What I Would Like To See For The Rest Of The World Cup

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I´m on vacation with my parents in Colombia right now, and of course the World Cup is everywhere, even though Colombia didn´t make it. Occasionaly, we´ve been able to fit a match into our vacation schedule, including today, when we watched Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in a restaurant at the top of Manizales, a city in the coffee-growing region of Colombia (aka El Cafetero).

The game was the last in the round of 16, and now there´s a bit of a break before the quarter-finals start on Friday. Even though I´ve had favourite teams since the beginning of the tournament, this feeling of temporary finality got me thinking about how I want the rest of the tournament to go down. So, without further ado, my best-case scenario for the remainder of the World Cup. (This is not what I think is going to happen; I wouldn´t presume to know enough about soccer to predict that. It´s just what I want to happen.)

Quarterfinal: Uruguay vs. Ghana

Looking at this game by itself, I´m kind of ambivalent. I would like to see Ghana win because they´re the only African nation left, but at the same time I like Uruguay for equally meaningless reasons; their jerseys, their history as the winner of the first World Cup, and I´m not sure why, but their star Diego Forlan strikes me as a cool guy.

But I can´t look at this match in a vacuum, because What I Want To See For The Rest Of The World Cup includes subsequent rounds, so I must consider the match-ups created by the outcome of this game, and for reasons that will soon become clear I want Uruguay to win this game.

Quarterfinal: Netherlands vs. Brazil

For some reason, the Netherlands are my favourite soccer country. I think I decided that during the last Euro Cup when they looked like the strongest team in the tournament in the preliminary round and then flamed out in the knockout round, as predicted by the English friends of my London-residing cousin with whom I watched said flame-out. I don´t know why; maybe it´s the orange, maybe it´s because I´ve met a lot of cool Dutch people.

Brazil is the favourite in this match, so I want to see them dominate the first half and take a 2-0 lead into the second period, at which point the Netherlands will turn it on and perform one of the great comebacks in World Cup history, winning 3-2 in extra time.

Quarterfinal: Argentina vs. Germany

Like the Netherlands, I find myself drawn to Germany and this goes back (at least) to the ´08 Euro Cup. A couple weeks after watching my favourite team lose while visiting my cousin in England, I was in Strasbourg, France, very close to the German border. It just so happened that Germany made it to the final against Spain, so I hopped over the border for about 24 hours, still the only 24 hours I´ve ever spent in Germany, to watch the game. Germany lost, but I had a great time, and now I consider Germany my second favourite team. At least I think so. It´s one of those things: I honestly don´t know who I´d cheer for in a Netherlands/Germany final, and I don´t think I will know until the game starts, if such a situation occurs.

My ideal scenario in this game would involve tons of amazing plays by Messi, because he´s Messi. He would score like 3 or 4 or 17 goals, but the organized German squad would pick apart the Argentinian defense whenever Messi couldn´t get near the ball to squeak out a 4-3 victory.

Quarterfinal: Paraguay vs. Spain

Things have worked out such that I´ve watched a lot of Spain games in this World Cup, but I have no particular attachment to them, other than the fact that I got Xavi Hernandez in Panini trading cards when Fed, Ben and Meg and I got obsessed with them in Bogota. I don´t really have a particular attachment to Paraguay either, but for previously-mentioned but as-yet-undisclosed reasons I want them to win this game, against all odds.

Semifinals: Netherlands vs. Uruguay, Germany vs. Paraguay

I´ve already explained why I like each team, so the rest of this shouldn´t take long. I want the Netherlands and Germany to win their respective semi-finals, which they would be clear favourites for if they faced these opponents. The only caveat here is, as mentioned, I´m not sure who I would cheer for in such a match-up, and it might be more fun to have a clear personal favourite in the World Cup Final.

You´ve probably already figured this out, but I want Paraguay and Uruguay to win their quarterfinals and then lose their semifinals to create the seminal "Battle of the Countries That End in Guay" Third Place Game. It´s just too bad Chadguay isn´t around to create some sort of three-team free-for-all Guay orgy.

Alternate Scenario: Final Four of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay

It´s crazy that four of the final eight teams are South American, and even moreso that they´re all in different quarter-finals. It would be infinitely crazy if they all won to make the All-South-American Final Four, and I would love to see it. And you know what? It totally could happen. Uruguay and Brazil are the favourites in their games, and Argentina and Germany are pretty close. Paraguay is the weak link, facing an excellent Spain team. It would be very cool, but my #1 and 1a teams are standing in the way of hoping this happens.