Crunch time

Half of the World Cup games are over, and what a great tournament it's been. Now, over the next eight days, the deciding final group games and the first knock-out round will eliminate 24 of the 32 teams. Eight teams are already safely through the group stage, but there could be some surprising qualifiers, and some of the groups are still wide open.

It's going to be exciting to see the final standings in the groups, they could lead to some massive games in the first knock-out round: England v Germany? Argentina v Portugal? Italy v Brazil? France v Spain? No matter what, it looks likely that at least some big name teams will be going home by next Tuesday...

Oh, and the kick off times are now slightly later in the day, with a 2-3 hour break between games... that should make it easier to get other things done.