The final day of the round of 16 commences with Paraguay taking on Japan. The Paraguayans topped group F and in doing so ousted the defending champions, Italy. Japan on the other hand may just be the shock of the tournament. Widely expected to finish 4th in their group – behind powerhouse Netherlands, strong European qualifiers Denmark, and African power Cameroon – the Japanese simply did what they had to do in order to advance. Whether the storm against the Netherlands, then get good wins against others. Keisuke Honda looks to be the real deal, providing some firepower to the Japanese squad. Paraguay may have topped their group, but I think they are in for quite a surprise against the Asian contender. Japan pulls out the victory. 2-1.
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The United States National Team’s World Cup hopes came to an end against Ghana in the round of 16.
The final score was 1-1 after 90 minutes, 2-1 after 120. A fair score.
Team USA was haunted by their greatest nemesis this World Cup: allowing an early goal. Ghana struck through Kevin Prince Boateng in the 5th minute off a bad giveaway from Ricardo Clark. Tim Howard was beat at the near post by a low shot and Jay DeMerit never applied any pressure that would have made getting a shot off difficult.
Credit to the Americans for doing what they always do, gathering themselves and fighting back.
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After a thrilling weekend with some expected results and some not-so-expected results, we enter this week with only 12 teams left in the competition.
First up on day 18 sees the Netherlands face off against Slovakia. The Netherlands topped group E, taking a full 9 points, while Slovakia limped their way to the round of 16 with one win, one tie, and one loss. The Netherlands showed their skill in the group phase and, dispatching some fairly strong teams in Japan and Denmark. Slovakia was in a group with defending champions Italy, they shocked the world with a 3-2 victory against the defending champs in their final group game to catapult themselves to second place while Italy was relegated to last in their group. Slovakia will be happy to have made it this far, and despite what seems like a good result on paper against Italy, they are not of the class that will expect to win in the round of 16. I see the Netherlands easing their way through this one. 2-0.
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Day 17 features two mouthwatering performances.
First up is Germany vs. England in an epic European clash. England hasn’t yet lived up to expectation, while Germany has looked off and on again with great performances vs Australia and Ghana but a weak showing against Serbia. The teams are pretty evenly matched in this game in terms of talent on the field, the edge may go to England overall, but with Rooney out of form, Germany certainly has the better strikers – better goalkeeping too. I think England will win this match because of one factor. Fabio Capello. It’s no shock that Capello has been blasted by English media during and after the group stage. But the bottom line is this: Capello wins against European competition. England breezed through European qualification winning 9 of 10 matches. So far in this World Cup, England have struggled against the USA and Algeria – two non-European teams and the only game they won and controlled was that against fellow European Slovenia. This match has the potential to go to extra time, but I see England pulling out the win. 2-1.
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