I'm not much of a football fan really, but I can appreciate the beauty of the game when played at the top level. Anyone got any thoughts about who's gonna take it out?  Who the bolter's will be from the smaller nations?

Spain wins!
World cup over.
Thread closed!

After watching the last 30 minutes of USA's group-winning match against Armenia, my attention was immediately diverted to John Isner's grueling tennis match at Wimbledon, which went on for another several hours that day and didn't even end until being resumed the next day. In the world of ESPN, that's what happens. Instead of basking in a dramatic achievement for the soccer team, we Americans are quickly diverted into the next event, and only the true fanatics are left basking in their glory.
On Saturday, I was sitting in Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City watching the Royals host the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, while at the far outfield end of the stadium (beyond the baseball field's wall) there was a large tv showing the soccer match to anyone interested enough to ignore the baseball game they had paid to attend, and there was a nice crowd there. However, when that crowd started filing out and back into the outfield stands to resume watching baseball, it was pretty obvious what had just transpired--Ghana scoring the winning goal. As a side note, later that evening in my hotel, I saw a sportscast during the local news about Kansas City's professional soccer team (Wizards) getting absolutely destroyed by the New York team earlier that evening. And with that note, my interest in soccer is officially shut down for another 4 years. Bring on more baseball and Mizzou football will be here in another 8 weeks or so!

Ghana take out the US, well that was always gonna happen. German Knock out England, this one made me laugh my arse off, just goes to show that performance isn't always guarantied by dollars.. or pounds in this case.

Congrats to the US Soccer team for making it through to the second round ahead of England! We got knocked out but we finished ahead of the current world champs who also got knocked out... Wha ha!

We just held the current world champs to a draw, I think it turned the football world on it's head.

I live in Germany and love the country but hope to god they don't win or I'll never hear the end of it. The have a reliably solid side though and have what it takes.

Would be nice if England did for a change. But they played crap against the USA and aren't doing much better against Algeria.

I tried to watch the first morning, Mexico vs S. Africa, but soon gave up due to annoying-as-fuck vuvuzela bee-swarm noise. Went back to doing chores, such as vacuuming and lawn-mowing, which were less nerve-racking.

Germany is always good. No surprise they easily handled the first match.

After watching some games this weekend I'm going for Germany to win it. every other team looked half asleep!

from memory you guys are pretty good at soccer and you never know whos gonna do what in a tournament. Tim Doubledee said:

One of my best sports memories is living in Germany in '90 during the World Cup when their national team made it to the finals. I remember walking through the village I lived in and hearing the semifinal game coming from just about every open window. I watched the final along with my landlord in his living room, getting hammered on top-shelf scotch. Curse that damn Diego Maradona!
However, I'm just too much of a sports junkie to be able to stay with an event that only happens every 4 years, and too much of a homer to avidly follow any team but the U.S., and we ain't so hot in WC tournies.....sigh.

One of my best sports memories is living in Germany in '90 during the World Cup when their national team made it to the finals. I remember walking through the village I lived in and hearing the semifinal game coming from just about every open window. I watched the final along with my landlord in his living room, getting hammered on top-shelf scotch. Curse that damn Diego Maradona!

However, I'm just too much of a sports junkie to be able to stay with an event that only happens every 4 years, and too much of a homer to avidly follow any team but the U.S., and we ain't so hot in WC tournies.....sigh.