Down to 8

The first elimination round ended yesterday afternoon with a disappointing loss by Portugal to Spain, 1-0. Yesterday also saw the first shoot-out of the tournament. After two hours of scoreless soccer the match went to penalties where Paraguay bested Japan 5-3.

There were three teams that stood out in the second round, Holland looked very much in control in their win over Slovakia, Brazil proved that they are the #1 team in the world and Germany, even after all the hype (and controversy) lay a thumping on England.

A couple of thoughts on the England Germany. I was only able to watch the first bit of the game...enough to see Germany go up 2-0. England's defense did not look good, at all. The real hot topic is the disallowed goal that wasn't really a disallowed goal. Wouldn't a goal need to be allowed in order to be disallowed? Either way, the shot that should have been a goal and tied the match going into half time, has caused an uproar in the international soccer community, and rightfully so. But there is nothing we can do about it. They aren't going to institute it for the rest of the tourney. FIFA knows that a mistake was made and that there is technology out there that could have solved the problem but they have their feet planted so deeply in the 1800's that they think that if they institute replay it would soil their squeaky clean game when in fact it would only make it better.

As for the update of our standings, we have had a split in the group. It's either a split or half of you are really good at picking who is going to lose.

Andrew continues to lead the way at 32 points, Jamie is at 31 and is on win away from claiming victory in the first Father/Son battle over Lumpy (23), Steve is 3 points behind at 28. In the second father son battle my dad is edging me 27-26 (but his luck can't hold out!). Jeff remains tied with Al at 25 points even though he hasn't picked a winner in the elimination round. Jim who mocks, is at 24 points.
The remnant of the roster rounds out as follows:
Ryan(22), Dan(21), Kent(21), Pete(21), Brock(20), Mark(19), Elaina(18).

The next matches are coming up on Friday so put your picks in.