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After Portugal’s defeat, a stalkerazzi was walking Cristiano Ronaldo off the field – presumably without being invited – which was received with a spit by the divo. Was it intentional? Sure looks like it. The cameraman then clearly backs away, so we don’t know if he was hit – probably not, given Cristiano’s accuracy in SA – but it appeared to be something of a message. Let’s hope it didn’t hit the nice cameraman, because we sure as hell don’t know where Ronaldo’s mouth has been.

So much like ‘06, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano are inextricably linked: both had their most notable moments after the game, towards the camera.

No wonder both teams were kayoed in the second round.

This has been percolating throughout and hit a fervor today, as every single main star of Nike’s Write The Future ad is now out of the tournament. Even a few of the minor stars, like the US duo and Cesc, who’s played a whole 59 minutes in 4 games, are falling to the curse as well (Iniesta and Pique are still going strong).

The verdict:

Didier Drogba: Broken arm before the tournament; crashed out in the groups.

Fabio Cannavaro: First round exit; tainted his legacy with a pretty mediocre showing in central defense; added injury to insult by retiring to Dubai.

Franck Ribery: First round exit; may or may not have called Yoann Gourcuff names and/or punched him in his pretty face.

Wayne Rooney: Quarterfinal thrashing by Germany; game can be found on a milk carton, because it was nowhere to be found.

Ronaldinho: Not invited despite having perfect teeth.

Cristiano Ronaldo: Quarterfinal exit to Spain; out of eight World Cup halves, he showed up for most of one – when Portugal were already routing North Korea.

In summation: complete failure by Nike.

adidas, on the other hand, went with Lionel Messi and David Villa.

The former is a heavy candidate, if not favorite, for the Golden Ball and David Villa is joint-leader for top scorer (with Higuain and Vittek at 4) – an award conveniently sponsored by adidas – and just as importantly, still playing. They also might have predicted a semifinal, with Argentina needing to beat Germany and Spain to slip past Paraguay for the semifinal of speed.

So clearly we can deduce adidas’ products are better than Nike’s. Because commercials never lie.

Can you believe we’re down to eight World Cup teams already? Feels like the World Cup only just started, yet we’re already at the quarter-final stage. There’s a two day break in action coming on Wednesday and Thursday, so time to take a breather. But also time to get excited about the quarter-finals, which are as follows:

2nd July:
Netherlands vs Brazil, Nelson Mandela Bay, 4pm kick off local time.
Uruguay vs Ghana, Johannesburg (Soccer City), 8:30pm

3rd July:
Argentina vs Germany, Cape Town, 4pm
Paraguay vs Spain, Johannesburg (Ellis Park), 8:30pm

(for semi-finals, July 2nd winners play each other, July 3rd winners play each other)

The Brazil vs Netherlands and Argentina vs Germany games already have that classic World Cup feel to them. The sort of games that happen as you get into the later stages of a World Cup, and the sort of games that have plenty of history already. Anyone remember Brazil 3-2 Netherlands from the 1994 World Cup quarterfinal? Definitely worth a watch:

I also count four South American teams in the quarter-finals, and none of them playing against each other. So we could potentially have an all South American semi-final lineup. Alternatively, we also have the last remaining African team on the verge of making history. If Ghana can get past Uruguay, they’ll be the first ever African team in a World Cup semifinal. I can’t even imagine the buzz that would create, and I’m not just talking about vuvuzelas. I’m looking at Paraguay vs Spain as the least exciting game for neutrals, but will still be interesting to see how Spain’s so far steady but not supernova attack deals with Paraguay so far very sturdy defence.

Now the inevitable predictions question: Which of these four teams do you see making the semi-final?

Welcome to the liveblog of Spain vs Portugal in the World Cup Round of 16. Just nine teams remain in the World Cup. Once this game is over, we’ll be down to eight. Read up on the match with our Spain vs Portugal preview. Make your comments before, during and after the match in the liveblog window.

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