Argentina 3 - 1 Mexico

Tevez inspires win amid controversy



Controversy reigned again at Soccer City as Carlos Tevez's opener for Argentina against Mexico was yards offside. However, after Gonzalo Higuain's second, no-one could argue with his rocket shot that put Argentina three up before Javier Hernandez hit back with his own stunner.

On a day to forget for match officials, the Manchester City striker benefited from an offside decision blunder that was so blatant it ranked alongside the one that denied Frank Lampard in the England game four hours previously.
The offside rule states there should be two players between the striker and the goal - there was not even one when Lionel Messi's ball found Tevez's head, and then the net to put Diego Maradona's side in front.
After the replay flashed up on the big screen angry Mexico players surrounded the Italian referee Roberto Rosetti and linesman Stefano Ayroldi but the goal stood. Mexico went into meltdown and a defensive howler by Ricardo Osorio allowed Gonzalo Higuain to make it 2-0.
It was Tevez who sewed the match up in brilliant fashion - and legitimately this time - early in the second half with Mexico left only to savour a stunning reply by Manchester United's new signing Javier Hernandez.
Until Tevez's opener Mexico had looked the better side in this clash between the Latin Americans who had fought out a terrific contest at the same stage of the 2006 finals.
That went to extra time but once again Javier Aguirre's men showed themselves to be a classy but unfortunate outfit.
Two incidents within the opening 10 minutes had Argentinian hearts in mouths. First Carlos Salcido crashed in a thunderous drive from 30 yards that Sergio Romero just touched onto the crossbar, then an equally terrific strike by Andres Guardado whisked agonisingly past the post.
For Argentina, Messi, still looking for his first goal of the tournament, had two efforts from similar positions on the left of the area, but one was blocked and the other easily held by Oscar Perez. Messi should perhaps have passed to an unmarked team-mate - maybe that elusive goal was haunting him.
Hernandez, who increasingly looks an astute signing by Sir Alex Ferguson, turned away from his marker and slammed a shot wide but then came Tevez's offside goal and Mexico lost their heads.
First, skipper Rafael Marquez earned himself a needless booking for showing his frustration, then there was real calamity when Osorio scuffed a pass across the edge of his own box, Higuain seized onto the ball and kept his cool to round Perez neatly and slide home.
Salcido raised Mexican hopes with another long-range strike, this time parried by Romero, before Angel di Maria and Tevez nearly scored but were kept at bay by desperate blocks.
Higuain really should have made it 3-0 but somehow the Real Madrid striker put a free header wide from only six yards out.
There was an unseemly melee around the officials as the teams left the pitch at half-time, with Maradona finding himself in the unusual position of peacemaker.
Any hopes Mexico had ended soon after the restart thanks to Tevez's 52nd-minute blistering strike into the top corner from 25 yards out, with the striker running to the bench for a wild embrace with Maradona.
It was left to Hernandez to rescue some pride for Mexico. The 22-year-old had just sent a header over despite being unmarked, but then he left Martin Demichelis standing with a superb turn and lashed the ball high past Romero to give Mexico a slim lifeline.
It probably shaded Tevez's strike and will go down as one of the goals of the tournament. Argentina shut up shop after that and Mexico barely had another sniff.
Messi's increasingly desperate search for a goal continued as Perez denied him in injury time, but he will get another chance to end his drought against Germany in Cape Town next Saturday.

Banyak betul kontrovesi malam tadi, gol Lampard, gol Tevez, hehehe, papepun congratz Germany, England cuba lagi 4 tahun nanti, ahaks~

Ramalan aku final, Brazil - Argentina, mantappppp~

blank ko jgn lupa team holland tu!

Go go go Germany...

Holland!

Brazil break back with a vengeance

Brazil 3 : 0 Chile

* JUAN (35')
* LUIS FABIANO (38')
* ROBINHO (59')


Robinho of Brazil (L) in action against Arturo Vidal of Chile

Having spent much of the group phase here at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ complaining about their opponents’ defensive tactics, Brazil’s Round of 16 tie with Chile perfectly illustrated just why teams are reluctant to take the initiative against Dunga’s Seleção. Monday’s 3-0 success over La Roja featured two textbook counter-attacking goals from Luis Fabiano and Robinho, with the Chileans picked off when chasing a response to Juan’s headed opener.

“Chile proved they’re a team that try and play football, even when they come up against Brazil. That’s why we sometimes had space to show just how strong we are on the counter-attack,” said Brazilian No10 Kaka, whose clever pass for Fabiano’s goal was his third assist in three appearances at South Africa 2010.

Chilean philosophy
It was a similar story in the teams’ two meetings in South American Zone qualifying for these finals, with Brazil winning 3-0 in Santiago in September 2008 and 4-2 on home soil a year later. Despite these punishing lessons at Brazilian hands, Chile boss Marcelo Bielsa stuck to his attacking guns: a policy that helped La Roja qualify in second spot ahead of the likes of Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

“If we started playing defensively it’d be a betrayal of the style we’ve always had. The way we play is why everybody’s been speaking so highly of Chile,” West Bromwich Albion defender Gonzalo Jara told FIFA. “Attacking football is something that sets us apart and we’re not going to stop that, whoever it is we’re up against. It’s part of our philosophy.”

