World Cup Thread- Day 10
Today's matches (in EST):
7:30 am: Portugal - DPRK (North Korea)
10:00 am: Chile - Switzerland
2:30 pm: Spain - Honduras
Portugal - North Korea is on now. Superb passing led to the only goal so far for Portugal, put away by Raul Meireles. Second half kicking off now. North Korea has looked ok, but the goal definitely rattled them a bit. Come on Chollima!
and.....the rout is on
room for 10 mins and it was 1-0 then... i come back and it was 3-0 and i just saw the 4th goal... bad part for north korea is that there is 29 mins left in the game...
Well 3 goals in 7 minutes makes it 4-0 Portugal. Every goal here helps because it's most likely going to come down to GD for 2nd between them and Ivory Coast.
I am sure in the PRK, Kim Jong Ill will announce that the team let the dogs from Portugal win in an act of mercy. If they truly weren't being so merciful, then PRK would have won by 15.
Why would he even go that far? His government controls the internet and media there. He'll just tell them that North Korea won it all. Isn't that what he does every year, even the ones the WC isn't played in?
Celebrations have started in North Korea after the big win!
(via EDSBS)
...everything seems right in the world. Wars, oil spills, corruption be damned.
Oh well...for freedom!!!
I'm the only one rooting for North Korea? Can't blame the players for the government. I also love upsets. Plus why would you ever root for Ronaldo? And my final reason is that I want Ivory Coast to advance. At this point it would take a six goal swing in the final 2 games (Brazil-Portugal, CIV-DPRK) for them to qualify.
Pretty sure you're in the minority on this one. I feel as much as anyone for the citizens of North Korea but I think these athletes are treated fairly well. I saw at least one getting weepy during the playing of their national anthem.
And who else saw Ronaldo petulantly kick the ball into the net after the Liedson took the cross instead of leaving it for him? Classic
Haven't seen anything like this in awhile. Are these the same two teams from the first set of games?
Obviously at some point the North Koreans just laid down. They were playing well until they conceded the second goal.
I agree that you cant blame the players for the government they play for, but I refuse to root for North Korea for obvious reasons. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Portugal manhandle the PRK, they deserved an ass whooping and they got it.
Now the question I wonder about is; What will happen to the players on that North Korean team? Are they going to go home and be arrested and executed for humiliating the country like that? Will the PRK Keeper spend the rest of his life in prison? I know this stuff sounds a little dramatic but I would not put it past the North Korean government.
While anything that makes Kim Jogn Il look bad is a positive in my book, I would have been ecstatic had it not been Portugal doing the scoring. I watch their matches and you amount of flopping and petulant behavior is just disgraceful.
About as bad as what Dempsey did in the first minute on Friday, but the Swiss player gets a red and Dempsey got nothing. Not that Friday's refereeing was the gold standard, but both were probably yellow card fouls.
Not good for Spain. They were pulling for a tie or a Swiss win. If Chile wins, and the Swiss beat Honduras as they should, Spain would need to beat Chile and win the tiebreakers to advance.
Chile are knocking at the door after Behrani is sent off questionably for an elbow to the face but it looks quite harsh to me. At this rate it's a bad day for the Swiss.
Which will happen first: Chile goal or Federer loses? Or neither?
Offside call, but it seems like a matter of time before Chile puts one in.
Chile remains one of the teams I really like in this tournament, because they play soccer with a very offensive mind instead of manning the bunkers and praying nobody breaks through like so many other less prestigious teams are doing. They are fun to watch.
Chile now just needs to tie Spain to win the group, which would enable them to avoid Brazil in the Round of 16. Of course, they would get Portugal instead. That would be a fantastic game, with two teams that have a lot of offensive firepower. Spain needs two wins, with one of them by more than one goal, to be assured of advancing.
Lets see what spain does. Would love to see a Brazil Spain matchup in the first round past the groups.
Will be very disappointing if Chile go out on goal difference, since they are such a fun attacking side to watch. But good chance they will tie Swiss and Spain with 6 points, and will rue all the chances they had to score more in this game and against Houduras. They'll really have no one to blame but themselves.
Though I am interested to see what Switzerland can do when they actually have to attack. They were actually fairly entertaining after Chile scored but always looked like they might get caught on the break. I could see Honduras putting a couple by them.
isn't looking to shabby either
Switzerland finally concedes a goal, ending a World Cup-record streak of 556 minutes being unscored upon. (In 2006, Switzerland was eliminated from the tournament without ever giving up a goal, losing in a shootout in the second round.) They had been down to 10 men for 44 minutes when this happened. Even on the goal, a Swiss defender nearly pulled off a fantastic reflex save.