England!!

England scrape through to go to the quaterfinals. We now know that they'll face Portugal.

As to the games themselves, my heart is with England - so any game they're in is inherently more exciting to me.

But that Portugal-Netherlands game. Unbelievable! There were yellow cards being handed out like candy, as much violence as a minor league hockey game and nearly as much diving as a swim meet.

The Dutch had more posession and more shots on goal, but no finish. On the upside, with two Portugese sent off and Ronaldo's injured,* I think England actually stand a better chance than they would have against the Netherlands.

Here's what some others had to say:

The game between Portugal and the Netherlands was a disgrace. While a small part of the English supporters may have had a battle against Germans in Stuttgart on Saturday, the battle of Nürnberg took place on the playground with participation of most players in both teams. 16 bookings and four players sent off is a World Cup record in one game.

After such a misconduct neither of the teams would deserve to go forward in the tournament. Portugal does, though, thanks to the strong goal by Maniche in the middle of the first half. That was the only sportsmanlike performance of the game. The rest of it has nothing to do with football. - More shameless remarks by Larko.

or you could look at it like this:

Alright, this game is what the World Cup is all about. These teams played very physical football and it led to a exhibition of guts, discipline and national pride. The game was under control until the 22^nd minute of the game when Portugal scored from a trade of passes sending the ball deep into the net and sending Netherlands deep into despair. From then on the game started to spiral out of control as both teams continued their physical attacks that led to a few yellow cards. Wes' Mind

The Russian ref lost control of the game by handing out some pretty iffy yellow cards at the very beginning in an attempt to stamp his authority. Players then dived and drew fouls and faked and it just got uglier from there. But it was some exciting game to watch.


Roll on quarter finals!


Time to win England

T-tags: soccer, Football, World Cup 2006, germany, England, World Cup, Ecuador, Netherlands, Portugal

*I wish Ronaldo a speedy recovery, i.e. full fitness sometime in mid-July, yet I fear he'll be back in play soon.