Australia - Egypt 1 - 1 (2 - 4 pen.)
Didn't watch this game (couldn't, really), but I thought Egypt was gonna win easily in 90 minutes. I discounted the Aussies pretty hard, but they did come to this World Cup to play. Beating Turkey is remarkable, and yaking Egypt to penalties makes for an honorable World Cup exit for them. See you in 4 years, Oz!
Argentina - Cape Verde 3-2
The most anticipated game of the round of 32 did not disappoint. Of course, we were all rooting for Cape Verde, but the big upset ws not to be. It is annoying when glory is all you take from a game of football, but this is what the tiny nation of Cape Verde will have to contend with.
Still, beyond the Hollywood drama and in pure footballing terms, they are faultless. Pushing the world champions to extra time and levelling them twice is not for everyone, and it's certainly more than just capitulating, which is what teams playing Argentina so far have done.
Vozinha is definetly one of this World Cup's heroes, but he could do nothing for the first goal. He did a lot in the game anyway, includign blocking Messi one a few occasions, shots that most keepers would have let in. It's amazing that he's out of contract, but this tournament surely must've won him another year or two on a good contract somewhere in Europe, even if as a back-up goalkeeper. And that would be fully deserved!
I have criticised Cape Verde before for relying too much on individual executions and not playing like a team enough. They did a lot better in this regard last night, but my God, it will be the individual executions that stand out.
The first equaliser is a shot along the face of goal, through Lucha Martinez's legs and stretching Emi Martinez all of his length to no avail. Lukaku and Ronaldo scored similar in this tournament, and that's good company to be in. It bothers me somewhat that it was a United defender who let in the shot, but Lucha Martinez made up for it by scoring Argentina's second, 2 minutes into extra time. And that should've done it, really. Alright Cape Verde, you pushed the World Champions into extra time, 2-1 is an honourable scoreline, let life take its natural course.
Well, Sidny Cabral thought differently. What a brilliant execution for Cape Verde's second equalizer! The kind that only works one time in a hundred, and it would certainly be a contender for goal of the tournament if it wasn't of course for Messi's first goal.
In the end Argentina did win, good, decent goal from a corner with Messi curling the cross in, and a fought out header that neither the defenders nor the keeper could do much about. If I was more into conspiracy theories, I'd say it worked out almost too neatly for the film.
Argentina through, to Cape Verde be the glory, and if Argentina wins the tournament it would be only the second time in history when a team has won it back to back. Plus, Italy in '34 and '38... maybe we shouldn't talk about that. Although word is that the team was good too.
Colombia - Ghana 1-0
In all honesty, I was hopeful, but I expected Argentina to beat Cape Verde, with a thrashing not being completely out of the equation. But Colombia - Ghana is where it's at, and it is what the World Cup is about: two exciting, evenly match teams, battling it out for glory and for the chance to take on one of the giants.
I found it hard to call, but I was leaning slightly towards Colombia. Colmbia have the experience and the football tradition on their side, while Ghana are one of the new footballing powers of the world, have the 2010 elimination at the hand of Uruguay to revenge and get over, and an enormous amount of worldwide sympathy which I don't fully understand (something about the black star?).
In the end, it was an ok game, but fairly anticlimactic for the expectations, and especially when compared to the earlier one. Incredibly one sided, I barely remember Ghana attacking at all, and the keeper is their most proeminent figure in the game. Colombia's goal came early, 14 minutes in, and the Africans had more than 70 minutes to do something about it, but they never seemed willing. Which is probably a sign they were never able.
I thought Luis's Diaz goal was phenomenal, the speed and the precision with which Bayern's striker hits the ball is outwordly, but he was clearly off-side and the ref did good to cancel the goal. Shame though.
And then... this was it. Colombia goes through and Ghana has nothing to say about it. I'm sorry for Carlos Queiros, there is a lot of love for him within the United fandom and last night's performance does not speak well for him.
This Colombian team looks a lot less glamorous than others (including the 1994 one with Asprilla, Valencia and Rincon), but a lot more solid and mature. And this is the type of team that brought them the best result - QF in Brazil in 2014. This will probably be equalled this time round - if they beat Switzerland they'll face Argentina in the quarters. I'm rooting for them, I really enjoyed their games so far, especially the 0-0 draw with Portugal. And they have something else on their side.
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