Two gam -- er, matches -- in World Cup "football" today: at 8 a.m., we have England vs. Portugal, and at noon, Brazil vs. France. Both of these "knock-out" matches should be interesting.

I'm pulling for Portugal in the first game. I've been to that land, it's beautiful, and its people love to fleece the English tourists with a sweet smile. Plus, I love how they stick an "h" after the "n" to make the "ny" sound, rather than slapping that squiggly thing on top of the "n." If the Portuguese win, it's vinho verde with supper tonight! If the Brits prevail, we'll toast with a cold Newcastle Ale.

Neither outcome in that one affects my pool entry -- I had the worthless Dutch to win that match, and they're long gone -- but the second game is a biggie for my first-time effort as a world Cup prognosticator. Like most, I've got Brazil to win.

Now, I feel for the French side. Playing Brazil is like playing the Yankees in the World Series. Everybody knows them, thinks they're the best, long tradition of winning, top-shelf players, yada yada yada. But I'll tell you, the French looked mighty good against the Spaniards. They're athletic, talented, and pretty smart out on the pitch (I love that kind of talk). Plus, I hope I won't get into too much trouble saying this, but so that you non-soccer-devotees can picture it: They're not a bunch of pasty guys with curly mustaches -- many are black. To me, the French bench looks quite like that of an NBA team. In any event, they are not going to go down easy.

The winners of these two contests will play each other in the semi-finals on Wednesday. (The other contenders at that level are Germany and Italy, who won yesterday and square off on Tuesday.) Today's losers, like yesterday's, are done.