International friendlies!! 2/9/2011

Brazil v.s. France, Argentina v.s. Portugal, Germany v.s. Italy; what could go wrong? Well, things weren't as brilliant as you'd expect as Argentina scored twice while Portugal slotted home only once as Lionel Messi led his team to an exciting victory with his final minute penalty shot. Brazil, admittedly beneath their normal level of play and down to ten men, actually lost to France 1-0 while England beat Denmark 2-1. The Netherlands's 3-1 win over Austria didn't surprise anyone, but Germany's draw with Italy was a little surprising based on the respective sides' World Cup performances. The final score was 1-1 with Germany's Miroslav Klose opening the scoring before the half; but they allowed an equaliser late in the game from Giuseppe Rossi to steal the glory that could have been. In other matches, Spain were hard pressed for victory against Colombia, but found victory in the end, owing a huge thanks to Jesus Navas' cross and David Silva's goal. Iran surprised Russia in their match 1-0 thanks to a last minute goal from Mohammad Reza Khalatbari, while Croatia and the Czech Republic had the most high-octane game of the day, ending 4-2 as the Croats went two ahead, then were brought level, then went two ahead once more, a lead which the Czech Republic players couldn't recover from. Greece were able to edge out Canada 1-0 while Turkey and the Korean Republic fought out a goaless draw. Finally, South Africa and Kenya played out a nice game which the hosts of last year's world cup ran away 2-0 winners.