world cup: day 13 preview

after tonight’s matches, half of the round of 16 will be filled out and tonight’s offerings seem to have as little drama as last night’s did.

group c: cote d’ivoire v. serbinegro and holland v. argentina

cote d’ivoire and serbinegro are playing for nothing more than pride, especially the serbinegrans, who have massively disappointed in two matches. will they battle back from their smackdown by argentina or will they just posture their way through 90 minutes and meekly scuttle home? we pretty much know that the orange elephants are going to bring it and it’s a shame, from an admittedly ivorian point of view, that cote d’ivoire didn’t get the serbinegrans in their first or second match so they possibly would have every thing to play for tonight. drogba & co. to win and salvage three deserved points.

holland v. argentina, on paper, would suggest a heavyweight matchup between two teams who’ve already secured their place in the next round–and it really is, save for the sometimes sputtering dutch attack in their first two matches. they certainly are a flopping bunch, which no one wants to see, especially when they are so talented.

arjen robben has been aces for the oranje, except when he’s been diving, but they were severely exposed by the talented ivorians, who had too many cases of nerviness when finishing and let the dutch off the hook. if the dutch get exposed tonight in the same way, and argentina bring the same classiness they delivered to serbinegro, watch out–it could be a romp in favour of the south americans.

something tells me, though, that this match will be close; though the dutch need to win to top the group, and argentina need only a draw to top the group, i see argentina continuing their stellar play and winning a close one.

group d: iran v. angola and portugal v. mexico

this group mirrors almost identically group b from last night. angola, like trinibago before it, need a win and a portugal win by a combined margin of at least four goals. the combined margin could be three goals, but angola would need to score four more goals than the mexicans score–and that ain’t happenin’, folks. a much more plausible scenario, but still a longshot, is for angola to win, 0-2, and for portugal to win, 2-0. with the persian defense being as soft as year-old tofu, angola’s prospects of latching onto a nil-2 or 1-3 win aren’t so farfetched.

what is more difficult to decipher is whether portugal can help out their former colony by doing the same to mexico that angola need to do to iran. with the iberians certain to rest five of their starters–all of whom have bookings in their pockets from the two earlier matches–it doesn’t look good for angola. the mexicans stuttered against the unfancied black antelopes last time out and will be looking to bounce back.

a draw will see them through–as, of course, will it see through the portuguese. if this one is a draw, then portugal pip the group with mexico runners-up. if the mexicans win, then they top the group and portugal are runners-up. if mexico lose, well, we’ve already covered that.

my heart wants what it wanted last night–a 2-goal win by a group leader (portugal) and a 2-goal win by the rank outsider (angola). however much i will be cheering that on, my head says no. thus, portugal and mexico draw, angola win, and portugal and mexico live to fight on in the next round.