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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.

Italy has been officially knocked out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup after falling 3-2 to Slovakia.  The defending champions finished in 4th place for the first time in their great history.

In the other match Paraguay and New Zealand drew 0-0.  Paraguay finished on top of the group with 5 points and Slovakia finishes second with 4 points.

After drawing its first two matches Italy knew that a win could get them into the knockout round.  This is by far the biggest upset of the tournament.  Slovakia is a solid team but Italy choked in my opinion.  Typically Italy is very strong defensively and rarely gives up goals but today they were awful.

Slovakia took the early lead in the 25th minute when Robert Vittek’s shot from 18 yards out found the back post side net.  Vitteck would then make it 2-0 in the 73rd minute beating his defender to the near post to find the net.

Italy showed a lot of heart in the second half and had a few chances to actually tie the match.  Antonio Di Natale got the Italians on the board in the 81st minute but Kamil Kopunek answered just 7 minutes later for Slovakia.  Italy would not go down without a fight though as they made it 3-2 when Fabio Quagliarella scored in the 90th minute.  Italy had a great chance to earn the draw in the last seconds but could not break through.

The opening match from day four of the 2010 World Cup was the much anticipated Dutch and Danish match-up. Unfortunately, for the Danish side the game was not as close as some people expected. The Orange Crush came out and dominated this one from whistle to whistle.

Denmark kept the game scoreless in the first half against what was supposed to be one of the most offensively gifted teams in the tournament. Then in the 46th minute Simon Poulsen scored an own goal when his header deflected off his teammate and into the goal. Then in the 85th minute Dirk Kuyt tapped a goal in from close range when second half sub Eljero Elia’s shot deflected off the post.

In the second match of the day Japan came away with three huge points when they upset a dumbfounded Cameroon squad. This was Japans first ever win in a World Cup off of Japanese soil. Cameroon really never seemed to get into the flow of the game and in the 38th minute Keisuke Honda came away with the games only goal.

Cameroon had their chances as the game came to an end rattling a shot off the cross bar from 30-yards out and narrowly missing an opportunity right in front of goal if not for a great save by Japan’s Eiji Kawashima. Cameroon was definitely the most talented group on the pitch but Japan worked harder and were more cohesive as a team.

In the final match of day Italy and Paraguay would end in a 1-1 draw.  The defending champions did not have their best performance but they are generally considered a slow starting squad.  Paraguay will come away thrilled to get a point from thier opening match with the Italians.

Paraguay scored on basically their only opportunity in the first half in the 39th minute when Antolin Alcaraz finished off a beautiful free kick served in from the right side past a helpless Gianluigi Buffon.  Italy would finally break through to tie the match in the 63rd minute when Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar misplayed a corner kick and let the ball drop to a charging Daniele De Rossi who volleyed it in.

The defending champions need to figure out who is going to score goals for them.  Watching this match made me question why American born Guiseppe Rossi was left off this roster.  Italy looks slow moving forward and needs some energy if they are to do well in the tournament.

Here is a great video of the goals from today by David Matthews with some great music over at Deadspin.com-Your Culturally Insensitive World Cup Goal Roundup For June 14