Quarterfinal Predictions, Part II

After two perfect predictions yesterday, including Luca Toni's scoring exploits, I am officially feeling it. Let's see if we can go 4-4.

England vs. Portugal

So long, Portugal - you will not be missed.

This is it for Portugal - the end of the line. They are missing three key players in Deco, Costinha, and an injured Christiano Ronaldo and I think England will really be up for this match. (Also, in case you care, Luis Figo should be serving a suspension for a headbutt the ref didn't catch, but FIFA are pants, so Figo gets to play.)

This is the day where Rooney breaks his World Cup cherry, Joe Cole gets his star on the football walk of fame, and David Beckham plays a solid 65 minutes. I can feel it in me bones - the boys are going to win this one. They just have to keep Maniche, Figo, and Pauleta out of good scoring positions and I think they will be fine.

My only hope is that it doesn't turn nasty, because Portugal's games can get that way in a hurry. Portugal are the new Argentina. If there's any justice in the world, England will send these cheaty, diving [censored] crashing out of the Cup, and if there's not justice, England are still going to win this one because they are better team nearly across the board.

Brazil vs. France
At what point does a sleeping giant have to fully exit dreamland in order to win a World Cup? I think we find that out today, because if Brazil's defense or strikers sleepwalk through this one, they are going home. France will be the best team Brazil has faced this Cup by far, and they also present an interesting matchup in terms of style and tactics. The French are clearly looking to counterpunch, while Brazil will presumably do their thing and try to play beautiful attacking football.

Ronaldo certainly has a unique diet.

The worrisome elements for France are that, while Ronaldo hardly moves when he is on the pitch these days, when he does get the ball he's still lethal. France can't afford to give up more than a goal in this game or they are likely dead. The other thing they have to be concerned about is the same thing that sent Argentina packing: exhaustion. While it was most pronounced on TV for ze Germans during yesterday's game, exhaustion hit Argentina's players early, resulting the substitutions of Riquelme and Crespo midway through the second half, though they certainly could have used Riquelme's presence for at least the full 90. The French are relatively old, and while Zidane got a mandatory game off and Domenach has at least been reasonable about keeping his midfield fresh, his backline and workhorses have got to be tired. Tired is the last thing you want to be when playing Brazil. The fact that they are not playing the early game should help some.

From Brazil's perspective, their defense has to step up if they want to get out of this game alive. Unlike Ghana, France actually has players that can put the ball in the net. If you look slow against Henry and Ribery, you are losing, it's as simple as that. Brazil's defense hasn't looked good for some time (though to be fair, the haven't had to), which means they either come correct or they have to win this game in a shootout. They can certainly do it, but they probably do not want to. The play of Uncle Sal or Silva for Brazil (Uncle Sal may be injured) and Viera for France will be a big deal.

Also, has anyone seen the kid with all the hair and the big teeth on the pitch lately? The World Footballer of the Year has been strangely quiet lately.

This may seem like folly, but I had Spain bouncing Brazil in the round of 8 in my original predictions, so I'm going to stick with that and pick France to win this one. Regardless of what some folks may think, Henry has played well thus far, scoring a couple of goals and setting up a few others. I think he has a huge game today, the rest of France plays great defense, and they go through into the semifinals.

One of these guys could be a male model and likely has a huge following of women and in the gay community. The other is just Uncle Sal.