World Cup Watch: The Final Four

So, we're down to the final four now: Semifinals Tuesday and Wednesday, then the finals this weekend. The quarterfinals provided two days of mostly excellent soccer this past weekend – highlighted by comfortable and confident wins by France and England, and a breakthrough win for Belgium's Golden Generation – leaving promise of more to come.

Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne scores against Brazil

Tue., July 10, 1pm: France-Belgium
France continued to impress, with a lot of weapons in attack, and their defense looked calm and composed in dealing with what threats Uruguay could muster without Edinson Cavani, their best attacker. But Belgium – wow! They had another great counterattack goal in beating Brazil, and generally outplayed them at their own game. I still think these are the two best teams at the tournament. But the Red Devils will miss Thomas Meunier, who's been a big part of their success on the right wing; he's the only player who'll miss the semifinals because of yellow-card accumulation.

Wed., July 11, 1pm: England-Croatia
England's youngsters don't seem to feel the pressure; of course, they're all pretty well accustomed to big-pressure games in England, just not on the world stage. Early success against the vaunted Swedish defense pretty much killed off the QF game by halftime. Croatia's creative midfield should prove a much sterner test, unless they're worn down after their second 120-minute-plus-shootouts grinder in a row. Gotta hand it to Russia: they came out of their shell, gave the Croats all they could handle, and earned a lot of respect in their last game in front of the home fans.

LOOKING FORWARD:
All games are on Fox and Telemundo in the U.S.
Sat., July 14, 9am: Third-place game

Sun., July 15, 10am: Championship final
Same day as the Wimbledon men's final, scheduled to start two hours earlier. (Wimbledon just announced that match will not be moved even if England reach the WC final.)