GER 2:0 SWE
-- Bingo ! I am so impressed by myself. And what a good game by the Germans.

ARG 3:0 MEX
-- 2:1 ARG, didn't expect Mexico to play this well and ARG sucked big time. Boring match.

ENG 2:0 ECU
-- 1:0 ENG. England usually beats underdog convincingly. They are worse than most of ppl think they're. Most boring 8/1 match so far.

POR 2:1 NED
-- 1:0 POR. I got the goal differential right. POR is exactly one-goal better than NED. What an exciting match. You can argue it's exciting for the wrong reason, but it will enter the WC history book, famous or infamous.

ITA 2:0 AUS
-- 1:0 ITA. ITA is like ARG, instead of peaking, its form has droped ever since the 1st group match. The way they're playing, they don't deserve into the final 4. But look at his 1/4 final opponent. Lucky bastard.

SUI 2:2 UKR SUI win on penalty kick
-- 0:0 and UKR won on penaly kick. This is the only match that I got the final result wrong. I am glad I didn't watch the game.

BRA 3:1 GHA
-- 3:0 BRA. As unconvincing as 3:0 result can be. But it's the score that matters.

FRA 2:0 ESP
-- 3:1 FRA. Got the goal differential right again. What a match. Comfortably the match of the tournament so far.

Bear with me here...
The spaniards played well in the beginning and scored on a soft penalty kick (weak officiating again). But their naive offside trap finally got them into trouble end of 1st half. The French took advantage of the not-offside-becaues-not-participating-the-offence rule and scored one beautiful goal. Vieira got a shot pass for Rebery and turned to Henry who was in obviouse offside postion. With the last Spanish defender trying to block the non-existent pass to Henry, Viera tipped the ball to Rebery, who was breaking the Spanish defense on the right. How is this for breaking the offside-trap ? I was holding my breath in the following. Quasimodo, (sorry femal football fans who like to see hunks on the pitch more than their football skills, you are here for a dark age, because you have to suffer this ugly face for a while from now), who missed a golden chance on Henry's earlier cross, made a great run in which he beat the spanish goalie and the two chasing defenders. This goal, IMHO, can challenge the Argentina's 24-touch-goal for the goal of the tournament.

France started to take control while Spanish start to worry about their dire WC fate. But the spanish coach made two substitutions in the right moment. Luiz Garcia and Joaquin in, Raul and some other guy out. It immediately rebalance the match. Tight match for about 15 minutes until the 84th minutes.

Henry, who got in the off-traps for about 10 times, got frustrated and faked a hit by Puyol on a Rebery pass which Henry got no chance of receiving. He was running into Puyal from behind with chest bumped into Puyol's back, but he dove with hands covering his face -- he pulled a Rivaldo !

It's just disgusting for everyone to see the best forward in the world resort to
this kind of shameless tactics. Are there any great players immune the this disease ?

Zidane's freekick was a nightmare for the spaniards. It's just slighty higher than everybody's head so it could not be cleared out of the box. In fact the ball was off a defender's header and dropped perfectly at far post on Riveira who headed it home.

It was very clear after this point that Spain would repeat its bismal WC history. Noteable thing is instead of put everybody in its own penalty box, France was still trying to get another goal, which they did on a 2on1 chance with Zidane's. Has he ever scored with his foot ever in WC ? penalty kick aside ?

So I was wrong of Zidane. He is old, he is slow, he tends to make easy passes rather than trying to create chances. But it's a different Zidane in this game.

I was right to hope the ko stage will bring out something in them. It took them 8 years but they finally delivered a great performance. They peaked at the right moment because they are playing Brazil next.

Let's expect a hell of a match !