World Cup Roundup: The quarter finals are set

The group winners clearly dominated the round of 16 with the exception of the United States. It should be noted that the US-Ghana and Japan-Paraguay games were the most even in quality. Both of these games required more than 90 minutes to be resolved. I feel sorry for the Japanese player who missed the penalty shot that would have kept the shootout alive, but that is how things go sometimes at the World Cup. Spain looks to be picking up the pace and meeting the lofty standards that Spanish fans have for their national side. The results show that soccer is still dominated at the top level by Europe and South America, South America has been very successful. The good news is that some Asian, African, and North American teams are really improving. In the next eight years we will likely see a serious contender from one of these three continents. It is still possible that Ghana could make a run at the World Cup this year, but I have trouble seeing them defeat Uruguay. As for video replay it will likely become in place with all the missed goal calls in both group play and the round of 16 thus far. A good implementation would be commensurate with NHL in its rules, but a key addition would be the ability to review phantom fouls that are called on goals scored, i.e. the US-Slovenia and US-Algeria game.