Category — World Cup

The Oranje are through to the Quarter Finals: Netherlands 2-1 Slovakia

They face the winner of Brazil – Chile which takes place later this afternoon. To say that it will probably be Brazil, is not exactly a risky prediction.

As expected Brazil took it: Canarinho 3-0 La Roja of Chile.

Of course I back the Oranje, but, now they face the Canarinho in the Quarter Finals, so they really need to get their stuff together.

The Black Stars of Ghana are the only English speakers left in the Cup: Germany 4-1 England.

You get the feeling that England psyches itself out every time it plays Germany. Germany plays a great game of football, but the Premier League is not for amateurs. For whatever reason, almost every time England faces Germany on a pitch, they forget where the net is [disallowed goals not withstanding and the fact that the new ball is crap].

Argentina v. Mexico later today.

CONCACAF is out as El Tri fall to La Albiceleste: Argentina 3-1 Mexico.

Good day for South America, and bad day for Asia as Uruguay beats the Republic of Korea 2-1 in the first game and heads to the quarter finals.

La Celeste hold their own in the very tough South American CONMEBOL, which has five teams in Stage Two.

I’ll update with the United States v. Ghana results later.

Well, they took it to overtime, but the final is United States 1-2 Ghana, so Africa has a team in the quarter finals of the first World Cup in Africa.

With Mexico facing Argentina tomorrow, things don’t look good for CONCACAF representation, but El Tri have beaten La Albiceleste before.

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	5	3	1	2	0	4	3	1
	C	5	3	1	2	0	2	1	1
	D	6	3	2	0	1	5	1	4
	D	4	3	1	1	1	3	6	-3
	E	9	3	3	0	0	5	1	4
	H	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	0

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Well, four of the six made it through in the end, which is better than last time, but that will be short lived as Germany and England face each other on the second day of the knockout games.

Stage 2 Knockout [two games per day]

Uruguay – Republic of Korea
United States – Ghana

Argentina – Mexico
Germany – England

Netherlands – Slovakia
Brazil – Chile

Paraguay – Japan
Spain – Portugal

Final Round

In Group G:

Portugal 0-0 Brazil
DPR Korea 0-3 Côte d’Ivoire

—

This was a very tough draw for Côte d’Ivoire, who played well. Brazil is obviously prepared to take the Cup with them and have it in place when they host in 2014.

In Group H:

Chile 1-2 Spain
Switzerland 0-0 Honduras

—

Alas the Nati just couldn’t get it done. Of course they would have had to win by at least 2 goals to get through, but they remained a moderate in all areas with a one in almost every column.

Final Round

In Group F:

Slovakia 3-2 Italy
Paraguay 0-0 New Zealand

—

Blue is not a good color for European teams as the Azzurri follow the Bleus to the planes headed North.

The All Whites have a solid defense and four years to develop their offense.

Oh, I have no idea why the Group F teams played before Group E.

In Group E:

Denmark 1-3 Japan
Cameroon 1-2 Netherlands

—

The Oranje seem to be having a good time and winning without drama. Japan-Denmark was the hardest fought game in the group, and the Japanese came out on top.

Final Round

In Group C:

United States 1-0 Algeria
Slovenia 0-1 England

—

Looks like they finally figured out what they were supposed to be doing in South Africa, but I wouldn’t advise the US or England to send clothes to any cleaner that doesn’t offer one-day service.

In Group D:

Australia 2-1 Serbia
Ghana 0-1 Germany

—

The Australians needed 3 more goals, either in their game, or from Germany in their game, to get by Ghana. Nice come back beating the team that beat Germany.

Final Round

Group A:

France 1-2 South Africa
Mexico 0-1 Uruguay

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Group B:

Greece 0-2 Argentina
Nigeria 2-2 Republic of Korea

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Update: For those new to Football/Fußball/Fútbol here are the official FIFA Qualifying criteria.

If South Africa had scored more points against France, they would have gone through rather then Mexico.

In Group G:

Brazil 3-1 Côte d’Ivoire
Portugal 7-0 DPR Korea

In Group H:

Chile 1-0 Switzerland
Spain 2-0 Honduras

Portugal was just running up the score in the second half and it wasn’t necessary, even if you are playing against DPR Korea.

Chile managed a goal against a 10-man Swiss team. The Swiss had denied any goals for opponents for almost 500 minutes of World Cup playing time.

European champion Spain finally located the net.

Via Painted Jaguar in comments, something different .

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	2	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
	C	2	2	0	2	0	1	1	0
	D	3	2	1	0	1	4	1	3
	D	1	2	0	1	1	1	5	-4
	E	6	2	2	0	0	3	0	3
	H	3	2	1	0	1	1	1	0

In Group F:

Slovakia 0-2 Paraguay
Italy 1-1 New Zealand

In Group G:

Brazil 3-1 Côte d’Ivoire

The New Zealand “All Whites” game with the Italian Azzuri [Blues – both named for their uniform colors] was not the way things were supposed to go. A commentator noted that the Azzuri had 23 shots on goal compared to only 3 by the All Whites, and he acted like that was a good thing. Based on the score the Kiwis were almost 8 times more effective than the Italians.

At this point the only European teams looking good are the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Slovenia. It is looking like a very good year for South America.

Group D:

Germany 0-1 Serbia
Ghana 1-1 Australia

Group E:

Netherlands 1-0 Japan
Cameroon 1-2 Denmark

At this point the Netherlands are the only one of the teams I watch who are in good shape to make it to the knock-out, with Switzerland close behind.

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	2	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
	C	2	2	0	2	0	1	1	0
	D	3	2	1	0	1	4	1	3
	D	1	2	0	1	1	1	5	-4
	E	6	2	2	0	0	3	0	3
	H	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	1

In Group C:

Slovenia 2-2 US
England 0-0 Algeria

In Group D:

Germany 0-1 Serbia

The US was asleep in the first half, but came back. What would have been the winner for the US was disallowed. It wasn’t clear why, but it was disallowed.

England didn’t ever wake up against Algeria, but they had better because Slovenia can taste the knock out round.

Germany paid the price of not respecting their opponent, and this Cup is definitely getting weird.

Team	Group	Points	Matches				Goals
			Played	Won	Tied	Lost	For	Against	Difference
	C	2	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
	C	2	2	0	2	0	1	1	0
	D	3	2	1	0	1	4	1	3
	D	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	-4
	E	3	1	1	0	0	2	0	2
	H	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	1

In the second round of Group play –

Group A:

South Africa 0-3 Uruguay
France 0-2 Mexico

Group B:

Argentina 4-1 Republic of Korea
Greece 2-1 Nigeria

France has a problem and may not make out of the Group. The Mexico side showed why they are in the Cup,

The Bavaria Brewery of the Netherlands have done it again: Two women in court over World Cup Dutch ‘beer stunt’.

This was a much better looking, from my point of view, than the 2006 stunt. Orange mini-dresses on 30 young women is certainly preferable to orange lederhosen with lion tails.

Why American Budweiser is allowed to be the official “brew” of the World Cup, is beyond me. It’s not like many of the people who would watch the World Cup would actually drink it, even if it were free. FIFA is all about money.

At least they haven’t banned the vuvuzelas. A B♭ plastic trumpet isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but at least they drown out the commentators so you can watch the game. They at least switched to plastic from the original metal versions, which has reduced medical costs, as well as the cost of the horns.