World Cup 2010 Day 17 Schedule, Previews, Predictions: Double Super Rivalry Sunday

Saturday garnered our focus because of the United States' match against Ghana, but Sunday's matches, featuring two great international rivalries, offers the better match-card.

In the early match, England can not only silence their critics with a win over Germany, they could tear-out those pages from the history book if they beat Germany on penalty kicks.

Mexico, remembering Maxi Rodriguez's goal in 2006, has their own demons to slay, but against a team that's performing as one of the tournament's favorites, El Tri is a decided underdog to Argentina going into Sunday's second match.

Where They Stand: Germany's 1-0 win over Ghana won them Group D with two wins, their only loss coming when a player was controversially shown an early red card. They come into this match hobbled, with central midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger nursing a leg injury, defender Jerome Boateng also a doubt, and forward Cacau rulled out.

England's 1-0 win over Slovenia earned them second place in Group C, finishing with five points. The mutinous atmosphere of a week ago has met with the timeless panacea of winning, leading to speculation amongst England's media that the Three Lions may be carrying momentum into this match.

Player(s) To Watch, Germany: Attacking central midfielder Mesut Özil will have Lukas Podolski and Thomas Müller breaking into the attacking third with a speed that will trouble Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard, John Terry and Matthew Upson. If effective on the wings, the attacks could help pin-back wing backs Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson, but wiht Özil about to embark on his first knockout stage match, it's worth asking how effective we should expect the 21-year-old to be.

If he is as composed as he was against Australia, it's difficult to see England winning the match, but if he has an off-day, Germany has little means of going forward.

Player(s) To Watch, England: Gareth Barry's individual match-up with Mesut Özil will be the key to England's deense, but unless Wayne Rooney starts playing as advertised, Barry will be playing a maintenance roll.

Somebody has to be relied upon to score goals, and with a team whose shape as been molded around him, it's fair to expect Rooney to be doing much better. Perhaps it's fatigue or the lingering effects of his end-of-club-season injury, but Rooney has had a terrible World Cup. However, now into the knockout stage, that past is inconsequential, and if Rooney can exploit Germany's biggest weakness - Per Mertesacker and Arne Friedrich in central defense - all will be forgiven and forgotten.

Where They Stand: Argentina was one of two teams to go through their group with a perfect record, doing so with seven goals scored while allowing only one. They are set to miss central defender Walter Samuel, though, with Nicolas Burdisso ready to get his second straight start.

Mexico's 1-0 loss to Uruguay in their last group stage match means they finish second in Group A and face Argentina in the Round of 16 for the second consecutive finals.

Mexico has Carlos Vela, who had been starting on the left side of attack, available Sunday, recovered from a leg injury that kept him out of the Uruguay match.

Player(s) To Watch, Argentina: To great effect, Mexico has been using defender-cum-midfielder Rafa Marquez in a deep-sitting position, but against Argentina he will be responsible for the area of the pitch occupied by Lionel Messi, the holder of the Ballon d'Or and reigning FIFA World Player of the Year. It's unfair to insinuate that Marquez will bare sole responsibility for his Barcelona teammate, but with Messi at the center of most of Argentina's goals, Mexico coach Javier Aguirre will need to worry as much about the goals Messi sets-up as the ones he can score.

Player(s) To Watch, Mexico: Messi's former club teammate, Giovani dos Santos, has an advantageous match-up, coming from the right wing to take on Argentina left back Gabriel Heinze. If he can trouble the Marseille defender, Burdisso will be called to support. Preemptively, Diego Maradona may ask defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano to add an edge to dos Santos's day. Iif there is a way Argentina could surprisingly lose this match, it would be through the quick Mexican star taking advantage of the older, slower half of the Argentina defense.

Prediction: Argentina has spent its first three World Cup matches going from oddity to "is this team there with Brazil and Spain?" An Argentina 3, Mexico 1 result ahead of a match next Saturday against either England or Germany will give us a week to try and answer that question.