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Brazil are already through, but will win the group by avoiding defeat against Portugal, who themselves can win the group by beating Brazil, or guarantee second with a draw. If Portugal loses then Ivory Coast can take second if they can beat North Korea by a big margin and catch up with Portugal’s impressive goal difference.
The liveblog window is below, so leave all your comments in there.
Team of the Day: Japan. How impressive has this team been over the course of this World Cup? Just an alarmingly organized and well-drilled side which is maximizing the very most of its talents – and today, the offensive talents were finally put on show when Keisuke Honda and Yasuhito Endo were handed a set piece.
The world shall stop revolving, some six billion people stop breathing when those two stand over a free kick against Paraguay. Justo Villar best get some adult diapers ready. Team of the Day II: New Zealand. Excuse me – undefeated New Zealand.
Soak that in. Player of the Day: See above. A lot of the European big boys chased after Honda while still at VVV, but he surprised everyone when he moved to CSKA Moscow.
I’d be willing to bet a good many of those big boys were wishing they’d gone after him now. Rapidly turning into Asia’s best player, and he’s just turned 24 last week. Player of the Day II: I’ve always had something of a love-hate relationship with Fabio Quagliarella. Mostly in that I force myself to love his abilities when he’s linked to my beloved team and hate him the rest of the time, particularly on the Azzurri. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. He and Andrea Pirlo – bless his hair – brought the only quality to Italy’s lacking campaign, if just for 45 minutes. To see him bawling on the pitch afterwards was enough to win me over. Fabio Quagliarella Fan Club: 1 (+ Napoli).
His absurd pallonetto was also quite nice.
Moment of the Day: Near the end of the first half in Slovakia-Italy Zdeno Strba had a nasty gash on his knee opened up – easily worthy of stitches and a sub, with a teammate standing over and made the universal sign. So Vladimir Weiss got the sub ready as Strba was hobbling over to the sidelines to get his treatment. And then, as the sub (Kapunek?) was about to enter, Strba stood up and motioned back in only to notice the impending switch. Perplexed, he shook his finger at Weiss a few times and the sub was motioned back to the bench with a smile as Strba limped back on to play another 40+ minutes. Worst Honeymoon Ever Award: Clearly Antonio Cassano had the right idea for an Italian honeymoon – nowhere near South Africa.
This loving couple wasn’t quite as smart.
Sweet Pose Award: Oh, Germany…
Also: Phil needs an eyebrow wax. That Bosingwa between his eyes is growing back.
The Most Infuriating Award of the Day: You’ve got +/- six seconds to figure out what’s going on with this girl’s face.
(Pick a @#$%ing side!)
Fan of the Day: A day late, but that’s no reason not to fill your night terrors with flashbacks of this guy.
Matchup of the Day: Paraguay takes on Italy in a 2v1 situation.
THE BIG PICTURE Switzerland’s World Cup campaign started with a dramatic win over Spain, but then deflated a little with defeat to Chile. Honduras are yet to score or register any points and so need a victory here to have any chance of qualifying. Switzerland could get away with a draw or even defeat but will want a victory – as big a victory as they can manage – so as to give themselves a better goal difference than either Chile or Spain, depending on what happens in that game. Problem is… while Switzerland have proven themselves time and again defensively, they’re not nearly as effective going forward. Will be interesting to see how they react when the pressure is on to score goals.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
World Cup Group H qualification scenarios: Switzerland 3 points from 2 matches, 0 goal difference Switzerland can win the group with: * A win over Honduras combined with a Spain win that leaves Switzerland ahead of Spain and Chile on goal difference / tie-breakers. Switzerland can qualify in second with: * A win over Honduras, combined with a draw or Chile win in the other match. * A win over Honduras, combined with a Spain win that leaves Switzerland ahead of Chile on goal difference / tie-breakers. * A draw with Honduras, combined with a Chile win over Spain. * A loss to Honduras, combined with a Chile win over Spain that leaves Switzerland ahead of both Spain and Honduras on goal difference / tie-breakers. Honduras 0 points from 2 matches, -3 goal difference Honduras cannot win the group Honduras can qualify second in the group with: * A win over Switzerland, combined with a Chile win over Spain that leaves Honduras ahead of both Spain and Switzerland on goal difference / tie-breakers.
THE BIG PICTURE Former colony vs former empirical overlords. This game is England vs USA with more talent. It could and maybe should have been the best game of the group stage. Except now Portugal vs Brazil has had some of the sting take over out of it by the fact that Brazil has already qualified for the Round of 16.
