Spain-Chile began as wide open as promised, and in the early-going, it was Chile who looked looser and bolder. Fernando Torres continued his tentative play, and even Iker Casillas made some basic miscues in the opening 20 minutes. Then everything changed, thanks mostly to one guy. This guy. You know you want me. Boy, David Villa's worth every penny Barcelona spent on him, isn't he? Keeper or no, being able to lash a ball into the net from like 50 yards is impressive, and doing so was a fine way to enter the record books as Spain's all-time scorer at the World Cup. He also showed off his passing acumen to set up Iniesta for the other first half goal. Even on throwaway plays, Villa was zooming down the sidelines, looking twice as fast as anyone else. Meanwhile, Chile could *not* catch a break. Along with their keeper charging halfway to midfield so he could dispossess Torres (only to send the ball right to the feet of Villa), Chile were harshly reduced to 10 men after the card-happy ref dropped a second yellow on Estrada. It looked like he and Torres just got tangled up, but the ref felt otherwise; so it goes. I suppose Chile weren't entirely devoid of breaks, though -- right before half, Ponce took down Xabi Alonso and could've been sent off himself. Apparently, the ref decided he'd done enough damage to Chile for the time being, though, and no card was given. The second half started with a cracking goal that took a deflection to freeze Casillas, and suddenly Chile were in the drivers' seat for second place over the Swiss. Asking Switzerland to get 2 goals is like asking Rush Limbaugh to get a conscience. It's like asking a specific chimpanzee to produce Shakespeare. It's like asking the oil to stop spilling. Some natural laws just can't be broken. And so it was -- after the 75th, Spain seemed happy to help kill the game and by extension punish the Swiss team that embarrassed them. I, for one, am glad they did. Defensive football is a fact of life, but the Swiss take negativity to another stratosphere, and I am glad the World Cup didn't reward it with advancement. So Chile's prize? Brazil. Spain gets no pushover themselves in Portugal, and both games will be among the most wide open of the round of 16. 16 on, 16 out.

The current table:

Chile	6 pts	+2 goal difference
Spain	3 pts	+1 goal difference
Switzerland	3 pts	even goal difference
Honduras	0 pts	-3 goal difference

The possibilities:

	Chile win	Chile/Spain draw	Spain win
Switzerland win	Chile 9 Switzerland 6 Spain 3 Honduras 0	Chile 7 Switzerland 6 Spain 4 Honduras 0	Spain 6 +2 or better Switzerland 6 +1 or better Chile 6 +1 or worse Honduras 0 Chile need to avoid a two goal loss to avoid elimination. If Switzerland win by two, Chile is eliminated. If both are 1 goal wins, it comes to total goals and then a lottery. If Switzerland win by two more goals than Spain, they win the group.
Switzerland/Honduras draw	Chile 9 Switzerland 4 Spain 3 Honduras 1	Chile 7 Spain 4 +1 goal difference Switzerland 4 even goal difference Honduras 1 Spain go through on goal difference.	Spain 6 +2 or better Chile 6 +1 or worse Switzerland 4 Honduras 1 Spain win the group on goal difference
Honduras win	Chile 9 Spain 3 even or worse Switzerland 3 -1 or worse Honduras 3 -2 or better Honduras needs to beat Switzerland by at least two to pass Switzerland. If Hondurans wins by 2 or more, and the combined margin of victory is 5 or more, Honduras advances. If Honduras wins by 1, then if Chile wins by 3 or more, Switzerland advances. If Honduras wins by 2 and Chile wins by 2, it is total goals between the Honduras and Spain. If Honduras wins by 1 and Chile wins by 2, it is total goals between Switzerland and Spain. Otherwise, Spain advances.	Chile 7 Spain 4 Switzerland 3 Honduras 3	Spain 6 +2 or better Chile 6 +1 or worse Switzerland 3 Honduras 3 Spain wins the group on goal difference

