World Cup Quarter-Finals Preview

The Round of L16 was probably the most exciting stage in a World Cup that I can remember... Even though all the 8 number #1 seeds advanced to the quarter finals, 5 games went to OT so, we are talking about almost all games being tight contests w/ only Colombia winning their game safely.

We had an absurd number of “OVER’s” cashing in the group stage but in this knockout-out stage, only one game had at least 3 goals scored in the 90 minutes - Mexico vs. Netherlands and still, the last 2 goals were scored @88th & 92th minutes! Obviously, teams were more cautious w/ their approach especially in the first half (only Brazil vs. Chile & Colombia vs. Uruguay had goals scored in the first half), but IMO, the games were still wide open… heck, it was really incredibly how the game between USA & Belgium ended up scoreless in the regulation!

World Cup Winner Odds (Pinnacle Sports:

Brazil                    +274
Argentina            +403
Germany             +422
Netherlands       +454     
France                 +644
Colombia            +992
Belgium               +1023
Costa Rica          +3500


Quarter-Finals Draw:

Game 1 – Brazil vs. Colombia
Game 2 – Germany vs. France
Game 3 – Netherlands vs. Costa Rica
Game 4 – Argentina vs. Belgium

Semi-Finals Draw:

Game 5 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Game 6 - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4

Finals Draw:

Game 7 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6

In my opinion, the top half of the draw is more interesting than the bottom half. Brazil, Colombia, France & Germany according to my PR numbers would be “favored” to win vs. any team of the bottom half draw… Yes, I think that all those 4 teams are better than Argentina right now (collectively).

However, we are yet to see a team clearly putting ahead of the others teams in terms of consistency and level of play… all of them (minus Colombia) suffered some tough rough stretches somewhere in the tournament, so the amount of uncertainty is huge. 

Netherlands’ NT coach Van Gaal and Costa Rica’s NT coach Pinto have been the better coaches so far. Van Gaal’s has changed his formation in-game vs. Mexico after being down 0-1 w/ great success and the Dutch can play in any possible style and still be successful, so their contest will be fascinating to watch tactically-wise. On the other side, there is no question that Argentina’s NT coach Sabella has been doing a poor job when we talk about the potential of his players vs. real productivity.

The Goalkeepers have been amazing so far this tournament, but we are seeing some incredible poor finishing as well. This current era is lacking the “pure” strikers like we had in the early 2000’s w/ Ronaldo (Brazilian), Henry, Van Nistelrooy, Inzaghi or Batistuta to name a few.

This has been a great World Cup and I really don’t think this will change with these upcoming games.