And They Advance!

I woke up this morning at 3:25 am to connect to the internet and find a live feed for the Denmark v. Japan game. I'm a little tired right now, but the catching the game was worth the effort.

Coming into this final game of the group, Japan had a 1 goal advantage (in terms of points) over Denmark. That means that all Japan had to do to advance to the Round of 16 was to tie. It didn't seem likely that the game would be scoreless, because the idea of settling for a tie is very close to just waiting for the opposing team to strike one in.

And so Japan went on the offensive, as did Denmark. But at 17' into the first half, Keisuke Honda, with the help of a smooth set piece, sent in a brilliant free kick that the Danish keeper had no chance of touching. From that point on, things seemed good for Japan. And they continued to head that way. At 30', Yasuhito Endo put another in the back of the net (again, off of a set piece) to put Japan ahead 0-2 before the half.

The Danish answered with a goal with just under 10 minutes left to play, but Japan sealed the match when Shinji Okasaki tapped in an assist from Honda, Japan's third goal of the game, with just a few minutes left to play.

Watching Japan solidify their game was great, especially coming off the previous 0-1 loss to the Netherlands. This World Cup has witnessed Japan winning its first two games outside of their own country, not to mention progressing into the Round of 16. I'm excited to watch them in action again. I'll be cheering heartily for them.

In other great news, the USA and Germany also advanced. The USA's Landon Donovan saved the day with a goal in the first minute of stoppage time in the second half of the game against Algeria. And it was Mesut Özil who scored in Germany's third game, against Ghana. Both teams advance as the leaders of their group, which means they will play the second seeded teams from opposing groups.

I'm looking forward to all the games and hope to see my three favorite teams do as well as they can.