What A Let-down! - Little Boy Blue's World Cup Diary

With both teams virtually assured of their place in the last sixteen, Brazil and Portugal have no excuse for serving up ninety minutes of football which rose above mundane only in patches.  But I really shouldn't have been too surprised because previous potentially thrilling encounters - France v Uruguay, Denmark v Holland - failed to deliver, with the teams probably holding something back for the more demanding knock-out games, which must make the French and the Danes feel a bit daft.    The first sign that things might not live up to expectation came with news that Pedro Mendes was out of the Portuguese side.  What was Carlos Queiroz thinking of?  Pedro had been superb in their previous matches, filling a holding role in midfield, using the ball well and reminding me of the great job he did for the Rangers.  Against a team like Brazil, giving the ball away cheaply is so costly so I thought he was a cert to start.  Maybe his booking against North Korea and the possibility of another ruling him out of the knock-out round influenced Queiroz.   It was good to see Mexican referee Benito Archundia settle for a yellow card when Juan handled as Christiano Ronaldo threatened to break clear.  Some 40 yards from goal, it was never a clear goalscoring opportunity, a point proved by the waste of the subsequent free-kick, and Portugal's Duda was rightly booked for being a bit too lippy in his call for Juan to be sent off.  But he was just one of four players who made a beeline for the ref and they too could just as easily have gone into the book.   The best chance of the first half fell to Brazil after half-an-hour when Nilmar got in at the back post and smashed a close range shot which looked a certain goal but keeper Eduardo did brilliantly to touch the ball on to the post and away.  With seven yellow cards in the first half, I reckoned things could only get better after the break but I reckoned wrongly.   Shots from distance were the order of the day, Portugal perhaps had the better of the second half with Pedro Mendes brought on but, long before the final whistle, I had 0-0 marked up on my wallchart (in pencil, just in case!).  With Ivory Coast doing no better than leading 2-0 at half-time against North Korea, Portugal were in no danger of losing out on second place and, if they'd gone for it, they might even have nicked something and won the group.  As it turned out, the Ivoreans got as third near the end but, with Portugal holding out against Brazil, goal-difference didn't come into the equation.   Still playing catch-up due to their defeat from Switzerland in their opening game, Spain needed to beat Chile to be sure of qualifying and in the early stages it looked like they were in big trouble.  The Chileans played with a freshness which showed absolutely no fear.  Well, having won their previous two games, they were in the driving seat and almost sure of their place in the last sixteen so why not have a go?  Maybe somebody should address that question to Brazil and Portugal.   But things turned Spain's way in the 24th minute.  Chile's goalkeeper Claudio Bravo needlessly rushed from his line to meet a long ball from Xabi Alonso, he miskicked his attempt at a clearance and David Villa gratefully shot into the empty net from some distance.  And 13 minutes later Villa turned provider when he set up Iniesta who cleverly passed the ball into the net.  Any chance the Chileans had of turning things around surely ended when Marco Estrada was red-carded in the immediate aftermath of the goal, having tripped Fernando Torres in the build-up.   Chile, however, refused to lie down.  Two minutes into the second half, Rodrigo Millar's shot took a deflection and beat Iker Casillas to breathe new life into the game but, ultimately, the handicap of playing with only ten men was too much for them.  Switzerland's expected comfortable win over Honduras didn't happen so there was no three-way tie on six points, both Spain and Chile had booked their spots in the knock-out stages and that can only be good for football.   Despite beating Spain in the first game, the Swiss never looked likely to set the World Cup alight.  Just as Greece had done, they were intent on slowing things down, shutting down space, breaking up the play and frustrating opponents and spectators alike.  All they had to do against Honduras was win 2-0 but, so negative was their approach to football, they were unable to change the gameplan to go for the result they needed.  Honduras did this World Cup a big favour by giving the Swiss a taste of their own medicine and shutting up shop.   So the group stages are history and we are now down to the nitty gritty of straight knock-out, with a number of games sure to go all the way to the agony and ecstasy of penalties.  Are you watching Ingerlund?  For what its worth, my money is on the following to survive this next round and set up these mouth-watering quarter-finals.  USA v Uruguay, Germany v Argentina, Holland v Brazil, Japan v Spain.   Lets hope we see no repeat of the Brazil v Portugal non-event.   Tomorrow. Its A Knock-Out!