And then there were 8

Of the 8 group winners, 7 advanced. The exception? Of course, the US National Team. Why did the US fail to hold form? Well, a giant part was head coach Bob Bradley's baffling starting lineup. The US has many good-to-great midfielders on the team. None of them is named Ricardo Clark. The US has a number of average-to-good defenders on the team. Not one of them is named Jonathan Bornstein. They also have a few okay forwards on the team. Not one is named Robbie Findley. Unfortunately, 3 players in the US starting 11 against Ghana were named Clark, Bornstein, and Findley. Bornstein actually did ok for himself. The other 2...no. Just no. After the England game, I said Clark and Findley should be replaced. For all the good Bob Bradley did in these 4 years for US Soccer, these 2 lineup decisions against Ghana is sufficient grounds to not ask him back for this next 4 year cycle. Absolutely unbelievable.

The next story was bad refereeing on goal scoring plays for Sunday's games. The England disaster convinced me beyond a doubt that FIFA needs goal line officials or replay. That's a hard call to make when no official is standing on the goal line, so let's add an official on each end line near the goal. Sure it might only come into play once or twice a tournament if that, but you can't botch a goal call, it totally changes a game. The Argentina debacle was absolutely inexcusable. There is no way the linesman could miss that Tevez was offside. Either he fell asleep or he's blind, and either one is inexcusable for an official on this stage. Heck, the offside position was so glaringly obvious, the referee himself should have been able to see it. As a US Soccer fan, I hate Mexico and enjoy seeing them suffer, but that was an awful missed call.

I am incredibly excited for Argentia-Germany and Brazil-Netherlands. That's a lot of talent and a ton of offensive firepower in 2 quarterfinal matchups. Argentina-Germany will be the match of the World Cup.

Brazil was simply too good for Chile, who is still the only South American team to lose at this World Cup (to Spain and Brazil, no shame there). Of the 8 quarterfinalists, 4 are from South America. Considering they only qualified 5 teams overall, that's impressive. I thought Africa's teams would make a move, but instead South America has taken advantage of the UEFA teams' habit of underachieving compared to when the World Cup is held on European soil.

The Paraguay-Japan snoozer has been called the most boring game of the World Cup. I saw England-Algeria senator (I deserve a medal for staying with that one for the whole game), and there could not have been a game that was as boring as full of inept offense as that one, so I am officially calling shennanigans.

Spain is simply a joy to watch. Their possession game is very pleasing on the eyes, and as soon as you stretch yourself out to try and deny them possession, they pounce. That being said, Portugal played a whale of a game, coming up with some good chances on counters, and their keeper was amazing, singlehandedly at times keeping Portugal in it.

And we even got a penalty shootout, so we saw it all. It may be an awful way to be eliminated, but it is fun to watch.