FIFA World Cup (Men's)

The stupendous run of the USMNT was halted short in the Round of 16 in Salvador on Tuesday. Belgium beat the United States 2-1 in extra time, finding both of their goals past the 90 minute mark. 

Once we saw Lionel Messi lead the charge in the 117' we could all predict something magical was about to happen. However, so did everyone in a Swiss uniform as they all collapsed to Messi. As Messi realized his opportunity, he set up DiMaria down the right wing for a beautiful on-the-ground goal to the far post to lead Argentina to 1-0 win over Switzerland. 

Even in times of triumph, fans can get a little too excited. This Brazilian fan was watching the Chile vs Brazil shootout on Saturday and, after Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez missed his penalty, the fan and his compadres went wild. But, as the camera zoomed in on Sanchez, the fan decided he wanted to taunt the Barcelona forward through the TV (we didn't say this was logical behavior). The result? A broken television and somewhat fractured view rest of the rest of the shootout.

That Germany had lost their two previous encounters with Algeria was dismissed as something of an aberration in the build up to this game. After all, Germany’s international pedigree is well established: currently ranked second by FIFA, they are three times each World Cup and European Championships winners. Algeria? This was their first foray into the World Cup knock-out stage.

The United States takes on Belgium in the sweet sixteen of the World Cup on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. EST on ESPN. The Belgians, who have been talked about so much as a "dark horse" in this competition that they now must be considered overrated, won each of their three group stage matches in Group H - though admittedly in fairly unimpressive fashion. The Red Devils will still be heavy favorites against the United States, who defied the odds and escaped the “Group of Death,” finishing second in the group behind Germany.

Paul Pogba scored in the 79’ to send France into the quarterfinals after beating Nigeria 2-0 in Brasilia.  

The quality and drama of the Netherlands' comeback against Mexico was surely going to be hard to match, but after a rather flat first half, Costa Rica and Greece did their best to maintain the incredible momentum and excitement of this tournament. The match gave us a flurry of cards, a man sent off, a missed call that could have resulted in a penalty shot, another stoppage-time goal and our second game of the round decided by penalties.

Futbol can be cruel. We saw how cruel it was when Chile almost beat host country and tournament favorites Brazil. If it weren't for a couple of crossbar and post strikes, the Chileans would be in the quarterfinals. but this is futbol. It was Mexico this time who suffered the cruelness of futbol. The Mexicans lost 2-1 after leading the game for 88', and it was an Arjen Robben dive that cost them the game. 

Colombia put on a clinical performance Saturday in easily dispatching a Luis Suarez-less Uruguay squad 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinal stage for the first time in the nation’s history. Enjoying a nearly 3:1 advantage in fan support in the stadium, the Colombian fans were going crazy as its team put on a dominant performance. Uruguay started aging superstar Diego Forlán in Suarez’s place up front alongside Edinson Cavani in a 4-4-2 formation.

Goodness this was a heated and breathless affair, enjoyable as much for what each team did off the ball as on it. While we may think of South American football, especially Brazilian, as being all flair and fancy footwork, this was a slug-fest: two teams, toe-to-toe, no quarter given.