The canarinho can win the group with a draw, while Portugal can afford to lose this game provided Ivory Coast don’t run up the score against North Korea. But let’s be optimistic and hope the lack of immediate danger produces a game that’s less about points than it is about pride and good football.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Group G qualification scenarios: Brazil 6 points from 2 matches; +3 goal difference Brazil has already qualified for the Round of 16 Brazil can win the group with: * Any win or draw with Portugal (regardless of other result) Portugal 4 points from 2 matches; +7 goal difference Portugal can win the group with: * Any win over Brazil (regardless of other result) Portugal can qualify in second place with: * Any draw with Brazil (regardless of other result) * A loss to Brazil, combined with a North Korea win or draw in the other match. * A loss to Brazil, combined with an Ivory Coast win that still leaves Portugal ahead of Ivory Coast on goal difference / tie-breakers (currently 9 goals ahead).
OUR PREDICTION Provided Ivory Coast don’t make goal difference an issue, I predict an entertaining semi-casual game that finishes 2-2, with Robinho doing more stepovers than Cristiano Ronaldo to give Brazil the moral victory.
THE BIG PICTURE North Korea were widely expected to be the whipping boys of Group G, the footballing Davids surrounded by not one or two but three Goliaths. But they showed in the first match with Brazil that they could be just a little trickier to break down than we all thought. Then there was the second half against Portugal, when the Korean side completely fell apart and allowed in six goals in rapid succession. That huge loss to Portugal had a side effect of all but eliminating Ivory Coast from qualification. Unless Drogba and the Elephants (best band name ever) can do the same sort of damage that the Portuguese did, it will all be over for them.
WHAT’S AT STAKE North Korea is already out of contention for the Round of 16, and Ivory Coast needs to win and win huge to have a chance. With their 1 point and -2 goal difference, even equaling Portugal’s 7-0 result wouldn’t get them through unless Brazil beat Portugal by 2. It’s a long road, but it’s still possible, technically.
OUR PREDICTION I’m fairly confident that Ivory Coast will win this match. I can see a big win for Ivory Coast, unfortunately for the Elephants, though, not nearly enough to get them through. But predicting North Korea has not been a paying business lately. Who would have guessed their strong performance against Brazil, and after that their collapse against Team Ronaldo? I’m going for 3-0 to Ivory Coast.
From a footballing perspective, is this the most anticipated game of the groups? Perhaps. Both teams only know one way: forward.
Chile will most certainly not kowtow to Spain’s attacking ways – not with Loco Bielsa in charge and just loving his rip-roaring attack. Nor will Spain suddenly change their methods to stick Xavi in the backline as a third centerback and forbidding Sergio Ramos to sit there with his only instruction to look pretty while keeping the tactical shape.
This one’s going to be a fun ‘n gun shootout, with Spain looking to control and Chile looking to blitz on the counter, keeping their Spanish-speaking counterparts thinking defensively enough to shift that possession meter closer to the fifty mark. And it certainly won’t be boring, with Spain likely needing a win just to advance beyond the groups and both teams looking to avoid that Brazilian juggernaut likely awaiting the second place team.
The stars are aligning for one of the World Cup’s great games.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Who predicted this? Chile top the group and need just a draw, while Spain need a win or a draw plus a little Honduran help – or even a draw with a lot of Honduran help. But chances are, given Switzerland’s quality at full strength and Honduran’s lack of quality at any strength, Spain needs to win.
Chile
6 points from 2 matches, +2 goal difference Chile wins the group with: * Any win or draw with Spain (regardless of other result)
Chile qualifies in second place with: * A loss to Spain combined with any Honduras win or Switzerland-Honduras draw * A loss to Spain combined with a Swiss win that leaves Chile ahead of Switzerland on goal difference / tie-breakers.
Spain
3 points from 2 matches, +1 goal difference Spain can win the group with: * A win over Chile, combined with a Honduras win or draw in the other match. ( Spain beats Chile on tie-breakers with any win ) * A win over Chile, combined with a Switzerland win that leaves Spain above Switzerland on goal difference / tie-breakers.
Spain can qualify in second with: * Any win over Chile (regardless of other result) * A draw with Chile, combined with a Honduras win or draw in the other match. * A loss to Chile, combined with a Honduras win that leaves Spain ahead of Honduras and Switzerland on goal difference / tie-breakers.
Takeshi Okada promised Japan would not sit on the draw, and they delivered as advertised. With their three goals they’ve earned a date with Paraguay in the second stage and the stigma of a team which has finally figured out the Jabulani on free kicks – they’re the Jabulani Masters.
