I enjoyed writing yesterday's post so much that I thought I might try and do this on a daily basis. Why not?
On Day Two there were three matches. The remaining match in Group A along with the two from one of the toughest groups in the tournament. I'll kick off from the beginning, with Mexico against Cameroon.
What originally looked, on paper at least, to be an exciting and compelling match to watch, it turned into a rather drab match punctuated by dodgy offside calls and a solitary goal. At least, this time, the questionable decisions by the linesman didn't prevent the right team from winning. Poor old Cameroon, they looked jaded for large swathes of the second half, almost as if they'd already lost the game. They looked spirited to begin with and I still believe that it will be between these two teams as to who will qualify from this group alongside Brazil.
Mexico too didn't look like they're about to beat Brazil. However, were it not for those two poor offside decisions, they would have ended the night actually above Brazil in the table. What a boost that would have given them so early on in the tournament. I like Croatia, but I doubt they will qualify for the knockout stages from this group.
Moving on to the Chile v Australia match and, when you consider the prestigious company they're in with this group, neither of them are qualifying. However, last night's match was a spectacle. It was what the World Cup is all about. Passion flared and ignited the fever within the ground. Thousands of fans turned up the volume as the World Cup finally hit home in the glorious heat in Brazil.
Chile hit two in early. Then Australia came back at them with a goal before half time to set up a tense second half where you could feel that the next team to score would go on to win. The Aussies battened down the hatches and withstood the Chilean assault, throwing in a few dangerous counterattacks for good measure, up to the second minute of added time when Beausejour pounced on a rebounded shot. It was a proper cup tie. Enjoyable, rationally refereed and captivating.
Now we can move onto the big match. The rerun of 2010's Final. Spain against The Netherlands. A fixture of epic proportions, especially when you consider the bad blood between these two adversaries after Nigel de Jong's ridiculous antics the last time these two teams met in the World Cup.
I'll just come out and say it, Spain were a disgrace. I know that many a column inch will be devoted to analysing the reasons behind their awful display so I'd like to add my own, starting from the back. Casillas showed how far he's fallen since being dropped at Real Madrid. He was at fault for one of the goals and should have come out quicker for Robben's second. Ramos is ageing badly, he's nowhere near the player he used to be and it shows, badly. Pique has not had the best season at Barcelona, neither have Xavi or Iniesta who are both in their thirties. As for Diego Costa, I really believe that Chelsea have bought a real dog there. He's had a fantastic season, don't get me wrong, but he's not a world class player, he's not the man to lead Spain's line. Maybe that's the problem with Spain, they don't really have anyone who can step up to that position except Alvaro Morata, and I don't see his name on the team sheet.
Switching sides for a moment, it's easy to run out of superlatives when describing who good the Dutch were. They had a shaky first half but tore brutally into the Spanish back line in the second half. It all kick started with Robin van Persie and his incredible header before half time. Utterly brilliant. In fact, except for de Vrij and his far post header from a free kick, all the Dutch goals were incredible. Robben, a man I passionately hate, showed real composure to control the ball and bring it onto his weaker foot for his second goal.
In all, it was an exciting second day in Brazil. Now, roll on England!
No comments:
Post a Comment