And then Group A

Group A was one where nobody was guaranteed to be in or out, going into the final game, although Brazil and Mexico definitely had the bull by the horns.

But since I thought that the chance of the refs allowing Brazil to lose was zero (assuming that their abundant talent wasn't enough, which was also unlikely), I turned on the Croatia match with Mexico.

It started out as a very tough defensive match-up, with neither team finding much room in the midfield.  Croatia got the first two corner kicks, but couldn't do anything with them.

Shortly after, Mexico tried to go over the top straight off a midfield free kick.  It didn't work, but was a nice attempt.

I was somewhat amused when, soon after that, the Croats tried grabbing both shoulders of a Mexican and then kicked over top of him.  No foul.

The Croats then got the third corner kick.  It didn't work, but the strategy was interesting; they went all the way to the opposite side, then centered again from that side for a header attempt.  Again, it didn't work, but it was cool to watch.

In the fifteenth minute, the North Americans put it off the crossbar, right by the corner of the goal, but it went out.  That was their first good chance, and it came off a 20-25yd shot.

They got another chance in the nineteenth, with a long ball to a player running down the right side.  But it was foiled when he went to kick it into the middle, as his plant foot slipped and the ball bounced off of that foot and out of play.

The Mexicans got a couple of corner kicks in the 39th, but it didn't work out for them.  The first was immediately played out and the second was played upfield to start a counterattack.  Of course, that play out came from a defender at minimum distance, and he used his hand to send it out.  And if the ref had been looking, he would have seen that player grab his hand afterwards to assuage the hurt.  But the counterattack did no damage; the shot wasn't taken terribly close, and was fired over the crossbar.

A couple minutes later, there was a massive pig-pile in front of the net following a Mexican corner kick, but the Croats managed to clear just as a Mexican was called for interfering with the goaltender.

Early in the second, the Croats got away with murder, as there was a very deliberate take-down of a forward in the box, followed by blocking a cross with a handball.  Not exactly the prettiest sequence.

But Mexico finally scored in the 72nd minute.  Not a complicated play; just a centering from a corner kick, heading it into the net from close range.

It didn't take long for Mexico to increase their lead; only about three minutes.  The Croats back line gave the ball away before midfield, and Chicharito brought it down nicely.  Then he passed outside, and, going back to the middle, let the cross go to the far side for an easy tap-in.  Nicely played.

And karma came back to him, a couple minutes later, on a corner kick flicked on by another Mexican and right to him to head in for the goal.  There being only ten minutes left, that was enough for me to turn the game off, so I missed Croatia's goal just before the end.

So Brazil won the group, with Mexico also moving on.  Group B might have been a big surprise, but this is the result most would have predicted, before the tournament started.

Update: I forgot to mention one item of amusement.  I did flip across to the other game a couple of times; the first two, I flipped only a second or two before a score (the first two scores).

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.

Wretched start to World Cup

I watched most of the opening game of the World Cup yesterday.  Unfortunately, I turned it on a minute or two after Croatia stunned the hosts with an opening goal (yes, an own-goal, technically),
but watched the Brazilian methodical attack work its way down the field time after time.

And that's pretty much what was going on for the rest of the first half.  Croatia was almost entirely defensive in its posture, and wasn't passing crisply enough to mount a real attack in return.

Neymar did manage a goal on a combination of not-good defense (they gave him (Neymar!) too much space) and a well-placed shot (it went off the inside of the post, after the goalie missed it by an inch or two) to equalize ten or fifteen minutes later.

But beyond that, Brazil really didn't have much in the way of chances, either.  They had close to 70% of the possession (I do wonder how that's calculated; touches, completed passes, time?), but that was all they had to show for it.

So the second half began with the game still tied, though it looked like it'd be a stretch for Croatia to maintain that.

They did for a while, and even mounted a couple attacks of their own, but then things took a turn for the worse.  The Lusos mounted a quick counterattack, that looked fairly innocuous, but it ended with Fred taking a dive in the box and drawing a yellow card and penalty kick.  Neymar played some games in the run-up, and shot it high and to the side.  The goalie guessed correctly and got his hands on it, but it slipped through for a goal.

To make matters worse, five (or so) minutes later, the Croats put a ball into the Brazilian box, and a foul was called when the goalie backed into Olic (I think), who was heading it back into the middle.  By the time play stopped, the ball was in the Brazilian's net, but the (really terrible) foul call stood.

The Croats tried gamely, and put a bit of pressure on Brazil, but the Lusos were the ones who managed another goal in the waning minutes.  Oscar's run down the left side of center led to a shot that again found the inside edge of the net, just past the goalie.  Not sure what happened; the goalie seemed to react a bit slowly to the shot being taken.

And that was the end of the scoring.

There was never any doubt that the Brazilians were the better team in the game, but I'm not at all sure they deserved to win.  For sure, they got two huge, and undeserved, helpings from the ref, and that should dominate the game discussion.  It certainly should not have been a 3-1 final score.

And it doesn't get the competition off on the right foot, as it ends up looking like FIFA, through the refs, has a vested interest in Brazil moving forward.  You don't want people to start off talking about conspiracy theories and gambling fixes.  I don't think that's what was going on, but those were game-changing mistakes, both going in the same direction.  It doesn't look good.  I haven't looked yet, to see in what damage control FIFA has engaged, but I hope they've had something to say about it.

Update: It appears I might have been too generous in my interpretation.

Also, I forgot to mention the gratuitous use of the goal-line cameras on an unambiguous goal.  I think even the announcers were annoyed at that.

And I forgot to mention how entertaining Scolari was on sideline calls.  He was going ballistic over obviously-correct calls.  Gotta think the refs would hate having to hear that.