3 for 4 over the weekend for picks. Wrong on the penalties. Predicted only the Columbia v Uruguay game would go to penalties.
Major props to Costa Rica. Huge hill to climb up to take on the Dutch. Costa Rica deserves their spot in the quarterfinals. They alone represent CONCACAF right now. Shows the major importance of winning your group instead of finishing second. Mexico gets Brazil, Costa Rica got a relatively weak Greece.
The Brazil-Chile game was so intense, I read somewhere that Ann Coulter died of a heart attack at the end of it. Brazil's defense has been making completely insane choices at times. They are lucky to still be in it.
Maybe the most underappreciated team would be Columbia. They are without their version of Suarez, ie Falcao (sp?). And they are cruising. Uruguay kept it interesting, but they just couldn't make it work in the end. Brazil v Columbia will be scorcher. The intensity and passion in the crowd, both teams South American, both wanting it terribly so, Brazil because they feel it belongs to them, Columbia because they've never made it this far.
Watch for yourself.
1. Robben was still moving towards the ball he himself played last. He was still in control of the ball in the box
2. He clearly tripped over a foot
3. The foot he tripped over was not moving towards the ball so there was no intent to play that ball. You clearly see Mexico's #4 planting his foot on or just before Robben's foot. This is the foul.
Point 3 is critical! That foot has no other reason to be there than to trip Robben. I'm not exactly certain what the announcer was talking about, other than likely from a bias. It hurts a bunch that Mexico had to exit that way, but Robben had possession and was tripped right near the goal. It is a penalty.
Robben might have tried to stay on his feet a bit harder but he had no obligation to. It was not in his interest to damage-control, the victim has no interest in downplaying the effects of the crime.
Some of you might also want to read up on what a dive is. Since there was a true foul and Robben did not feint injury it was not a dive.
That may be splitting hairs. Injury is not a prerequisite for a "dive" I think. Unless there is a "dive" and a "flop". Regardless, Robben had managed to keep possession which is a major player in whether this gets called or not. Usually a striker will have lost possession and then try to fall and get a call. Robben was still in control and the Mexican player didn't have to put the foot there to stop his advance.
And oh my lumps! What a shot for the first goal by the Netherlands. Ochoa couldn't have stopped that if he was standing right in front of the trajectory, as he'd been blown to pieces. An absolute missile!