World Cup Update, July 8

Semifinal Games:
Brazil vs Germany (Tuesday, 4:00 PM, ESPN)
Netherlands vs Argentina (Wednesday, 4:00 PM, ESPN)

Quarterfinal Results:
Brazil 2, Colombia 1
Germany 1, France 0
Argentina 1, Belgium 0
Netherlands 0, Costa Rica 0 (Netherlands wins 4-3 on penalties)

It's an absolute shame that Neymar will not play another minute for Brazil in this World Cup. The losses of Neymar and Thiago Silva are enough (in my mind) to tip the scales to Germany in today's matchup, even taking into account the home cooking (both literal and figurative). While the knee to the back was an obvious foul, the referee bears much blame for letting that game get out of hand (not to mention that Brazil did most of the early fouling before Colombia decided they had to retaliate).

Many times fans will decry a referee for being too liberal with the cards, which causes important matches to be played without star players due to card accumulation. But the flipside is what happened in this game, when a referee's refusal to take control of the match with cards resulted in a star player being knocked out of the World Cup with an injury.

I had ridiculously high hopes for the France-Germany game. Both teams played a pretty aggressive counterattacking style, so I got my hopes up that we'd see the soccer equivalent of playoff overtime hockey, which eventually becomes the teams trading waves of attacks until either the intermission whistle sounds or a goal is scored. Not to say that the game was unwatchable (read: Greece-like), but both teams seemed to play much more cautiously than I anticipated.

I didn't see much of the Argentina-Belgium matchup, but it's disheartening to see that Belgium went 40 minutes without a shot in this game so soon after the US allowed 18 shots on goal to them.

Costa Rica put on a clinic of how to defend and counter in this World Cup. The Netherlands dominated possession, but were frequently stonewalled by Costa Rican defenders, either with blocked shots or well-executed offside traps.

But the biggest story for me was Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal using his third (out of 3) sub of the game to switch keepers just before extra time ended and the game moved on to penalties. The new keeper was a couple of inches taller, but it's one of those moves most coaches won't make because if it doesn't work they'll be run out of town/country. Of course, when it does work, the coach looks like a a genius, which is what happened here.

Krul came on and
a) Acted like a pro wrestling heel, jawing at each Costa Rican penalty taker as they set up the ball to kick (I both thought this unsportsmanlike behavior was hilarious and was flabbergasted that the referee wasn't stopping Krul from doing it)
b) Went the correct way on all 5 Costa Rican shots
c) Saved 2/5 shots

Add in the Dutch being almost perfect on all 4 of their shots (even if the Costa Rican keeper had guessed correctly all 4 times I don't think he touches even 1 of the shots), and the Netherlands (narrowly again) moved on.

Updated Bracket

ROUND of 16

QUARTERFINALS

SEMIFINALS

FINALS

A1

Brazil

1

(3)

B2

Chile

1

(2)

A1

Brazil

2

C1

Colombia

1

C1

Colombia

2

D2

Uruguay

0

A1

Brazil

G1

Germany

E1

France

2

F2

Nigeria

0

E1

France

0

G1

Germany

1

G1

Germany

2

aet

H2

Algeria

1

B1

Netherlands

2

A2

Mexico

1

B1

Netherlands

0

4

D1

Costa Rica

0

3

D1

Costa Rica

1

(5)

C2

Greece

1

(3)

B1

Netherlands

F1

Argentina

F1

Argentina

1

aet

E2

Switzerland

0

3RD PLACE

F1

Argentina

1

H1

Belgium

0

H1

Belgium

2

aet

G2

United States

1