World Cup 2010 Blog: “Liveblog: Uruguay vs South Korea, Round of 16” plus 9 more | ![]() |
- Liveblog: Uruguay vs South Korea, Round of 16
- Is Your Team Out? Get Behind One of the Last 16
- The World Cup Round of 16 Draft for Eliminated Players
- Ten Fearless Knockout Round Predictions
- The Group Stage is Over, So Now the Real World Cup Can Begin…
- Soundoff: Did Fernando Torres Dive?
- Preview: USA vs. Ghana, Round of 16
- Preview: Uruguay vs. South Korea, Round of 16
- Ghana: The Last African Team in the First African World Cup
- Match Review & Highlights: Spain 2 – Chile 1
Liveblog: Uruguay vs South Korea, Round of 16 Posted: 26 Jun 2010 04:58 AM PDT
If you’ve been enjoying our liveblogs (and we hope you have) then please help promote this post by clicking either the Facebook like or retweet buttons in the top right corner. Spanish speaking fans of La Celeste might want to try Esteban’s liveblog en Español over at the Uruguay blog. If you don’t fall into that category, then stick with us here on the frontpage. Bet on Uruguay vs. South Korea Don’t just take our word on the match. Check out match comments from carefully selected Twitter accounts: FAN RESOURCES
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Is Your Team Out? Get Behind One of the Last 16 Posted: 26 Jun 2010 01:16 AM PDT
Here are the 16 teams and a quick explanation of why you should support them in the next round. We’ve also included links to their blog and social media accounts, to help you follow them. Argentina : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Brazil : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Chile : Blog / Facebook / Twitter England : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Germany : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Ghana : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Japan : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Mexico : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Netherlands : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Paraguay : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Portugal : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Slovakia : Blog / Facebook / Twitter South Korea : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Spain : Blog / Facebook / Twitter Uruguay : Blog / Facebook / Twitter United States : Blog / Facebook / Twitter | ||||||
The World Cup Round of 16 Draft for Eliminated Players Posted: 26 Jun 2010 12:00 AM PDT
So taking our cue from Dave Chapelle’s Racial Draft, Chris and myself formed an impromptu World Cup 2010 Draft Committee, and allocated one player from each eliminated team to each of the 16 remaining teams. Here are our picks:
Argentina: Nemanja Vidic (Serbia) Brazil: Andrea Pirlo (Italy) Chile: David Suazo (Honduras) England: Diego Benaglio (Switzerland) Germany: Taye Taiwo (Nigeria) Ghana: Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon) Japan: Jong-Tae Se (North Korea) Mexico: Jeremy Toulalan (France) Netherlands: Dennis Rommedahl (Denmark) Paraguay: Alexandros Tzorvas (Greece) Portugal: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) South Korea: Siphiwe Tshabalala (South Africa) Slovakia: Robert Koren (Slovenia) Spain: Nadir Belhadj (Algeria) Uruguay: Tim Cahill (Uruguay) USA: Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) For the record, there wasn’t a system of who picked first or anything. It was just a case of matching players with teams. And I’m sure you disagree with us already. So who do you think should have gone where? | ||||||
Ten Fearless Knockout Round Predictions Posted: 25 Jun 2010 08:00 PM PDT The knockouts are upon us in the strangest World Cup in recent memory – just take a look at the teams participating. With the knockouts the absurdity will begin which, if the groups are any sort of indication, may mean South Africa will be swallowed into the Earth roundabout the semifinals. Fortunately, we’ve got the whole thing planned out just in case. I. Spain will score a goal. It sounds awfully cheap, doesn’t it? But Portugal have yet to concede in this World Cup, only one of two teams to do so, and have only shipped two in the last calendar year. That’s a pretty impressive defensive record – which won’t last. II. Uruguay will make the semifinals. This might be cheap too, given the competition they have – one of Uruguay, South Korea, Ghana or the US will make the semis. They’ve still looked a properly good football team with a solid defense, no goals conceded, a very sound midfield and an attack which can find goals from nothing, spearheaded by Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez. but perhaps most importantly: they’ve showed tactical versatility with quality. They can roll with the opponent. (Until Brazil rolls them.) III. No more than one European team will make it through to the semifinals. It’s been a very poor showing for club football’s biggest continent, and it’s about to get worse: all six European teams play one another in the round of 16, which means only three will make it to the quarterfinals. Two teams standing in their way to the semifinals include Argentina and Brazil, with only the winner of Portugal and Spain facing Paraguay or Japan. You can guess which team we’re betting on. IV. England will lose on PKs. England, meet your worst nightmare (not named Ricardo):
