The worst Brazil, the best Costa Rica, Argentina’s desperation and Colombia who shine with James

With a Costa Rica who only need to repeat what they have done up to now, because collectively they are the best of the four Latin American teams. With an Argentina who need to lose the insanity and desperation of having to win a game and with a Colombia who have the major revelation of this World Cup, James Rodriguez.

Let's see what awaits us:

Colombia-Brazil:
Brazil and Colombia come from two totally different places. A coach like Luiz Felipe Scolari who works on the individualities in his team, on the sacrifices, on recovery of the ball, on effort, but on a team which does not handle space well. In all their matches Brazil have made things very, very complicated for themselves. Strategically they have achieved no results at all. Everything they do is based on their history and tradition, their technical skills and their players’ genes. And they have a great  capacity to unbalance their opponents.

Colombia are a team moulded by a coach (José Pekerman) who has plenty of ambitions, introduces aesthetics into the game, he wants to play well and Colombia has appeared on the scene with a player like James who has come to everybody’s attention with an extensive catalogue of skills and growth in development which make him an elite player. He is the greatest revelation in the present competition, one of the major protagonists not only for his capacity to score goals, but also for his sense of order in the game. He possesses enormous technical skills and physical presence. For his age he is the great surprise of the competition.

The match will be very interesting with two teams structured in different ways. With a Brazilian team worried about not letting the other team into the game, a Brazil which is one of the weakest in their history with regards to attacking capability. There is too much reliance on Neymar. They will be playing against a team which has attacking players, which in turn allows a team to have ambitions. It remains to be seen whether Colombia is capable of imposing its style on the game. If they play as their coach wants, then it will be very difficult task for Brazil.

Argentina-Belgium
Argentina are making things much more difficult for themselves than expected. They don’t have the peace of mind which would enable them to develop their game and play to win, rather they are possessed of a desperation to try and win all their games.

Messi takes to the pitch and the others join him and try to define a game through pressure alone. The most important thing the Argentinians need to correct is that they should play to win, not to think about winning before the game even starts. In every game which begins there is desperation in the team, affecting even its great figures, to want to define the game without elaboration or development, without working out a plan in the build-up area of the field, as seen in the tight win over Switzerland.

Belgium is a totally different adversary to Switzerland. Perhaps they have much better players, excellent but with much less organizational commitment in the development of their ideas. The Belgians are not as compact as the Swiss, they possess dynamism in plenty, but they do not seem to have a clear idea of how to put it into practice. Among the eight in the quarter-finals, If I had to choose which team was most accessible for the style and manner of Argentine football, then I would pick Belgium.  From the football point of view, Argentina should be able to find more space to develop their game. It will not be so complicated for the Argentinians to play a better game against an opponent like Belgium.

Germany-France:
Germany are the only team (of the eight remaining) who have conviction and clarity of ideas on the pitch. Their players and their coach are fully convinced of the road to take. What I miss are the outstanding figures who in the past were there to resolve the problems. There is no great centre-forward nor outstanding winger who could define the game, players like (Wolfgang) Overath or (Gerd) Mueller.

The Germans have struggled to define the games up to now but they are the best team in preparation and execution of their plans in major tournaments. I do not know if they are the most powerful side, but along with the eliminated Chile they are the team which  best confirm clarity of objective of a footballing  idea which in my opinion is unique, and that is the reduction of space to the opponent, to the front or to the back.

France is another of the heavies in European football, with excellent individual figures, but I do not see a clear idea in their development of the game. There is no clear strategy, the French play by impulse, with individual creativity, improvisation, but have players who merit respect. It will be a tough, tough game. On results so far, the role of favourite would seem to fall to Germany.


Netherlands - Costa Rica:
This is a very, very interesting game. Two teams which, aside from the personal tastes of the spectator or the analyst, have clarity regarding their concept. One of them, Costa Rica, put their emphasis on technical skills, on possession of the ball, reducing space up front.

Holland has put together a very compact and solid team which will face challenges with three main players Sneijder, van Persie and Robben, who have extensive experience in this sort of confrontation. 

Costa Rica have been a surprise to the world, but those of us who know Central America know that there are countries there with very good players. And Costa Rica is one of these. Beware of the "Ticos" because they can play very good football.

Holland has a great advantage: They do not complicate issues in confrontations like this. They are used to it. The Costa Rican team will be facing a huge challenge but it's a big step forward in their history to be amongst the top eight.

I do not expect many surprises from Holland, they are what we have seen up to now. But Holland are an adversary with an abundance of tradition and extremely competitive players. Costa Rica need to repeat their actions to date, nothing more, because collectively they have played the best of all the remaining four Latin American teams.