Round of 16 Best and Worst

Round of 16


Best Goal: Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina); if you saw it, you know what I mean. To take that long cross off the chest and drive it to the far corner without it hitting the ground is just phenomenal. It is the goal of the tournament for me, so far. John Harkes called it Maxi's "I gotta take a crack" shot. The fact that it was in Extra Time and proved to be the game winner just makes it that much greater. By the way, they need to reinstitute Golden Goal. Talk about anti-climactic. Ask the NHL which is better. Let's see, "I just scored a potential game winner but wait 20 minutes to be sure," or "I just scored the game winning goal in OT, dropped my gloves, fell to the ice, was mobbed by my teammates, and best of all I don't have to hope it holds up." Totti knows.

Speaking of...

Worst Call: The most heinous call of World Cup 2006 was made by Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain). He inexplicably called a foul and subsequent penalty shot for Italy in the 90th minute of a closely fought match that, in my opinion, Australia dominated but in which they never scored. Not only was there no foul, in fact it was a dive because Fabio Grosso fell over the defender who was on the ground inside the 18. It should have been a yellow card for Grosso, but the ref awarded a penalty kick with no time left. Calling a foul that wasn't is minor compared to calling it in that situation, at the end of the game, almost assuring the Socceroos flight home to be premature. Francesco Totti scored on the PK and time was called, giving Italy an undeserved 1-0 victory. Needless to say, the Australians and anyone without Mafia ties, were stunned and shocked. Australia did everything but score in the match and should have at least had the opportunity to win the game in Extra Time or a Shootout. They'll never get that chance. The soccer gods are unjust.

Worst over reaction: Referee Graham Poll (England); To retire from International matches forever, to lose sleep, and to consider retirement form officiating ever again is a bit extreme for simply failing to send off a player after his second yellow card, especially since there were only 3 minutes left in the game at the time, the player got a third yellow and resulting red at the conclusion of play, and his team did not benefit or advance because he played three undeserved minutes of a 2-2 draw. I know this was not in the Round of 16 (it was game 3 of Round 1) but it just came out today that Poll would retire. It's a shame, too, because with all of the horrendous officiating in this World Cup, he was one of the good ones, despite this mistake. That was the least important bad judgment of the tournament. I've said before, the English are cursed. It may be self-inflicted. Too bad the refs from other countries don't retire right away to insure they are no longer aloud soil this Cup.

Oddly enough, ESPN.com does not show all three yellow cards for the offending Croatian in the game summary or statistics. Maybe their system can't comprehend it.

Hats off to Ghana. They lost 3-0 to Brazil, the team they emulate going so far as to call themselves the Brazilians of Africa, but they could have won the game. Ronaldo and Ze Roberto both scored on great passes one on one against the keeper. Kingson played great otherwise by the way. And the goal by Adriano was offside in the 45th minute, which really would have destroyed most teams. Ghana, sans Michael Essien, kept playing well controlling much of the flow of the game. Brazil didn't look sharp for most of the match, but scored on the few chances they had. Ghana were not so fortunate. They missed several opportunities and Dida was always in good position in goal for Brazil. Overall, the effort by Ghana was inspiring. They should be granted Italy's spot, because those hacks deserve nothing.

Switzerland goes home without allowing a goal. That sucks, but they were terrible at penalty kicks. How come Italy can't be terrible at penalty kicks. But, I'm not bitter.

I am excited to see the contrast in styles between Germany and Argentina. Tough to call that one. If Messi plays at least 30 minutes, Argentina wins. He's awesome.

I'm worried that England will lose to Portugal. Douchebago Primero is overrated and nursing a sore thigh (aw, breaks my heart) and Deco is out due to a red card against the Netherlands, so England will blow it because they shouldn't. That's just how they are. Portugal 3-1 England.

More next week after the Quarters and Marc's wedding.