In the final matches of Group E earlier today, Netherlands beat Cameroon 2-1 and Japan knocked off Denmark 3-1.
With those results, the Dutch (first place) and Japanese (second place) move on to the round-of-16. Netherlands meet Slovakia on Monday at 10:00 a.m. and Paraguay will play Japan at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Clearly the biggest news of the day and the tournament so far is the elimination of Italy, in such pathetic fashion. Still, there are some important things you can take away from these two games.
1) The Dutch are very, very good. Total football was at its best as Robin Van Persie scored in the first half (1-0) for Netherlands. Even more promising for Clockwork Orange is that Arjen Robben made his first appearance (since injuring his hamstring pre-World Cup) and pulled a Messi: his patented cut across the top of the box was perfect except that his shot rattled off the post. Teammate Klaas Jan Huntelaar was able to tap it in for the game-winner and the Dutch finished with nine points in the group stage. Slovakia is a great story and I'll canonize anybody that knocks the Italians out but I don't think Netherlands should have too much trouble with them, granted they're known to disappear at about that time.
2) I don't want to influence Shimer's power rankings too much but Japan is way better than I think anybody knew. Striker Keisuke Honda has been one of the most impressive players of the tournament and he proved why today with two incredible highlights: a free kick goal and a sick move where he brokedown his defender then passed to Shinji Okazaki for an easy tap-in (3-1). I'm calling it now, Japan will beat Paraguay. There was a lot to like about Japan's performance today: 2 goals off ridiculous free kicks, attacking, aggressive soccer and Honda-the best player you've never heard of before now.
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