Holland great 5-1 win over Spain. Chile are faves now to finish ahead of Spain for second place in group B. The Dutch are now faves to win the World Cup. I wonder who will play the Dutch in the World Cup Final? Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany, etc?

The penalty was a good call, doesn't matter if you like it or not. Sure, Costa could have continued the play, but he didn't have to. The Dutch defender hit him in the foot when sliding and thus made it difficult for him to continue the play - that's a faul. The only mistake was missing the faul on Casillas.

I'm surprised the last game was so good :) The Aussies really did great. At first I was like "c'mon, they are humiliating themselves even more than our team would", but they sure manned up. Pity they started the game scared like little girls and allowed Chile to score the two goals before they realised they can take Chile down. Mistake we also make way too often :(

Colombia 2-0 Greece
Uruguay 3-1 Costa Rica
England 2-1 Italy
I. Coast 1-1 Japan

My first thoughts are:

Colombia 2:0 Greece
Uruguay 3:0 Costa Rica
England 0:1 Italy
I. Coast 1:1 Japan

But it's subjest to change, I'm gonna have to think this through :)

That was never a penalty on Costa, the defender had his leg completly retracted he did not touch costa who had intetionaly not moved his leg to try and get hit and even so he dindt manage to. Costa stepped on the defender leg when he finaly decided he had to move and imedialy proceeded to dive. It was pretty ridiculously obvious it wasnt a penalty.

It was also pretty ridiculously obvious that Casilas was pushed away form the ball by Van Persey, that play was the same as the one on Brazils match where Olich pushes Julio Cesar, both cases were fouls.

Of course!

That might be the closest game so far (since Spa-Ned was so different than expected)

@bold - this doesn't matter at all! He makes a tackle, doesn't matter how he holds his leg. It's a sliding tackle, so it's his risk.

@underlined - yes, he steppend on the leg of a sliding defender, who made the tackle, missed the ball completely, but got under the leg of the striker, forcing his foot to move by some 30 cm, which when making a turn throws the attacker off balance making it very difficult if not impossible to continue his attack. That is a foul. This was a correct call. If you make a sliding tackle, miss the ball completely and hit, bump or undercut the attacker - it's a foul. That's how this sport works, you slide - you take the risk. That's why he didn't even argue the call, the defender knew he messed up.

Youre the only person in the planet who saw penalty in that a defender slidding 5 meters away from you and you stepping on the guy pretty much on purpose does not make it a penalty, thats just ridiculous. He did not hit Costa, by your logic if I see a sliding defender I should proceed to step on him cause them its a foul. Anyway it didnt matter Spain got slaughtered by a much better Netherland side, Spain is an aged team playing on an old system, they need to adapt quick or they might not even make it trought to the next round.

Mexico 3-1 I see, good prediction day! Two out three 100% correct ain't bad.

I know he could have continued the attack, but the point is - he didn't have to. He was fouled. And I'm not the only one, our media saw this as a penalty as well and didn't consider it a controversy for one moment. The defender messed up, he gave the striker an opportunity to trip over him and gave the ref the right to call the penalty.

Most people don't even know the rules, so I don't care what the majority thinks. If that was 5 meters away from you, then no wonder you didn't see that foul. He didn't hit him, but he was sliding in the space where his feet were and made him step on him. All this with missing the ball completely. That's a foul, these are the rules - that's why a sliding tackle is so dangerous for the defender, especially in the box.

I'm not saying it was fair or in accordance with the spirit of the game - I'm not judging that. But it was a foul according to the rules. The striker doesn't have to carry on just because he has a chance, especially if he got thrown off balance.