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Friday turned out to be a disappointing day at the World Cup, especially considering that the top 3 teams in the world were playing. But that's sometime how it goes if teams don't need to do much in order to advance, making me appreciate the earlier play of Argentina and the Netherlands all the more.
June 26, 2010
Côte d'Ivoire had the slightest of chances to go through, needing a win, a loss by Portugal and an enormous swing in the goal differential. In the only entertaining match of the day, they did their best by scoring three goals and just missing on several other opportunities. But it all proved irrelevant when Brazil treated their game against Portugal as a training session. This is a match-up that few would be surprised to see in the championship game. But Brazil was already through and Portugal just needed a tie so neither team did very much for 90 agonizingly slow minutes. A scoreless draw - yawn.
Over in Group H, Spain needed to win to guarantee their place in the finals so they started the game showing us what they're capable of. After 24 minutes, they scored the opening goal when the Chilean keeper rushed out to stop a dazzling run by one player, only to deflect the ball into the path of David Villa, who lobbed the ball over the sprawled keeper and into the net some 40 yards away. Spain then scored another goal and appeared to have everything wrapped up, especially when the referee sent off a Chilean defender on a controversial call. But rather than pressing the attack, Spain largely coasted for the second half. Chile eventually shut down as well, and it was all I could do to stay awake. I tried switching to the other game for some variety, but Switzerland and Honduras were deadlocked in a scoreless draw that was possibly even more boring. Not a great conclusion to round robin play.
But now the playoff brackets are set and the real nail biting can begin. The US plays Ghana today (@2:30 EST) in what I think will be a very entertaining match. The US must consider itself lucky to have escaped Germany in the draw, and will have visions of making it to the semi-finals. On the other hand, Ghana is the lone African nation left in the tournament and should effectively have home field advantage - never to be underestimated in a football match.
The other match has Uruguay going up against Korea in what is expected to be an easy win for the South American team. Don't expect a lot of goals in this one.
June 26, 2010
Côte d'Ivoire had the slightest of chances to go through, needing a win, a loss by Portugal and an enormous swing in the goal differential. In the only entertaining match of the day, they did their best by scoring three goals and just missing on several other opportunities. But it all proved irrelevant when Brazil treated their game against Portugal as a training session. This is a match-up that few would be surprised to see in the championship game. But Brazil was already through and Portugal just needed a tie so neither team did very much for 90 agonizingly slow minutes. A scoreless draw - yawn.
Over in Group H, Spain needed to win to guarantee their place in the finals so they started the game showing us what they're capable of. After 24 minutes, they scored the opening goal when the Chilean keeper rushed out to stop a dazzling run by one player, only to deflect the ball into the path of David Villa, who lobbed the ball over the sprawled keeper and into the net some 40 yards away. Spain then scored another goal and appeared to have everything wrapped up, especially when the referee sent off a Chilean defender on a controversial call. But rather than pressing the attack, Spain largely coasted for the second half. Chile eventually shut down as well, and it was all I could do to stay awake. I tried switching to the other game for some variety, but Switzerland and Honduras were deadlocked in a scoreless draw that was possibly even more boring. Not a great conclusion to round robin play.
| Group G Standings | ||||||
| Team (FIFA rank) | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goals For | Goals Against | Points |
| Brazil (1) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| Portugal (3) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 5 |
| Côte d'Ivoire (27) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Korea DPR (105) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| Table H Standings | ||||||
| Team (FIFA rank) | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goals For | Goals Against | Points |
| Spain (2) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Chile (18) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Switzerland (24) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Honduras (38) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
But now the playoff brackets are set and the real nail biting can begin. The US plays Ghana today (@2:30 EST) in what I think will be a very entertaining match. The US must consider itself lucky to have escaped Germany in the draw, and will have visions of making it to the semi-finals. On the other hand, Ghana is the lone African nation left in the tournament and should effectively have home field advantage - never to be underestimated in a football match.
The other match has Uruguay going up against Korea in what is expected to be an easy win for the South American team. Don't expect a lot of goals in this one.
| Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Finals | Semi-Finals | Quarter-Finals | Round of 16 |
| Uruguay | Argentina | |||||
| (June 26) | (June 27) | |||||
| South Korea | Mexico | |||||
| USA | Germany | |||||
| (June 26) | (June 27) | |||||
| Ghana | England | |||||
| Netherlands | Paraguay | |||||
| (June 28) | (June 29) | |||||
| Slovakia | Japan | |||||
| Brazil | Spain | |||||
| (June 28) | (June 29) | |||||
| Chile | Portugal |
