World Cup

The group stage is over and this year's World Cup has not been short on goals. The group stage saw 136 goals which is only nine less than the total amount of goals scored in the 2010 World Cup. The knockout stage has followed suit. Here are our favorite goals from each match day during the knockout stage. You can also check out our favorite goals from the Group stage by clicking here.  Just a heads up it's going to be hard to dethrone James Rodriguez from the top of our list.

With the USA out of World Cup 2014, some of you may still be feeling the effects of the crushing defeat. Maybe you can’t fathom rooting for another nation. But, on the other hand, you’ve gotten really into fútbol and you’re searching for a new bandwagon to hop on for the rest of the World Cup.

Not to fear, ladies and gentleman. We here at The18 have created a profile for each team to tell you where your new loyalties should lie. 

The Favorite: Brazil

You didn’t need to know much about futbol to notice that Tim Howard was the United States' savior throughout a tough Round of 16 match against Belgium.

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.