Nigeria Upsets France in Friendly; Super Mario Hits Four in UAE Rout

France 0-Nigeria 1 (International Friendly, June 2, 2009)—The noose tightened around Raymond Domenech after Les Bleus fell to a disappointing home defeat.

Joseph Akpala scored the only goal of the game after 32 minutes cutting in from the right and firing into the near post.

UAE 2-Germany 7 (International Friendly, June 2, 2009)—Heiko Westermann set the wheels in motion in the 29th minute before Mario Gomez scored his first six minutes later.

Piotr Trochowski added a third in the 39th minute before Gomez added a fourth just before half-time.

Gomez completed his hat-trick two minutes into the second half before an own goal from Fares Juma made it six.

Ismail Salem grabbed a consolation for the hosts in the 53rd minute before Nawaf Mubarek restored a degree of pride with a second in the 73rd.

Gomez provided the cherry on top in stoppage time with a stunning end to Germany’s tour of Asia.

Turkey 2-Azerbaijan 0 (International Friendly, June 2, 2009)—Azerbaijan was reduced to 10 from the 52nd minute when Rashad Sadygov was red-carded for a foul on Semih Senturk in the box, but Senturk saw his spot-kick saved by Azerbaijan keeper Farhad Veliyev.

Turkey made the breakthrough at 69 minutes when Halil Altintop volleyed home, and Ibrahim Uzulmez made sure of the win with the second goal 15 minutes from time.

Oman 0-South Korea 0 (International Friendly, June 2, 2009)—South Korea should have won the match when they were awarded a penalty, but Ki Sung-yeung’s effort was saved twice by al-Habsi, who dived right to stop the penalty and to the left to stop Ki’s rebound attempt.