The World Cup 2014 tournament round of 16 is live on ESPN Radio for Netherlands and Costa Rica after USA and Belgium played in the last 16 and the match is from Arena Fonte Nova in Brazil and the game is live at 4 pm ET on ESPN and WatchESPN and this is a huge matchup and for the last spot in the semis alongside Brazil and Germany.
Check here for the Netherlands and Costa Rica live coverage.
Argentina won the match between Argentina and Switzerland from Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo and the game starts at 12 pm ET for the knockout stage and comes as the Swiss finished as runner-up in their group, while Lionel Messi leads his nation as the best player in the world and this tourney right now.
Argentina comes into the tournament knockout stage as one of the favorites, but they have weaknesses and the Swiss will have to play their best game of the competition to win on Tuesday. The Swiss have a deep team of solid players, but they are not as talented as Argentina and they were beat after allowing five goals against France in the group stage and Switzerland has to find a way to play better on the back end, even though they were better in games against Ecuador and Honduras. Like most of this stage so far, this game could be another close one and teams like Brazil and Costa Rica had to get through on penalties.
Messi has been very impressive and while that is no surprise, it often can be hard for some players to jump into the World Cup and play well after not playing with the national team enough, but Messi has shown no rust in Brazil. Messi and Argentina made it through without playing a great game and they struggled against Iran and Messi has been key with four of the six total goals for the team. Messi had an amazing goal from a free kick position at the top of the offensive zone and if he can get a shot or two off early, the team could take a quick advantage.
Sergio Aguero will be out for Argentina and that means Messi will have to be even better while he is out with an injury to his thigh and this is yet another change the team will have to deal with. Xherdan Shaqiri is the most explosive player for the Swiss and he will need to have another great game for his side to win and he had a great performance against Honduras with a hat trick and if he can score at least one, it should give the Swiss a chance. Both Argentina and Switzerland have not played to expectations yet and this game could be the chance for each side to show their best as they try to join the Netherlands, Brazil and France in the quarterfinals.
Argentina came out of the group stage as one of the favorites after winning all three of their games, but the team did not decisively take any of those and that is why they need Messi to be at his best. The Swiss were one of the sexy picks ahead of the World Cup and while they are here now, the team has not played to its potential and now they have to deal with Messi and they likely will be playing a 4-2-3-1 formation against the 4-3-3 of Argentina. Messi is the leader of the attack and Argentina potentially can be the highest scoring team in this tournament and that could come out in the game against the Swiss.