Quarter-Final Preview: Argentina v Germany 2/7/10

This looks to be the best quarter-final on paper however what looks good on paper generally turns out to be poor, Portugal v Brazil for example. But both of these teams look the most threatening all-round despite Messi goalless run and if they can repeat the quarter final of four years ago then we will be in for a treat. If it goes well it will go very well if it goes bad it will go very bad and I'm hoping as well as any neutral would that it will go very well. Argentina's defence will be properly tested with the attacking force of Klose, Podolski, Ozil and Muller and I think they may edge Maradona's side 3-2 in a quality affair.

Quarter-Final Preview: Uruguay v Ghana 2/7/10

Ghana have probably been the dark horse of the competition and after just scraping thruogh past USA I think the African flag will stop waving here. Uruguay have a far better team on paper and look more lethal in front of goal. Therefore I think Uruguay will win 2-1 with Ghana playing with their upmost pride and getting a consolation goal, they can most definitely hold their heads up high with this achievement and may even start to dominate African football as their team is relatively young and should be around for a while. Uruguay will help continue South America's dominance in this year's World Cup with a semi-spot with either fellow South American's Brazil or Europe's Holland.

Goal-Line Technology and Video Replays?

After Frank Lampard's disallowed goal against Germany and Tevez's offside goal against Mexico everybody who's anybody has called for FIFA president Sepp Blatter to bring in goal-line and video technology. This argument has been running on for a long time now and has fallen on deaf ears but after these officiating errors Mr.Blatter has said FIFA will discuss goal-line technology in its next meeting next month. Before these errors and even after Lampard's disallowed goal I was very much against the use of technology but after Tevez's allowed offside goal it has lured me into an agnostic state of mind.

The main argument from most for the use of such technology comes from the fact that other sports incorporate these technologies. But the reason I'm against this argument is as follows: video replays work in Rugby because the sport is stop-start and hardly ever free-flowing, the third umpire works very successfully in Cricket because the ball is dead more often than not and allows time for these replays to be looked at, the same goes for Tennis with their video umpires. As Football is generally a free-flowing sport the use of video-replays would slow the game right down and would ruin the sport. This is why the Lampard incident didn't sway me, because the ball didn't go out of play after the ball had crossed the line and the referee waved play on, Germany went up field and produced an attack of their own. Now if they had gone and scored the use of replays would have cut the action and everyone would have grounded to a halt preventing Germany's goal, which if the video had proven the ball didn't cross the line then Germany would have felt most aggrieved and could have changed the momentum of the game. The only way to pass this problem would be if the footballs had an in-built chip system that could tell if the whole ball had crossed the line and then alerted the referee, whether this is possible I do not know.

The reason that Tevez's incident swayed me a little bit is because the ball was out of play, in the goal. Being out of play there is no action taking place so the referee or the fourth official would have time to look at a replay if there is an objection to that goal, as most Premiership and other big leagues have television monitors and/or even big screens in the ground this could potentially work but only if the goal was scored or out of play, which could stretch to see whether a corner or goal-kick should be awarded etc. because of the ball being out of play. This would work fine and dandy but the only objection I hold to this is via grassroots football.

The main reason England's state of football is so poor is because as a nation we fail to look after our grassroots system. The highs of the Premiership and Championship tend to ignore some of the rules that grassroots referees are judged on every game. One notable offender is Stoke's Ricardo Fuller; week in week out spectators saw Ricardo Fuller wearing a stud in each ear, now the rules clearly state that no jewellery is allowed on the pitch, again grassroots referees will get marked down in assessments if they fail to adhere to this rule yet Fuller goes by unnoticed. This drift is one of many causes into why England's football is diminishing and grassroots is dwindling. FIFA and all the other footballing bodies look to provide and equality scheme where everyone deserves an equal chance to play football at a level of competition. But if we incorporate any form of technology into the game only the better and richer leagues will be able to obtain it. This would mean that lower leagues and grass root levels would drift even further apart from the footballing leagues and in poorer countries in places in Africa, for instance, would decline in their attempt to reach a quality to compete with the best teams in the World and football would then become a social hierarchy around the World and in football leagues in the richer countries. We don't need politics in football, they fail to be able to run a country (which is their job) let alone try to interfere with our sports!

Spain Reign The Iberian Peninsula: Spain 1-0 Portugal 29/6/10

Spain line-up: Casillas (c), Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Villa (Pedro, 88'), Xavi, Torres (Llorente, 58'), Capdevila, Alonso (Marchena, 93'), Ramos, Busquets
Portugal line-up: Eduardo, Alves, Carvalho, Ronaldo (c), Simao (Mendes, 72'), Pepe (Liedson, 72'), Meireles, Almeida (Danny, 58'), Tiago, Costa, Coentrao

Spain make a date with Paraguay in the quarter finals with a comfortable win against a lacklustre, uncreative Portugal. Eduardo was arguably the busiest keeper of the first half, and the whole match, with Torres showing a brief glimpse of his real self forcing a decent parry of Eduardo. In form David Villa also made Eduardo work with yet another parry to keep Spain level. Portugal looked to nicked the lead half-way through the first half when Tiago's long-range effort forced Casillas to punch but he looked rather shaky and the punch was upwards rather than outwards. This allowed the impressive Almeida to head over him before Casillas managed to recover in time to clear his lines. Ronaldo's only real showing in the game came from a far-out free-kick which again the uncertain Casillas had to parry, which fortunately ended up going to safety.

