FIFA World Cup Soccer 2010: Who will win the quarterfinals?
The last 16 stage of the FIFA World Cup 2010 is coming to a close with most of the quarterfinal matches already been decided.
In yesterday's thrilling events, Paraguay made their own football history as they narrowly won against an upbeat Japan after going into a penalty shootout as both teams could not manage to score in the 120 minutes of on-field play. The victory also meant that Paraguay became the fourth South American team which qualified for the quarterfinals.
Looking at details of the match, Paraguay sailed into the quarterfinals by winning 5-3 on penalties and will now play yesterdays second match winner’s Spain in the quarterfinals of South Africa 2010.
For Paraguay, Oscar Cardozo was the man who scored the all important winner after Yuichi Komano of Japan missed his shot which hit the crossbar, as the dull 90 minutes followed by the 30 minutes of extra-time failed to see any attacking soccer.
Both teams defended well and gave no chance of closing in on their respective goals except for a brief period in the 21st minute when Paraguay’s lead striker Lucas Barrios managed to go behind the Japanese defence. However, after doing the hard bit, he could just not time his shot as the ball landed straight into the hands of the Japanese goalkeeper.
In the other match of the day, Spain overcame their rivals Portugal, winning their game 1-0 with David Villa scoring the only goal in the match.
However, it wasn’t an easy victory for the Spanish as they looked uncomfortable with the Portuguese pushing their attacking line-up.
But Spain was quick to get to terms with that and thus one of the favourite teams in the tournament, Spain, made quite a display towards the end of play, reiterating why they could go on and win the cup.
The Spanish did not allow the Portuguese to get ball possession throughout the last 20 odd minutes of the game.
The Spanish look set for the semi-final stage as critics of the game suggest that their quarterfinal match against Paraguay would and should be a walk in the park, especially after the un-impressive Paraguay-Japan tie and the fact that Spain obviously is the better of the two teams.
However, a brief reminder to the Spanish would be that they should not go into the match holding history as their saviour as the soccer fields of South Africa have already shown what they are capable of doing to such egoistic teams such as England, France, USA and Italy.
So now that the stage is almost complete for the quarterfinals to start, so let’s take a snap shot as to what the fans can expect on this weekend in terms of live football action from South Africa.
Brazil, after crushing Chile 3-0, have set-up an entertaining match against the Netherlands as the world will witness star Netherlands striker Arjen Robben go up against the Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar, both of whom have so far had an exceptional World Cup.
Julio Cesar, who is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, has only let the ball go into the net on one occasion in South Africa 2010 so far and is thus a true asset in the Brazilian side.
Then comes the encounter between Ghana and Uruguay, where Ghana after managing the unthinkable and defeating their much stronger opponents in the shape of USA, are looking to go all-out in their first ever quarterfinals in World Cup history.
So the question that now arises is whether Uruguay will be able to sustain the men from Ghana who have already proved themselves in their dream World Cup.
Ghana remains the African continents last hope of securing their first ever World Cup trophy, as fans from across the continent are supporting them. For Uruguay, they have the advantage of having played well throughout the tournament and thus would be a good match for the improving Africans.
Then we have the all important Germany versus Argentina game.
In their game against the Mexicans, Argentina looked as an outfit, having all that it takes to go to the top. However, the German’s were not far behind in their match as they tore the English side apart with their 4 goals to one victory last week.
Germany will be taking on Paraguay in their quarterfinal match and a confidence booster for the Germans would be the fact that the much talked about psychic octopus in Germany, who so far has chosen Germany correctly as the winner in all their four World Cup matches, has once again ruled in their favour as they go up against the Argentineans in this all important class.
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