Brazilians on Top While Dutch Hang on With Help from Robben

The Brazilians once again showed us why they are the team most synonymous with the FIFA World Cup. Brazil battled fellow South American team Chile on Monday night and decimated them, scoring three goals to the Chilean’s zero.

The Brazilians have now made it to the quarterfinals and will be facing off against the Dutch team on Friday. Monday night represented the third victory for Brazil, and like a fine wine, the team seems to get better with age. Each win has shown us a prettier and prettier team out there on the field. Of course, if the Brazilians are going to go all the way as the coach, Dunga has declared he intends to do, for the eighth time in the history of the World Cup, they’re going to need every bit of energy they have to make it that far.

The Brazilians drew first blood in the 35th minute with a wicked goal which didn’t see a single Chilean trying to block the ball. Claudio Bravo, the Chilean goalie made a feeble attempt to raise his hand and block the ball, but to no avail. A mere three minutes after that, Brazil sent the ball crashing back into the Chilean net yet again and the Chileans were toast for the night. The final goal was slammed in in the59th minute and the Chileans never came close to scoring.

In the other game of the evening, the Netherlands held the heads of Europe high by pulling out a squeaker again Slovakia with a 2-1 win. Arjen Robben, the Dutch player who returned to the team just last night managed to pull out all the stops and knock in goal in spite of the entire Slovak team trying desperately to block him. The Slovaks reported having spent the past three days in a desperate attempt to prepare for the return of Robben, however all that effort was for naught when they failed to stop him when he slammed in the ball in the 18th minute.

The second Dutch goal came in the 84th minute after Robben had already left the game. However, the sole Slovak goal came before that in the 67th minute, delivered by Miroslav Stoch.

The Slovaks however are going home happy, having managed to survive this far when they were expected to be eliminated early on in the tournament.

In other news, the president of FIFA has announced that he is looking into finally bringing the tournament into the 21st century by allowing for instant replay calls and thus avoiding the embarrassing call made in the British German game.

Paraguay vs Spain Poll

Spain vs Paraguay Poll

Paraguay vs Japan — Paraguay Says First Goal Is Critical

Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino believes the first goal in Tuesday’s last-16 showdown with Japan could prove crucial as both teams look to create history by reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time. With only three goals to their name, Paraguay scored the lowest of all the eight pool winners, but Martino’s men only conceded one in their three in Group F. Japan, who finished second in Group E, were not much more prolific, scoring one more goal and conceding one more than the South Americans, and tomorrow’s encounter in Pretoria could well be a tight affair.

Martino said that for him it is crucial to score the first goal in the World Cup, especially during the knock-out stages, where winning means staying and loosing means going home. If you have a goal scored against you, it is very hard to equalize knowing you have only 90 minutes to complete the task.

Both teams have not reached the last eight of the World Cup earlier. Paraguay reached the last 16 in three of out of four World Cups, but has not gone beyond so far. When questioned about the possibility of being in the finals, Argentinian Martino replied, of course we came here with dreams now we are working on it and we are still fighting.

Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino believes that they want to achieve this goal, it is vital that they get the proper key area of their game right. If you want to go higher in the tournament a better ball possession and handling is a must. We are making a lot of effort on this area. The team has succeeded in doing it in some games and failed in the others. In the following game, if we can get good ball possession and use it wisely and putting pressure on our rival, then we have a good chance to win.

With regards to Japan, Martino is well concerned of the menace the Samurai Blue can create to his team. They played against Japan two years ago in the Kirin Cup in a draw 0-0 and a lot of their players are still active, so we are still knowledgeable about the Japanese side both as a team and individually, he continued.

We also see what they have done in this competition. They keep on changing the way they handle matches not to mention that they are very fast. They can relax and wait but switch gears from defense to attack. They are complicated to handle and very different. For me, their virtues are taking advantage of the spaces that their opponents leave and their speed.

It’s the clash of the Latinos – Brazil vs Chile

Chile will be out to derail the mighty 5 times World Cup winners Brazil in a game that will be no less than the finals. Both the South American teams will be meeting in the knockout round, where the winning team proceeds to the quarter finals and the losers pack up for home.

The Chilean team after 1998 are in the right direction to winning the World Cup. Their huge fan base back home is still celebrating the fact the Chile have made it through the knockout stages, and if they win, there will be a lot of partying and praise for the team. Marcelo Bielsa the Chile coach is only hoping that the Brazilians will struggle to find their form after their unbeaten group matches. He said, “Historically, they are a team to fear.”

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The previous game that the Brazilians played against Chile in 1962 and1998 saw the mighty South Americans win by 4 goals. Bielsa also said that the team coached by Dunga is equally tough to beat and play against. He even said that the new Brazil team have all their famous footwork and they also have aggression and a lot of forcefulness that make them a deadly side to play against.

He was quick to talk about his team though and said that they have the ability to push their opponents to the edge like they did in the regional qualifying matches. He said, We will do the impossible to ensue that things don’t come to an end too soon for us. “

After their defeat with Spain 1-2, that seems to leave the team undeterred, the team is all geared up since they got to the 16 squad and if they manage to pull a victory against Brazil then it would be the biggest shock of the World Cup.
Chile forward Beausejour said, “We couldn’t be more motivated for the game against Brazil.” Rodrigo Miller their midfielder also added saying that since it meant a lot to their fans they would work hard to topple the biggest ranked site. He went on to say, “We know we are making the people of Chile happy here.”

Julio Cesar goal keep for Brazil says that it would be a difficult test against Chile on Monday; his side however needs to keep reinventing themselves.

The World Cup, South Africa’s Symbol of Hope

There is a museum that stands near the majestic Soccer City stadium. It acts as a witness to a history that is distressed and the incredible flight of understanding for the national host of the World Cup. The Apartheid Museum that is found in Johannesburg’s is one of the most significant destinations. It draws a lot of people to the artifacts, images and video that give details to the reality of South Africa’s culturally distressed earlier period.

Apartheid was enforced in South Africa during 1948 to 1994. It is a system of legal racial segregation in which the rights of the greater part of non-white population of South Africa were reduced. Wayde Davy the Deputy Director of the Apartheid Museum said that they are currently looking at a high volume of visitors to the place. Our expectancy rate was between 2,000 and 2,500 daily visitors and now we are averaging around 4,000 and 4,500.

The World Cup has extremely brought a high number of tourists to the region of Johannesburg and because of these, the fans has prominently featured the Apartheid Museum in the itineraries. On Youth Day, 16 June, 6,300 people went to visit the museum. A lot of people were shocked after they visit the museum. The terrible nature of what they have witnessed together with the moving journey imply that they go away worn out. Now the question that time and again pops up is, today, how is South Africa doing?

The museum give an idea of how South Africa was, a few years back, they hear a lot of bad feedbacks about South Africa, but arrive here and only see good, Davy said. This World Cup has launched interaction and now there is a feeling of strong will between South Africans to stay united. He believes that this distinct World Cup has enormous promotional importance for South Africa, for Johannesburg and for the museum, and it could not be quantified.

Apart from getting lots of visitors coming to the museum, the press has also started documenting the museum and feed those images home. The museum entertains five to six camera crews a day. This means a lot of people world wide will appreciate how far our journey has come.

The museum features additional exhibits to correspond with the World Cup, an assortment of art sculptures of the football history in the 1950’s in South Africa. This exhibit discuss about the fact that soccer is an integrated sport and players go out of South Africa to play in mixed teams. The World Cup in Africa signifies that the museum sees an increase in African visitors. Most of them have different reaction and emotion since they relate to the report.

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Argentina vs Germany Live Stream

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