mark, he was supposed to be Algeria's trump card. Instead, he lasted less than fifteen minutes on the field. After a completely unnecessary tug of a Slovenian shirt, he followed it up with a deliberate handball and headed for football's proverbial 'early bath'.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #000000;">Zdravko Kuzmanović (Serbia) </span></strong><span style="color: #000000;">handled the ball in the penalty area to gift Ghana's Asamoah Gyan a late penalty, which was duly converted. The moment of madness means Serbia cannot afford to lose any of it's remaining matches, which are against Germany and Australia.</span><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em> </em></span></strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><img class="aligncenter" style="border: 0px none currentColor;" title="FIFA World Cup 2010 Soccer: Germany v Australia JUN 13" onmousedown="return false;" src="http://view2.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9107007/fifa-world-cup-2010-soccer/fifa-world-cup-2010-soccer.jpg?size=500&imageId=9107007" border="0" alt="Tim Cahill of Australia receives a red card from referee Marco Rodriguez from Mexico..FIFA World Cup 2010 Group D..Germany v Australia..13th June, 2010." width="400" height="288" /></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000;"><em>"Off you go, son".."But why?"</em></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em><strong>Nonsense Refereeing of the Day</strong></em></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Marco Rodriguez(Ger-Aus)</strong> not only missed a clear handball that would have handed Australia a crucial lifeline, he compounded the Aussie misery by ridiculously sending off Tim Cahill, a few moments later.</span></p> <strong><em><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Joachim) 'Loew blow' of the Day</span></em></strong> <strong>Soccerroos. </strong>Four hard ones. <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><em><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">'Criminals of football' for the Day</span></strong></em></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Algeria and Slovenia.</strong></span><span style="color: #000000;"> To call it a contest, would be a joke. To call it football, would be a crime. To call it a display of talent, would be an insult to talent. The World Cup already misses Egypt and Russia.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><em><span style="color: #ff0000;">'Robert Green' for the Day</span></em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The goalkeeping virus is spreading! Goalkeeper <strong>Chaouchi Faouzi (Algeria) </strong>let a tame effort by Slovenian captain Robert Koren through his hands, thereby gifting Slovenia their first ever World Cup win, and taking away any hope Algeria had of qualifying for the knockout stages. His name just makes the blooper even funnier. Go ahead, pronounce it.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img style="border: 0px none currentColor;" title="Sports News - June 13, 2010" onmousedown="return false;" src="http://view3.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9103629/sports-news-june-2010/sports-news-june-2010.jpg?size=500&imageId=9103629" border="0" alt="June 13, 2010 - 06030373 date 13 06 2010 Copyright imago GEPA Pictures Football FIFA World Cup 2010 vs SLO Polokwane 13 Jun 10 Football FIFA World Cup 2010 Country game Algeria vs Slovenia Picture shows Valter Birsa SLO Anther Yahida Karim Ziani Faouzi and Milivoje Novakovic SLO Keywords goal Results PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxAUTxSUIxITA Football men World Cup National team international match Polokwane Action shot Vdig 2010 horizontal Highlight premiumd." width="450" height="332" /></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em>What the Faouzi was he doing?! </em></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em><strong>Sour grapes of the Day</strong></em></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">It's a mystery as to how <strong>Lucas Neill (Australia)</strong> remained on the field till the full-time whistle. His frustrations led to more than a couple of silly off-the-ball incidents and consistent fouling. The Australian captain was far from the leader his country required him to be.</span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em><strong> </strong></em></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><em><span style="color: #ff0000;">Historic Moments of the Day</span></em></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Dejan Stankovic (Serbia)</strong> became the first player to play in a World Cup serving under three different flags. He earlier represented Yugoslavia in France'98 and Serbia and Montenegro in Germany'06. <strong> </strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ghana</strong> became the first African country to win a World Cup match on African soil.</p> <script src="http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://view.picapp.com/pictures.photo/entertainment/sports-news-june-2010/image/9104974?term=Ghana" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter" style="border: 0px none currentColor;" title="Sports News - June 13, 2010" onmousedown="return false;" src="http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9104974/sports-news-june-2010/sports-news-june-2010.jpg?size=500&imageId=9104974" border="0" alt="June 13, 2010 - 06030648 date 13 06 2010 Copyright imago Sesa La Gioia Tue John Pantsil Ghana A Fine Partita Serbia Ghana Campionati DEL Mondo Tue Calcio 2010 World Cup South Africa 2010 Loftus Verse field Stadiun Tshwane Pretoria 13 06 2010 Giorgio Perottino Inside photo PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxITAxFRA GIORGIOXPEROTTINO Football men World Cup National team international match Tshwane Pretoria Action shot Single Vdig 2010 vertical Highlight premiumd." width="280" height="421" /></a></div> <script src="http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <p style="text-align: center;"><em> Finally, an African success!</em></p>