The second half saw Portugal start off quicker with Tiago narrowly missing after his shot was deflected off Carles Puyol. But that was soon to all change as Spain started to dictate possession and were trying to thread the ball through the Portuguese defence to find the breakthrough, Portugal on the other hand had lost all creativity and front man Ronaldo was looking his dejected self, not for the first time in this World Cup. Unimpressed by yet another below-par display from Torres, Vincente Del Bosque decided to sub him for Llorente just under the hour mark. Llorente supplied height to hold the ball up and looked more dangerous than Torres had done. Llorente could have scored just after entering the fray but his glancing header just went wide before Villa upped the ante by grazing Eduardo's post. The goal was coming and it arrived just after the hour mark with yet another beautiful passing display; Iniesta and Alonso were controlling the midfield and Iniesta found Xavi who was pulling the attacking strings. He played the ball through to Villa whose initial shot was blocked by Eduardo before rolling back into the path of Villa where he calmly looped the ball over the diving body of the keeper and into the net. Ramos thought he'd finished the game off before seeing his bottom corner-bound shot saved by he fingertips of the outstretched Eduardo. Villa was also looking to make the result certain but his fifth goal of the tournament eluded him in this match. Portugal's sorry attempt to get an equaliser declined even more when Costa saw red for what seemed at first an innocuous coming together with Capdevila, who definitely made sure Costa was punished as he rolled around on the floor in 'great pain'. However replays looked to show Costa use an elbow which may not have done as much damage as Capdevila made out but you definitely can't go around with flying elbows and therefore deserved to see red. This lead to Portugal's World Cup campaign end with a whimper and Spain will be favourites to overcome Paraguay in the quarter finals.

2nd Round Preview: Spain v Portugal 29/6/10

After the dull encounter of Paraguay and Japan I'm hoping for a goal-fest and have highly optimistically predicted a 4-2 win for the European champions. However I doubt that will happen especially with Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres failing to emerge in this tournament so far but there is always this game. I'm still predicting a Spanish win but with less goals and a lot closer between the teams.

Penalty Para: Paraguay 0-0 Japan AET, Paraguay won 5-3 on penalties 29/6/10

Paraguay line-up: Villar (c), Morel, Bonet, Santa Cruz (Cardozo, 94'), Benitez (Valdez, 60'), Vera, Da Silva, Riveros, Barrios, Ortigoza (Barreto, 75'), Alcaraz
Japan line-up: Kawashima, Abe (K.Nakamura, 81'), Komano, Tulio, Nagatomo, Endo, Matsui (Okazaki, 65'), Okubo (Tamada, 106'), Hasebe (c), Honda, Nakazawa

Probably the worst game of the round of 16, the game offered very little in terms of entertainment until the penalty shoot-out, the first of this year's World Cup. As both teams have never reached the quarter finals neither team wanted to lose and it showed. However Paraguay's win ensures a South American dominance in the quarter finals with a South American nation in each of the four matches. Paraguay had the better part of possession but couldn't find an opening during the early moments. Barrios hit a shot straight at the keeper before Matsui came the closest to scoring as his shot smashed the crossbar from long range. Santa Cruz has failed to make his mark thus far in the World Cup and could have made amends but his shot from eight yards via a corner sailed wide. Japan looked dangerous yet again from their free-kicks but Paraguay's defensive unit were able to clear any of that danger. Japan could have gone in at half-time with the lead when they broke on the Paraguayan defence with more attackers than defenders, however Honda failed to acknowledge a decent run from Okubo and fired his long range effort wide.

The second half was as good as the first but Paraguay sent the first jab to Japan, but Ortigoza's run came to an end when he was surrounded by Japanese defenders. Again both teams created few chances and the ones they did create failed to pose any threat to the goalkeepers. Santa Cruz, Tulio, Nakamura and Benitez a few of those culprits who could have potentially made their opposing goalkeepers sweat. This plunged the game into extra time and again chances were few and far between and a penalty shoot-out looked ominous after 90 minutes. Again Okazaki, Barrios, Barretto and Valdez maybe could have done better to prevent the shoot-out.

But the final whistle came and it was to be a penalty shoot-out, with a very high quality of penalty taking. It was arguably the most entertaining part of the match and only one of the takers missed. Paraguay went first and never missed a spot-kick but Yuichi Komano unfortunately hit his penalty against the bar at 3-2 leaving Paraguay to just about squeeze through to the quarter finals.

2nd Round Preview: Paraguay v Japan 29/6/10

This should be a close match between the South American, free-flowing football from Paraguay and the Asian, hard-working spirit from Japan. I'm not really too sure why but I'm predicting Paraguay to win 3-2, very hopeful I know. But Paraguay have the attacking talent and Japan are lethal from set-pieces so who knows what will happen.