So many teams in the last 16 that have been so called favourites for the tournament have been quite poor so far and have not lived up to their billing, or the way they played earlier in the tournament.

The bookies will be coining it in I reckon and a lot of high rollers will be spewing, just taking the last 24 hrs and Germany 1/3 to beat Algeria... 0-0. Argentina 1/3 to beat Switzerland and 0-0 at full time.

also Holland beating Spain 5-1 on opening round, then losing to Australia and struggling to beat Mexico near the end of the game in the last 16

Argentina with the exception of Messi have been poor, and the game I just watched was dire... Arsen Wenger wants Di Maria for £29, he'll be worth about 20 quid after this game

Brazil have been the same, effectively crap apart from Neymar.. all playing for themselves, taking it all on themselves and trying to score a Hollywood goal, when passing would have probably been a goal.

Belguim might have won all three games, but they have been mince aswell, Germany could not string two passes together last night. Argentina have been really poor today also.

God knows who will win the world cup, but at the moment no one really deserves it going by what I have seen...

Group stages were great, what has come since has been quite poor

Holland beat Austrailia.

oh yeah, so they did.. I must have been on a few beers when that game was on

I stand by the rest of my post, and stand corrected

It seems most people can't make their mind up on whether these second round matches are "the best ever" or "pure shite". Can't they just be ok? Not bad? I don't mind them, I think they've been alright. The media have been doing their best to hype up the WC.

I think you have bear consideration to the fact that these are going to be much harder games where the teams are more level in ability.

I don't agree the levels are more the same in these games, trotting out the old "On Paper" argument... every German player of far superior to Algeria's players and it was 0-0 at full time. How many Algeria players play for Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid... and also Argentina is littered with Real Madrid, Barcelona etc and how many Swiss players play for the best teams in Europe.

I accept Algeria and Switzerland have a great team ethic, and that some teams like Brazil, Germany, Argentina seem to be playing for themselves and trying to make a bigger name for themselves

Excuse me? I'm not trotting anything out.
I'm just saying that you can't expect to bang in loads of goals like you may have been able to do in the group stages against some teams.
However they got here these are the top two teams out of the groups. It's not 'on paper' their achievements got them to this stage.

I've just watched the Argentina/Switzerland match. On paper, as you would say, Argentina should have beat them comfortably. But Switzerland appeared to be very difficult indeed to play against.

sorry alrightmate, it was myself that was trotting out the old "on paper" thing, as a response to quotes about the level of play.

I agree with you a great team ethic, seems to be an excellent counter to brilliant individuals that are trying to do it all themselves. I feel sorry for Algeria, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico... all deserved to go through, but all the so called big teams got through in the end, just... maybe if Brazil had been put out, it may have spurned Germany, Argentina and Holland to do better, as they would have seen what could have happened

Don't worry, I guarantee that the Quarter Final matches will be absolute thrillers

Ah, I see. No problem.

You're right in that the big teams, was we like to call them, somehow manage to always scrape through one way or another. In these second round matches it feels like most of them so far, if not all of them, have either gone to extra time, penalties, or the team has scored a winning in goal in the last minutes or in injury time.
They seem to have this unquantifiable X factor.

18 goals in 8 games at 2.25 goals per game in this second round, pretty low. The USA-Belgium game finished it off well.

Now the media will declare it the "greatest second round games ever" as opposed "boring set of second round games".

They're pathetic really.

Goals aren't always needed.

Most of the second round games have been good. Lots of drama.

USA and Belgium both had a great game on today/yesterday. If they have great goalies, that doesn't diminish the rest of the play.

Some of them have been dull, but I can see at least 3 interesting teams still in.

You could say that about 1990. Lots of late goals (England scored late in all knockout matches for example), penalty shootouts and its described as one of the worst.

Its probably been one of the most dramatic rather than great in terms of quality maybe?

There haven't been many one-sided games which maybe helps people enjoy the competition more.

My summary:

Brazil vs Chile:
Great first half. Game lost its way although it remained quite dramatic.
Colombia vs Uruguay
Baring two very good goals, the game was actually pretty boring.
Holland vs Mexico
Ordinary first 75 minutes. Last 15 minutes dramatic and controversial.
Costa Rica vs Greece
Booed off at half time, livened up in the second half, exciting extra time.
France vs Nigeria
Routine win, fairly dull. France not at their free flowing best.
Germany vs Algeria
A good game that could have done with an early goal. In the end a nervy but comfortable enough win for the Germans.
Argentina vs Switzerland
Awful. Thank god Switzerland didn't win on penalties.
USA vs Belgium
Heroic from the US, although lacking in quality in parts. Very good game, shame the US couldn't provide that attacking threat earlier.

Pretty much Spot on, though I thought Brazil vs Chile was excellent

Yeah your points proven with the 2010 WC, aka the "really shit one", which interestingly enough had 22 goals in the 2nd round phase 4 more than this one. I still don't think maybe outside Brazil vs Chile, any of them will be remembered as classics though.

I loved the Round of 16 games. Most of them were extremely dramatic and heart-attack worthy. Algeria, Switzerland and Belgium surprised me with absolutely superb managerial tactics.

I can't say that I remember any of the quarter final games from 2010, apart from the England one for obvious reasons - whereas the Brazil vs Chile game, and the Belgium vs USA game will most likely stay in the memory for a few years to come.

There was always going to be a drop-off in the goals-per-game rate once the group stages were done with for a number of reasons;

1. The standard of teams remaining was higher - which is the whole point of having the top two in a group go through.

2. There are no second chances after the group stages. In the groups, a poor opening game isn't the end of the world, there are still two games to go - that's not the case in the knock-out rounds, so teams are always likely to be more cautious from the last 16 onwards.

3. There are fewer "elements of surprise". A team playing in a new formation, or having a previously unknown player coming to the fore will be three matches into the tournament by the time the groups are finished. Which means that teams will have had three chances to study them, and come up with a game plan to counter them.

4. The pressure / expectancy levels increase. Teams that may have been "along for the ride" in the group stages all of a sudden have to deal with the fact that they have a chance of winning - if that's a relatively new situation for them, there's no telling how they will react. By the same token, teams that were fancied from the get-go, and have crushed their opposition now have to deal with the possibility that any single mistake may see them knocked out - so it can come as no surprise if the nerves start to set in for them.

Personally, I have enjoyed the last 16 round this time - I don't want to see the same old teams cruising through without being challenged in the slightest. No game in this round has been a blowout, the closest we came was Colombia vs Uruguay, and that was only 2-0.

The closeness of the games has been the key here rather than the number of goals we have seen, a 0-0 game can be a thing of beauty (see Belgium vs USA), not just a snoozefest (see Argentina vs Switzerland). This tournament looks like having an ideal balance of the two sides of the game to me; the group stages saw teams tearing into each other, the knock-out stages more of a cagey approach to the game, letting tension build up over the course of the 90 or 120 minutes.

My personal opinion is that anyone not loving this World Cup should probably give up on watching the game - because they are not going to find any other competition that offers such a comprehensive array of all aspects of football in such a short space of time.

England did not make it to the quarter finals in 2010.

Was it last 16 we got whipped by Germany then? Those dastards, playing that revolutionary "hump-the-ball-upfield-for-the-striker-t-run-on-to" tactics that our defence had never seen before...

I did actually mean the last 16 rather than the quarters as it happens, the post I quoted was referring to the first knockout round, I'm not entirely sure why I mentioned the quarters myself!

I kinda knew what you meant I completely agree with you that anyone not loving this World Cup may have to give up on football. It pains me to say this as a huge Italy supporter, but this World Cup is great.