Higuita was nutty, and took some chances. But I¡ll defend him on that play against Cameroon. He had passed the ball but that player passed it back to him.

They were clearly the better team and deserved to win.

I think you're a real chance to win this world cup.

<areknames: LOL, so who does Aussie gk Ryan think he is? Maybe Rene' Higuita, the flamboyant Colombian (remember him?) who was always trying to dribble himself out of trouble at Italia '90 until he was punished by Roger Milla?>

IKR!

What a time to make such a huge blunder!

<What a game, it felt like Argentina was safe and in control the whole game but then all of a sudden Australia scores by accident and eventually get their ONLY chance of the game at the last second which Kuol should have converted and sent the game to extra time.>

It turned out to be closer than I expected.

Great goal by Messi. Their second was a gift by our stupid goal keeper, but then our late goal was somewhat lucky.

In the end it was pretty exciting.

<moronovich: A fine effort against the mighty argentinian team <optimal play>. You can check out with your head held high !>

What a game! Argentina won deservedly, but with its usual dose of suffering. Messi was on. Man, really on.

The game had a great goal and then an odd lucky goal for each. It also had two amazing non-goals. In one of them, Baccus left four or five Argentines behind until Lisandro Martinez intercepted the shot. In the other one, Messi left the entire Australian defense behind (four men at that moment) to pass it to Lautaro Martinez who blew it.

And then the two goalkeepers did heroic things in the last 10 minutes.

My wife and I went out to celebrate with dinner at a restaurant we had not tried before. It's called Etc, and if you ever make it to Nashville, I thoroughly recommended it. Delicious and balanced meal, absolutely incredible dessert, and reasonably priced.

A well deserved win and what a great way to celebrate with your wife !

You're American, aren't you? I presume you would have supported the USA until they got knocked out.

<Fusilli: ... I don't think the striker in a penalty kick should be allowed to do what Lewandowski did. Unfair to the goalie. If the goalie believes the feint, he steps out of line. And if he doesn't, he won't have time to react to the real shot.>

Agree. I notice a Brazilian did the same against Korea. If the striker stops or hesitates, the goalie should be allowed to come off the line.

<I like penalty kicks..>

Me too.

They're sometimes the most exciting part of the game.

<td: <Well, yeah. If you make yours and stop the other team's, that's an advantage> No, its an advantage before the other team shoots. That's the psychological advantage.>

Well, the team that shoots first is under pressure to make sure that first goal goes in, otherwise they're suddenly at a disadvantage.

<saffuna: <No, its an advantage before the other team shoots. That's the psychological advantage.> And a huge disadvantage if the first shot is blocked.>

So if the first to shoot has a record of 54% to 46% then we can say that there is a first kick advantage however slight.

Other stats put first kick advantage at only 51.48% to 48.52%

<In 2018, Dr Ignacio Palacio-Huerta of the London School of Economics analysed 1,000 penalties taken at previous World Cup and European Championships.

From this, he concluded that teams who take the first penalty win 60 per cent of shootouts, compared to 40 per cent won by teams who go second from the spot.>

Perhaps it's because in most cases the striker scores, so in most cases the team shooting first will go up 1-0 putting pressure on the team shooting second.

It would be interesting to know the stats on which team won the penalty shootout if the team shooting first missed their first goal.

<So I picked Brazil first then Argentina and Spain.>