Netherlands 3, Australia 2
No, it was not the lopsided mismatch that many expected, with the lowest ranked team of this World Cup tournament going up against the team that just humiliated the defending world champions.
But, in fact, this was a close game from beginning to end. Australia surprised everyone, possibly even themselves, keeping up with a tough, and heavily favored, Dutch side.
It did not look like that might be the case, after the Dutch went up 1-0 in the 20th minute by Arjen Robben.
But before the announcement could even be made in the stadium, Australia's Tim Cahill scored in the 21st minute to tie it right back up again.
Neither team scored again in the first half.
Mile Jedinak scored in the 54th minute, giving Australia a surprising 2-1 lead, and providing Aussie fans to dream about what would be a huge upset.
But the Netherlands is a tough team, well accomplished and very capable. You knew they were going to answer. It was just a matter of when.
It did not take long, as Robin van Persie scored in the 58th minute to tie the game back up at 2-2.
Ten minutes later, Memphis Depay scored in the 68th minute for 3-2 lead for Netherlands, which ultimately became the final score, as Netherlands preserved the victory, and automatically qualified for the elimination round with two wins in their first two games.
For Australia, it was a disappointing loss, perhaps, but a lot of positives can be taken from this game. Australia played well overall, and that against one of the powerhouse teams in the sport. Even though the socceroos have not yet won a game in this tournament, they have nothing to be ashamed of thus far.
Chile 2, Spain 0
These two teams had met ten times before in history, with Spain having won eight of those meetings, and the other two being draws. Chile had never managed to pull off a victory against Spain.
That changed yesterday, as Chile managed to do what none of their teams had managed to do before.
Chile applied a ton of pressure early, trying to get an early goal and lead, to shake Spain's already rocky confidence.
They finally broke through in the 19th minute with a nice goal by Eduardo Vargas after the Chilean offense had been pressing hard, and Chile had a 1-0 lead.
It took a while, but Chile followed that up when Charles Aránguiz scored in the 43rd minute, and suddenly, the defending champions were down 2-0 heading into the locker room for halftime, looking, and surely feeling, demoralized.
Despite winning the time of possession (about the only thing they did win today), Spain looked uninspired the rest of the way, and Chile managed to hold them off to preserve the huge win, shockingly eliminating Spain.
And just like that, the unthinkable happened. The defending World Cup champions, a team that had won the last three major international tournaments that it had played in, were suddenly eliminated after only one week of the World Cup. they became the only defending World Cup champion to lose both of their first games, and they lost them by a combined score of 7-1!
Yes, while Spain a team that had never won a major international tournament, or even qualified for the final of one, prior to their Euro 2008 Championship, had enjoyed a dream run that ranked favorably to pretty much any other team in history for six straight years, it ended with a disastrous World Cup tournament in which absolutely nothing went right for the Spanish side.
With the win, Chile joined the Netherlands in qualifying for the elimination round. Those two teams will play one another next, to see who wins the group outright.
Croatia , Cameroon 0
This was an almost painful game to watch.
Croatia and Cameroon both needed wins, with the winner still having a chance to advance, and the loser being knocked out.
And Croatia made sure that there would be no doubt who the better team was.
Cameroon and Croatia were more or less even on tackles, but Croatia had 18 shots, with 9 of them on goal, while Cameroon 17, with 2 of them on goal. Obviously, Croatia made their shots count a whole lot more.
It did not take long, for that matter, as Ivica Olic got a nice goal in the 11th minute, opening the scoring, and giving Croatia the early 1-0 lead.
There was no more scoring in the first half, but the big moment in the game, the turning point, if you will, came when Cameroon's Alexandre Song stupidly received a red card for elbowing in the 40th minute. It was an absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary foul, indicative of a complete lack of discipline and intelligence for Cameroon in this day. Frankly, it was a stupid play, and it essentially took what air still remained in Cameroon's balloon out the rest of the way. Croatia was not able to capitalize on this before the first half ended, but they more than made up for this in the second half.
Early in the second half, Croatia's Ivan Perisic scored a goal in the 48th minute to give Croatia a 2-0 lead, adding some cushion for comfort. Things were looking decidedly dreary for Cameroon, who were down by two goals, and short one man, to boot.
Mario Mandzukic added a third goal for Croatia in the 61st minute, and it was Mario Mandzukic again in the 73rd minute, his second goal on the evening, giving Croatia a 4-0 lead, and assuring that this game would be a blowout by all measures.
Cameroon had some chances, especially late, but were just unable to convert. Plus, those scoring chances came when it would have been far too little, far too late. For a team that has qualified for more World Cups than any other African team, and who, in the past, even advanced to the quarterfinals in 1990, the first African team to do so. They have won four African Cups and, along the way, earned the name "Les Lions Indomptables" (The Indomitable Lions).
There was absolutely nothing indomitable about Cameroon in this World Cup, however.
As an extra added measure of humiliation for Cameroon, two of their players were caught almost coming to blows in the final minutes of the contest, in a prominent display of infighting and disunity for the whole world to watch. It was pretty much symbolic of what kind of a game this was for them. Just a pathetic showing for Cameroon tonight, with the team showing absolutely no discipline whatsoever.
Croatia will play Mexico next, with the winner of that match moving on to the elimination round. If the match is a draw, then Mexico would advance, and Croatia would be eliminated.
Up next for Cameroon, in their last match of this World Cup, will be the hosts, Brazil, who I think, admittedly, will make short work of this Cameroon side.
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/spain-chile-7387/
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