No big surprises in the final set of second round matches. Despite this being the ‘tournament of upsets’ the knockout stage has been pretty much as expected. The teams that won their groups beat the second-place finishers in 7 out of 8 games, with only the US loss to Ghana standing out. And there are not many people who considered the US to be a particularly strong group-winner. This sets us up with a fairly interesting set of games from here on out, with Uruguay seeking to re-establish a position for themselves among the elites, with Spain and Brazil looking like they might well end up in the final that everyone predicted, with Ghana seeking to prolong Africa’s World Cup experience a bit longer.
Paraguay 0 – 0 Japan (Paraguay through on penalties)
Well, I predicted a draw and a Paraguay win on penalties. So that part was spot-on. I did not, however, predict such a drab and lifeless game. Truly terrible. Paraguay set up to play for 0-0 and Japan didn’t have the class to break them down. After 10 minutes or so I was so fed up with them that I started counting:
Over 8 minutes, I observed 3 completed passes by either team in the attacking half of the pitch. Three. Each team futzed around in their own half for a few sideways passes, and then crossed the line only to be dispossessed or to hit a speculative long pass that overran everyone and went out for a goal kick.
Ugly and awful. Shades of the Slovenia-Algeria game, or the Algeria-England game. It wasn’t even as interesting as some of the other 0-0s which were about dogged defending and precise moves. Neither of these teams did anything to convince me they deserved to be in the knockout rounds, much less the quarterfinals. God help us if Paraguay manages a freak result like the Swiss did and somehow gets past Spain.
Spain 1 – 0 Portugal
Portugal set up with basically the same plan as Paraguay, with the added idea that leaving Cristiano Ronaldo alone at the top still gave them a possible route to a goal. Still, as good as Ronaldo is, he’s not going to be able to construct one out of nothing, particularly when he’s starved of the ball. I don’t like the guy, but in footballing terms I can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. Portugal has been set up in a fashion to severely limit his ability to influence games; it hasn’t really been his fault that he didn’t shine in this World Cup, but he’s going to get the blame.
This game didn’t do a lot to build my confidence in Spain’s ability to win the thing: a narrow victory from a somewhat fortuitous goal doesn’t suggest a team that ought to win it. But the quality remains there, and they’ve got Paraguay next who they really have to beat. That would leave Argentina or Germany in the semis, neither of whom matches up particularly well against them, I don’t think (though I did pick an Argentina ‘upset’ there in my pre-tournament bracket–mostly because I think Messi will have a game for the ages). I’d still put Brazil as the favorites, but Spain has a very good shot.
A couple of rest days now before the quarterfinals. I’ll do previews of those games tomorrow evening.
In the meantime, let’s all remind ourselves of just how poorly the EPL has fared in this tournament so far. Tevez has been great, and there have been a few stalwart performances from some of the mid-range guys in the league. But if you compiled all the ‘massive disappointments,’ a huge percentage would come from there (Rooney, Van Persie, the entire England team, Torres, the French Arsenals, Anelka, etc.)