Field of draws: Green Point games fail to thrill (Feature)

By Michael Logan Jun 19, 2010, 14:37 GMT

Cape Town - Forget the curse of the Jabulani, there's a new hex in town: in Cape Town, to be precise.

Capetonians and football hacks based in the coastal city could be forgiven for shivering with dread at the sight of Green Point stadium.

The sleek silver structure sits beneath the backdrop of the towering Table Mountain, juxtaposing nature's majesty against the beauty of modern human endeavour. But the visual spectacle ends as soon as you walk through the gates and settle down to watch the turgid football.

Three games have been played at Green Point, and at each match the stadium was packed close to its 66,000 capacity. Yet each tussle ended in a low-scoring draw, with barely a moment of excitement for the crowds to cheer from 270 minutes of play.

Ahead of Saturday's games, the only other stadium not to have hosted a victory was the Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg, but at least it had a two-goal-per-game average.

With 0.66 goals per game, Green Point has the lowest goal average of any stadium - and both came in the otherwise dull Italy-Paraguay match.

Soccer City in Johannesburg has the highest average, with a still-paltry three goals per game - buoyed up by Argentina's 4-1 thrashing of South Korea.

When searching for reasons for the dreadful games in Cape Town, at least one can be discounted. Some believe the Jabulani behaves more erratically at altitude, but Green Point sits only a few hundred metres from the sea.

The real reason could be the bad luck of the draw.

Cape Town's first game was France v Uruguay, which on paper could have been entertaining.

France could call on the attacking prowess of Franck Ribery, Yoann Gourcuff and Nicolas Anelka - amongst many others - while in Diego Forlan, Uruguay had a top-class striker on the pitch.

But the French capitulated with a Gallic shrug - far too busy squabbling among themselves and taking the huff with their erratic and unpopular coach Raymond Domenech to worry about actually playing football.

Uruguay, meanwhile, left Forlan forlorn upfront as they dug in for a goalless draw - seemingly unaware of just how bad France have become.

At least the next game, Italy-Paraguay, saw some goals, but unsurprisingly for a match involving the inventors of Catenaccio versus relatives minnows, the defences dominated.

Paraguay's much-heralded forwards - Nelson Valdez and Lucas Barrios plus substitutes Roque Santa Cruz and Oscar Cardozo - failed to register a single shot on target, leaving the goalscoring feat to defender Antolin Alcaraz.

Then came England, sporting one of the best strikers in the world in Wayne Rooney and the midfield goal threat of Steven Gerrard.

But the English came off despondent to a chorus of boos, failing to score against an Algeria side that themselves rarely threatened. It was 0-0 again.

The prospect of Portugal on Monday would normally set fans salivating. But the curse of Green Point is lurking.

Portugal's first match, against the Ivory Coast, ended 0-0, and their preening star Cristiano Ronaldo is in the middle of an international goal drought.

When not flogging Armani underwear, Nike boots and anti-dandruff shampoo, Ronaldo has been firing blanks for his country. His last goal came from the penalty spot in a friendly against Finland in February 2009. He hasn't scored in a competitive match for Portugal in two years.

Portugal's opponents are North Korea, a team Brazil found difficult to break down during their 2-1 victory in the opening Group G match.

Cameroon versus the Netherlands, the last group match in Cape Town, could provide some welcome respite for the stupefied fans, and the latter stages bring the prospect of Argentina and Brazil, who should at least hit the back of the net a few times.

Until then, Cape Town will have to find other ways to stave off the boredom.