Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Homeless World Cup: Scotland overpower India

Scotland and India at the 2013 Homeless World Cup

The group stage of an international football tournament. In the second half of a crucial match the referee awards a penalty to the side desperately looking for a way back in to the game.

But he's made the wrong call. And the manager of the team about to take the penalty has spotted the mistake.

He runs over to the referee and persuades him to reverse his decision.

It would never happen?

It would at the Homeless World Cup where Scotland yesterday bounced back from the loss of the opening goal to overcome India 8-1 while benefiting from the Indian manager's sense of fair play.

That result leaves Group G looking even tighter with Wales beating India on penalties after a 2-2 draw and Argentina remaining undefeated with a shootout win over favourites Indonesia after a 6-6 draw.

Indonesia recovered from that setback to beat Wales 12-2 in their afternoon fixture.

After day two, Indonesia - having played three games - top the group with seven points, Argentina lie second with five points and Scotland are third with three points after two games each.

All of which means today might be Group G's "moving day" and Scotland have two big games in store.

They play Argentina at 2pm (UK time) before finishing the day's play against Wales at 5.20pm.

Elsewhere yesterday England and Northern Ireland met in the first home nations clash of 2013 - with the debutants from Northern Ireland crusing to a 8-0 win.

That was as good as it got for Northern Ireland as they lost their next game 5-4 to Denmark while England's second outing had echoes of 1954 - a 7-1 defeat to Hungary.

In Group H, Ireland are second after losing on penalties to Russia after a 7-7 draw.

Team of the day yesterday might just have been the Philippines. They lost 6-1 to Austria and 8-5 to Slovenia but, having spent 24 hours travelling to Poland, they're not going to let defeats upset them too much.

Coached by Rudy del Rosario, a former captain of the Philippines national team, the players are living the Homeless World Cup experience to the full:

"More than football, these guys are having the time of their lives."

You can watch all today's games live on the Homeless World Cup website

Homeless World Cup 2013 at the Scottish Football Blog


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