Here comes the last game of the quarterfinals, and having seen the results be somewhat unpredictable so far, I’m going to go with what my wife tells me. She’s picked Holland and Germany already, so let’s see what she says…”I don’t know.” Well I guess we’re S.O.L. for this one.
Spain are, well, Spain. Amazing talent. Free flowing football. Danger on the field and off the bench. Paraguay are more of a mystery, mostly because they haven’t been so drooled over by the press. They have a solid center back pairing in Antonio Alcaraz and Paulo da Silva, and of course there’s Santa Cruz up front who’ll be looking to finally put a ball in the net. Not convinced? Check out this little statistical nugget :
Spain has been widely backed to win the World Cup since it won the European Championships in 2008. But that is exactly why it will fail to do so. Winning that continental competition is the kiss of death for World Cup aspirations. Only one European champion has gone on to lift the biggest prize of all – big tournament specialists Germany in 1974, and only then with home advantage.
For those of you hanging around we’ve set up the customary open thread. See you after the bump!
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
Group F fixtures & results:
We’re not liveblogging this one, as the game is already in the 29th minute, and in fact Paraguay just scored to go up 1-0. But we’ll use our liveblogging format nevertheless for some notes and observations about the match–probably mostly about the Paraguayan side, as we’re guessing they’re the more likely to advance out of the group.
Sometimes seats above the roofline are a good thing. But, first, let’s rewind a bit. Winter found its rhythm today, managing sun, wind, rain,and hail, rotated nicely about every hour til the sun went down. The other three left him behind without missing a beat.