Monday 12 July 2010

World Cup Day 25 - The Final

The Final of 14 yellow cards and 1 red.

Spain 1 - 0 Netherlands

IT lasted 120 minutes but Spanish quality eventually told as Andres Iniesta bashed the ball gleefully into the bottom-left corner.

Spain become the third side to hold both the World Cup and European Championships at the same time, the others being West Germany 1972 & 1974 and France 1998 & 2000.

Howard Webb became the second Englishman to referee the final, the other being Jack Taylor in 1974.

Iker Casillas became the third Goalkeeper to lift the World Cup as Captain, the others being Dina Zoff (Italy) 1982 and Gianpiero Combi (Italy) 1934.

Spain became the first European team to lift the trophy in a championship outside of Europe.

Sunday 11 July 2010

World Cup Day 24

The game that no-one wants to win - the 3rd/4th place playoff.

Germany 3 - 2 Uruguay

Klose never got a chance to add to his tally and finishes this World Cup joint second in the overall rankings. Forlan on the other hand did add to his tally and looks a devastating prospect for future competitions.

Thursday 8 July 2010

World Cup Day 23

After the second semi-final there will be a new football World Champion.

Spain 1 - 0 Germany

The German juggernaut finally ground to a halt when the Barcelona captain Puyol scored after 73 minutes. The match itself was like watching a game of chess but Spain who had never won a World Cup quarter-final before this year became Spain who have never lost a World Cup semi-final. The result means with a Spain v Netherlands final there will be a new and 8th World Champion.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

World Cup Day 22

The first semi-final

Netherlands 3 - 2 Uruguay

The dutch are the first team through to the final with this victory over the last remaining South American side. The talking point of this game was Uruguay's equalising goal, was it a goalkeeping error or a wonder goal from Forlan.

Sunday 4 July 2010

World Cup Day 21

Europe will dominate the semi finals.

Spain 1 - 0 Paraguay
Germany 4 - 0 Argentina

The worlds greatest player finished the tournament without a goal. Klose however continued to inch his way to the all time World Cup goal scoring record with two goals in this 4 nil thrashing of Maradona's team.
David Villa came to Spain's rescue once again with his late strike to clinch victory for the European champions.

Saturday 3 July 2010

World Cup Day 20

Thirst two quarter finals

Netherlands 2 - 1 Brazil
Uruguay 1 - 1 Ghana (Uruguay win 4 - 2 on penalties)

Brazil score first through a Robinho goal only for the dutch to then hit back with a brace of goals from Sneijder in the second half.
The last African team are out after a Penalty shootout against Uruguay. This means their is still a possibility of three South American or European teams in the Semi-finals.

Wednesday 30 June 2010

World Cup Day 19

Two games, one goal and one penalty miss.

Spain 1 - 0 Portugal
Paraguay 0 - 0 Japan (Paraguay win 5 - 3 on penalties)

David Villa got his fourth of the tournament as Spain beat their Iberian neighbours to set up a quarter final with Paraguay. Portugal set up very defensively and showed very little threat to the European Champions. Paraguay made sure that there are four South American teams in the Quarter Finals when they defeated the last remaining Asian side in a penalty shootout.
Now for two days break from football.