A game which promised to be close and hard-fought was anything but when two free kicks within the first half hour stunned Denmark into disbelief – possibly because both were so extraordinarily brilliant. The game was seemingly good and over from there, with the late trading of goals only for scoreline purposes.
This is likely as good as it’ll get from here on out, so soak in this first extraordinary effort from the extraordinary Keisuke Honda:
The second which came less than 15 minutes later was equally stunning in that it was Yashuhito Endo who slinked in to take the free kick whilst the world was waiting breathless for Honda’s foot to strike Jabulani – and this one was a bit more elegant, and only slightly less spectacular. Two brilliant free kick takers, two brilliant goals.
Denmark would get a soft penalty late on which would be saved, but Jon Dahl Tomasson would get his own rebound and tuck it in for his first goal in two years, finally becoming Denmark’s joint-leader in goals.
Still needing two goals – Denmark needed a win, Japan only the tie – they pressed forward and, with another goal inevitable from one of the two sides, let their World Cup drift away when Honda put on a show again, this time with the ball on the floor.
A phenomenal showing from Japan and they deservedly go into the knockouts on the merits of all three games – even matching the Dutch only to be felled by their keeper – a stunning development for a side whose coach offered to resign mere days before the kickoff of the World Cup. Their defense has been stingy – the penalty was, again, very soft – and they’ve finally found the route to goal. What may be more ridiculous than the absurd promise from Okada that Japan would make the semifinals is that it doesn’t seem so implausible anymore. This is a properly good football team with their biggest attribute beating louder and louder by the game.
Most of the neutral world was watching Denmark – Japan with this game merely about the Oranje playing for first and the Indomitable Lions playing for the pride. (Sorry.)
It started out anything but a simple run out for the top of the group, with Bert van Marwijk running out both Nigel de Jong and Robin van Persie, each a yellow away from missing a second round date. (Robin you can understand, but de Jong? That’s risky.) Neither, however, managed to pick up a yellow, but they did pick up a win, so all’s well in Holland tonight.
The first from Robin van Persie was the long-awaited Dutch attack at its finest:
But the real news came late in the second, when both Eljero Elia and Arjen Robben got onto the pitch, and did they ever make a difference – even if Arjen was on half fitness. The name reads Huntelaar on the second Dutch goal, but it was a vintage Robben strike from distance which did the damage, hitting the woodwork and falling to Huntelaar, who put it away so the Dutch didn’t need to worry about a Cameroonian winner and thus second place behind Japan. Group E was all Oranje with this:
The biggest thing to take from the game is easily this: there’s been a lot of “wait til we/they get Robben back” floating around, and were they ever right. Slovakia is in for a nightmare whether he plays from the start or not, but if the Dutch back can hold watertight, the Oranje are now firmly entrenched into the contenders category. Arjen Robben is simply that much of a difference-maker on the world football landscape.
But going out, we have not one but two Cameroonian bows: the team itself along with Rigobert Song, who came on to make his 138th and final cap in the second half. An exceptional international career which comes to a close…or maybe not, if his hair is anything to judge by.
Hallo and welcome to our liveblog for the final round of Group E. Denmark vs Japan is the big game because both teams are fighting to go through, so we’ve got Aidan from the Japan blog and Cerberus from the Denmark blog on board to liveblog what should be a belter. Netherlands vs Cameroon is happening too, which sounds good in theory, but remember Netherlands are already through and Cameroon are already out.
Paraguay just needed a draw to go through. New Zealand needed a win, but knew they probably didn’t have the firepower to make it happen. The result was a game with just five shots on target, all of them belonging to Paraguay, and – according to the FIFA summary – not a single corner kick until the 62nd minute. Highlights, such as they are, below:
So nothing to write home about if you’re a neutral. But if you’re a Kiwi, then your team just went three matches unbeaten at World Cup 2010, and finished third in Group F, one place ahead of world champions Italy. If you’re a Paraguayan, your team just won Group F, and goes through to play Group E runners up Japan in the Round of 16.
My name is Mamudu Nurudeen popularly known as Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious born on 25 Feb. 1985, to Mr Mamudu and Hajia Safura at Bawku Central in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
I am currently a student of Sunyani Polytechnic offering HND General Agriculture.
I am also a freelance Journalist, a motivational speaker and the founder of PERSONALITY AND HUMAN RELATIONS (PHR)
PLEASE THIS WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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