A Not As Bumper Brazil blog as last time....

TGIF...am I right?

The motto of a good 99.9% of the nine to fivers of this world! A salute to herald the the passing of the five day week, and the coming of the two day respite. Unless, like me, six and seven day weeks are the norm.

Fortunately for me, this weekend is a rare one as, unless I get an eleventh hour email, Saturday and Sunday are mine to spend sofa shopping and getting my affairs in gear ahead of the wife and I's move to Northern Ireland. However, as much as 48 hours off thrills me, my opening exclamation is in regards to something else...

...the Fitba is back!

Having gorged on the World Cup for the last three weeks, Wednesday and Thursday left many football, futbal, fussball (haven't got the German SZ symbol) and soccer fans left to play with their own thoughts, as a grand sum of zero WC games were played. For fans of Aberdeen, Aberystwyth and Stjarnan, they got the luxury of enjoying their early Europa League first rounds, but for the rest of us it was repeats of The Big Bang Theory and another laboured episode of Guillermo Ochoa's favourite, How I Met Your Mother. Bad times.

Monday and Tuesday literally seem like days ago. Combined with seeing very little of France v Nigeria, mainly extra time in Germany v Algeria, none of Argentina v Switzerland and the second half of regulation time in the USA v Belgium game, I feel like I haven't had a decent football fix for ages. All of the above means that this blog may be light on action. You may have realised this as I've gone five paragraphs already without getting to matters on the pitch.

I'll begin now.

France left it late versus Nigeria. Paul Pogba's header and Joseph Yobo's own goal sent the Super Eagles packing at the last sixteen stage, despite the best efforts of Vincent Enyeama in the African goal. Tragically, it was a flap from the seemingly unflappable and easy going goalie that gifted Pogba the opener, and when Yobo knocked the ball past him under pressure from Griezman in injury time, their fate was sealed.

        VIVE LE FRANCE!

It seemed that the theme for the second round was goalkeeping heroics not being enough, as Enyeama, and Ochoa were joined on the plane home (figuratively speaking, although a home of great international goalkeepers, or indeed for great international goalkeepers, would make gripping television) by Rais M'Bohli and Twitter's favourite American, Tim Howard.

It was another case of so near and yet so far for a former Hearts failure, as M'Bohli kept Germany at bay for ninety minutes. A number of great saves, the pick of the bunch coming from a Thomas Mueller header late on, and an extra time earning clutch from Schweinsteiger's fairly tame header, went a long way to disproving the theory that African keepers are by and large mince.

          M'BOHLI THE M'GOALIE

His ninety minutes of custodial greatness was undone within ninety seconds of extra time, as Andrea Schurrle's lovely back-heeled clip from eight yards put Yogi Loew's team ahead. Mesut Ozil sealed the win late on in the extra half hour, before Djabhou's well timed run and volley past Neuer gave the Germans a brief yet deserved scare.

While both African sides head home, France and Germany will do battle with one another today. Although both racked up the goals,in their first two group games, they have still been very wasteful in front of goal, the French in particular. As good as the goalkeeping has been in this tournament, Deschamps' side were guilty of missing gilt edged chances in their opener, missed a penalty in their game against Switzerland and needed an own goal for insurance to get to the quarter finals.

Germany had the lions share of attacking possession against Algeria and with Klose and Mueller, they have plenty of goals in them, but a bit more precision and power would have seen M'Bohli beaten far earlier than he was. With the knockout games seemingly more about not losing than winning, I don't see this trend being bucked when they face each other. With the goals per game average in the group stages being over 3.5, the ninety minute average for the last sixteen games has been less than half, coming in at 1.3, stat fans. That's quite a drop.

To put a positive spin on it though, credit does have to go to the goalies for that stat. Indeed, all the credit for that could go to Tim Howard, who couldn't have done any more to stop his side going out. A World Cup record of sixteen saves in the one game rightfully had Howard hailed as an All-American Hero during their match with Belgium, the most viewed televised soccer game in USA TV history, allegedly.

Time are time the Everton goalie denied the likes of de Bruyne, Origi and his Goodison Park buddies Fellaini and Mirallas. Even Vincent Kompany tried to take matters in to his own hands later on, only to be kept out by the Tourette's stricken MVP. His performance solidified and Twitter's reaction to him solidified him a place in the USA's sporting history, with memes, hashtags and his yearbook photos all being banded around the internet after every goal bound effort was blocked and parried away.

    HOWARD'S WAY (ON HIS WAY HOME, MORE LIKE)

His glory was almost taken away from him though as a rare venture forward by the USMNT saw Chris Wonderlowski blaze over the bar from eight yards, unmarked. A goal at that point would surely have sent Klinsmann's spirited underdogs through, but it wasn't to be. The introduction of another Everton alumni, Romelu Lukaku changed the game's complexion in extra time.

The Chelsea forward, who spent last season on loan in Liverpool, boosted down the right, squaring for his Stamford Bridge team mate Kevin de Bruyne, who took a touch to compose and make space for himself before shooting across Howard and in. Almost all of the USMNT fell to the floor, visibly rocked and knackered having withstood the Belgian barrage for so long.

Their attitudes did not falter though, even when Lukaku himself made it 2-0 before half time in the extra thirty. With only pride to play for, Klinsmann's men kept going and got a goal that their efforts just about deserved, Michael Bradley floating a ball over the top of the static Belgian defence to pick out Junior Green, whose deft volley with the outside of his right boot sailed past Courtois for a consolation goal.

A well worked free kick that ended up at the feet of Clint Dempsey could have sent the game to penalties, but a last ditch block ended the American dream. ( Their hopes of a quarter final, not Dusty Rhodes.)  Belgium, while still not quite the sum of what there parts should, advance to the quarter finals and a last eight tie with Argentine. Origi and de Bruyne look to be the men most likely to get them to the semis, provided they can get past Argentina.

By all accounts, there are only two things I know about Argentina's extra time win over Switzerland. Di Maria was rubbish and Di Maria scored. That's about it. Scraping by once again, with Messi the architect of all things good about this Argie side, they certainly don't seem to be worthy of winning the tournament on their showings so far. The Belglium game should hopefully see them step it up a notch, as they go a step closer to winning a WC that would be most coveted, particularly doing so in Brazil.

     #HERO

So, the QFs line up this weekend like this:

France v Germany, Brazil v Colombia, Costa Rica v Holland, Argentina v Belgium.

If I was a betting man, or better at betting that what I am, I'd say Germany, Brazil, Holland and Argentina will progress. However, I think that Colombia and Belgium might just sneak in there instead...