Juanderful: Brazil 3-0 Chile 28/6/10

Brazil line-up: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio (c), Juan, Bastos, Gilberto, Luis Fabiano (Nilmar, 76'), Kaka (Kleberson, 81'), Robinho (G.Melo, 85'), Alves, Ramires
Chile line-up: Bravo (c), Fuentes, Isla (Millar, 62'), Contreras (Valdivia, HT), Carmona, Sanchez, Vidal, Suazo, Gonzalez (Tello, HT), Beausejour, Jara

Brazil cruise through to the quarter finals to set up a tie against Holland for a place in the semis. Chile very little throughout the match and Brazil used some more of that samba magic to please all spectators. Chile hadn't beaten Brazil for something like forty years and despite having the most possession in the opening fifteen minutes, Brazil always looked more potent in attacks. Luis Fabiano looked lively but failed to connect with his opening shot and Gilberto forced a fine save from Bravo when he fired one from the distance. The opener was coming and everyone could sense it, it arrived just under 35 minutes from a corner; Juan climbing highest in the box to connect with Maicon's corner and head past the on-rushing Bravo. Chile could hardly get their breath back before finding themselves 2-0 down; Brazil playing a lovely counter-attack with, unsurprisingly, Robinho at the helm of it. He played a ball into Kaka, who looked much more lively in this game than throughout the tournament so far, Kaka then played an inch perfect through ball into the path of Sevilla's Luis Fabiano who rounded the keeper before slotting into the empty net. The effort on target from Chile in the first half came from Humberto Suazo but his edge of the box shot failed to make Julio Cesar sweat.

As shown in the group phase Marcelo Bielsa wasn't afraid to change his team at half-time, making a double change at half-time Chile were throwing all their attacking options onto the pitch. But they failed to make much impact as Brazil played a hugely compacted defence and looked to create via the counter-attack. This is something Holland are going to have to be creative with and keep the pitch as wide as possible. Brazil's third and probably their best came from their counter-attacking threat; Ramires broke from midfield and skilfully went past two Chileans before rolling the ball into Robinho who curled his shot neatly into the corner beating Bravo all ends up. With the game over and the pressure off Chile, they started to create some decent chances with Brazil now in party mood. However both Suazo and substitute Valdivia failed to find the net and Chile went home without scoring, but they reflect on a very successful qualifying campaign and a very successful World Cup overall for themselves.

2nd Round Preview: Brazil v Chile 28/6/10

Although Chile have looked very good against the likes of Switzerland and most surprisingly Spain, I don't think they will have enough to stop Brazil. Brazil have looked omnipotent going forward with Robinho and Luis Fabiano and Juan and Lucio have looked formidable in defence. However Michel Bastos may struggle to deal with Chile's Alexis Sanchez which could get Chile a consolation in a 3-1 defeat.

Sneijdshow: Holland 2-1 Slovakia 28/6/10

Holland line-up: Stekelenburg, Van Der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronkhorst (c), Van Bommel, Kuyt, De Jong, Van Perise (Huntelaar, 80'), Sneijder (Afellay, 92'), Robben (Elia, 71')
Slovakia line-up: Mucha, Pekarik, Skrtel, Zabavnik (Jakubko, 88'), Weiss, Vittek, Stoch, Durica, Hamsik (c) (Sapara, 87'), Jendrisek (Kopunek, 71'), Kucka

Holland make a date with the quarter finals with a yet another below par performance. Holland were very much comfortable throughout with a few scares but Holland did what they had to do without any exuberance. Jendrisek, however, had the opening shot but it wasn't struck well and it sailed over the bar. The opening chances for Holland came from Van Persie and their best player of the tournament Wesley Sneijder. Eighteen minutes into the match returning Arjen Robben opened his account for the tournament; latching onto a long ball down the wing Robben was able to cut inside, thanks to Van Persie's decoy run out wide, and Robben placed it into the bottom corner giving Mucha no chance at his near post. Van Persie hasn't sparkled yet in this World Cup but for all his great positional runs and clever channel play he lacked the final finish that could have put Holland more ahead at half-time.

