Premier League football, MLS soccer, World Cup, and more at Pandagoal.com

Next entry: Dive! Dive! Dive! Previous entry: Round of 16, penultimate game: Paraguay advances after PEN shootout

Round of 16, final match: Spain moves on

Yay, me! All me! I win! The knockout round ended today with the Iberian derby, as Spain pushed past Portugal with a 1-0 victory. Super happy David Villa's 63rd minute strike may have been the only goal, but it was a far more entertaining game than the scoreline would have you believe. (Okay, maybe not you, dear soccer fans...but certainly more entertaining than the whiny soccer haters would think.) The first half was fast and lively right away, with Fernando Torres taking a nice shot within about the first minute of play, followed soon after by an attempt from Villa. Portugal's keeper Eduardo was busy but did very well against the Spanish attack, and his own side put up some great efforts of their own. Tiago and Hugo Alemida both provided tests for Spanish keeper Iker Casillas, as well as a long-range free kick from Cristiano Ronaldo. Spain's passing and midfield work was very strong, but was running up against a solid Portugal defense. As halftime approached, Portugal seemed to be taking an edge, but soon after the second half kicked off Spain took the reins again. Substitute Fernando Llorente had a sharp header hit right at Eduardo, quickly followed up by a shot from Villa that just went wide. But moments later Villa took a pass from Xavi and struck it at Eduardo, then pounced on his own rebound and knocked it off the underside of the crossbar and into the net. It led to a gleeful celebration by Villa, who was soon clobbered by a standing pile of Spaniards. The rest of the match saw Spain with much of the possession as well as a few more chances, but the 1-0 scoreline remained and Spain are now set to meet Paraguay in the quarterfinals. Weeks ago I had chosen Spain to take the Cup this year, and I'd started to doubt myself after their opening 1-0 loss to Switzerland. Their other group matches showed an improved side, and today's game was much more like the Spain I expected to see...and the one they expected to be, I'd reckon, although I'm sure they would have preferred another goal or two. If they move on to the semifinals and meet either Argentina or Germany, a single goal will likely not be sufficient for victory.

------

Registration is required! Don't forget to Login or Register using the links in the upper right menu before starting to write your comment.

Posted by Alison on 06:47 PM • Permalink

Weeks ago I had chosen Spain to take the Cup this year, and I’d started to doubt myself after their opening 1-0 loss to Switzerland.

Me too! Except I started talking them up right after the Euro, so I really felt silly after the Switzerland fiasco. I thought it was a great game. I was surprised by how negative Portugal were in the first half (even though they had great chances) and by how ineffective CRonaldo turned out to be. Did he even touch the ball in second half? Well, I know he did, but only a few times.

Thoughts on the red card? It seemed like there was nothing to it, but one replay showed something might have been going on. I checked the Guardian MBM and the writer was claiming to have seen a replay that definitely showed at least intent, if not contact.

Comment #1: elena on 06/29 at 09:23 PM

Two guys for Spain I’m curious about:

Fernando Torres sometimes looks like the greatest striker in the world, but more often than not he diappears. That seemed to happen today.

Where the hell is Fabregas? In the dog house? Injured? If he can’t get playing time with Spain, how can he expect to with Barcelona?

Comment #2: sancerre2001 on 06/29 at 11:43 PM

Torres definitely seemed off today, but I’m not going to begrudge any striker a bad day, especially one who does time in the EPL and then immediately jumps into a grueling international tournament.

As for Fabregas, I have no idea. But the thought that he and Iniesta will be in the midfield with Messi and David Villa up front… this Barca fan is drooling.

Comment #3: chris_goff on 06/30 at 12:32 AM

Elena - the red card seemed harsh to me. Brooks at Dirty Tackle posted a video (http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/blog/dirty-tackle/post/DTotD-Capdevila-goes-down-Somehow-?urn=sow,252414) which…sure seems to say that Capdevila was faking…unless there was something that happened the moment before the video starts.

Comment #4: Alison on 06/30 at 01:13 AM

Yeah, I thought Capdevila hit the deck in a very unseemly fashion. The angles that were shown on TV here suggested that he was a giant faker, but there wasn’t a close-up until whatever happened was nearly over.

Comment #5: Elle on 06/30 at 01:15 PM

So far, two of three dives that have led to red cards have been committed by Spanish players (Torres in the game against Chile, Capdevila in this game - the Ivoirian who got Kaka kicked out being the third). Reason enough for me to root for anyone who’s playing Spain the rest of the way.

Sancerre2001, I’ll add another to that list: Casillas. He made a hash of the sequence that led to Switzerland’s goal, and damn near cost them a soft one twice in this game: once by tipping a shot backward when he was way off the line (which forced him to make a hell of a play to keep the ball out of the net), and again by volleyballing a Ronaldo free kick. With Spanish players not named “David Villa” having trouble finding the net, they’re gonna be relying on Casillas heavily once Brazil or Argentina or the Dutch or the Germans roll around. I don’t know if he’s up to the task.

Comment #6: Jeff on 06/30 at 03:15 PM

Page 1 of 1 pages

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.