FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 Quarter Finals : Who will move to semi finals Brazil Netherlands Ghana or Uruguay
The quarter final day finally arrives at the 2010 FIFA World Cup as 4-time World Champions Brazil are all set to go head to head against the their arch rivals Netherlands.
Both teams are not new to each other as they have faced one another four times before at World Cup events and thus today’s 5th match is expected to provide a complete entertainment package of drama, excitement and aggression.
Going purely by historical stats, Brazil has the upper hand. Brazil has won majority of the games between these two competitors with the shockingly interesting fact being that these two teams have always met at World Cup tournaments during the crucial knock-out stages.
Brazil was able to overcome their Dutch rivals in both their 1994 and 1998 encounters. Whereas, in the first ever game between these two teams in a World Cup back in 1974, the European side emerged victorious 2-0.
The form of the Netherlands in this year’s tournament has so far been absolutely outstanding. They have not lost a single match so far and thus if ever they were in a position to get revenge from their arch rivals then fans and critics believe it could be today. The two nations clash in the football field of the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium.
The Netherlands coach, Van Marwijk, has admitted that his team may be the underdogs in today’s match as the Brazilians are a world class team. But at the same time, Marwijk believes and hopes that the way the Dutch have performed so far in the tournament, they will manage a win if they repeat their tournament performance so far.
However for a tournament which has already scrapped favourites the likes of Italy, France and England, Brazil, Spain and Argentina have thus automatically become the favourites to bring the World Cup 2010 back home.
Thus in the minds of many fans, today is the actual final since they believe that whoever wins today will go on to win the South African World Cup.
But no matter how this World Cup ends, South Africa will surely be remembered as a football destination where the best of the best team could not survive. Moreover, the two teams who would ideally have wanted to meet in the World Cup final are meeting today at the quarter final stage.
So now choosing a potential favourite from these two soccer giants or to predict who will eventually win becomes a task in its own. However, one thing is clear, whichever team manages to handle the pressure of today’s game will emerge as the eventual winner.
The second match of the day is also one which will have the whole of Africa and the world watching. Africa’s last surviving team, Ghana which has already made history is all set to play their first ever quarter final of a World Cup against a nation which has not played a quarter final in 40 years, Uruguay.
Ghana will come out today to create history, as after defeating the United States 2-1, Ghana which became only the third African team to reach the last eight of any World Cup. They have a chance to go on in the history books yet again.
On an optimistic note, we can believe that these courageous men, after having achieved what they have, can actually be the flavour of the day. Ghana can be the first African team ever to set foot into the semifinals of footballs biggest event, the World Cup. Ghana's strength is that they have a solid back-line. However their biggest weakness remains their incapability to score goals as they have only managed four goals in five games.
However, on a factual note, Uruguay is definitely earmarked to emerge victorious today. In Uruguay we have a team that has won three of their four matches this tournament, have some of the best forwards, Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan. While their defence has so far in the tournament only conceded one goal.
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