The second half continued in the same vain and Robben was looking menacing again, with almost a carbon copy of the goal. Van Persie found yet more space as the defence just couldn't pick him up, he squared the ball to Robben who was again allowed to cut inside of the defence where he fired another shot, only to kept out by the fingertips of Mucha. Mucha somehow kept Mathijsen out from the resulting corner as Mathijsen wrapped his foot round the delivery, Mucha saved it with his face as he clearly knew nothing about it. It took almost seventy minutes but Slovakia then started to play football and attack the Dutch defence. Stoch forced a great fingertips save from Stekelenburg before Vittek missed a couple of wonderful one-on-one chances as Slovakia found holes in the defence. Holland knew they needed a second goal to wrap the game up and with Robben now resting on the bench they had to look to their other predators. They found their second goal with five minutes to go to make sure they were going to the quarter finals; Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt found Wesley Sneijder with a low cross allowing Sneijder to just slot the ball home into an empty net after Mucha failed to deal with the long ball through to Kuyt in the first place. Although the result was finalised the game wasn't completely over as Slovakia managed to find a consolation goal; Stekelenburg brought Vittek down in the box, forcing a penalty from the referee and it was Vittek who stepped up and slotted calmly into the corner to end Slovakia's World Cup with a goal.

2nd Round Preview: Holland v Slovakia 28/6/10

It should be Holland v Brazil in the quarter finals as Holland should be fine against Slovakia. Slovakia did well to get here with their heroic display against Italy but they won't be going any further. Holland haven't hit top gear yet so hopefully we'll see it here, I think they will win 3-0.

Mexxed Up: Argentina 3-1 Mexico 27/6/10

Argentina line-up: Romero, Demichelis, Burdisso, Heinze, Di Maria (Gutierrez, 79'), Higuain, Messi, Tevez (Veron, 69'), Mascherano (c), Otamendi, Rodriguez (Pastore, 87')
Mexico line-up: Perez, Rodriguez, Salcido, Marquez (c), Osorio, Torrado, Hernandez, Juarez, Dos Santos, Guardado (Franco, 61'), Bautista (Barrera, HT)

Argentina, in the end, cruise past Mexico but it could well have a been a different story if the linesman hadn't have made a crucial mistake, the second of the day for people to start calling for goal-line technology. However Mexico did start the game on top and could have 1-0 ahead very early but Salcido's ambitious shot hit the crossbar as it had Romero well beaten. Guardado also had a glorious opportunity for Mexico but his shot just fizzed wide of the post denying Mexico the lead. Messi played a vital role in Argentina's win despite still not scoring in this tournament, his desperation for a goal showed when he tried a delightful chip after another jazzy run but Perez found it easy enough to save. Argentina's opener came after the chance looked to have gone; Tevez had over-ran the ball into the arms of the sprawling Perez who ended up spilling the ball to the feet of Messi, who played another little chip towards the goal where Tevez was on hand to head home. However replays showed that Tevez was clearly offside and Mexico had a great appeal towards the officials. To make matters worse for the Italian officials replays were shown on the big screen inside the ground where they could see for themselves they had made a mistake but not being allowed to use the replay evidence the goal had to stand and Argentina had their controversial opener. From there it was Argentina in full control as Mexico's defence looked shell shocked. Osorio completely lost his head when he played a nice little pass straight into the feet of Higuain on the edge of the box, Higuain accepted the gift by rounding Perez and slotting into the empty net to double Argentina's lead. From here it seemed inconceivable for Mexico to find a way back in this match and Higuain should have put it beyond all doubt before half-time but his header was off target with the goal gaping for him.

However just six minutes into the second half Tevez got his second and Argentina's third to put the result beyond all doubt. If his first was controversial his second was brilliant, he got a bit of luck when a pass from Tevez as blocked and pushed into the space Tevez was approaching before lashing a shot 25 yards from goal into the top corner for a breathtaking finish by the Manchester City man. Although the game seemed up Mexico didn't think so and kept attacking with venom and desire. Their hard work paid off with 19 minutes left on the clock thanks to a piece of ingenuity from Manchester United-bound Javier Hernandez; he turned Demichelis with considerable ease before skilfully placing the ball onto his left foot to smash it home from seven yards. Something exciting to look forward to for Manchester United fans like me! However it was only a consolation as Mexico bowed out yet again to Argentina who will face Germany in the same round as they did four years ago.

Something To Cheer About For England

England may not be well represented in football at the moment but at least we still have a decent cricketing side. Yesterday England managed to beat Australia by 1 wicket and with three balls in hand in the third ODI played at Old Trafford. This means England win the Natwest ODI series as they now lead 3-0 overall.

