The World Cup so far

[theplater]

I have thoroughly enjoyed the tournament so far but as it now enters the quarter finals stage some of the most enjoyable performances for me have come from the teams who got knocked out in the last 16.

The 'fancied' teams such as Brazil, Argentina. Holland, Belgium and Germany have failed to be thoroughly convincing throughout and all of these can be considered a bit fortunate to go through.

Chile, Algeria, Mexico and the USA consistently preformed to, and above their expected limits, throughout and can feel desperately unlucky not to have gone further but can also feel extremely proud of themselves. Costa Rica have far surpassed what most of us expected and Columbia are not necessarily going to be an easy stepping stone for Brazil.

On paper, Holland and Brazil look to have enough class to get past Costa Rica and Columbia respectively but of any more possible upsets Columbia look to have the best chance, this Brazillian team is just not...well, Brazil!

The other two quarters lo

[TundraWolf]

Agree fully with your comments, Plater!

Three things I find surprising are:

- that after all the worry of transit strikes and incomplete stadiums the final product seems flawless!

- how some of the refereeing calls, or non-calls, are dodgy, plays in which a player is brought to the ground, seemingly requiring a penalty shot or red card are simply ignored by the refs. Mostly the refereeing has been good, but not at the level of consistency I had expected for such an event.

- the state of Germany's defence, for such a strong squad they seem vulnerable in that area, this was the reason I chose France over them in their next round match up!

[MichiganWolf]

Globalization of the game has started to close the gap between the powers and the "average" national teams. Scouts are more easily spotting international talent and those players are getting experience in other leagues, cultures and styles of play and influencing their native teams.

Even some teams that didn't get out of the group stage really impressed me - particularly Iran and Australia.

I don't know what it is but teams like Brazil, Argentina, and Germany seem to be sleepwalking. As if the WC is not a fantastic event. You can see the pride in the play of teams like Costa Rica, Algeria and Mexico. They are/were excited to be playing and they were not going to let the bigger countries walk over them. They're still not as technically sound as the big powers, but they're putting in their all, which is more than I can say of quite a few countries.

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

Agree with everything that has been said above. I was not all that enthusiastic about the tournament to begin with but have really enjoyed it. Even now, after we have seen all the teams two or three times at the least I still cannot pick out a team and say this is the one that is going to go all the way. I keep waiting for one of the "big teams" to put in a master class performance but it has not happened.

Ok, if some one twisted my arm now for a winner I would go with the Dutch.

[lesleywolf]

I agree with the agreed...thought chilli and mexico had a real good go...how the argies have got thus far I dont know...best game for me was belgium v usa last night and if they play like that in next round then it's ta ra argies...