Having said that, Uruguay suffered a critical loss during the run of the match. In order to block a sure goal, Suarez was forced to handle the ball, earning Ghana the spot kick that Gian missed. However, in doing so, Suarez's red card means that he'll miss Uruguay's semi-final date with Holland. Despite all of their relatively unexpected success, Uruguay has yet to demonstrate anything that will give the Netherlands any degree of difficulty. The Dutch midfield ought to swallow up Diego Forlan, while keeping Robben free reign to terrorize the Uruguayan flanks. It might be tight, but it will never be close. Netherlands.
The Germany-Spanish match, on the otherhand, could go any number of ways but in all likelihood, Germany will will prevail. Puyol, the chief Spanish defender, demonstrated that his speed will be an exploitable issue for the Germans. Further, it remains to be seen whether Spain has anyone capable of shutting down Schwienstieger. Fernando Torres has been invisible so far, and the match-up between Villa and Mertesacker has all the hallmarks of a David v. Goliath showdown. Critically then, Germany gets the edge on things even before we factor in the double monkey paws: no defending European Champion has ever won the World Cup, and no team has ever won the World Cup after losing their opening match. The only omen that Spain has in their favour is that Rafael Nadal won Wimbledon this morning, just as he did prior to Spain's winning of the European Championship. Germany.
