URUGUAY, NETHERLANDS, GERMANY, SPAIN IN SEMIS
It's that time of the World Cup where everyone has to take a timeout before the next match - not for England though, they were already on a plane home. As gutting as that early exit was, I'm not going to dwell on that here - England's fate deserves an article all on it's own it's so messy. In the meantime, we have the World Cup quarter finals to look forward to, even if I'm only watching it from a neutral point of view. Certainly some interesting matchups.
The Netherlands faced Brazil in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium...and the Dutch found themselves ripped to shreds as Robinho opened the scoring early on. However the five time world champions got a bit complacent in the 2nd half and Wesley Sneijder first levelled the scoring and then gave the Oaranje the lead with the Braxilians finishing the game with 10 men. Brazilian fans must be scratching their heads over that sort of turnaround. On paper this Dutch side isn't awesome but hey, they're in the semis.
Uruguay faced Ghana at Soccer City. Roared on by the locals(or should that be vuvuzelad on) the Black Stars capped their edge in the first half with a Sulley Muntari goal just before the interval. Uruguay replied early in the 2nd half thanks to Diego Forlan and the rest of the match turned out to be a lot more active than the early stages. However there were no more goals and so both teams faced extra time, for Ghana it was the second time in the tournament.
Well I'm not sure what happened in the first half of extra time but only one side look particularly interested in winning the match and that was Ghana - still they couldn't hit the net. Uruguay came alive briefly in the second half but still it looked to be Ghana's show and the Black Stars missed a penalty before the end. The match was eventually decided in a penalty shootout and it was Uruguay that won that, 4-2. An amazing run from a country associated mainly with the early stages of the competition's history.
Germany faced Argentina in the Green Point Stadium. When Thomas Muller opened the scoring for the Germans you'd have thought the Argies would be able to step up a gear and respond. Instead though Diego Maradona saw his team fall apart, Miroslav Klose and Arne Friedrich securing a German win before Klose got his 2nd. Well that makes the Three Lions effort look not so bad to be honest, this German team certainly looks like a smooth outfit.
Paraguay faced Spain at Ellis Park. Well the first half turned out to be pretty dull, for whatever reason the European champions just couldn't do anything to the opposition. The second half looked likely to be more of the same with both sides missing penalties though eventually David Villa hit the winner for Spain. It may be the most succsessful tournament in generations for the Spanish but they clearly are still not firing on all cylinders. They will have to step it up for the next match.