With Paraguay beating Japan on penalty kicks and Spain beating Portugal 1-0 on Tuesday afternoon, the quarterfinal matchups are set for the 2010 FIFA World Cup being held in South Africa.

Here are your quarterfinal matchups:

Friday, July 2nd:

• Netherlands vs Brazil, 10:00 a.m., ESPN
• Uruguay vs Ghana, 2:30 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, July 3rd:

• Argentina vs Germany, 10:00 a.m., ABC
• Paraguay vs Spain, 2:30 p.m., ABC

The winners of the Netherlands/Brazil and Uruguay/Ghana match will meet on July 6th in the semifinals while the winners of the Argentina/Germany and Paraguay/Spain match will meet in the semifinals on July 7th.

While all of these games should be great, we've got two different games featuring the heavyweights of the tournament in Netherlands vs Brazil and Argentina vs Germany. This games will be fun to watch.

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With Spain beating Chile 2-1 and Switzerland and Honduras playing to a 0-0 draw, the knockout stage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is set to begin on Saturday.

First let's list the groups winners and runner-ups:

• Group A: Uruguay, Mexico
• Group B: Argentina, South Korea
• Group C: United States, England
• Group D: Germany, Ghana
• Group E: Netherlands, Japan
• Group F: Paraguay, Slovakia
• Group G: Brazil, Portugal
• Group H: Spain, Chile

And here's the schedule for the second round:

Saturday, June 26th:

• Uruguay v South Korea 10:00 AM, ESPN
• United States v Ghana 2:30 PM, ABC

Sunday, June 27th:

• Germany vs England, 10:00 AM, ESPN
• Argentina vs Mexico, 2:30 PM, ABC

Monday, June 28th:

• Netherlands vs Slovakia, 10:00 AM, ESPN
• Brazil vs Chile, 2:30 PM, ESPN

Tuesday, June 29th:

• Paraguay vs Japan, 10:00 AM, ESPN
• Spain vs Portugal, 2:30 PM, ESPN

Obviously besides the USA vs Ghana game tomorrow afternoon, the game I'm most looking forward to watching is the Spain/Portugal game on Tuesday. Spain is the second ranked team in the world and Portugal is the third. no comments

Look out Sports Illustrated. It looks like there's a new magazine jinx in town.

Back when ESPN the Magazine hit newsstands on May 17th, American-born Italian National Soccer Team player Gisueppe Rossi graced the cover of the magazine in the leadup to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The games will begin on June 11th.

But when the Azzurri kick off their run to the championship on June 14th against Paraguay, Rossi won't be there as he was cut from the squad yesterday.

This is all Italian head coach Marcello Lippi has said about the exclusion of Rossi:

"All the exclusions were difficult, maybe Giuseppe Rossi's was the most difficult one.

Rossi had this to say over on his Twitter page:

didnt make it, but i have no regrets...worked hard and showed what i could do..i gues the coach had other plans. good luck Italy..

....cant wait to go back home to my family now.......!! gonna enjoy a beautiful summer...

So do we have a new magazine jinx on our hands? I guess we'll have to see as each subsequent issue of The Mag comes out.

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I owe the readers of the site a big apology. Normally when I'm going to take off time from the site, I'll let you know ahead of time. This time I didn't.

I started out with no plans but something last minute came up and I was unable to get anything written to let everyone know. For that I apologize.

I've got lot to catch up on with the Red Sox and the UConn Huskies especially giving my thought on the allegations brought against the men's basketball team. I will do my best to get caught up here and get us back on track.

Thank you very much for your support of the blog and I look forward to putting out the best content I can on a daily basis.

{jcomments off}

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Having played soccer for over 2/3 of my life, I, like many people across the world, will be following the action in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. One of my favorite teams to watch is Brasil but I will be watching and supporting the United States Men's National Soccer Team while they are in South Africa.

The United States will kickoff their 2010 FIFA World Cup being held in South Africa starting on June 12th at 2:30 p.m. when they will take on England.

Here's the 23 man squad that head coach Bob Bradley will be bringing to South Africa:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England).

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Clarence Goodson (IK Start, Norway), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan, Italy), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England).

Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany), Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus, Denmark), Stuart Holden (Bolton, England), Jose Torres (Pachuca, Mexico).

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Hull, England), Edson Buddle (Los Angeles), Robbie Findley (Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Puebla, Mexico).

