Go card-crazy

Finally starting to catch up on write-ups from the last several days, starting from Cameroon and Croatia in the second game for that group.

I was pretty amused with this game, as it started, as it made for a very colorful, maybe even festive, matchup, with the red/white checkerboard on one side and the green and yellow kit on the other.

From the outset, it was clear that Cameroon had more speed, but Croatian passing was very precise.  And both teams were quite physical, though Cameroon much more so.  And in classic bully mentality, the Cameroonians went down like bowling pins when they were touched.

With Croatia up one, the game got completely out of hand in the fortieth minute, as Song was ejected for taking a swing at a Croatian player who got between him and the ball.  Oddly, the play was blown dead immediately, even though Croatia had the ball and was taking it upfield.  But there was nothing odd in Song being sent off; it was a well-deserved red card (and Cameroon's eighth in the last seven World Cups).

At that point, givern that Cameroon hadn't managed any really good chances with equal men, I was expecting an ass kicking to commence.  And it did, in the second half.

Only a couple minutes in, Perisic took the Cameroonian goalie's kick on the left hand side, and ran it all the way down and kicked it in.  The goalie was leaning towards the center of the pitch; I think he was expecting a pass rather than a shot.  And none of the defenders tried to head off Perisic's run, for reasons that are beyond me.  The only defender close was the one to whom the goalie was originally kicking the ball, and who was therefore chasing Perisic.

Only a minute later, the Croatians got another chance, but the shot went wide by a foot or so.

Cameroon finally got a decent chance a minute after that, as they tried a mirror-image replay of the Cahill goal, but put the volley a couple yards over the crossbar.

The Croats just missed again on a free kick following a corner kick in the fifty-fourth.  Which reminds me; I keep forgetting to mention that I love that spray they use to mark the ten-yard line for the defensive wall.  That's genius, and something they should have been using for years.

In the sixty-eighth, terrible defensive marking led to Mandzukic getting a third tally for the Croats, coming off a header from a corner kick.

And that was enough for me; I think the only drama remaining for Cameroon is figuring out whether they can prevent any more red cards in their remaining game.  Well, and whether they'll finish last for the tournament; they're in good position to do that.

El Tri takes three

I missed the first half, alas, but saw most of the second, of Mexico's narrow win over Cameroon.

The first half was scoreless (I certainly wouldn't've guessed that), and the second was close.

Cameroon was playing a high-pressure defense, especially as the game wore on.  They tried counterattacking, but it must be said that they weren't very good at it.  They just couldn't maintain speed with the ball to get numbers.  (Perhaps the heavy rain contributed to that.)

Mexico was much more methodical, and heavily dominated possession.  They really only ended up with three good chances in the second half, though.  The first, off a beautiful one-touch, outside-foot feed from Dos Santos, left one of the other forwards behind the defense.  But his shot went right into the planted leg of the goalie and bounced all the way out the side of the pitch.

The second gave one of the forwards a shot in the middle of the box, with a bit of space, but the goalie managed to deflect it out.  But a trailer on the play got that rebound and found the open net (and again we were treated to gratuitous usage of the goal line camera, despite the ball literally hitting the back of the net).

And the third was in the waning moments of the game, as a forward (#7, I think), forced a cameroonian defender all the way back to the touch line, and divested him of the ball in the corner.  Chicharito had subbed in by this point, and was hanging out at the top of the box, in the middle.  Undefended, for some reason.  He stepped up, the other forward fed him the ball, and he tried to kick it on the full volley, putting it over the net (from only about five yards out).  He had time and space; dunno why he couldn't do something better with it.

But the game stayed within reach for Cameroon, since only one of those made it in.

And they pressed and came close a couple times in the last several minutes, but were unable to put anything the goalie, putting Mexico in good shape to move on (but no guarantee; Croatia winning both their games would probably eliminate El Tri).