My thoughts on an enthralling FIFA World Cup

It's been an unforgettable two weeks for me and my footballing friends. The FIFA World Cup of 2014 has been one of the best in recent memory. Here are my thoughts just before the quarterfinals kick off.

This Cup has been really special. It's not always this good. In so many of these tournaments there are a few sparkling games plus a lot of turkeys. 0-0 or 1-0 matches marked by dull defensive tactics and few goals.

But not this year. There have been no shortage of high-scoring, heart-stopping games in this competition. Netherlands-Australia and Argentina-Nigeria, which both finished 3-2, come to mind.

In the France – Nigeria second round match the 2014 edition surpassed the goal harvest of South Africa's World Cup (145), an astonishing feat considering there were then still eleven matches to be played. The record since the tournament went to 32 teams (171 goals in 1998) is suddenly under threat.

Why so many goals? There is no shortage of theories. One is that the warm tropical climate causes defenders to get tired easily and make errors. It could be true.

But perhaps the tactics of the game have just swung on over to the offensive side. The early '90s seem like ancient history now.

If you will recall, there was nary a goal in open play in the final matches of the 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups, with West Germany topping Argentina 1-0 via a penalty in Italy and then four years later, Brazil prevailing over the Azzuri in a shootout in Los Angeles after 120 minutes failed to produce a goal. Football was in a funk where unattractive, risk-averse strategies came to the fore at the highest levels.

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FIFA acted swiftly by disallowing the handled back-pass to the keeper. That might have helped spur a switch to more attacking football. I've also been told that more and more teams also began using the 4-2-3-1 formation with great attacking results around that time.

Now the game has moved beyond the Spanish short passing game that dominated the sport from 2008 to 2012. A cursory look at this World Cup will reveal that many teams are winning games through unforgiving fitness and breakneck counterattacks. Speed is one of the hot new currencies of modern football at the moment.

The formation du jour appears to be the 5-3-2 employed by a few sides in Brazil. While at first it looks defensive, in reality the wingbacks are usually stationed so high up the field that it seems the team is playing a 3-5-2.

That not only results in more goals, but also more late goals. It almost seems like FIFA has released a memo telling teams that they have to bulge the net with mere minutes left just to please fans. It's all made for some breathless theater.

Another amazing development: for all the attacking football we have seen, there has also been no shortage of magnificent goalkeeping from the likes of Keylor Navas of Costa Rica and the outstanding Tim Howard of the United States. Imagine what a goalfest this would be if the keeping was of a lesser level.

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Some big teams are gone, but the pecking order remains. Italy, England, Spain, and Portugal may have gotten the ax in the group stage, but the rigid hierarchy of international football came to the fore in the last 16.

Costa Rica squeezed past Greece in the only true battle of surprise teams. Colombia, on the back of heroics from James Rodriguez, completed a mild upset versus Uruguay. Every other round of 16 matchup seemed to follow the same script, which is as follows:

Established power (Brazil, Germany, France, Netherlands, Argentina, and to some extent Belgium) meets ambitious upstart squad (Chile, Algeria, Nigeria, Mexico, Switzerland, and the USA respectively.) The two sides battle to goalless first halves. In the second half there are chances a-plenty, with the upstarts being the beneficiaries of sensational goalkeeping. But in the end the favorites wriggle through thanks to either a late goal or a penalty shootout.

It's almost eerie how all of those games played out with almost exactly the same script. It must therefore be surmised that although the second-tier teams are closing the gulf in standard, there is still a measurable difference in quality. The gap appears to be infinitesimal, but it reliably shone through. All round of 16 matches took place between a group winner and a group runner up. The group winner won every one of them.

Climbing the rungs of the football ladder aren't getting easier in Brazil.

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The USA is now a force to be reckoned with. With their best pure center forward (Jozy Altidore) out for most of the tournament and minus the legendary Landon Donovan, the Yanks did very well to bust through their very difficult group. Alas, Belgium was a bridge too far, and for the second straight Cup, the Americans bow out in the second round in extra time via a 2-1 scoreline.

The USA had always been a last frontier for football/soccer. But now that frontier looks conquered. TV ratings for the World Cup went through the roof, with some USA games getting a much bigger audience than the NBA finals. All over the fifty states, watch parties drew thousands of Americans to catch the games on big screens.

Major League Soccer has expanded over the last few years in spite of a bad economy. A new franchise in New York is coming soon. Youth soccer continues to be strong. Kaka, a former Brazilian standout, is coming to the new MLS team in Orlando, Florida.

The Big Three of baseball, american football, and basketball still rule the roost in the USA, but perhaps in a few years Ice Hockey, the number four team sport, could be in soccer's crosshairs sooner than later.

One reason why soccer can is making it big in the USA: it can offer the thrill of national team success that the other sports usually don't provide. There is no world championship of American football, the FIBA worlds are not popular (and the Olympic competition is usually an easy American gold), the World Baseball Classic is still in an embryonic stage, and hockey's world championships are not that popular (although the Olympic hockey tournament is a big deal.

Some observations about stadia. Brazil's stadiums are a mix of refurbished classics like those in Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro (the iconic Maracana), and newer arenas like those in Manaus, Recife, and Sao Paolo.

The older ones like Maracana and the stadiums in Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte have seating areas that wrap around the pitch in an oval shape. That means the audience is quite far from the pitch in most places.

Maybe that's just how they used to do it, or perhaps once upon a time there were tracks around the field. The slope of the seating is also gentle, and the seats are level to the field on the nearmost row.

At any rate, the newer venues have different design cues. First, the seating is right up near the pitch, but the closest row is raised up, so you have a better perspective of the action even if you're in the first row. Plus the slope of the bleachers is more severe, so there is less chance that your view is blocked. There are also luxury box rows in between the two main rows.

I hope that if anyone is planning to build a stadium in the Philippines, they are looking at these examples and taking notes. Our newest stadium, Emperador, is a nice arena in some respects but it has numerous flaws that detract from the experience both as a fan and as a player.

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Who will lift the trophy? It has been very unpredictable in the group stages but less so in the knockout rounds thus far. All eight of the remaining teams have shown frailties. No one stands out as a clear, unassailable favorite.

But the fact remains: playing in your own time zone is historically a massive advantage. No European team has ever won a World Cup when it has been staged in the Americas. Only one team from South America has ever won it when it has been held in Europe. (Pelé's Brazil did the trick in Stockholm, routing the hosts Sweden in 1958.)

For that reason I'm picking Argentina to edge Belgium and beat the Netherlands to reach the final. Waiting for them will be the Seleçao, who I expect to hurdle Colombia then narrowly outplay Germany in the semifinals.

I can't bet against the hosts and their rabid fans. Brazil has looked shaky but I suspect they'll get their act together in time to win their sixth World Cup on July 13.

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH. The quarterfinals begin on Friday midnight, with Germany taking on France. For Philippine time schedules plus the bracket, click here.