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On Monday afternoon, the UFL's Hartford Colonials showed off their new logo to the world and also announced they will be wearing blue and gold for the 2010 UFL season.

What do you think of the new logo? To me it looks a little bit like a police shield.

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Here's a guest post from Marc Parker of Sports A La Mode about the United States bidding to host either 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

In a couple weeks when the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa it will bring with it a new level of attention and popularity for the game of soccer. The majority of the world is accustomed to the popularity of the sport since soccer is widely considered the "globe's game." However, in the United States, soccer isn't considered as interesting in comparison to the other four major sports the country has to offer. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. Soccer doesn't get the respect it rightfully deserves in the States, but when it comes down to Team USA versus the world and bringing a cultural event to the country, no matter how Americans feel about the game, they pay very close attention.

The 1994 World Cup (the last time the games were held in the United States) was attended by a total of 3.6 million people, which is still a record even though the games have expanded. From a United States perspective, it was the highest attended single sporting event in U.S. history. The United States Bid Committee, which is in charge of bringing the games back, understands the significance of hosting such an event and has pulled out all the stops to bring the games to America over other locations like England, Australia, and Japan.

The U.S. Committee's board of directors is made up of important figures like U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Counselor to former President Clinton, Doug Band. The addition of Doug Band to the U.S. Committee is a smart move on behalf of the committee because Band, an avid fan of the game, is co-creator of the Clinton Global Initiative, and has worked tirelessly to help millions across the globe, adding an internationally recognized face on America’s bid. Band's commitment and global understanding is exactly what the Committee needs to make the games and culture of the 2018/2022 World Cup an American reality.

With the world watching, the 2010 World Cup will be on the forefront of sports viewing technology with some of the games even being broadcasted in 3-D for the first time ever. Team USA drew a favorable bracket and will open the games against England which has many in the country ready to rename this soccer battle the Revolutionary War Part II. Team USA is posed to begin their quest for their first ever World Cup, and America is ready to root them on showing that 2018/2022 is the time to bring the cultural relevance of the world's most popular sport back to America.

The United States wants to bring the world’s attention to America by hosting the World Cup and demonstrating their embrace for the international game of soccer. Billions of people come together under the banner of soccer and root for their country's team in hopes of holding the cup. Winning the World Cup bid will hopefully bring the games to our shores but will also convey the message that America welcomes diversity and respects worldwide culture.

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After facing each other three times, Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez squared off the ring for a fourth time at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Vazquez held a 2-1 advantage after the first three fights but this time around he walked out of the ring a beaten and bloody man as Marquez knocked him out at 1:33 of the third round.

Here's the video for you to enjoy:

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For those UConn Huskies women's basketball fans looking to get their UConn fix over the summer, you are in luck.

Comcast Sports New England will be airing seven Connecticut Sun games over the course of the 2010 WNBA season. Boston Celtics play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman will have the call and former UConn great Rebecca Lobo will provide the color commentary.

And if you didn't know, the Sun boast three former Huskies on their roster. They are Asjha Jones, Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles.

CSN New England will kick-off their coverage this Friday night at 7 p.m. when the Sun will take on the Atlanta Dream in Hotlanta.

Here's the full schedule (former Huskies listed next to game time):

• Fri, May 21 @ Atlanta Dream – 7 p.m. (no Huskies)
  
• Fri, June 11 vs. Indiana Fever – 7:30 p.m. (Jessica Moore)
  
• Fri, June 25 vs. Phoenix Mercury – 7:30 p.m. (Diana Taurasi, Ketia Swanier)
  
• Sun, June 27 @ NY Liberty – 4 p.m. (Kalana Greene)
  
• Sat, July 24 vs. LA Sparks – 7 p.m. (no Huskies)
  
• Tue, August 3 @ Minnesota Lynx – 8 p.m. (Charde Houston)
  
• Tue, August 17 vs. Tulsa Shock – 7:30 p.m. (no Huskies)

To find out what channel Comcast Sports New England is on your cable or satellite provider, head over to the CSN New England website. no comments

We're back after a brief hiatus due to a computer issue. With new power cord in hand, we can get back to doing the site now.

We missed a lot over the past two days.

On Monday night, we missed the come-from-behind win loss by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees. Last night, we missed the come-from-behind win over the Yankees. We missed Mike Lowell basically asking for his release from the Red Sox and a  little tift between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Victor Martinez.

On the UConn side of things, all we really missed was the UConn Huskies women's basketball team visiting President Barack Obama for the second straight year.

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