your daily recap

[rone]

England 1 - Ecuador 0: England stank it up.  It took a trademark Beckham moment of brilliance for England to win.  Ecuador had their chances early but started losing ground in the second half.  Then Tenorio got hurt and Kaviedes was not noteworthy.  Sadness.  England's next opponent should be very happy to see the English suck it up, except that...

Portugal 1 - Netherlands 0: The first half was exciting and entertaining; after seeing the Dutch press forward with little efficacy, i predicted the Portuguese would score first on a counterattack, and so it happened.  Costinha got a second yellow card in first-half injury time with a completely stupid intentional handball at midfield.  Once the second half started, the Dutch went at it again with more success at getting shots on goal.  Then around the 60-minute mark, things started getting very chippy.  The yellow cards started flowing and the game finished with 16 yellow cards, four of those double yellows and thus reds, two on each side.  The teams were perhaps guilty of too much effort, playing very roughly.  The word of the game is "attrition".  I expect England-Portugal to be the dullest quarterfinal in Cup history.

Just remembered... as the game was in its final minutes (and i've never seen a ref add six minutes of injury time to a half), the camera flashed to the red-carded Dutch Boulahrouz and the Portuguese Deco commiserating on some steps close to the field.