Shall we just go straight to extra time?

Day 20. What happened in Brazil today.

Belgium and USA gave us quite the ending to the round of 16. Argentina and Switzerland reminded us why Americans don't watch football.

There is some consistency about Brazil and Argentina in this world cup. There is hope, by some, that they will meet in the all time classic final. Is it maybe a sense of destiny that they are both under performing but still winning? Brazil, as we have long established are never going to be the team we dream of...the flicks and tricks have been replaced by Fred and Jo. Argentina are looking like the anti-team to everything that has happened at this World Cup....boring, predictable and no flair. Today they were up against the Swiss who, thanks to their German coach, are more German than the Germans in their cliche-d efficient organization. The Swiss have a Nadal to Argentina's Messi. Since Wimbledon is competing with world cup for viewing a tennis reference is long overdue. Yes, the magician with his feet, Messi, was up against the Swiss Messi, but with a bit more aggression and toughness, Shakiri, Shakiri...... In the end the real Messi beat the Swiss almost Messi, but Shakiri gets bonus points for an award winning stare and swear at the referee for getting in his way.

This one, almost unsurprisingly now, went to extra time. Swiss resistance was finally broken after a mistake at the half way line gifted Messi the ball, and just when you thought he was going to try waltzing through the Swiss defence, didn’t you, he set up the Angel off his right shoulder for a beautiful finish. As poor as Argentina were, Messi was at the centre of everything. He's not quite putting in the Maradona type of inspired performances yet, but he definitely looked up for a battle, constantly looking for the ball. But maybe he needs a Valdano and Burruchaga around him. There was a rumour today that Argentina had a centre forward called Higuain playing. Maybe I heard wrong.

Argentina and Brazil may meet in the final. Do, or don't, the fan rivalry is evident every time Argentina play. They have some of the strongest support, but the sea of light blue in the stadium is interspersed with a whole load of yellow Brazilian shirts. The locals must have a lot of fun supporting any team that comes to play against Argentina in their country. Again, the Argentinian support was rocking in the first 10 minutes, but by the second half the fans must have been as bored as us at home. Silence reigned.

Switzerland were terribly unlucky not to equalize right at the end when Dzemaili headed against the post and then his own rebound rebounded off him and out. One to replay in the poor man's head over and over again.

Argentina had tried to lift the gloom by bringing on the man with the most questionably ridiculous hair style, Rodrigo Palacio. Is it a braid, is it the world's skinniest ponytail sticking out of his shaved head. I do not know.

As is the norm, I resorted to the BBC for a second opinion on this match. And, as has become Bbc's standard with any match that isn't an and end to end barnstormer, described it by using their favourite word, turgid. One of my regular readers, has become so amused by the turgid-ness of Bbc's reporting, that he looked up the definition of turgid: swollen, congested or pompous and bombastic. The midfield was congested and there is always pompous-ness on show. So turgid it was.

Belgium and the Americans put on a show that our commentator described as lively. It was end to end, the Belgians showing flashes of what their individual stars should be able to do. And the Americans played as though they had to justify the decision by the millions back home to spend their afternoon watching soccer.

That it was 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes was mostly down to Tim Howard, American goalie, doing what he is supposed to do and the Belgians doing what they are not supposed to do when they have chance after chance to score: not let Howard do his job so comfortably. There were many saves, but, really, how many of them were more than would be expected?

In extra time Belgium brought on star striker Lukaku and within seconds he charged at the American defence, did his thing (caused panic) and De Bruyne scored. Who else thinks that Kevin De Bruyne is the grumpiest footballer out there. Even a goal couldn't take the scowl off his face. Maybe that's why Chelsea got rid of him: good player, but too damn grumpy.

When Lukaku scored a second, who would have thought that there was any way back for the Americans? But, hello, what's this? Young guy, just on, Green scored a beauty with his first touch at the beginning of the second extra half and this game, if it wasn't on before, was now definitely rocking. Courtois made an incredible save and the Americans kept coming. But to no avail, and again a near upset was averted.

Before Lukaku, Belgium also brought on Mirallas for Mertens, a switch of skillful industrial-ness for occasional flashiness. Mertens always looks outstanding for about 15 minutes but them seems to be a bit of a one trick wonder, who's trick is figured out pretty quickly by the other team. Mirallas, on the other hand, is the kind of guy I would like in my team. He gets stuff done.

The match was interrupted for a few minutes when a fan/person/joker ran onto the pitch. Of course, we must not mention pitch invaders lest we give them publicity. Our wonderful, Fifa trained commentator took this instruction to heart. As the arm waving, look at me prankster ran around the pitch, we were told that Jones seemed to be having a problem, and as Mr Fun started his second lap we were further informed that Jones still seems to be having an issue and that's why the game is stopped. When it became obvious that the Brazilian stewards are happy to give somebody like this their moment in the spotlight and were happy to let him do a few laps, and when it became impossible to keep him out of every camera shot, the commentator finally admitted that we don't need these kind of interruptions.

That's it until Friday. If you are new to World Cup and you thought the last 16 matches were tight and low on excitement, just wait for the quarter finals. All the big teams will now be looking to outsmart each other. Thank goodness for Costa Rica!