World Cup Day 22 – Holland now the favourites to go all the way

Posted by Cathal Breathnach on July 3, 2010 | No Comments

You may have noticed there was no daily round-up from us lot from the World Cup for the last two days purely down to the fact that there were no games. I’m sure, like myself, you were delighted to have some football to watch today and boy did we have some drama.

In the first quarter-final today, Brazil, many people’s favourites to go all the way this summer, were knocked out as Holland deservedly progressed to the semi’s. It was the Brazil striker Robinho who opened the scoring with just ten minutes on the clock in the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium. A very neat finish from a player who barely managed to get a shot on target since he joined Manchester City.

The Dutch equalised after half-time when Julio Cesar failed to clear a Wesley Sneijder cross and unfortunately for the Inter Milan keeper, the ball bounced into the Brazil net. Sneijder scored the winner for Bert Van Marwaijk’s men with a well worked corner which was eventually turned in by the Inter playmaker. And so it finished 2-1 to Holland.

Holland will now meet Uruguay in the final after they beat Africa’s lest representatives in the competition, Ghana, in a dramatic penalty shoot-out. The Ghanaians took the lead when Sulley Muntari struck a shot from all of 30-yards which found its way into the Uruguay net. Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan equalised for the Uruguayans with an exceptional free-kick from 25-yards out. The game went into extra-time and Ghana were handed an unbelievable chance to progress to the semi’s when they were awarded a penalty with just seconds to go.

Luis Suarez was shown a straight red for a deliberate hand ball on the Uruguay goal line. Asamoah Gyan, who has undoubtedly been one of Ghana’s top performers at the World Cup, saw his effort from the spot crash off the bar and so the game went to penalties. It was nice to see Gyan score his penalty in the shoot-out. However, it was Uruguay who were victorious with Sebastian Abreu scoring the winning penalty with a cheeky dink down the middle. Great stuff.

Conclusions:

1. Sebastian Abreu has some balls.
2. Mark Van Bommel just can’t resist a dirty tackle.
3. And finally, Holland may just win the World Cup.

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