Serious doings in the World Cup soccer tournament today. Winners advance to the semi-finals, losers advance to the plane home. Germany vs. Argentina at 8 a.m. -- maybe the best match of the whole shebang so far. Then at noon, Italy vs. Ukraine -- also very interesting.

I've picked Deutschland, the host side, to go all the way, and so I'll be rooting for them to make me look smart. I'll need perfect outcomes from here on out to have any chance in our pool -- I got only 5 out of the 8 matches right so far, and hey, not to point too fine a point on it, statistically speaking a monkey would have gotten 4.

I think Italy's got the better of the second game. The Ukrainians played a very lackluster match against die Suisse, winning only when the Helvetians suddenly realized that they had forgotten to practice penalty kicks.

The winners of today's goings-on play each other on Tuesday. They have Fourth of July in Germany, but it's not that big a deal.