Ireland defeated a second World Cup bound team in four days Friday when it followed up Tuesday's victory over Paraguay with an easy 3-0 win over Algeria. Ireland took the lead just after the half hour when Derby County midfielder Paul Green, who made his international debut as a substitute in the 2-1 win over Paraguay, stooped low to head home winger Liam Lawrence's free kick unmarked. It doubled it six minutes into the second half when visiting goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi flapped at a Damien Duff cross and captain Robbie Keane dinked the ball over Chaouchi and his watching defenders. Algeria, which upset African champion Egypt en route to its first appearance at the Finals since 1986, started with debutants Habib Belaid, Adlane Guedioura and Djamel Mesbah, and looked like a side that had not played much football together. The trio, among seven uncapped players included in coach Rabah Saadane's preliminary squad for next month's Finals in South Africa, made little impact in a side where only dangerman Karim Ziani mildly impressed. FIFA systems crash About 700 people pushed and shoved and organizers threatened to shut down a World Cup ticket center as fans scrambled for a last chance to watch the tournament's biggest games - only to discover that FIFA's systems had crashed. Two hours into Friday's final release, no one had been able to buy any of the 160,000 tickets still available for the world's biggest football tournament. FIFA said ticket service provider Match was experiencing “significant delays” due to technical problems across all sales channels, which include FIFA's own ticket centers as well as local bank branches. FNB, the bank which acts as a World Cup ticket distributor in South Africa, said FIFA's ticketing system crashed again Friday morning due to a volume overload. “This is despite guarantees and promises given to FNB from FIFA's ticketing agent Match, as well as from FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke ... that there would be no further ticketing issues,” FNB's 2010 marketing head Vicki Trehaeven said in a statement. Trehaeven said FNB had no indication of when FIFA's ticketing system will be operational again. She said FNB was “as disappointed as the fans.” Chief organizer Danny Jordaan said he wanted to “sincerely apologize” to the fans, some of whom had been queuing for two days, for Friday's problems. Valcke said FIFA had demanded a full report from Match. Earlier, hopeful supporters at FIFA's ticket office in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Sandton had jostled for position as 90,000 additional tickets, including seats for both semifinals and more than 800 for the July 11 final, were about to be added to the main batch. FIFA's last ticket release, on April 15, was also hampered by technical problems and long delays.