However, captain and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was more cautious on the subject. “We’re a young team, one of the youngest at this World Cup. At competitions to come I think we’ll iron out a few flaws, such as how we defend,” the No1 told FIFA. “We controlled possession for the first 30 minutes but Brazil are Brazil. They scored the first goal and soon after got the second, and once that went in we lost our way.”

"The quality to control the game"
Key to the five-time world champions' efficacy on the break at Ellis Park was Benfica midfielder Ramires, in for the injured Felipe Melo, whose ability to carry the ball forward from deep was particularly in evidence for his side’s third goal. It was the former Cruzeiro man who drove right through the Chilean midfield to the edge of the box, where the ball fell kindly for Robinho to place a shot into the corner.

“Of course it’s good for a team like ours to put some counter-attacks together, but I don’t think that’s the only positive thing. The fact we had the quality to control the game and avoid it becoming dangerous was also important,” Ramires told FIFA.com.

He then touched on perhaps the only negative of a comfortable night’s work for A Seleção: the yellow card that rules him out of the quarter-final with the Netherlands: “It’s a real shame. Of course I was annoyed, but I know how strong this squad is. All I can do now is hope my team-mates can take us through and I can rejoin them in the semi-finals.”

Up first in the last eight, however, are a Netherlands side which came through the group phase with a 100 per cent record. “We’ve not yet studied the Dutch to see how they’re going to line up. In theory, though, this could be another game for us to break forward,” said Kaka, when asked if the Oranje’s customary three-pronged forward line could leave them open to Brazil’s trademark counters. Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk, you have been warned.

Luis fabiano punya gol lawo aaa..

mmg best game malam tadi

tak sesia tido pas subuh!

Chile pon tak menyerah kalah!

Spain beat Portugal ...... nampaknya 2 pasukan pilihan pak long iaitu Germany & Spain masih berjuang ke pusingan seterusnya ....

soccernet offline la pulak nak update.

hoho C.Ronaldo main slow pasal nak jaga periuk nasik tu

spain ni silap2 buat kejutan menang World Cup.. mmmmmm
takada badi sumpahan lah nanti

betul lah telahan aku nanti.... bagusnya jugak
World Cup Champ pasukan pertama kali.. tentu gamat salah satu pasukan Menang..

Well Done.. espanol Vamos

Iya, malam nih Holland dan Brazil!

Go go go Germany, Let's blitz Argentina... Bye2 Argentin..

Germany .....

GO2 BRASIL...

Sayonara Brasil... TotalFootball makan Samba
Go Go Go German

HOLLAND ... HoooooEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee~ !!!!

Go go go Oranje~

samuraisan wrote:

Sayonara Brasil... TotalFootball makan Samba
Go Go Go German

Hoho, ada quote member aku kat FB, WEED has beaten SAMBA~

Overwinning aan de Nederlandse!!

ampesss punya game brasil, dhler main xbest... kalah plak tuh, sure aku kena kutuk kaw2 lepas nih... nasib baik ada1 team lagi... germany

p/s : SAMBA dh jadi SAMBAL

Brasil kena sambal belacan ngan Ned... Pehhh...

Tgl German skrg... Yeahhhhhhhhhhh...

Netherlands 2 - 1 Brazil
Felipe Melo (og 53') - Robinho (10')
Wesley Sneijder (68') -

Dutch advance as Melo suffers

Wesley Sneijder dumped favourites Brazil out of the World Cup as Netherlands finally got the better of their South American nemesis.

But they had to come from behind to avenge their heartbreaking pdefeats of 1994 and 1998 and book their place in the semi-finals.
Robinho, who had already had an effort ruled out for offside, fired the Brazilians ahead with just ten minutes gone, and the Dutch struggled to cope during the opening 45 minutes.
But Felipe Melo's 53rd-minute own goal gave them fresh impetus and Sneijder won it 22 minutes from time as Melo was dismissed for stamping on Arjen Robben.
However, Netherlands will have to do without both full-back Gregory van der Wiel and midfielder Nigel de Jong for Tuesday's semi-final in Cape Town after both collected second bookings.
Dutch legend Johan Cruyff had claimed dismissively before the game that he would not pay to watch this Brazil team, and if he did stay away from the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, he may have been glad he did so at half-time.
Dunga's men may not possess the all flair of their forebears, but they had more than enough to cut Netherlands open almost at will, and the 1-0 lead they enjoyed at half-time was scant reward for their dominance.
Robinho thought he had given the South Americans the lead with just eight minutes gone after Luis Fabiano and Dani Alves combined to carve open the path to goal and he supplied the finish.
An offside flag ended that celebration, but the £32.5 million man did not have to wait too long for a chance to ease his disappointment.
This time, it was defensive midfielder Melo who split the Dutch rearguard wide open with a straight ball down the middle, and Robinho left orange shirts floundering in his wake as he beat keeper Maarten Stekelenburg with consummate ease.
But for Stekelenburg, the game would effectively have been over by the break with the Ajax man pulling off a fine one-handed save to keep out Kaka's curling 31st-minute effort after Robinho and Luis Fabiano had left Netherlands once again chasing shadows down the left.
The keeper was relieved to see full-back Maicon's rasping drive, which bore similarities to Carlos Alberto's stunning strike in 1970, tear into the side-netting in injury time with the Dutch very much up against it.
But they resumed in more determined fashion, and they got their reward within eight minutes of he restart when, after Sneijder had curled a cross hopefully into the penalty area, Julio Cesar and Melo challenged each other and the ball went in off the midfielder's head.
Robben started to cause problems in the wake of the goal, but Alves flashed a long-range effort just wide and Kaka also went close at the other end as Brazil responded.
But it was Netherlands who took the lead with 22 minutes remaining when Kuyt flicked on Robben's corner and Sneijder steered a header into the net.
Melo received his marching orders five minutes later for senselessly stamping on Robben with his side's World Cup dream rapidly unravelling.
Andre Ooijer's last-ditch tackle denied Kaka five minutes from time, and there was no way back for the five-time winners.

