World Cup

So…that was crazy.

The18 would like to apologize for suggesting that the loss of Thiago Silva wouldn’t be as significant for Brazil as the loss of Neymar. We were wrong. Without their captain and defensive sanity check, A Seleção were utterly desolated during 20 minutes of soccer suicide in which they conceded five of the most abject goals ever seen in a World Cup semi-final.

The FIFA disciplinary committee has ruled that Brazil captain Thiago Silva will be suspended for the Seleção semifinal match against Germany. The committee also ruled that no action will be taken against Colombian defender Juan Camilo Zúñiga over his challenge on Neymar, that ended the Brazilian star’s World Cup run. 

For those who didn’t see the play that earned Silva his second yellow card of the tournament, here it is. 

The team behind "Funny or Die" must really be into World Cup football. (Which, for the record, is awesome.)

In their latest video short, the website sends Christopher Mintz-Plasse - a.k.a. McLovin - of "Superbad" fame to Brazil to check out the action. This follows on the heels of another video that went viral that shows "Funny or Die" co-founder Will Ferrell giving a pep talk to the American crowd in Brazil the night before the USA-Portugal match up.

When Dutch coach Louis van Gaal called substitute goalkeeper Tim Krul into the quarterfinals match versus Costa Rica near the end of the second half of extra time, it was a nervy move.

It was fitting that the final quarterfinal match of this World Cup came to this: nil-nil through regular time and thirty extra minutes, to be decided by penalties. It was a round that saw the high-scoring nature of the Group round fully give way to a generally conservative and low scoring pace (only Brazil scored two goals during the run of play in these Quarters). As a result, all eight group winners appeared quite evenly matched (there wasn't a margin of victory greater than 1 goal this round).

Argentina are through to the semifinals after beating Colombia 1-0 in Esadio Nacional in Brasilia. 

Argentina didn’t waste time getting going in this match. Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria found the ball frequently and helped free up their teammates. Di Maria got a little luck and a pass that was headed for Pablo Zabaleta was redirected right to the feet of Gonzalo Higuaín. The Napoli man had no problem with the bounding ball, and brilliantly volley'd it passed stout Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. 

And so the road to Rio is a little further travelled. Brazil, somehow, have stumbled their way into the semi-finals courtesy of a nervy 2-1 win over Colombia. But they’ll face Germany without their young talisman Neymar, who sustained a nasty blow to his lower spine and is now out for the rest of the tournament.

Germany beat France 1-0 in the Maracana, earning them a spot in the semifinals for the 4th straight World Cup. 

The first half wasn’t very eventful. Neither team could spark anything in their opponent's third, and the only real action happened after a poor Paul Pogba foul that gave Germany a set piece from distance in the 12th minute. Toni Kroos whipped in a great ball that found the head Mats Hummels, who flicked a perfect header past French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. 

Jimmy Kimmel’s "Lie Witness News" is one of the better segments amongst late night talk shows. The always-hilarious interviews put so-called “fans” into place by asking them questions that should be pretty easy to answer. If you know anything about the topic of which you're a supposed fan.