Brasil '14 - Day 2
posted by The Blue Devil @ 9:34 AM
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Friday, June 13, 2014
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Contributors
Previous Posts
- Brasil 2014 - Day 1!
- World Cup Preview - Group H - Algeria
- World Cup Preview - Group H - Russia
- World Cup Preview - Group H - South Korea
- RIP Rik Mayall
- World Cup Preview - Group H - Belgium
- World Cup Preview - Group G - USA
- World Cup Preview - Group G - Ghana
- World Cup Preview - Group G - Portugal
- World Cup Preview - Group G - Germany
8 Comments:
Not surprisingly, all of the post-match comment has been about the refereeing controversies. I think we can all agree that:
a) It was a soft penalty
b) Croatia were robbed of a goalscoring opportunity when Julio Cesar dropped a perfectly innocent cross and was bailed out by referee Nishimura.
That said, one of the issues that hasn't been discussed this morning is the leniency of the ref on the rather dirty Croatian defending up until the penalty. Corluca in particular should have gone off for two yellow cards. That would have certainly changed the match, as they were trying to destroy Brazil's rhythm with lots of niggly fouls that went mostly unpunished.
Most of us thought Brazil were unconvincing. Only Neymar shined up front, Paulinho and Hulk ceded a lot of possession to the Croatians and disappeared from the match for long stretches and the defense looked really ropey at times. I'm sure that lots of the big teams will be studying the fullbacks with an idea toward getting around the back and pinging the balls over that Thiago and David Silva seemed incapable of dealing with.
Brazil will be heaving a sigh of relief just to get the opener out of the way with a win and will certainly get less nervous and better as the tournament progresses.
In England news, England's officials are continuing to monitor the woeful state of the pitch in Manaus. The Press Association reports:
"A groundsman appeared to be spraying a green substance onto the dry brown patches that scarred the pitch at the Arena Amazonia on Thursday to make it look more ordinary."
That should work.
In better news for England, Danny Welbeck says he is fit after hobbling off in training on Tuesday with a thigh strain.
Not such good news for Portugal, who are looking nervously at Cristiano Ronaldo's knee.
There was a lot of conversation in the bar last night about the opening goal. I'm giving Red Devil FCK1 two points for predicting Marcelo for the first goalscorer even though it was an own goal, as it was indeed the first goal in the tournament even if Marcelo didn't intend it.
It's great that BEin is doing lots of between match chattering with Ray Hudson, Rodney Marsh, Ruud Gullit and others.
Post a Comment
<< Home