Football: Hope for similar crowd tomorrow

Two down, five to go.

Otago football fans still have plenty of Fifa Under-20 World Cup action to look forward to, starting with another double-header tomorrow.

Uruguay and Mexico kick things off at 4pm, before Mali, the surprise group D leader, takes on Serbia at 7pm.

Dunedin venue manager Mike McGarry said about 3500 tickets had already been sold for tomorrow's matches, but he hoped that number would increase to about 6000, the same as for Saturday's opening two matches.

''That was a great crowd,'' McGarry said.

''I was really delighted, actually. And that didn't include the complementaries and all that. We had the drums there. The Uruguayan supporters were pretty vocal; they were a good bunch.''

The All Whites great was also pleased with the high quality of football, as Mali stunned Mexico 2-0 in the competition's first major upset and Uruguay edged Serbia 1-0.

''I was talking to quite a few people after the games. They couldn't believe the quality and the speed and the movement of the players,'' he said.

''It was something you don't see very often and you're unlikely to see again for a long time, apart from these games over the next week.''

Tomorrow's matches are near must-wins for Mexico and Serbia, which probably deserved at least a draw on Saturday.

Group D has been called the ''group of death'' since the pools were drawn a few months ago, a title which appears justified after the first two games.

Mali had been all but written off before Saturday's game against Mexico, but the West Africans scored two marvellous goals to stun one of the pre-tournament favourites.

Mali will fancy its chances against Serbia, which created a bunch of chances but could not find the back of the net against Uruguay.

In the other match, the South Americans will be looking to hand Mexico a second consecutive defeat, which would leave it on the brink of elimination.

In addition to Serbia and Mexico's game on Saturday, the third and final double-header also features group C heavyweights Columbia and Portugal.

Mali and Uruguay will play their final group match in Hamilton the same day.

With more than 6000 tickets already sold for Saturday, McGarry said it was looking like a ''bumper crowd''.

The final game in Dunedin is a round-of-16 playoff match next Wednesday afternoon.

 

 


Fifa Under-20 World Cup
Yesterday's games

• Germany 8 (Niklas Stark 18, 27, Marc Stendera 20 pen, Grischa Proemel 23, Hany Mukhtar 34, 40, 89 pen, Marvin Stefaniak 68), Fiji 1 (Iosefo Verovou 48). Halftime: 6-0.

Brazil 4 (Gabriel Jesus 4, Judivan 34, Boschilia 59, Judivan 82), Nigeria 2 (Success Isaac 10, Musa Yahaya 28). Halftime: 2-2.

Hungary 5 (Bence Mervo 17, 49, 82, Zsolt Kalmar 33, David Forgacs 60, Bence Mervo 82, South Korea 1, Choe Ju Song 32. Halftime: 2-1.

Honduras 4 (Jhow Benavidez 4, Bryan Rochez 20, Kevin Alvarez 49, Bryan Rochez 90, Uzbekistan 3 (Dostonbek Khamdamov 31,

Eldor Shomurodov 79, Zabikhillo Urinboev 90). Haltime: 2-1.


 

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