Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Quarter Final Schedule of World Cup Football 2010

Round of 16 of the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2010 has finished. Now, it is time for quarter final which kicks off from 2 July 2010. There are 8 teams who reached the quarter final after defeating their round of 16 opponents. Eight teams who were eliminated from the tournament in the round of 16 include two favorites England and Portugal.

The highlights of the Round of 16 are the departure of England and Portugal. England suffered a humiliating 4-1 loss to Germany, while European champion Spain defeated Portugal 1-0 to knock out the Portuguese side. Tournament favorites Brazil and Argentina picked up two easy wins over Mexico and Chile respectively.

In the round of 16, match officials made two controversial decisions which were fully criticized and there are now many who are calling for more use of technology in football.

During the match between England and Germany, English midfielder Lampard was denied a goal which was apparently a clear goal proved by the video footage as the ball remained a way more than 1 second inside the goal before bouncing back. This goal could have changed the result of the match. In another match between Argentina and Mexico, Carlos Tevez was actually offside when he scored his first goal, but the linesman declared it a goal.

Teams who have been qualified for the quarter final are Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Ghana, Uruguay and Paraguay. In this round, there are 4 matches scheduled to take place on 2 July and 3 July with two matches to be played each day.

Winner of the four matches would progress to the semi final, while the losers would be eliminated. It is pretty much understandable that at least 2 more tournament favorites would be knocked out in the quarter final round as Germany faces Argentine and Brazil takes on Netherlands. All of them are favorites, but two of them must leave the tournament before the semi final.

Here is the schedule of the quarter final round:

Brazil vs Netherlands – 2 July 2010 – 14:00 - Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth

Uruguay vs Ghana – 2 July 2010 – 18:30 - Soccer City, Johannesburg

Argentina vs Germany – 3 July 2010 – 14:00 - Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town

Spain vs Paraguay – 3 July 2010 – 18:30 - Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg

If a match can not produce the winner after 90 minutes of play, then extra time would come into effect, which would be followed by penalty shoot-out and sudden death, if needed.

Extra time

If a match ends up in a draw or stalemate after 90 minutes, both sides would be allowed to play for another 30 minutes which is termed as ‘extra time’. Extra time is split into two periods of 15 minutes each. After the first 15 minutes, there is a small break in the match. Teams change sides of the field when the second half of extra time begins. However, if the tie is still not broken, then penalty shootout is used to decide the winner.

Penalty Shootout
In penalty shootout, each team is allowed to take five penalties alternatively from the penalty mark with only the goalkeeper in goalpost. The team with highest number of goals scored in the five penalties would be the winner. However, if penalty shootout also fails to break the tie, then ‘sudden death’ would come into effect to produce a winner.

Sudden Death

In this stage, each team is allowed to take 1 penalty. For example, if team A scores and Team B fails, team A is the winner. However, if either teams score or fail to score, then again each side is allowed to take a penalty, and the process continues until the winner is produced. So, the term ‘sudden death’ literally means a sudden death of a team.

Out of eight matches in the round of 16, only two could not produce any winner after 90 minutes of play and only one match was decided in penalty shoot out. Ghana defeated USA through an extra time goal from Asamoah Gyan. Paraguay defeated Japan 5-3 in penalty shootout following a goalless show for 120 minutes (90+30 minutes).

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