No Games - ohhh how it hurts !

What a World Cup we have had so far.  The group stage and round of 16 provided lots of excitement, heroics and demonstrations of human courage and suffering.  Such is the beauty of this game.  Now this brief pause before the quarter finals  will hurt.  I'm already feeing the absence of a game to look forward to in a could of hours.
We do however have a great lineup of matches coming up.  I will give you my picks below and tomorrow will do a more in depth analysis of each game:

1. BRAZIL vs COLUMBIA -  winner : columbia

2. HOLLAND vs COSTA RICA - winner: holland

3. ARGENTINA vs BELGIUM - winner: belgium

4. GERMANY vs FRANCE - winner: germany

If there is one game I am on the fence about its game 4.  I think France could take it just as easily as Germany could.  However, despite both teams missing their best players (france missing Ribery and germany missing Reus) I think the Germans will have the upper hand in imposing their game on the french then vice versa.  And in the moments where it can't, it has the edge at Keeper with Neuer who can keep them in the game when the going gets tough.

That will set up semi finals as such:

GERMANY vs COLOMBIA
BELGIUM vs HOLLAND

We have to see what injuries and card situations present themselves but at this point I would be inclined to say that will set up a Germany vs Holland final with Germany taking it.