Tim Howard Commits to 2014

Tim Howard, the U.S. Men's national team goalkeeper, has committed to playing for the U.S. in 2014 when all the world's teams will gather to play in Brazil. I know, its kind of early to be talking about the 2014 world cup already, but this is a key piece for USMNT to compete in 2014. With Howard on board, another question has yet to be answered in the case of Bob Bradley. Bradley is being courted by the EPL's Fulham. If Bradley takes the job in Europe, it likely opens the door for Jürgen Klinsmann to become the USMNT's head coach.

The water is still muddy in the situation of the USMNT, but Howard's commitment to 2014 is the first step to figuring out what kind of team the U.S. will field in the future. Expect a lot of these questions to be answered by August 10th when the USMNT will face Brazil.

Germany rains on Maradona's parade

Germany advances to the semifinals after a thorough 4-0 thrashing of Argentina. Diego Maradona, Argentina's coach and controversial but historic icon, had said prior to the beginning of the World Cup that if Argentina won it all, he'd go streaking. We dodged a bullet there. Lionel Messi, Argentina's and arguably the world's best player, leaves the World Cup without a single goal to his name despite a good showing.

The story, however, is Germany's top goalscorer Miroslav Klose. Klose, who last game against England tied Pele on goals scored in all World Cup played, scored two against Argentina and is now just one goal behind all-time leading goalscorer in World Cups, Brazil's Ronaldo.

Having advanced to the semis, Germany assures itself two more games, the semifinal game and either the final or the third-place game depending on how they fare against the winner of the Spain/Paraguay game later on today. That's 180 minutes Klose has to score one more to tie Ronaldo's record, two to break it, or three or more to truly make the record his own. At 32, Klose could still play one more World Cup, but this could just as easily be his last.

Uruguay goes on to semis

It took 120 minutes and a set of PKs, but Uruguay leave Ghana on the outside looking in and head into the semi-finals against the Netherlands.

A most dramatic finish to the end of the second half of overtime, with a free-kick Ghana should not have been awarded in the first place. After a confusing series of shots in which Appiah finds himself offsides though the linesman does not see it, Ghana's final shot makes it past the keeper and a defender only to be blocked by Luis Suarez on the line with his hands.

Suarez of course saw a red card and Ghana's A. Gyan took the penalty kick, at the end of two hours of play, only to hit the crossbar.

Uruguay took their penalty kick first and both teams scored their first two PKs. Uruguay scored their third and Ghana missed. Both Uruguay and Ghana missed their fourth, and Washington Sebastian "El Loco" Abreu converted Uruguay's fifth penalty kick to send Uruguay to the semis.

Tomorrow's games:

Argentina v. Germany
Paraguay v. Spain

I hope Germany and Paraguay win. I'd love to have Germany and Holland in the finals, but for a four-way bet made at work I picked Germany to win the World Cup. But if Holland wins, well that's okay too, no one picked Holland and I had a hard choice in picking between the two.