Sunday From Brazil: Dutch Come Back On El Tri, Ticos Advance to Quarters

((HT: ESPN/FIFA))

It will be one of those questions for the Dutch, now, moving forward...

Did it galvanize you or did it take too much out of you...???

Mexico had their way with the Oranje for 80 minutes or so, but head coach Louis Van Gaal made a van Persie substitution count for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for the conversion of a late PK and a 2-1 stoppage time win to advance to the final 8.

And, yes, Arjen Robben flopped for the avail on the penalty kick
Here's the analysis


And it appears that Mexico head coach Miguel Herrera would like to blame the officials for calling the Robben dive


Univision should sign Herrera for the remainder of the tournament as an analyst right now...

In the night cap, Costa Rica had the lead and was fighting off an anemic Greece offense for 20-plus minutes before a late equalizer and penalty kicks themselves. Navas came up big in net and Costa Rica advances to their first quarterfinal ever.

The whole idea of him being off his line is out the window, apparently...
All that effort from Costa Rica as they were a man down...

Ivory Coast Was In, Then They Weren't...

((HT: ESPN/FIFA))

If the Ivory Coast won with the firepower they had- Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Bony, and Drogba... then it would have been a great offensive show for the knockout round. If only the head coach had gotten his starting line-up right (or just kept it constant). Drogba came in as Super Sub in the 2 previous games, but was started in Game 3.

This kill shot didn't work. But a comeback over Greece almost got them in with the draw...

Yeah, that didn't go well either in stoppage time...
It has to be seen to believed...


So, Greece advances to the knockout stages for the first time with the 2-1 win...

Bully for them...

OSG Five-Rings: Greece Suspends Track and Field Operations

Like, now...

With all of the austerity measures going on in a country that is living off emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's sports governing sports body decided the following:

"The Board of Athletics Federation ... unanimously decided to suspend all domestic sporting activity until decisions to make unfair and selective cuts in funding are reviewed," a federation statement said.

The head of the Fed, Vassilis Sevastis, admitted that coaches and other related personnel haven't even been paid for up to 10 months. They will meet again in two weeks to determine of they're going to elevate the inactivity to international events- Track and Field championships and the like...

The budget has been cut by a third for the last two years...
Here's some Greek track and field history for you...
((HT: IAAF/IOC/youtube))