It might be Mexico, or it might not. Regardless, they will go down to ten men and they will win a game…as Diego Maradona takes off defenders and fires on attackers, not understanding the concept. The early money’s on Gabriel Heinze. Any takers? Paraguay’s looked good, but Japan’s looked better by the game, and that’s dangerous. They’ve even found out how to get the ball into the back of the net with regularity – just win a deadball situation from 35 yards on in. They’re defensively excellent, tactically disciplined and the greatest example of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” at this World Cup. They’re also better than any team Paraguay has faced thus far. And it’ll earn Okada his chance to move on if he so chooses, just weeks after he offered his resignation. (Will they get to the semifinals? Well…) Cheap! Yes, but it’s true. (With six – that better?) Any candidates for the game? Netherlands versus Slovakia sounded decent enough until Arjen Robben got a run out; now keeping that to one goal seems impossible. Maybe Argentina versus Mexico? Nah, seems like Messi will create enough – and finally score a goal (bonus!) – in order to fend off nasty one goal victories. How about Spain versus Portugal? And it’ll be Villa. Which will help him win the scoring prize. (That’s about eight predictions in one. Lap it up.) Just like ‘06, the Golden Ball winner will come from a losing team. Unlike ‘06, Messi won’t headbutt a defender on the way off the pitch. Though it’d be funny to see him nail someone mid-thigh.
Watching them hoist a trophy, that is. Both Daryl and I picked them to start, and nothing’s changed. They’ve still go all the right pieces – particularly if Felipe Melo picks up a key suspension. | ||||||
The Group Stage is Over, So Now the Real World Cup Can Begin… Posted: 25 Jun 2010 06:49 PM PDT Image: FIFA That headline makes it sound like I hated the group stages. I did’t. I enjoyed the group stages. They were an enjoyable way to whittle the World Cup down from 32 to 16 teams, and there was plenty of fun along the way. But we all know the knockout rounds are better. For all kinds of reasons. Chief of which is the fact that from here on out every single game matters. Every game will have a winner and a loser. Winner goes forward, loser goes home. No draws. For the very uninitiated, any game that’s tied after 90 minutes in the knockout rounds of the World Cup goes to extra time. The teams play an extra 30 exhausted minutes, where players on their last legs are equally capable of producing horrible lapses in concentration and breathtaking moments of glory. Both of which will be remembered forever. If there’s still no winner after 120 minutes, it’s a penalty shootout. The horrible drama of a penalty shootout, which is not only guaranteed to produce a winner, it also guarantees that one player from the losing team will be singled out to take the blame. Harsh. But great viewing. Enjoy. | ||||||
Soundoff: Did Fernando Torres Dive? Posted: 25 Jun 2010 05:37 PM PDT Hopefully we can all agree that Chile’s Marco Estrada did not deserve to be sent off for the above incident. Even though he was. Seems that whatever contact he made with Spain’s Fernando Torres – if any at all – was accidental. So referee Marco Rodriguez got it wrong. The only question for me: How complicit was Fernando Torres complicit in this unjust sending off? Did Torres just trip over his own feet, or did he dive? The only evidence we have is the YouTube video above, and the .gif below: I’d say the .gif is the more incriminating for Torres, but that may be due to the fact it has him stuck in some sort of time loop, falling down for ever. The YouTube video suggests to me that Torres ran acorss Estrada’s path accidentally, causing El Nino to innocently trip over his own feet. What do you think? | ||||||
Preview: USA vs. Ghana, Round of 16 Posted: 25 Jun 2010 04:06 PM PDT THE BIG PICTURE Ghana has a whole different set of motivations. Despite not scoring a goal from open play in their three group matches, and coming into the tournament without their biggest star Michael Essien, the Black Stars enter this match as the last African team alive in Africa’s World Cup. No pressure, guys. The Bafana Bafana fans and their vuvuzelas have moved on from their team’s elimination and put much of their support behind Ghana, so they will be very much the home side. |