A Day Without Football? Here's the Preview for Friday....

For the first time in almost three weeks I didn't have to wake up early in order to watch football. It felt very strange; like an all-encompassing emptiness was greeting me, laughing knowingly in my face, giving me a dire premonition of the football-free time that is soon to come. But I digress. There's still eight games to be played. The quarterfinals are due Friday and here's my outlook for the first two games (just assume that about 90 percent of my prognosis is empirically proven to be utter nonsense, though).

Netherlands v Brazil
It's Germany (2002) vs Germany (1990)! Okay, I guess it's slightly unfair a comparison given that the Dutch actually have several (near) world class players on their team (Robben, Sneijder, van Persie, van der Vaart). I'm not the only one, though, who's noticed the Germanization of Brazil. Also, one Dutch player (Kuyt, I think) has said that the Germans are now playing like the Dutch and vice versa. On the other hand, despite fielding Bayer Leverkusen's great 2003 central defense Brazil still lack a defender of Jürgen Kohler's quality (who, by the way, would make van Persie crap his pants even today).

So, we have two teams who've decided to play very unstereotypically. They are all about winning now. (That's so cynical and boring. Why isn't everybody playing beautiful football like the Germans? -- Gotta be careful here, given the difficult relationship of the internet and irony. Then again, there's nothing wrong with being self-congratulatory if one is, in fact, awesome.) In any case, if they don't win the whole thing, Cruyff and Pelé will publicly tear van Marwijk and Dunga a pair of new ones.

I'm not a romantic, by the way. For example, I don't care what kind of football the Dutch play -- if they decide to win ugly, that's fine with me. Hopefully, it's going to stop their haughtiness along the way. But for Christ's sake, Brazil? Use your friggin' unbelievable talent. Win, if you must. But do so in style. Or do you really want to be compared to a freight train?

Still, Brazil has looked very impressive at times, particularly against Chile (impressive as in "Germany 1990 impressive" not in "Brazil 1982 impressive"). The Dutch, too, have not really disappointed yet (unless one is Dutch, of course) although nobody knows how good they really are given that they've mainly played against crappy mediocre teams so far. I personally happen to think that they can achieve great things if they keep focussed (and van Persie on the bench, perhaps?).

Prediction: It's upset time. Hup Holland Hup! Até Brazil!

Uruguay v Ghana
A true classic. Uruguay's played really well up until now (and they haven't even broken that many legs along the way). Ghana's been decent given that Essien isn't playing. Both teams defend very well, yet scoring goals seems to come much more naturally to the Urus.

Personally, I want Ghana to win (despite their "Little Prince.") First of all, an African team going to the semis for the first time ever would be a nice story. Also, I'm sick and tired of the "South America is so awesome, Europe is so sucky" narrative. Can't remember anybody boasting about Europe's dominance back in 2006.

Prediction (based on plenty of wishful thinking and an utter lack of analytical rigor): It's going to be very close. No goals after 90 minutes. Another extra time victory for Ghana.