THE QUARTERS PART 1

Uruguay 6-3 Ghana
Netherlands 2-1 Brazil

Brazil 3-0 Chile
Netherlands 2-1 Slovakia
Paraguay 5-3 Japan
Spain 1-0 Portugal

Well, Uruguay beat Ghana as expected but Sneijder and gang killed Brazil in a huge upset of the competition. If the Dutch stay healthy, they can go a long way. That's what I mentioned earlier. There is no injury yet and so that means they can still advance. I have to say that one of the major reasons that Brazil commit suicide in this competition is their inability to control their tempers to avoid getting cards. The match against the Dutch was the consequences of the boiling water overflowing from the kettle. I saw it in their earlier matches. I questioned about the ease of getting yellow cards when it did not matter much. I guess in the latest match against the Dutch, they just allowed their emotions get better of themselves and blew apart.

Tonight we have two very exciting matches between Argentina-Germany and Paraguay-Spain. Anything can go in these two matches. The winners can be decided by just a slight difference. The teams should learn from the Netherlands-Brazil match that keeping their emotions in check and avoiding getting carded unnecessarily is very crucial, especially at this stage of the competition. You don't want to end up missing the semifinal or final because of your reckless behaviour. It will be a big waste not just for your team but for your own efforts going so far into the competition.

I hope Argentina and Spain can go through since I openly admitted I support them for this competition. However, Germany are a disciplined and a tricky side who can punish you in a very quick counter-attack. Argentina's defence is still scaring the shit out of me, fragile as always and too exposed. Spain on the other hand is the opposite, they wasted too many chances in front of goal like Mexico. You can't afford those things in this stage of the competition. Teams can punish you for wasting so many chances and a very open defence.