wc06: quarterfinals all set

last night was, seemingly, the first time in two weeks that there was little or no refereeing controversy in either of the matches, although there was another red card in the brasil-ghana match and a blatant offside missed on brasil’s second goal. finally, the focus in the aftermath is on the footie, not on the decisions of the officials.

in brasil v. ghana, ronaldo sprung an offside trap to get 1-on-1 with the ghana ‘keeper, performed an act of magic to dance around said ‘keeper, and cooly buried his 15th goal in world cup competition, putting him all alone in first place for world cup goals scored.

congratulations, ronnie. for all the talk of ronaldo’s weight, his footwork still looks slick and he looks to be rounding into form, bad news for any opponents left in brasil’s path.

ghana certainly didn’t look overmatched on this night–the 3-0 scoreline is very harsh on the black stars–but, just as with cote d’ivoire in their group matches, ghana lacked the finishing class that separates the elite countries from everyone else. time and again, ghana opened huge holes in the brasilian defense, but, all too often, bad touches on passes, or bad control of passes, or taking too much time in the brasil box that allowed the defense time to recover, or bad decisions, or bad luck all conspired to leave the west africans empty-handed.

you knew it wasn’t going to be ghana’s night when their own john mensa, from point-blank range, headed a corner kick down to the turf and seemingly into goal for an equaliser, only to have the ball, shockingly, hit the brasil keeper’s shin and bounce away from the goal. it wasn’t until after it hit his own knee that ‘keeper dida even saw the ball.

still, the ghanaians did their nation, and their continent, proud and have a lot to look forward to in south africa 2010.

in the other fixture, matching european neighbours, spain and france, the spaniards had a great chance to try and begin ending the constant underachieving label that they seem to wear on their strips at every international tournament. so many “experts” seemed certain that this was the year for spain to shed its “choke” cloak. they had so many fine, young stars, they had romped through their group–even while playing a team of second-stringers in their final group fixture with saudi arabia–they had played with class and quality, and they were playing an ageing france team that had struggled to get out of the group stages. it was all set up for the spaniards to…

…do their usual. not content with dominating the first half and having a handful of chances, and having only one goal to show for it, they, just before the break, handed the french a lifeline and allowed france to level.

a 1-1 score at the break was not a reflection of first half events, yet it seemed typical for the spaniards. in a second half that would seem to have favoured the younger iberians, it was the french who seemed better suited to take honours and, so it was when patrick vieira headed les bleus in front seven minutes from time. zinedine zidane added confirmation in injury time and the resilient french went out as winners, 1-3.

perhaps next time for the spaniards, say, euro ‘08, for all the “experts” out there who keep saying that “this” is spain’s year?

now the quarterfinals are set and three of the four are rematches of some repute from the last decade or two (all times are korean):

11:59pm, friday–germany v. argentina: five stars combined on the two strips to represent the five world cups won between the two. a rematch of the ‘86 and ‘90 finals, with each nation winning once. arguably the two most consistently impressive teams of this year’s competition. fun, fun, fun, especially for a neutral.

4:00am, saturday–italy v. ukraine: a lack of sexy history between these two does not necessarily mean a boring, ugly affair. wait, it’s a match involving italy; yes, it does mean ugly. and it’s a match involving the ugliest kits left in the whole affair, ukraine’s pinwheel-like monstrosities. yep, this one will be ugly.

11:59pm, saturday–england v. portugal: a rematch of the euro ‘04 quarterfinal that saw a winning england goal late in regulation wrongfully disallowed. a match involving ill-tempered teams, most especially, in recent years, portugal. england have thus far avoided any tussles with the refs or the opposing teams; with a stormy rematch with payback written all over it, look for this continued english avoidance of controversy to end.

4:00am, sunday–brasil v. france: a rematch of the ‘98 world cup final, won by les bleus. the spectacle of carefree, half-naked, and willing brasil fans v. snobby, half-naked, and haughty french fans. these two nations are beginning to play the football we expected, or hoped, they would play. a veritable feast of football talent will blanket the pitch, even if it some of it is ageing or out of shape.

as much as i usually like to see some wild cards or underdogs in the quarterfinals, even i’m impressed with the loaded quality of these quarterfinal fixtures. personally, i like the england-portugal matchup because of the very test euro ‘04 match and the possibility of over-the-edge footie, but, from a pure footballing standpoint, i’ve got to go with the glamour germany-argentina fixture because of the potential for some cracking football.

what are your thoughts?