Netherlands beat Slovakia and will now play Brazil
Goals from Robben and Sneijder stamped Holland’s passage to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after a 2-1 victory over Slovakia.
Robben celebrates first Netherlands goal
Slovakia actually started the game well and had a great shot pass slightly over the cross bar defended by Dutch keeper Stekelenburg
Robben, who returned to the Dutch team after an injury, finished a counter-attack initiated by a great pass from Wesley Sneijder, then moved from right to the center in a typical Robben kicking the ball past the outstretched keeper and giving the Netherlands a 1-0 lead at 17 minutes.
Until the interval the Dutch team gave away most of the ball possession to Slovakia, relying on the speed of their strikers to counterattack, without success.
Germany thrash England 4-1 and head to the quarter-finals
In one of the most anticipated round of 16 games of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the England team was thrashed 4-1 by the German formation in a game overshadowed by one of the worst refereeing mistakes in the tournament’s history.
England thrashed by Germany
Klose, Podolski and Muller (twice) scored for the German squad, while Upson reduced for the English from a Lampard cross.
In a spectacular first half, Germany got an early lead after Klose opened the scoring on 20 minutes after a long kick from German keeper Manuel Neuer.
Just before Germany’s second goal, Klose had another clear opportunity to score his second, but David James was able to defend the shot.
Podolski made it 2-0 for Germany at 32 minutes from a tight angle, making life very complicated for the English team. However, Upson reduced for England at 37 minutes after a header.
Before the interval had a chance to level the game when a Frank Lampard shot from just outside the area hit the crossbar, bounced down and landed almost a meter over the goal-line, but the referee and his assistant did not validate the goal.
The squad managed by Fabio Capello returned in the second half of the game determined to reverse the score, but the German counterattack proved to be deadly.
Müller was nominated “man of the match” by scoring two goals for Joachim Loew’s team in the second half, giving Germany an easy win on an afternoon where England’s defending was shockingly sub-standard and their talisman, Wayne Rooney, once again failed to deliver on the game’s biggest stage.
Germany will now face Argentina; the winner of today’s other round of 16 games.
Argentina beat Mexico 3-1 and head to the quarters
Uruguay defeated South Korea 2-1 in the first game of the knock-out stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Suarez was the man of the match by scoring the two goals that helped the South American team reach the quarter-finals of the competition.
Uruguay and South Korea played an even match, but the South Americans took advantage of an error from the South Korea goalkeeper to score the first goal by Suarez from a cross by Forlan after just eight minutes in the first half.
In the second half, South Korea managed to draw by Lee Chung-Yong, at 68 minutes after he headed in from close range.
Uruguay was the better team for most of the ninety minutes and eventually got their victory goal towards the end of the game.
At 80 minutes, Luis Suarez worked the ball well on the edge of the box and shot a beautifully curled ball just out of reach of the stretched South Korean keeper for a great goal and putting his squad into the quarter-finals for the second in 40 years.
The group stages of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have ended. Starting this Saturday things will start to hurt as it is time for the “knock-out” stages, but before that let’s make a balance and analyze the surprises, facts, trivia, and disappointments of the first two weeks.
South American teams confirmed their excellent form, with Uruguay, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil and Argentina Chile qualifying, meaning that all teams participating in the South American World passed the group stage, something that’s unprecedented.
Europe does not provide as many teams as usual for the second phase, after France and Italy (the negative surprises), Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, Denmark and Switzerland did not qualify. The African teams have failed to counter the favoritism given to the “sharks” of their groups, apart from Ghana, the only African squad to go to the round of 16 games.
The French players went on strike this afternoon, refusing to train while challenging the French Football Federation and their coach, because of the expulsion of Nicolas Anelka from the French team after his insults to coach Raymond Domenech, at half-time on Thursday during their 2-0 World Cup loss to Mexico.
The incident that triggered the tirade was caused by the dissatisfaction of Domenech with the positioning of Anelka in the first half in a match where the striker was one of France’s worst performers.
Domenech had given instructions to the Chelsea forward, who was not amused and insulted the coach by saying; ”go screw yourself, dirty son of a whore”, in the dressing room at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, resulting in Anelka’s replacement by Gignac.
The World Cup is an event that brings together many curious facts. Conceived by FIFA in 1904, the World Cup’s first tournament was held in 1930 in Uruguay, which as the host nation became the first world champions. Brazil has won the World Cup on five occasions, more than any other nation. They won in 1958 in Sweden, 1962 in Chile, 1970 in Mexico, 1994 in the U.S. and 2002 in South Korea and Japan.
Here are some curious facts about some of the 736 players from the 32 Nationals playing in the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa;
North Korea’s striker Kim Myong-Won was registered in the competition as a goalkeeper. However, according to FIFA, the player can only play in the 2010 World Cup as a goalkeeper.
A monumental blunder by England goalkeeper Robert Green has allowed the United States to draw their game against England in the first round of the 2010 World Cup Group C game held in Rustenburg, South Africa.
England, world champions at home in 1966, had taken the lead on the fourth minute, when Steven Gerrard, gained some space some after some sloppy American defending and sent the ball into the net, but an apparently harmless shot from over 25 meters by Dempsey, found the fragile hands of keeper Green.
England couldn’t have started off in a better way in this their 11th appearance in a World Cup, while the United States made their sixth consecutive appearance in the most important soccer tournament in the world.
Group B is already playing some serious football. Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0 on Saturday at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, in a well played game dominated by Argentina, coached by Diego Maradona. On the African side, goalkeeper Enyeama had a fantastic game.
A single goal after just six minutes gave Argentina its first three points in Group B. Heinze headed into the back of the net following a corner kick by Veron.
The score of 1-0 would remain until the final whistle, but not for lack of goal scoring chances. Argentina was always closer to double the lead, even though Messi didn’t play brilliantly and very little was seen of Di Maria.
