And then there were eight

Brazil vs Chile
This was supposed to be a clash of offensive titans, the two top scoring teams from CONMEBOL, a game over-flowing with goals and attacking talent and what-not. Only, when I looked at the qualification results, I had a premonition. Brazil beat Chile 4-2 at home, and 3-0 away. High-scoring games, and not in Chile's favor, at all.

Once again, they met their match it seems. Every England fan quivers with the thought of playing Deutschland, and so it must be for the Chileans, burning voodoo dolls of Fabiano, Kaka et al., using canary yellow toilet paper, and anything else they can think of to shake the curse.

Zonal Marking made a great mention of the Chilean back, Javar, who was supposed to handle Robinho, how he got forward too far one time, and presto, a 3-on-3 with Fabiano, Kaka and Robinho breaks through. I feel like I need to schedule an online webinar with ZM because I'm learning stuff some cool stuff about these games.

Holland vs Slovakia
The Dutch welcome back Arjen Robben with open arms, and, his ambidextrous feet. I mentioned on a previous post how its useful to cut in and cross and shoot, but of course ZM beat me to it with the term "inverted wingers", and Robben, once again, showed why. It was a beauty too, threaded very nicely just inside the post.

My hero of this game was Dirk Kuyt, not least because he plays for the Reds, and not least because the man is a machine, he must have titanium thigh-bones attached to a perpetual-machine-type set of cogs in his knees, because he just goes on and on and on to a ball from a fast free kick, but, I like him really, because he personifies team play. He had every chance to score in that moment, to cut back in around the keeper, to keep the ball and chip someone, but no, he took the easy option and set up Sneidjer. I say it's easy, but for someone with star-power, it's hard not to be the scorer, and Kuyt seems to have gotten that football is a team sport.

Paraguay vs Japan
As lack of excitement this game might have been, I found myself enjoying it because I knew anything, and absolutely anything would change the game. Both sides were able to find the ball in the opposing box, through set-pieces, bad passes or sheer luck, and, though there were very little chances on goal, it kept giving me this thrill that something might happen.

It's one of those games when you appreciate how a nation is behind each team passionately willing them on. Seeing those clips of the fans sets the tone, and you can feel the respective economies of the two countries teetering on some invisible cliff. I know I was depressed on Sunday, but somehow, being the first team to be in the quarter-finals, ever, for a country, and having a great chance to do so, would mean a greater depression if the chance was missed.

It wasn't even a miss too, smacking into the bar like that, just inches, mere inches. Unfortunately for Japan, they were the only ones hoping for that extra inch, and Paraguay become the last CONMEBOL team to go through.

Spain vs Portugal
I was hoping for another battle not unlike the one we saw between the Portugese and the Dutch in the last World cup. I was kind of expecting there to be some serious tackles and some trans-iberian bitterness pouring out, but, I have to admit, the Spanish and the Portugese don't really have much of a footballing rivalry, and in any case, there wasn't much of a game to watch too, thanks to the Spanish midfield.

I loved how Spain came out of the starting blocks firing away, all of their shots seemed like they could be saved, but still. Even though Portugal settled and took the game to the Spanish on occaison, they never seriously threatened, least of all through their star, the center-piece of the so called Nike advert. Nike has got to be firing people left and right now Villa and Messi, at the heart of the Adidas ad, are progressing through the tournament at will, and most of the Nike stars are out (even Federer, now that I think of it, Ha!).

It was disappointing see Torres come off, and the chance that his replacement had mere minutes later, Torres would have put that away, I'm sure of it. But he did seem like he couldn't do much. I'm not getting a good grip on the tactics, but more and more, it seems like that the people who go wide, and come in late, become the more likely goal-scorers, like Ramos and Villa, and the ones who are expected to play centrally need some serious imagination behind them. Unfortunately for Torres, it seems like that he didn't get the chance in 60 minutes.

Coming up
Epics:
Brazil vs Holland - a re-match of the semi-final of 1998!
Argentina vs Germany - a re-match of 2006, 1990, and 1986 ( can anyone guess which plump coke-sniffer played in the latter two games?)
First-Timers:
Ghana vs Uruguay - no CAF nation has made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup
One-sided goal fest:
Spain vs Paraguay - Anyone wants to bet against Villa scoring?