Australia batted first and were going strong with an opening partnership of 75 in 14 overs. They were looking on course for around 240 which was a little under par at 4 an over. However with Swann claiming four wickets and Anderson three Australia were all out for 212 after 46 overs. The highlight in the batting came from Watson who managed 61 before being caught out. England started off a little shaky with a quick exit for Kieswetter. Struass and Pietersen shared a fifty partnership before Peitersen was dismissed for 27. England continued to look strong as Strauss fired 87 after Collingwood was dismissed for forty. Victory looked imminent even with the departure of Strauss but any Englishman will know England never do things the easy way. This lead England from 185-4 to 203-9 and Australia nearly nicked the victory. With eight runs required in the last over with one wicket remaining Tim Bresnan fired two boundaries to see England just manage to sneak home.

Vettel Reigns Supreme In Valencia

Sebastian Vettel led the Valencia Grand Prix from start to finish as he now claims third spot in the overall Drivers Championship. There were incidents from the start as the cars entered the first couple of corners second placed Mark Webber had somehow dropped to ninth already spelling the start of a disastrous day for him. Jarno Trulli of Lotus also lost out as he sustained damage that would put him three laps down on everybody else. Lewis Hamilton thought his race might've been over when he radioed in to say that he and Vettel and contacted and he could now feel vibrations but it turned out fine for him.





Mark Webber's race went from bad to worse as he pitted early on to make use of the soft tyres. As he was making his way back up to the grid he was faced with overtaking Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus. Webber somehow managed to over slipstream Kovalainen's car resulting in Webber driving up the back of Kovalainen's car before taking off and somersaulting before bouncing back on the track and crashing into the tyre wall. Miraculously Webber jumped out of the car unhurt whereas the car had little left of it, Kovalainen also had to retire at this point. This lead to a safety car and everyone decided now was a good time to pit, which it was unless you're Michael Schumacher who capped off his weekend by pitting in and then being made to wait in the pit lane before rejoining the pack at the back and finishing his race off in terms of getting points.

Controversy surrounded the safety car as Lewis Hamilton seemed to have overtook the safety car which meant he could gain a huge lead over Ferrari rivals Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa who were clearly unhappy as Hamilton was able to coast to a second place finish. The stewards did award Hamilton a drive through penalty and to Alonso's disgust it changed nothing to Hamilton's position, a crime should punished and Hamilton got away with it. However some were not so lucky as a post-race steward's inquiry judged Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichelo, Nico Hulkenberg (who later retired i the race anyway), Vitaly Petrov, Robert Kubica, Sebastian Buemi, Pedro De La Rosa, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil to have broke the speed limit during the safety and were awarded five second penalties which only really affected two drivers; Alonso was promoted to eighth with Buemi dropping to ninth and De La Rosa dropped out of the points as Rosberg was promoted to tenth. In a separate incident Timo Glock was awarded a twenty penalty for ignoring blue flags but again it didn't really matter for him as he finished out of the points.

So the result of the Formula 1 Valencia Grand Prix looks like this: 1. Vettel (Reb Bull), 2. Hamilton (McLaren), 3. Button (McLaren), 4. Barichello (Williams), 5. Kubica (Renault), 6. Sutil (Force India), 7. Koboyashi (Sauber), 8. Alonso (Ferrari), 9. Buemi (Toro Rosso), 10. Rosberg (Mercedes), 11. Massa (Ferrari), 12. De La Rosa (Sauber), 13. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), 14. Petrov (Renault), 15. Schumacher (Mercedes), 16. Liuzzi (Force India), 17. Di Grassi (Virgin), 18. Chandhok (HRT Cosworth), 19. Glock (Virgin), 20. Senna (HRT Cosworth), 21. Trulli (Lotus) Retired: Hulkenberg (Williams), Kovalainen (Lotus), Webber (Red Bull)

This result leaves Hamilton still first in the drivers championship on 127 with just a six point ahead of McLaren teammate Button. Vettel now leap-frogs Red Bull teammate Webber into third with 115 points as Webber has 103. Alonso sits fifth with 98 points so isn't out of it just yet but it's not looking good for the two-time world champion. As for the Constructors Championship McLaren have a thirty point lead over Red Bull going into the next Grand Prix which is at Silverstone.