[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!
Today’s matches to determine the last quarterfinal pairings see the surprisingly pithy Japan up against a Paraguayan side who looked bland against New Zealand in their final group tie. Paraguay did set Italy on their way out of the tournament (and won their group, by the way), so they’re no cream-puffs, and though Man City striker
Some thoughts on Netherlands-Japan collected below as we watch the match on this fine Saturday morning.