Uruguay (4)1 - 1(2) Ghana
Diego Forlán (55') - Sulley Muntari (45')
- Asamoah Gyan (pen miss 120')

Late heartache for Ghana

Ghana bowed out of the World Cup in the most heartbreaking circumstances in one of the most amazing finishes to a match at the World Cup finals.

Uruguay's Luis Suarez had used his hands to keep out a header in the last minute of extra-time but his red card will be no solace to the Black Stars after Asamoah Gyan's spot-kick hit the bar and Uruguay triumphed in the shoot-out.
Soccer City was deathly silent as Ghana players collapsed in tears, while Uruguay celebrated their first semi-final appearance for 40 years, in which they will play Holland.
The South Americans' goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was the hero, saving twice from John Mensah, the Sunderland centre-back, and Dominic Adiyiah, but there was a nasty taste left in the mouth as Suarez was carried shoulder high by his team.
Sulley Muntari, almost sent home earlier on in the tournament after a bust up with Ghana's Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac, had given his side the lead before Diego Forlan equalised with a viciously-swerving free-kick for his third goal of the finals.
Ghana carried the hopes of the continent with them, and especially South Africans, in their quest to become the first African country to qualify for the semi-finals.
Perhaps it was the burden of expectation, but Ghana looked nervous from the start while Uruguay, and Suarez in particular, emanated menace.
It was the Ajax striker who first threatened, sweeping past Isaac Vorsah and firing in a shot that Richard Kingson managed to parry.
Forlan's dead-ball expertise was also causing Ghana problems and his corner deflected off Mensah's back and Kingson made a reaction save.
Kingson continued his superb form this tournament with a stunning save to tip over from Suarez.
Ghana had done virtually nothing in reply when, inspired by Kevin-Prince Boateng, they suddenly began to play.
Two great chances came in as many minutes as Vorsah planted a header from Muntari's corner just past the angle and then Gyan was inches wide after brilliant work by Boateng.
Then the German-born midfielder nearly conjured up a spectacular opener with an overhead kick before Muntari struck in first-half injury time.
Muntari hit a speculative shot from 30 yards out, Gyan ducked and Muslera was caught flat-footed as the ball sneaked into the corner.
The goal made for an open second half with Uruguay having to force the game, and Uruguay claimed a penalty when Edinson Cavani went down under Vorsah's challenge but replays showed Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca was spot on to wave the appeals away.
It look ominous for Ghana however when John Pantsil swept away Fucile's legs on the edge of the box, and Forlan produced the perfect free-kick that went over the wall and dipped under the crossbar. Kingson moved two steps to his right and was caught out of position as the ball flew past him.
Ghana did not let their heads drop however and Gyan brought a smart save out of Muslera but Uruguay should have taken the lead when Forlan produced an outstanding cross that cut out the entire defence. Suarez was in a perfect position to volley home at the far post but instead he rippled the side-netting.
Boateng looked to be denied a legitimate penalty after a smart turn, with Muntari wasting the chance that presented itself afterwards.
Kingson kept Ghana in it with a sharp near-post save from Suarez, and ensured extra-time.
Gyan was thwarted by a last-ditch block by Andres Scotti as Ghana hunted for a breakthrough then Pantsil was lucky not to be penalised after tangling with Sebastian Eguren in his own area.
Ghana finished the stronger with Gyan and Boateng going close before Forlan flashed a last chance wide.
An incredible last minute saw Suarez sent off for saving Adiyiah's header on the line when palming the ball away with both his hands, and Gyan smashed the resulting penalty against the bar.
Then came the shoot-out, and terrible agony for Ghana.
Mensah was the true culprit of the two to miss for Ghana, taking just one step and sidefooting straight at Muslera.

Horrey sebelum wisel dibunyikan German bravo dont cry for maradona Argie :-):-)

the best game ever!

hu3, nasib baik 2nd team kawe menang, tahniah germany... game mmg best gila....

kah2...argentina kalah..