Fred and Jo....and Neymar.

Day 17. What happened today in Brazil.

Brazil are just not very good, are they? Colombia are probably one of the best teams of this World Cup. What will happen when they meet on Friday in the quarter final?

Brazil huffed and puffed, and chased, and rode their luck and ended up with a penalty shoot out win against Chile. As negative as the prognosis on Brazil may be, at the same time they didn't concede more than one bad-mistake goal against what was supposedly one of the best attacking teams out there. In the final minute of extra time Pinilla, for Chile, hit an amazing shot against the crossbar. It would have been game and World Cup over for Brazil. But it didn't go in, did it, and nobody has ever won anything by going close. Brazil scored first through David Luiz's first goal ever for Brazil, although there is debate over whether he got the final touch. The Brazilians then looked like they were going to saunter through the rest of the match, maybe score a couple more goals, and that would be that. However, Hulk showed he had the touch of a uncoordinated, muscle oaf out of a fantasy comic book and let Chile in to score. To his credit, Hulk became a man possessed in the second half, a man possessed by the fear of being the reason for Brazil having no more interest in their World Cup. He repeatedly attacked the Chilean defence on his own, and he kind of had to since Neymar was having a no-shoot day. Even his change from gold boots to his regular ones at half-time didn't seem to make a difference. Of course no Brazil match would be complete without an ode to those 2 wonderful Brazilians, Fred and Jo. Fred's expected goal rush, after he scored his first goal against Cameroon, never looked like it was going to happen. He was back to the lovable Fred who you would love if you were the opposing team's defence. So, poor old Big Phil had to do what he himself must loathe to admit that he has to do. He brought on Jo, to replace Fred. Not sure if Big Phil hates more that he has to take off Fred, who he has high hopes for, or that the only other striker he can replace him with is Jo. Maybe that's why Neymar kept refusing to shoot today: he said to Big Phil if you are really going to keep lumping me with Fred and Hulk let's see what happens when I leave the goal scoring to them. And Big Phil, not one to mess with, thought, fine, you little so and so, you don't like Hulk and Fred, here's some real punishment...deal with Jo. Jo reminds me of that guy at school, who was told that he was good, or got lucky playing with boys much younger than him, but now that he's playing with the big boys is completely out of place. But he can't admit to it. Every time, he completely fluffs a good chance, he has that look; the look of, "what, how didn't that go in", which quickly changes to "hey, everybody that wasn't my fault, look, that blade of grass was out of place" which then becomes a look of "ok, stand tall, eyes wide open, if I look good and imposing nobody will notice I can't play this game".

At the beginning of the second half (and when I say beginning, I mean well past the 60 minute mark), the main stand across from the cameras had way more empty seats than in the first half. Again, my belief is that all those people are stuck in a queue for the toilet or beer. The real fans, in the upper tiers, just give up and go back to their seats. The number of fans constantly walking back and forth in that stand reminded me of watching football in Toronto, in Major League Soccer. It's amazing how many people just constantly walk around. Not in a football stadium to watch the football, obviously.

Colombia beat the Suarez-less Uruguayans pretty easily. It's was, as we say, a comfortable 2-0. With all the fuss about Suarez nobody seems to mention how his strike partner Edison Cavani is supposedly a highly rated player himself. But just not good enough. Like the rest of the team. Their era, if there was one, is definitely over. This was a victory for quick attacking football over let's-kill-the-game-and-win-off-one-goal-from-a-corner football. Colombia came to this World Cup without the player who was to Colombia what Suarez is to Uruguay. Radamel Falcao was going to be the man to score the goals but after his serious knee injury it seemed like Colombia had lost their main man. Now it looks like he would struggle to get into this team. Were would he fit in? James Rodriguez has become the star of this World Cup. When moneybags Monaco wanted to compete with the big boys in France they bought Falcao for a sickening amount of money from Atletico Madrid, but since they still had some money left they went back to Porto and bought the guy who had played with Falcao at Porto, Rodriguez. The provider and the goal scorer together. Rodriguez has now become both with 5 goals and assists in most of the other goals. Look out for him....number 10, the name on his shirt is James, but please, call him Hahmez.

Tomorrow the Dutch and the Mexicans do battle before Costa Rica and Greece fight it out for the title of the most unlikely team in the quarter finals.