We have arrived at the knockout stage. This tournament provided us with an exciting and dramatic group stage over the past two and half weeks. Now we’re on to the business end of the competition. We only had one game today so this will be a shorter blog, at least compared to the recent ones where it’s been six games per day over the last four days. But without further ado, let’s get right to it:

Canada 1-0 South Africa

The story coming into this one for the Canadians was that because they lost their final group game to Switzerland, they ended up finishing second in the group and had to travel down to Los Angeles for their round of 32 game instead of staying at home in Vancouver. It was a weird situation for a host nation to not actually play at home but those are the rules. For South Africa, they got here by bouncing back from an awful opening game against Mexico. They went on to draw Czechia 1-1 and then shocked South Korea in the final group game to take second place in Group A. It set up what on paper looked to be a close matchup for our first Round of 32 game. That is what we ended up getting.

I thought the first half of this game was pretty even until late on. Canada got forward more often and were playing really direct. But things always seemed to fizzle out whenever they got in and around the South Africa penalty box. Part of that was due to Canada not having the final ball but South Africa also deserve credit for making it difficult. Canada did get really close to scoring right at the end of the half when a Moise Bombito header was cleared off the line and Tajon Buchanan’s follow up was saved. A few minutes after that, Richie Laryea went down in the box but a penalty wasn’t given. I think it was close but it would have been a harsh call. I agree with the decision.

South Africa started to create a few more chances in the second half but their problem was that Canada stepped it up as well. The Canadians looked much more likely to get a winner as the half went on and eventually they would get it. In stoppage time, Stephen Eustaquio took down a headed clearance and fired a shot into the bottom corner past goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. It was the breakthrough Canada so desperately needed and they’re now on to the Round of 16.

I thought in the end this was a fair result. South Africa spent a lot of the time with the ball in their own half, trying to frustrate Canada. I would’ve liked to see them get forward a bit more. Canada ended the game as the better team and deserved to move on here.

Predictions

We now head into three games a day over the next five days to complete the Round of 32. I’ve decided to give predictions for the following day’s games in these blogs going forward. So here’s what I have for tomorrow:

• Brazil 2-1 Japan
  • I think Japan have a real shot at winning this one. But it’s hard to pick against Brazil and Carlo Ancelotti. I can see the Japanese keeping it really close but ultimately Brazil will have too much for them
• Germany 3-0 Paraguay
  • Paraguay are going to sit back and defend for their lives in this one. I just get the feeling that Germany will get an early goal to make Paraguay have to come out of their shell more. And that will only lead to more chances for Germany, which they’ll take on their way to victory
• Netherlands 3-1 Morocco
  • On paper, this is probably the game of the round. Both teams have been good this tournament so far but I think I’ve seen more from the Dutch. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is a close 1-1 for awhile but the Netherlands get a winner and then a goal in stoppage time to seal the deal

Stray Thoughts

• I’ve lost track of which commentary teams I’ve talked about already, so I apologize if I’ve mentioned this before. But I’m really not a fan of Jacqui Oatley and Warren Barton. I don’t think Barton offers much of anything with his analysis and during the game today I felt Oatley made every time a team got forward sound like it was an incredible chance to score
• I’m kind of on the fence with how to feel about only having one game today. It was a huge comedown from the six games a day to end the group stage. But also, it was good to have a break. I do wish we had a better matchup today though
• Jesse Marsch is still insufferable. Having to have your own player hold you back from getting in the referee’s face is pretty embarrassing

So that’ll do it for the first day of the knockouts. We have what should be an incredible day ahead of us tomorrow and I can’t wait to see how everything unfolds. See you then!