last night’s fixtures didn’t offer too much drama. in the night’s first matches, portugal v. mexico and iran v. angola, the africans needed to win by more than one goal and a portugal win in order to advance to the next round.

in the second fixtures at 4am, korea time, holland v. argentina and cote d’ivoire v. serbinegro, there was much less drama:

group d: portugal, though resting several starters, were the better team right from the start and were duly rewarded in the 6th minute with a goal from nuno maniche. just over 15 minutes later, sabrosa simao converted a penalty (given for handling in the box by mexico’s captain, rafael marquez) and the selecao were up two goals and giving angola plenty of help, which the black antelopes couldn’t take advantage of. five minutes later, however, francisco fonseca halved the portuguese lead with a header in the box in which i was closer to marking him than were the portuguese defenders. the first half of each game ended thusly: portugal 2-1 mexico; and iran 0-0 angola.

the second half of both games saw plenty of action, but not always well-played footie. angola gave themselves hope in their match by scoring fifteen minutes after the restart, and just minutes after mexico’s omar bravo missed a penalty which would have drawn the mexicans level and end the suspense. regardless, all suspense was ended 15 minutes from time when iran’s sohrab bakhtiarizadeh (no clue if that’s spelled right) drew his team level. there would be no further scoring in either match, so portugal and mexico move on to play another day and iran and angola crash out.

though dominating this particular match and most likely feeling aggrieved at the deceiving scoreline, the iranians were a massive disappointment, securing only one point from three matches. on the other hand, the southwestern africans did themselves and their nation proud by playing gritty, tough, resolute football and can feel good about how they conducted themselves on such a formidable stage.

group c: this group’s final match day saw the two already-eliminated teams play and the two already-qualified teams play. in the “eliminated” match, cote d’ivoire came from two goals down–after twenty minutes of play–with an inspired display to grab a 3-2 victory over ten-man serbinegro. this game had a lot for such a meaningless match: two goals within the first 20 minutes, two penalties (both against serbinegro and both of which were converted), and two red cards (one for each team, though the ivorian red was in the 90th minute, not enough time for the serbinegrans to take advantage).

the world will have to wait four more years to get another big-stage glimpse of the ivorians, but they have made their mark that they could be a force in the coming years.

the “qualified” match saw a scoreless draw between the dutch and argentinians, but this, too, was far from boring. the two sets of supporters sounded like this was a do-or-die match, at least from where i was watching, but the two teams, while entertaining and looking for scores early, just didn’t give that final push to secure victory. each team was content to let honours be even once the match got into the latter stages. thus, argentina finish top of the group, level on points (7) with runners-up holland, but with a greater goal difference.

well, now half of the round of 16 is set: on tap sunday morning at 4am, korea time, following germany v. sweden, is argentina v. mexico. monday’s 4am matchup, following england v. ecuador, will be portugal v. holland.

tonight’s previews:

group e: many have called group d the group of death, but this group e is the only group to see all four teams neither eliminated nor qualified as they play their third matches, which are italy v. czech republic and ghana v. usa:

it’s simple for italy: win or draw and they’re through, regardless of other results
czech republic win and they’re through, regardless of other results
ghana win and they’re through, regardless of other results
usa win and italy defeat czech republic, usa go through
any scenarios involving a draw in the italy-czech republic game and it’s a logistical nightmare that i’m going to spare you.

if you really want to know exactly what the u.s. must do in the event of an italy-czech draw, click here: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=372079&cc=3436

group f: this one is a little bit simpler, with the matches being japan v. brasil and croatia v. australia:

brasil are already in, regardless of result, but a draw or win put them top of the group
australia beat croatia, oz are in, regardless of japan’s result
croatia beat oz, the croats are in, regardless of japan’s result
oz and croatia draw and japan lose, oz are through
oz and croatia draw and japan win, then it all depends on goal difference and goals scored. again, too complicated for here

it should be an entertaining night of football and we’ll all know three-quarters of the next round about 6am friday morning, korea time.

it’s all so complicated that i can’t predict what’s going to happen (not that i’d get it right, anyway…!) but here’s one man’s hope that ghana, czech republic, brasil, and oz qualify for the next round.

hope your team gets through…!