Live The Pitch

It was a day of firsts in today’s World Cup match-up between Paraguay and Japan. Paraguay won 5-3 after 120 minutes of scoreless soccer in the first penalty kick shootout of the 2010 World Cup. This is also the only time that the Paraguayans have made it through to the round of eight.

South America continued its dominance of this years World Cup, with Paraguay being the fourth team from the continent to qualify for the next round of games.

Paraguay made all five of their shots in the shootout and Japanese defender Yuichi Komano was the only player missing the target, when his shot skipped over the cross bar.

Honestly, it was a pretty boring game to watch. Both teams had a few chances on goal throughout the game, but overall the match was pretty sloppy. Midfield play was less than perfect from both sides with a lot balls being turned over in the middle third. The only real chances of game were due to sloppy play from the opposition, which allowed a quick counter.

Hopefully the second game of the day between Spain and Portugal will make up for the lack of excitement in this one.