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.

Well...

I was hoping this wouldn't come this soon but... USA is out. A 2-1 loss to Ghana in the Round of 16. Well.. it was a decent run. They lost just this one game. Now another four-year wait.

Group F

I'm happy to be wrong, sometimes.

Italy, the defending champion, one of the teams I said had the best chance to win this World Cup, has just been eliminated in the group stage.

New Zealand, the team I was hoping would pull off a Christmas miracle in June are going home, having not lost a single game and having finished ahead of Italy. They played a good World Cup, earning their first ever points in a World Cup with three ties.

Paraguay and Slovakia advance as first and second place, respectively. Now they await the results of Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, and Japan. Cameroon is already out. Netherlands will probably win the group, meaning they'd play Slovakia. Denmark or Japan will probably play against Paraguay in the Round of 16.

Group Play Blockbuster

Coming into the 2010 world cup, the United States-England was very much hyped in the U.S.A. Throughout the rest of the world, eyes are on the group of death game featuring Brazil and Portugal. The Brazilians coming into this tournament appeared to be much better than the Portuguese, especially with the loss of Nani.

Now that Kaka is going to miss this match with his red card from the Ivory Coast game, I'd say things are a bit more even than before with the Brazilian midfield a bit more unstable than normal. Its going to take a magical performance from the best player in the world, Cristian Ronaldo, for Portugal to come out with a win in this game against Brazil.

This is the last blockbuster matchup we will see before the playoffs begin. I say the Brazilians come out shakier than normal, but not shaky enough to lose.

Brazil - 1
Portugal - 1

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Wow.

Way to wait 'til the last minute to score, but what ever works, right?

USA 1, Algeria 0.

USA takes the group with 5 points, a +1 goal difference and 4 goals scored.
England takes second with 5 points, a +1 goal difference but only 2 goals scored.