Paraguay vs. New Zealand: World Cup 2010 Live Blog: Results, Scores, etc.

Good morning, football fans. Todd Lamansky here, Bleacher Report Soccer Writer Extraordinaire.  Over the next couple of hours I’ll be your guide through the final Group F match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa between Paraguay and New Zealand. So if you can’t get to a TV why not follow all the drama and excitement here? You can also join the conversation by posting your comments below.

 

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Full Time...

Paraguay and New Zealand finish in the spectator's dreaded nil-nil draw. To be perfecty honest, it certainly wasn't the most exciting football match I've ever seen. New Zealand, who didn't seem to play like they wanted it (perhaps they lacked the belief that they could beat the South American side), is out of the tournament...

...and Italy is too! The azzurri loses to Slovakia by a final score of 3-2, which puts Paraguay and Slovakia through to the round of 16, with Paraguay as the group f winners. Who could have predicted this?

Time to sign off. It's been real. Thanks for stopping by.

90' + 2 - time is running out for the all whites.

90' - free kick for Paraguay. New zealand have three minutes to score a goal or be sent home. New Zealand clears Santa Cruz's cross with ease.

87' - Wood (NZ) almost gets his foot on a nice cross, but the linesman raises his flag, so even if he had, it wouldn't have counted.

85' - another free kick for paraguay. Again, nothing. Now New Zealand gets one of their own. Not a bad delivery given the distance. It bounces around a few times and is sent back into the box but Paraguay clears it.

83' - Italy just scored in the other match; it's now 2-1. New Zealand needs to score one of their own, but I won't be too sad if they don't.

79' - New Zealand substitution: Killen off, Brockie on. Another Paraguay free kick. Nothing.

75' - two nice saves from New Zealand's keeper.

Update on the other match: Slovakia just scored another goal and lead the Italians 2-0! Italy is set to be the first ever defending world cup champion to ever fail to make it out of the group stages.

Oh well, I had them going out in the round of 16 anyhow so it shouldn't affect my bracket too much!

71' - the announcer just said, "if you had told me before the tournament that New Zealand will win the group, I would have offered to walk home." With Slovakia leading Italy though, it's theoretically possible if New Zealand wins this match.

It reminds me of a post my buddy, Frankie, made that got read on the Guardian's world cup daily: "to be fair, South Africa is full of drug dealers, murderers, and thieves, but as soon as John Terry and his family go back home to england, everything will return to normal."

67' - two like-for-like Paraguay substitutions: Cardozo & Valdez off, Barrios & Benitez on.

62' - the first corner of the game goes to paraguay. Short ball, nice ball into the box, good header, rebound, cleared for another corner. The next one's cleared with ease.

58' - Ryan Nelsen (NZ) picks up a yellow card that gives paraguay a free kick...which is far from hitting the traget.

56' - New Zealand have only ever won one World Cup match and it was in the under-17 World Cup against Poland...11 years ago.

52' - I never thought I'd say this, but go Italy! I am dead last in my World Cup pool so I desparately need Paraguay to finish first and Italy second.

There has yet to be a corner in this match. That doesn't happen often, but it goes a long way toward describing the state of play.

50' - Paraguay limited Slovakia to only one shot on target when they played each other and that one didn't come until the 92'!

46' - another interesting statistic from the 2010 World Cup: South American teams have outscored their opponents 21-4 thus far in the tournament.

Elliot (NZ) takes a shot that sails way over the top of the goal.

Half Time...

I just saw a commercial for new pretzel M&Ms. Funny commercial but kind of a strange concept. I want to know when they're going to make cashew M&Ms.

That soccer shop USA commercial just came on again. I mentioned it the other day in my Mexico/Uruguay live blog. They're using "wavin' flag" by K'naan and I have a sneaking suspicion, given the obvious low budget of the commercial, that they didn't pay for the rights.

If you haven't heard the song, go google it right now. It's a great tune. K'naan is a Somalian rapper with a positive message despite growing up in a country ravaged by civil war. I read an article about him in which he basically chuckled at all the hip-hop gangstas, whose upbringing could not have been half as dangerous as living in Somalia.

45' - the half time whistle blows. Paraguay and New Zealand tied 0-0. Slovakia still leads Italy 1-0. If these results stand, will Slovakia and Paraguay will advance.

43' - with Slovakia leading, New Zealand really needs to start bringing the game to Paraguay or their World Cup is less than an hour away from being over. Of course, a lot can happen in that next hour...

38' - fans of the English Premier League will recognize New Zealand captain, Ryan Nelsen, who plays for Blackburn Rovers. They'll also notice Paraguay's Roque Santa Cruz, a former teammate of Nelsen's at Blackburn, who now plays for Manchester City.

35' - Paraguay takes a shot, but it's an easy save for the New Zealand keeper.

Update from the other game: Slovakia leads italy 1-0! 

29' - it's 7.30am here on the West Coast and I've already been up for two hours now. A cup of coffee is definitely in order come half time. Can't wait for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when the match times are a little more ideal (for me anyhow). Then again, I intend to be there covering the competition in person. I can't wait! But why am I getting so ahead of myself? We haven't even gotten to the knockout rounds of this one yet!

25' - Paraguay is (and looks like) the better team, but New Zealand play with the same kind of heart as South Korea and USA, both of whom are through to the round of 16. One of the greatest things about the World Cup is seeing the "weaker" teams do well.

24' - Paraguay throw-in deep in their attacking third, but they lose the ball on a foul. 

17' - who am I rooting for? I usually go for the underdog, but I picked Paraguay to win the group and Italy to finish as runners-up in my World Cup pool, so I want Paraguay to win. It also means I want Italy to win, which is a tad unnerving since they're a team full of divers that I normally love to hate, but money has a strange way of influencing our allegiances, doesn't it?

16' - Valdez (Paraguay) makes a nice run down the flank, skipping past two defenders right on the touch line, but his cross goes wide.

14' - Killen (NZ) is arguing with the referee, but it was defintiely a foul. Paraguay does nothing with the ensuing free kick.

10' - at this stage in their last match, New Zealand had already taken the lead against Italy. Caceres (Paraguay) just received a yellow card. The announcers say this means he'll miss their next match due to accumulation, but I thought cards were reset after the group stage...

7' - an interesting tidbit the announcer just mentioned: South American teams have yet to lose in the World Cup and European teams have managed just two more wins despite playing almost twice as many games.

5' - it's kind of amusing to see New Zealand wearing all black given their nickname is the all whites.

1' - was so busy writing the bit below, I didn't even realize I was watching Italy and Slovakia. Free kick for Paraguay, New Zealand's keeper catches it with ease.

15 Minutes To Kick Off...

In the interest of time, I'll once again be adopting my anti-capitalism technique. To all the grammar police (and I'm usually one of them), please cut me some slack.

Here's the situation going into the match, which will take place stimultaneously alongside the other Group F match between Slovakia and Italy. Group F currently looks like this:

Paraguay: 4 points, +2 goal differential

Italy: 2 points, 0 goal differential

New zealand: 2 points, 0 goal differential

Slovakia: 1 point, -2 goal differential

This means that a draw will all but seal Paraguay's spot in the next round. A win will see them finish as group winners. New Zealand can also make it to the knockout rounds for the first time in their country's history. With so much at stake on both sides, this should be an interesting match.