Netherlands 5, Spain 1
Wow! Who on earth could have predicted this?
Just halfway into the second day of play in Brazil's World Cup, in the middle game, the first real shock of the World Cup tournament, as the Netherlands absolutely humiliated defending champion Spain, 5-1.
Already, my prediction about a Brazil-Spain final looks very much in doubt.
That the Netherlands won this game is not the shock, of course. Everyone knew that Netherlands has a deep and talented squad, and they almost won the whole thing themselves four years ago in South Africa, losing a tight game to Spain.
No, the shock was how badly they poured it on against the defending champions today - a historic drubbing of a Spanish team that, up to this point, was looking historically dominant!
I think this quote from Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports (see link below) pretty much says it all:
Yes, you read it right. Spain, which has won every major international tournament since 2008, conceding just six goals in the process, let in five over the course of little more than 35 amazing minutes.
Spain had not lost that convincingly since the last time that the World Cup was hosted by Brazil, way back in 1950, losing 6-1 to Brazil. Spain allowed more goals in this one game than they had in the entirety of the last World Cup tournament, as well as the last Euro (both of which Spain won).
Spain actually took the early lead in this game on the 27th minute, and up to that point, this game was not looking at all like it was going to be way off script.
Netherlands was able to respond, and then some! Here, once again, I turn to Martin Rogers article:
But just before the break, the Dutch turned it around. Davey Blind, who had a tremendous game, speared a through ball from just inside the Spain half. Van Persie ran onto it and instead of trying to trap it, he spotted Iker Casillas off his goal line and looped a header over him for the equalizer.
The Dutch really poured it on after that. After they were able to take a 3-1 lead, the Spanish really seemed to lose a lot of their spirit. But their spirits would sink even further as Netherlands just kept pounding the Spanish side, to send a message, and in the process, exact a strong measure of revenge against Spain, the team that had defeated them in the last World Cup Final in South Africa.
These two teams looked to be the top two teams in the group. But Spain's lopsided defeat will have a lot of people asking questions. In the meantime, Netherlands looks incredibly strong, once again, and poised to potentially go very far in this World Cup tournament!
Mexico 1, Cameroon 0
Earlier in the day, Mexico scored early, to take a 1-0 advantage over Cameroon in the early game. Mexico was able to score two other goals that were not counted, but tight defensive work allowed the 1-0 lead to stand up, and become the 1-0 win, allowing Mexico to get off to a very strong start in this World Cup tournament.
Oribe Peralta was able to get a bounce back from a near miss to bury it in goal, to provide the first, and only, official goal of the game.
But again, Mexico's Giovani dos Santos really did score two goals that were disallowed, which would have made this contest much more of a blowout than the official score indicated.
Cameroon had some opportunities, but they did not do nearly as much as could have been expected from them. This is a team loaded with speed, athleticism, and talent, but you have to give Mexico a tremendous amount of credit for keeping Cameroon in check all day! A very disappointing start for Cameroon, but a great start for the Mexican National team!
Mexico just outplayed Cameroon, which many people did not expect them to be capable of doing. At least for now, they are tied with Brazil atop Group A.
Chile 3, Australia 0
It was a very hot day in Cuiaba, Brazil, for the late match, Chile raced out to take a 2-0 lead within the first fifteen minutes of play, when Alexis Sánchez scored in the 12th minute, and Jorge Valdivia followed that up with a second goal for Chile in the 14th minute. At that point, it looked like a route was on.
But Australia was able to answer with a goal of their own by Tim Cahill in the 35th minute, making this a tight contest for much of the rest of the way.
Chile dominated time of possession by an almost 2 to 1 margin against Australia, and wore down their opponents and holding on to a 2-1 lead until the waning moments of the game, when the Australians began to abandon focus on defense, and worked towards a desperation goal. Chilean Jean Beauséjour was able to get the clinched in the second minute of extra time to secure the win, and three points for Chile, as the Chilean side was able to sneak a goal past to secure the 3-1 victory.
Netherlands shocks defending champion Spain in stunning 5-1 World Cup rout by Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports, June 13, 2014:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/netherlands-shocks-defending-champion-spain-in-stunning-5-1-world-cup-rout-212339420.html
Spain defense implodes in heaviest loss since '50 by Paul Logothetis of the Associated Press, June 13, 2014:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/spain-defense-implodes-heaviest-loss-212744726--sow.html
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