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Live Blog

Japan v Paraguay, Round of 16: Liveblog/Open Thread

June 29, 2010 — by Suman — 14

The Japanese Maradona?

[Final Score: Paraguay 0 – Japan 0; Paraguay advances by winning PK shootout 5-3.

Paraguay advances to a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of Spain-Portugal (the last Round of 16 match, to be played later today at 2:30pm ET). Japan goes home, their hopes of representing Asia further in the tournament dashed.]

This is by far the most unexpected matchup of the Round of 16, with neither country having advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup before. Paraguay will be attempting to make the quarterfinals 50% South American (!), with Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil having already advanced over the past 3 days. On the other hand, Japan is trying to become the first Asian side to advance to the quarterfinals since South Korea in 2002.

We’ll again be sporadically liveblogging–we will post scoring plays, details about individual players, and observations about the general run of play. We’ll count on you to provide color via the comments!

We are about 15 minutes from kickoff! Starting lineups and a very welcoming and empty comment box after the jump!

Live Blog

Brazil v Chile: Liveblog/Open Thread

June 28, 2010 — by Suman — 7

This could very well be the big upset of the tournament, though Brazil have bested the Chilean side 46 times (and lost only 7). Chile have looked strong, however, and Brazil haven’t really put on the flair to which we’re accustomed. Check out these comments about Chile’s quality by the father of total football himself, Johan Cruyff.

Brazil will be happy to have Kaka back from suspension, meaning Baptista will be taking a seat. Chile have Carmona and Fernandez ready, but don’t have the excellent Marco Estrada at their disposal. They’re also without Medel and Ponce — all three to suspension.

We’ll be sporadic on this one, familial responsibilities, etc. Starting lineups and some commentary after the bump! Your comments welcome!

Live Blog

Liveblog/open thread: Netherlands vs Slovakia

June 28, 2010 — by Suman — 13

"I'm going to score down there"

[Final score: Netherlands 2 – 1 Slovakia (Robben 17′, Sneijder 84′; Vittek 93′)

The Dutch advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1998. They will face the winner of this afternoon’s Brazil-Chile match.]

The 2nd half of the Round of 16 begins this morning with the Netherlands taking on surprising Slovakia.  The Netherlands are heavily favored to win this matchup.  They came into the tournament as a dark horse to go all the way, and they didn’t disappoint (unlike some other European sides) in winning all three of their games in Group E.

Slovakia, on the other hand, shocked the world by eliminating Italy and advancing in 2nd place out of Group F.  They’ll be attempting to pull off another upset in Durban today.

Starting lineups, players to watch, live entries and your comments, all after the jump!

ScheduleUnited States

WC Round of 16: Weekend in Review

June 28, 2010 — by Suman

Ghana over USA

It was a great weekend of WC football, as the Round of 16 got underway with 2 matches on Saturday and 2 matches on Sunday.  We’re halfway to the quarterfinals being set, with 2 more matches today.

On Saturday, Uruguay defeated South Korea 2-1 to move into the quarterfinals for the first time since 1970, and the USA crashed out against Ghana in extra time, also by a score of 2-1. The CultFootball team liveblogged both games, here and here.

Sunday offered two highly anticipated matchups.  England and Germany added another memorable installment to their long and heated rivalry, with Germany destroying the English 4-1, in a game that will be remembered for the stunning German counterattack, and for a clear “Wembley goal” for England that the referees completely missed.

In the afternoon game, Argentina pulled away from Mexico 3-1, although this game too was marred by an officiating error, with goalscorer Carlos Tevez clearly offside on Argentina’s first goal.   The extended CultFootball team commented extensively on both games in entertaining open threads here and here.

That sets up a huge quarterfinal matchup between Argentina and Germany, to be played Saturday (10am ET).  The other quarterfinal matchup that’s set is Uruguay vs. Ghana, Friday 2:30pm ET.

We’ve got two more Round of 16 games today: the Netherlands kickoff against Slovakia in just over 30 minutes, followed by Brazil against Chile later in the day (potentially setting up yet another tremendous quarterfinal match!).

We’ll cover both of today’s games via liveblogs/open threads..join us for the action!

Events

Watch #NED v #SVK at @iplaybeautiful!

June 28, 2010 — by Suman

We’re back with another freebie–two reservations to watch this morning’s Netherlands-Slovakia match at the PlayBeautiful NYC pop-up virtual stadium on Mulberry Street in Nolita NYC (@iplaybeautiful on twitter)

As we mentioned in our previous giveaway, we experienced PlayBeautiful for Portugal-Brazil on Friday, and it’s an awesome place to watch a game–stadium seating for 100 in front of a huge projection TV image; concession stands serving coffee, tea, beer, snacks; and even a little patch of astroturf with 2 small goals (back room).  There was a good turnout of Brazilians on Friday–we imagine this morning it will be the Oranje faithful who turn out!

Let us know if you’re in NYC and can use these reservations (or spread the word to your friends who can)–we will email you the pdfs!

We were hoping to liveblog from PlayBeautiful this morning, but looks like we’ll be staying in Brooklyn for this match.  We also have reservations for ESP-POR tomorrow afternoon, so look for us to be reporting live from Mulberry St for that match!

Video

Video Highlights: Uruguay v South Korea (Round of 16)

June 27, 2010 — by Suman

Uruguay defeated South Korea 2-1 in the first Round of 16 match. Uruguay led 1-0 for much of the match, after Luis Suarez took advantage of poor defending for an easy finish off a Diego Forlan cross. South Korea leveled in the 2nd half, but Uruguay went back ahead to stay off another goal by Suarez, this one a tremendous curling shot.

Live BlogUnited States

Liveblog/open thread: #USA v #GHA

June 26, 2010 — by Suman — 17

[Final score: Ghana 2, USA 1

Ghana advances to the quarterfinals, where they will face Uruguay.  An African team continues on in this the first African World Cup.]

The one we’ve all been waiting for (well, for all of the last 3 days, since The Goal). Again, we won’t be doing min-by-min, play-by-play commentary (for that, we recommend the Guardian or NYT’s Goal blog).

We’re about 20m from kickoff. Starting lineups below, live entries coming up after the jump. We’re going to make a run around the corner to our local Brooklyn bodega for some refreshments, and to look in on the local soccer scene (Scopello, Mullanes, Der Schwarzer Kolner). We should be back on by kickoff..

Live Blog

Liveblog (or open thread?): Uruguay (#uru) v South Korea (#kor)!

June 26, 2010 — by Suman — 7

And here we go..doesn’t it feel like a whole new tournament is starting today? The past 2 weeks were prologue; the most important time in history is now, the present(*).

All eyes here in the US are looking forward to the 2nd match of the day, USA v Ghana (kickoff 2:30pm ET). But we here at CultFootball HQ are nearly as excited about Uruguay v South Korea. Why? Well, the Korean branch of the CultFootball fam is both numerous and uncompromising in its support of the Reds. And on the other hand, this CultFootballer is, among all the South American teams, partial to Uruguay, for reasons both personal and historical.

We are about 15minutes from kickoff.  Some intro material lifted from the Guardian’s liveblog and then our live entries after the jump!

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