From the category archives:

World Cup 2010

Final weekend for World Cup 2010

by Joao on 10 July, 2010

The end of the World Cup is near, and it’s been a wild ride so far. With only two matches to go, opinions are divided about who will take the trophy home. Let’s take a look at the upcoming matches.

Uruguay v Germany

The Germans will try to save what they can from this World Cup and try to end it on a high note. This team is very young and showing a lot of promise, let’s hope that in the next World Cup they’ll put up an even better performance, for football’s sake.

Uruguay made it very far and now have a chance to get a third place in the World Cup. The two-times winners will be very moralized and will take the fight to Argentina, like they did to all teams they met in this competition.

Looking at the teams, I need to hand this game to Germany. But there is an unpredictability factor, and that’s going to keep this match very interesting.

The Netherlands v Spain

After beating stern competition to get to the final, these two teams will have a lot going for them. Since it’s the final, we’ll give you a more in depth analysis of the two teams.

Holland has made a firm tradition of being an exciting team to watch in tournaments, and this year it wasn’t any different in that aspect. But they did put up something different: great midfield consistency. It just looks like they can’t go wrong in that midfield, no matter who plays there, especially with the great rock that is Van Bommel. I’m sure the dossier that the Spanish have on the Dutch is huge, as so many players in the Dutch team play in different positions and they constantly rotate positions between themselves. As I’m sure everyone has read about Sneijder and Robben and all the other shinning stars, I’m going to go ahead and make a brief mention of who I believe is the rock in Holland’s attack: Kuyt. The man is solid, is a constant threat to the opposing defense and has put up consistent performances in this World Cup, game after game.

Holland’s weakness is their defensive wings. Not that their players aren’t good, but there is something amiss there. In the match against Uruguay there were huge gaps in the wings, and the space between the full backs and the center backs was just too big when the team was caught off guard.

As for Spain, my hat goes off to them. Because I am officially not a fan of their playing style or the way they present themselves, but I have to admit that it produces results. For me, Spain is a bit of a one-trick pony. Villa falls to one of the wings and they focus their attack through there. And most of their passing around near the box seems to have only two goals: open a gap for Villa to make a diagonal run into goal or make enough space for Iniesta to receive the ball in front of the box in good conditions. This is when they are the most dangerous.

The match itself, I feel, will be decided in the midfield. The Dutch have the ability to run circles around the Spanish, and the Spanish have the ability to pass circles around the Dutch. Whoever is able to make their style of play work will be the winner.

{ 0 comments }

The World Cup 2010 Semi-Finals Review

by Joao on 9 July, 2010

The World Cup semi-finals are done, and it’s time to give you our take on it all.

Uruguay 2-3 The Netherlands

The final score doesn’t really reflect what happened in the pitch, but it does a long way in showing why Uruguay made it so far in the competition. Holland opened the scoreline with what is the best goal in this World Cup so far, signed by Van Bronckhorst. It was a festival of Dutch possession in the first half, with Uruguay not being able to mount much of an offense. But when Diego Forlan got an inch of space, he got that equalizer.

The second half saw the Dutch increase their advantage to 3-1, and the Dutch midfield got a lot more solid and creative with Van der Vaart in the fray. De Zeeuw, who he substitued, was having a fine, although discrete, match, but had to come off as his performance dropped noticeably due to having suffered a massive facial trauma when Caceres tried an insane bicycle kick from outside the are and hit him square in the mouth. When the Dutch started clearly playing slower, probably with their minds on Sunday’s final, Uruguay pushed forward and got a goal back by Maxi Pereira.

The Dutch deserved the win, and Uruguay has a lot to be proud about.

Spain 1-0 Germany

We talked about how Spain hadn’t really shown convincing football in this World Cup, but we also said that if they keep winning that will be convincing enough. Both of those things happened.

This match, it must be said, was not worthy of a semi-final. The Germans had a clear strategy of letting the Spanish tire out and then get them in the counter, much like Portugal did. But just like Portugal, a Spanish goal sent that strategy flying out of the window. And this time it was a set piece. In the end, Spain did provide the most scoring opportunities, and there’s no contest to their win. It’s just not as “dramatic” and unforgettable” as the Spanish press would have us believe.

{ 0 comments }

Why Europe Has Triumphed Over South America

July 7, 2010

It’s a known fact that a European team has never won the World Cup outside of Europe. Italy has captured the trophy four times winning in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. Germany has won it three times in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. England won it in England and France won it in France. Not [...]

Read the full article →

Ghana hires Serbian healer

July 1, 2010

Milovan Rajevac grew tired of Ghana’s increasingly large injury list and decided to resort to the well known Belgrad healer Marijana Kovacevic. Marijana is famous for helping reduce the injury recovery time of the likes of Robin van Persie, Frank Lampard, Yossi Benayoun, Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio. She uses a special technique that involves [...]

Read the full article →

The Football Octopus

June 30, 2010

There are some crazy things about this World Cup, and this is just one more of them. But it’s especially crazy, so I decided to actually talk about it.
There’s an octopus in the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, named Paul. Paul is a normal octopus, except for one very special gift: he predicts the [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: Spain 1-0 Portugal

June 29, 2010

The match
Portugal went out in flames in this one. I honestly believed they could have done it had they been able to keep up with their game plan. They were frustrated by an offside goal and some strange decisions by their head coach. Spain was the just winner, but they still haven’t convinced me. But [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: Paraguay 0-0 Japan (5-3 after penalties)

June 28, 2010

The match
To be totally honest, it was a bore of a match. Both teams had a couple of chances, and it was a game of two halves, with Paraguay better in the first half and Japan better in the second. Honestly, the game only became exciting during the penalty shootout
The teams
Japan looked physically tired in [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: The Netherlands 2-1 Slovakia

June 28, 2010

The game
I’m going to record this for posterity: watch out for The Netherlands. They are the predators in this tournament. Other teams, like Brasil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, they are full blown soldier teams, you know what they can do and they’re strong. But Holland are the snipers. A team full of quality up front, and [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: Argentina 3-1 Mexico

June 28, 2010

The match
The scoreline makes it look like Argentina cruised for another victory, but it wasn’t quite the case. In fact, until the first Argentinian goal(which was offside), Mexico had the upper hand. But Argentina pulled through and keep showing quality.

The teams
Mexico is another one of those teams that is overrated in their home media, and [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: Germany 4-1 England

June 28, 2010

The match
Germany absolutely destroyed England in this one. The match will undoubtedly be marked by a goal that wasn’t given to England after a shot by Frank Lampard that clearly went in. That would have made it 2-2. But looking at how the game was going and how Germany was exploiting England’s (many) weaknesses, I [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: Ghana 2-1 USA

June 27, 2010

The match
Ghana had an amazing tactical display in the first half, got an early goal and hung onto it. In the second half, the USA came into the match with a better attitude and Donovan got a goal around the hour mark. The game was divided all the way towards the end of normal time. [...]

Read the full article →

World Cup 2010: Uruguay 2-1 Korea Republic

June 27, 2010

The match
Uruguay and Korea Republic, or South Korea, presented us with a very entertaining match. Uruguay got the opening goal in the 8th minute by the talented Luis Suarez and managed the game from then on. It looked like the South Americans were lacking drive when Lee Chung Yong got the equalizer around the 70th [...]

Read the full article →