The World Cup, for all of its bluster, is basically about setting up the quarterfinals.

Only the top team in each group was seeded for this tournament, along with hosts South Africa. Each top seed is made to go through the group stage, but the bracket is set up so that theoretically, the winner of each group will play another group winner in the quarterfinals.

It’s not that easy, of course. Italy collapsed in the group stage and went out. England failed to win its group and had to play Germany in its first knockout round game. South Africa was only nominally seeded, and failed to qualify themselves. But the other five seeded teams – in order, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, and Argentina – won their groups, and four are already through to the quarterfinals, with Spain to play tomorrow.

Already the talk is all about two of the quarterfinals, with Germany set to take on Argentina, and Brazil slated to face the Netherlands. Those two matchups represent the four best teams in the tournament so far, and frankly, it’s the way the organizers meant this tournament to go.

Tomorrow, Spain also plays Portugal, a knockout round match that looks drool-worthy on paper (which probably means a boring goalless draw and penalties.) And then, another less classic matchup… Paraguay against Japan.

Really, aren’t those the interesting matchups left in this tournament? The moment the draw was complete, you could have predicted Germany-Argentina and Brazil-Netherlands quarterfinals. But who could have seen Uruguay-Ghana coming, or a theoretical Paraguay-Portugal matchup? Spain may yet make it through, but either Uruguay or Ghana is going to play in a World Cup semifinal. Uruguay hadn’t even been to the quarterfinals in forty years. Ghana qualified for the first time ever in 2006.

So yes, there will be some classic quarterfinals, and yes, nobody’s really looking forward to Japan-Spain or Ghana and Uruguay or whatever may happen. But frankly, I think the latter might be the most interesting matches left in the tournament.