Switzerland Hold Nerve from the Spot to Book Argentina Showdown in Vancouver

There is something profoundly romantic about a penalty shootout. It strips the game of its tactical complexity and reduces twenty two men to a raw test of nerve. On a damp Vancouver evening, Switzerland passed that test with flying colours, dispatching Colombia to set up a quarter final date with the reigning champions Argentina.For 120 minutes, we watched a game of two distinct planning documents. Colombia, buoyed by a swaggering South American belief, tried to play through the Swiss low block. Switzerland, so often the quiet overachievers of international football, sat deep and waited for the transitional opportunities their disciplined shape would inevitably create. It was not beautiful. It was, however, brutally effective.And then came the lottery. The penalty shootout is rarely kind to the more expressive side, and so it proved. Colombian heads dropped after a tame effort was saved, and the Swiss, calm as you like, slotted home with a clinical precision that spoke of hours of rehearsal in training. Squeaky bum time, as the old saying goes, but Switzerland's nerve held. They deserved their passage, even if they rode their luck through the later stages of extra time.Now, the real question. What chance do Murat Yakin's men have against Lionel Messi's Argentina The South Americans survived an almighty scare against Egypt earlier in the day, a reminder that even the best can wobble. Argentina are the title holders for a reason, but they are human. If the Swiss can replicate that same disciplined low block, frustrate the Albiceleste, and nick a goal on the break, who is to say we are not looking at the biggest upset of the tournamentIt is a fixture that pits the eternal romantic versus the calculating pragmatist. Football, at its best, loves a surprise. And if Switzerland can keep their cool from twelve yards again, do not be shocked if they take this World Cup by the scruff of the neck.