Yeah, just multiply this by a LOT. Two main things stand out to me about this match: 1) The ref was a bit card happy, giving out 6 yellows to Chile and 3 yellows plus one red to Switzerland. This is not because the players were brutally fouling each other left and right, though it was a chippy match. Many of these cards were questionable, and it seemed to me that the ref felt the way to keep the game under control was to fling cards around. The sending off of Valon Behrami in the 31st was unwarranted, in my opinion, leaving the Swiss a man down for 2/3 of the match. 2) And this might be mean of me, but the main image in my mind from this game is Alexis Sanchez running to the touchline to celebrate a goal all by himself...for at least 30 seconds...before finally turning to head back to the pitch and realizing his goal had been disallowed since he'd been offside. It's not schadenfreude or anything - quite honestly, there just wasn't much else to take away from this match. Chile had the better of possession, shots and set pieces, and did dominate the match for large parts of it. The Swiss seemed mostly focused on defense, which is fine, but also just not very interesting. It was mentioned by @championsonfox that the Swiss hadn't given up a goal in 551 World Cup minutes, going back to the '94 knockout round where they lost 3-0 to Spain. However, as I pointed out, they weren't even at the '98 or '02 Cups, so while it was still an impressive element of the strong defense strategy, it's not as awe-inspiring when you realize it only involved the group matches of '06 and their first match and a half here. And really, after their surprising win over Spain I expected more of an attack out of them, maybe assuming they would want to prove that result wasn't a lucky fluke or something. But perhaps it was - Chile put on the better show, continuing the impressive run of form from South American sides. I hope this isn't too sappy, but I'll be very glad if Chile advances and does well, considering the horror that country went through with the massive earthquake followed by eleventy-million aftershocks back in February. They're are at the top of their group now, and if Spain and Honduras end in a draw today, Chile moves on to the Round of 16.

   Hugs all around! Huzzah! And again, we have an unexpected and head-scratching result. In the match-up of #2 Spain and #24 Switzerland, much of it went as most of us imagined it would: Spain out-shot the Swiss 24(8) to 8(3); they held possession 63% of the game; they had 12 corner kicks to Switzerland's measly 3; etc etc. All is right with the football world, si? Nein and non.* The 2010 World Cup's first big upset came about when the Swiss won this match 1-0. Spain controlled much of the first half, passing well and moving where they wanted to, but not really taking or even creating many chances. Swiss keeper Diego Benaglio made a couple of good stops in the first half, and that coupled with a few deflections and shots sent wide or over the bar seemed to amp up the irritation in the Spanish players. David Villa throwing his arms into the air after Andres Iniesta launched a shot well over the net was a pretty good representation of what their inner monologues must have been. Switzerland was barely touching the ball, seeming content to just pack 10 men into the back line like so many sardines, with an occasional nudge forward. But that "park the bus" strategy sometiMes works, and they were able to shut Spain down and go into the half at 0-0. The second half started out essentially with more of the same, until the 52nd minute when, through some scrambling and some poor defending, Swiss midfielder Gelson Fernandes put the underdogs ahead. Eren Derdiyok had broken through the Spanish defense and gotten around Iker Casillas. Gerard Pique tried to clobber the ball, but it squirmed free and Fernandes was able to get his foot to it. Soon after, Fernando Torres came on to some loud applause, and he did make an immediate impact in their movement and passing. Spain started pressing harder into the final 20-25 minutes, beginning with Xabi Alonso slamming a shot off the crossbar. They started forcing their opponents into more of a one-on-one defense rather than the Alps impersonation they were doing before, which seemed to frazzle the Swiss a little, as Spain's movement continued to dominate. Derdiyok had a beautiful chance to increase their lead with an agile move through the defense and a smart shot, but it hit the post and was cleared out. When five minutes of stoppage time were announced, I was largely expecting a last-minute goal from Spain, just because the idea of them losing this match seemed so unlikely even still. But it didn't come, and the Swiss were ebullient in their celebration of a major upset. As I said before, these games are not played on paper. Spain would do well to remember that. Last year in the Confederations Cup, the US bested them 2-0 in the semi-final. Were we the better team? Not in the big picture, but we were on the day - partially because the team played very well, but also because Spain wandered in expecting an easy win, fearing little worthy opposition, and getting frustrated when they realized they were wrong. I think the same thing happened here, although it's even more amusing because I don't think the Swiss put on as good a performance as the USMNT did last summer. It's rather petulant and silly to allow that to happen, and it's a shame that the top teams don't recognize that all the time. This is the World Cup, guys. Pack up your egos and bring your A-game. *German and French count for the majority of spoken language in Switzerland. Italian is there too, but that's just "no" so it's not nearly as witty, damn it.