Uruguay 0 – 2 Spain LAST 16 (Match #50)

The holders are through to a potential Quarter-Final tie against the hosts after Uruguay had no answer for a Javi Martínez brace that saw Spain run out 2-0 winners in Fortaleza.

The Bayern Munich man scored his third goal for his country just three and a half minutes into tonight’s Second Round match when he rose highest around the penalty spot and looped a header from Santi Cazorla’s free-kick past a diving Muslera.

Spain pressed hardest of the two sides but couldn’t extend their lead in the remainder of the first-half that became broken-up with a number of petty Uruguayan fouls as they chased the game.

Gaston Ramirez had a good chance eight minutes after the break when Stuani flicked a ball on, but he shot straight at Casillas. Five minutes later and he curled a shot at goal that looked destined for the top corner, but Casillas was at full-stretch to tip it wide.

Into the final ten minutes and Cazorla was given another chance to whip a free-kick into the box from the right. The delivery wasn’t cleared out of the box, and Alonso nodded it back to Javi Martínez who turned and lashed a half-volley into the back of the net.

We’ve had 50 matches at the tournament so far, producing 145 goals.

Spain will play the winners of tomorrow’s Brazil-USA clash.

                   FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL 2014
                     MATCH 50: SECOND ROUND
                    
                      URUGUAY 0-2 SPAIN
                                  Javi Martínez 4, 81

                           Fortaleza

Japan 1-0 South Korea LAST 16 (Match #49)

Japan are through to the Quarter-Finals for the first time in their history after a 1-0 win over South Korea in Belo Horizonte. The only goal of what was a comfortable victory came shortly before the interval when William played a nice ball through to Shinji Okazaki on the edge of the box, with the defenders letting him take a touch before slotting past Sung-Ryong.

The second-half was one-way traffic with the Korean ‘keeper making a number of stops to keep them in it, but Japan never looked like conceding as South Korean struggled to get out of their own half for long periods.

                   FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL 2014
                     MATCH 49: SECOND ROUND
                    
                        JAPAN 1-0 SOUTH KOREA
                  Okazaki 43

                         Belo Horizonte

FIFA World Cup: Second Round Fixtures

48 matches later, and we’ve halved the number of sides still competing at the 2014 Brazil FIFA World Cup after the conclusion of the Group Stage.

Curiously, no side progressed with three wins in their group, though six sides were unbeaten: Japan, Uruguay, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Germany, with Norway and Germany both through as runners-up in their respective groups.

Vágner Love leads the scoring charts with five, scoring in each of Brazil’s games. Edin Dzeko is the only other player to manage the same feat, scoring four goals in Bosnia’s three games despite them finishing bottom of Group B.

England were the highest-ranked nation (6th) to not make the last sixteen, as a 93rd minute winner for USA in the match between the two sides saw the England miss out on progression to the knockout stages, going from 2nd to bottom in the group in a matter of seconds.

7th ranked Colombia also failed to make the last sixteen in the competition on South American soil. Other nations in the Top 16 rankings not to progress are Ivory Coast (9th, DNQ), Sweden (11th), Ghana (14th), Mexico (15th), and Slovakia (16th). The lowest-ranked nation to qualify for the Second Round are South Korea, ranked 62nd in the world.

Of the last sixteen, 8 are from Europe, 4 from South America, 3 from Asia, and 1 from the CONCACAF region. None of the six African sides made it through the groups, only picking up twelve points between them.

Second Round Fixtures (World Rankings):

Sat 28 June
       Japan (42) v. South Korea (62)     Belo Horizonte
      Uruguay (4) v. Spain (1)            Fortaleza

Sun 29 June
      Brazil (23) v. United States (44)   Rio de Janeiro
 Switzerland (12) v. Croatia (13)         Recife

Mon 30 June
  Netherlands (5) v. Chile (10)           Brasilia
        Italy (2) v. Norway (27)          Sao Paulo

Tue 01 July
    Portugal (26) v. Australia (33)       Porto Alegre
    Argentina (8) v. Germany (3)          Salvador