Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal score every which way against North Korea.Portugal 7-0 North Korea
Ruh-roh. It pours down rain and goals as North Korea is exposed and trounced by a Portugal side that's obviously finding it's rhythm. Ronaldo emerges as playmaker and then -- finally -- goal scorer as Portugal puts on a display of deft one touch footy. North Korea's holds them to a single goal at half but makes a key mistake by opening up from the defensive stance that kept them in the Brazil game and thus become the second side eliminated from the tournament.
Chile 1-0 Switzerland
Chile continue their all-out attack and finally unlock the Swiss defense, but not before les Suisse set the record for most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal at the World Cup, going back to 2006. Another poor refereeing performance sees way too many yellow cards and a red card for Swiss defender Valon Behrami on a nothing foul and embarrassing bit of play acting by la Roja's Arturo Vidal. Behrami becomes the first Swiss player ever sent off at a WC.
Spain 2-0 Honduras
Spain look much better in a solid win over Honduras. David Villa scores two but misses a penalty and gets away with slapping a Honduran in the face. Torres looks rusty in his comeback from injury and La Furia Roja may rue the many many chances they didn't finish if Group H comes down to goal differential.
2 comments:
A quick defense of Villa's cheek lashing: one video replay showed a glimpse of the Honduran defender stomping on Villa's foot just prior. This is what prompted the bitch slap, but most of the cameras missed it. Just thought I'd chime in with that. You're right about Spain's goal differential problem. They showed a real lack of urgency in the second half, and I wonder if that comes back to haunt them. Let's hope not. They played some beautiful soccer yesterday and I for one would like to see more of it in the knockout stage.
ah... thanks, ccfc. that's good to know. i missed that in the choppy internet stream i had going at work. it seemed like a really strange action from him, but that explains it.
it's incredible to me that we could have a round of 16 w/o france, italy, germany, and spain. considering how well they're playing it would be kind of tragic if the germans and spanish are excluded.
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