World Cup 2014 Day 2: A Call for A New Champion

MEXICO 1-0 CAMERON

Cameron escaped a heavy beating with the help of a Colombian sideline referee who disallowed not one but two onside goals. The two goals were in the first half and the Mexicans had to wait until after the hour mark to score the winning goals which was duly deserved. Dos Santos and Co. silenced critics with a hungry for goals style of play. Cameron on the other hand with this performance seems to be one of the first teams to spend the least time in Brazil.

SPAIN 1-5 NETHERLANDS

The Best definitely does not mean good, Rizzoli was chosen to officiate the highlight match of day two between Spain and The Netherlands as part of Group B. It took Spain 15 minutes to take over possession and push Ruben & Co. back to own half. The Italian referee cut a lot of slack for the Orange outfit especially when De Jong tackled a Spaniard 5 or 6 feet away from the ball. Guzman was not as lucky winning the first yellow card. Amazingly enough and just when a Serie A fan starts to feel proud of his league’s representative, Our man awards Spain a fictional penalty just before the half hour mark and Alonso made no mistake rocking the net.

Spain did not relax and followed their 1 goal lead with attacks hoping to capitalize on the orange confusion. Minutes before half time, Silva was denied from scoring by goalkeeper Cillessen. Silva went to the back rooms regretting missing that one on one when Van Persie scored a one of kind goal lobbing Casillas with a header.

Teams switched sides and took to the ball. Bayern star Ruben completed the comeback with world class goal that reminded me of Bergkamp’s winning goal against Argentina in a previous World Cup. Spain was going to be punished once again right after by Van Persie but the top goal bar was kind enough to give Del Bosque boys another chance. Few minutes later, V. Persie punished Casillas physically jumping directly at him during a dead ball attack for the Netherlands and was not called a foul ending up deflecting off De Vrij head into the net. The goal circus continued with another Van persie goal after stealing the ball from none but Casillas. Ruben then created a live replay simulation of his first goal but this time around it looked much more humiliating for the World Cup defenders. Torres was brought in probably to reduce the goal difference as much as possible considering group rankings and all that. Torres added to the Spanish humiliation playing in training mode wasting a perfectly easy one on one scoring chance.

CHILE 3-1 AUSTRALIA

Raging Chileans wasted no time scoring two goals in the first 14 minutes. Alexis Sanchez opened the score sheet with a shot on goal inside the 6 yards box after crosses, interceptions and goalkeeper dribbling by different impressive Chile players. The second goal created by Sanchez who ran to the left side of the Australian team pulling 5 players then passing to the other side where Valdivia was waiting to brace the ball to the corner of the goal. Australia did not give up and brought themselves back up with a text book cross and header goal after the half hour mark. Things seemed to cool down at the start of the second half with the Australians trying to get as close as possible to Bravo’s goal and the minutes were only convincing that a comeback is on the way but the final touch was missing. Some changes were made by Chile and their counter improved dramatically and they were able to score a third and final goal near the match end.

DAY 2 JOY

Starting with the first match, Mexico vs Cameron witnessed a seriously bad sideline Colombian referee. The two incidents where in my humble opinion should be correct goals for Mexico made me wonder if the sideline referees stay on the same side the whole 90 minutes or switch places. I got my answer in the second half when Peralta scored and the flag was not raised. If Croatia commented after their match that FIFA should give Brazil the Cup right now then Dos Santos (the scorer of both disallowed goals) should tell the press that FIFA should give Neymar the golden boot right now.  

Now we move on to the re-match of South Africa World Cup Final match; Spain vs Netherlands. Nothing was funny about this match until Costa was substituted with Torres. Can those white shirts be any more transparent? By minute 80, I just could not watch anymore because the match turned to 11 dark blue players, a humiliated Casillas and 10 semi naked men. Davih, if by any chance you know who the broadcast director was for that match, please let him know that I enjoyed every slow motion shot of Iker Casillas after every goal.

The final match was so entertaining with all the through passes and the accurate long passes from both teams. I find nothing funny about this but I enjoyed both teams football. The only reason in my opinion that Chile won was their experience against strong teams. I just do not think Australia plays other international teams like Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay on regular basis. The funny thing though was Vidal reaction to his substitution; The Juventus effect.

Other News

- 11 protesters were detained by the police on their march towards the match viewing space in Salvador. Police claim that some of the 100 protesters smashed windows of businesses and a car.

Referees Mistakes List:

1) Mexico vs Cameron:

a. Disallowed onside goal for Mexico

b. Disallowed onside goal for Mexico

2) Spain vs Netherlands:

a. Penalty for Spain

b. Uncalled foul for Casillas (Goal scored by De Vrij)

STANDINGS

Group A

Group B

Golden Boot

Name	Team	Goals
Neymar	Brazil	2
Ruben	Netherlands	2
Van Persie	Netherlands	2
Peralta	Mexico	1
Alonso	Spain	1
De Vrij	Netherlands	1
Sanchez	Chile	1
Valdivia	Chile	1
Beausejour	Chile	1
Cahil	Australia	1

Day 3 Matches:

Colombia vs Greece

Uruguay vs Costa Rica

England vs Italy

Ivory Coast vs Japan