2014 World Cup Day 8

Okay, so enough time has passed in this World Cup for me to recognize that some of the predictions were just outright wrong.

The most obvious prediction that I was clearly wrong about was Spain, who I had pegged as going deep into the elimination round, even to the Final itself. In fact, I assumed that they would meet Brazil in the Final, and was wondering who would win that contest.

Luckily, Spain bailed me out of trying to figure that one out by essentially sucking all throughout this tournament so far, and becoming the first defending champion to lose both of their first games (and by a combined score of 7-1!). Bullet dodged there!

Unfortunately, it also means that my prediction for them was pretty much way off.

Also, I had England advancing to at least the second round, and possibly to the quarterfinal. I did not think that they would win, or anything. But that they would advance, seemed reasonable. But they lost to Italy, and then to Uruguay, and unless a miracle happens, are effectively done already. And, quite frankly, that's probably about right. This is not really a great team, even if they are billed as such. The traditional thing with the English team is that they always seemed to get eliminated by some kind of controversy that allowed English fans the luxury of complaining that they were somehow cheated.

But not this time. Not this World Cup. They lost to Italy, who were, not surprisingly, the better team. And Uruguay is a pretty solid team as well, and they beat England, as well. No huge controversies, or sense of being cheated. Just two losses, and more than likely, they will be headed home next week, following their final match.

Uruguay 2, England 1

Both of these teams had lost their previous contest. England had lost a standard game to a very tough opponent - Italy. And Uruguay had been shocked by Costa Rica.
Arena de Sao Paulo

England dominated time of possession, took more shots, and had more shots on goal.

But still, Uruguay won, and it was no fluke. Simply put, Uruguay was the better team. Fernando Muslera, Uruguay's goal keeper, made saves when necessary. And the Uruguayan players made plays when necessary. They did not completely dismantle England. But they played better when they absolutely needed to, and earned themselves a solid victory at the end of the day. The better team won.

And one player, specifically, stood out for Uruguay, and made the biggest difference. probably, the difference between winning and losing.

That player was Luis Suarez, who scored his first of two goals in the 39th minute, giving Uruguay the 1-0 lead for the half.

England did respond, but it took a while. Most of the first half had ended, when Wayne Rooney finally got England on the scoreboard with a goal in the 75th minute, tying the game.

But it did not last all that long. Luis Suarez struck once again, this time in the 85th, giving Uruguay a 2-1 lead, and not giving England much time to work with.

And when time had expired, Uruguay, the 3rd place team in South Africa 2010, had won their first game of this tournament, following a disappointing defeat in their first contest.

As for England, it was yet another disappointing loss. First to Italy, and now to Uruguay. True, both of those are tough teams. But England has not shown a capacity to lift itself up, like the elite teams do, and that suggests that England itself is not an elite team. Like with Spain, this World Cup has been a rather rude awakening for England.

They are not (yet) mathematically eliminated, or anything. But they are very close. And the reason for that is simple: they just have not shown an ability to elevate to that next level, like their opponents have. That is why they will be packing it up and heading for home very soon, perhaps watching (or refusing to watch) some of the very teams that defeated them playing in the elimination round that England itself will miss out on.

Colombia 2, Côte d'Ivoire 1

Colombia has been (to me) a surprisingly strong team in this World Cup. I never viewed them as a bad team, or anything. But in a continent with teams such as Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, and even perhaps Chile, I figured that Colombia might just be the red-headed stepchild that everyone forgot about.

Not so fast.

This Colombian team came to play. And that have some measure of home field advantage, too, since this tournament is on their home continent, after all.

They soundly beat Greece last week, 3-0. And they followed that up by beating Côte d'Ivoire convincingly, officially advancing Colombia to the elimination round, and all but killing the chances of any other team of winning this group.

The game was scoreless throughout the first half, although both teams had some chances.

But there was scoring in the second half, beginning with Colombia's J. Rodríguez, who found the back of the net in the 64th minute, giving Colombia a 1-0 lead.

After that goal, the Colombian team celebrated by doing the Shakira "Hips Don't Lie" dance, adding some sense of fun and humor to the occasion.

Just minutes later,  J. Quintero scored in the 70th minute, and Colombia suddenly had a 2-0 lead, and this was beginning to look like it was a lopsided win for them.

But perhaps this had come a little too easily for them. Côte d'Ivoire has a very talented and physically gifted team, and they were determined to fight back. And in the 73rd minute, shortly after Colombia earned the 2-0 lead, Gervinho scored to get Côte d'Ivoire right back in the game.

Still, Colombia managed to keep Côte d'Ivoire off the scoreboard for the rest of the game, and earned a solid and all-important victory to secure their place in the elimination round.

For Côte d'Ivoire, it is a disappointing loss. But they have been Africa's most successful team thus far in this tournament, and they can rest assured that they will advance to the second round next week if they either outright beat or tie Greece, no matter what happens in the Colombia/Japan game. It might not be easy, but this is a solid team, and my money is on Côte d'Ivoire advancing. The two teams that met



Colombia celebrates goal with perfectly choreographed Shakira dance of Dirty Tackle:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/colombia-celebrate-goal-with-perfectly-choreographed-shakira-dance-173959252.html

Greece 0, Japan 0

What to say about a scoreless, tie game? At least, when the teams participating in that scoreless game are not Brazil and Mexico?

At least both teams kept their hopes alive essentially by not losing this game.

Of course, that also means that neither team won this game, and they both need to do something next week that neither of them have accomplished so far in this tournament: win a game.

Greece's received a second yellow card, and thus the red card, for Konstantinos Katsouranis in the 38th minute (Katsouranis has received his first yellow card in the 27th minute), which then placed them with a man down for the rest of the game.

Still, Japan failed to capitalize. Despite dominating the time of possession, and outnumbering the Greeks for most of the match, Japan did not manage to score a goal, and the game ended in the scoreless draw that was neither great news nor horrendous news for either team.

At least one man from the Greek side seemed elated about his team's performance: Greek coach Fernando Santos. He felt that if not for the red card, his team likely would have won this this. This is what he had to say after the match:

''My players were brilliant. They worked hard after the red card. Without the red card we probably would have won the game.''



Above quote taken from the following article - click on link to read:

Scoreless draw keeps Japan and Greece alive JIM VERTUNO (AP Sports Writer), June 19, 2014:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/greece-level-0-0-vs-225142700--sow.html