Now Isn't This Much More Civilised.

Today at the World Cup has seen the start of the final group games. Although this means that the number of games being played a day has risen from three to four both games in each group are played concurrently. This is to avoid any team gaining any advantage by knowing the outcome of the other game in the group before they start playing. For example in Group G it is entirely possible that any two of Germany, The USA, Portugal or Ghana could go through to the last 16 based on the outcome of the final games.

This is a massive relief for me because it means I only have to watch two blocs of games a day rather than three and there's about three hours between the first bloc of games ending and the second bloc of game starting. This gives me plenty of time not only to write up each bloc of matches but do other things such as eating and breathing.

It does though create a massive problem in choosing which match to watch. In some groups it is an easy decision with often the two teams engaged in a straight fight to see who goes through and who goes out. In other groups - such as Group G - there is a huge variety of possibilities of what can happen with results in one match affecting the importance of the other meaning that you have to try and watch both. Things get even more complicated when teams are tied on points so the final group placings goes down to Goal Difference (GD) - the number of goals scored by a team in the group stage minus the goals conceded. If GD is tied it is the team with the most goals scored that goes through. So for example in Group G if Germany were to draw 0-0 with the USA while Ghana beat Portugal 2-0 Ghana and the USA would go through while Germany and Portugal go home.

However in Group B which saw the first bloc of matches played today none of this applied because prior to kick-off the Group table looked like this;

The Netherlands 6pts +5GD
Chile                  6pts +4GD
Australia             0pts -3GD
Spain                  0pts -6GD

So it didn't matter who won, lost or drew either match because it was impossible for either Australia or Spain to beat Chile or The Netherlands. As a result I tried watching bits of both matches and ended up not really seeing either of them.

I started out watching the Netherlands V Chile match. Although a casual viewer would have found this incredibly boring it was actually something of a tactical master class. Both sides spent most of the match perfectly putting together passes and carefully choosing their positions on the pitch in order to control the game and gently coax their opponents into periods of attacking and defending. However while this was going on in the other match Spain scored with a David Villa goal in the 36th minute and then again with a Fernando Torres goal in the 69th minute. So I turned over and watched this instead. From the 10 minutes I watched it was clear that Spain were keen to show that they can still play football and restore some pride to what has been a disastrous campaign for them while Australia were clearly missing the influence Tim Cahill.

I then turned back to the Netherlands V Chile game just in time to miss  Leroy Fer putting the Dutch 1-0 up in the 77th minute. I did though get to see Chile's penalty call on roughly 80 minutes when Nigel De Jong handled the ball in the area. I think that this was clearly a penalty but the reason the referee will probably give for not awarding it is that if the ball hadn't hit De Jong's arm it would have hit a Chilean player in the chest meaning the result would have been the same. However this raises the question why the referee didn't award a penalty because De Jong had his arm around the Chilean player's chest physically impeding him against the rules. Therefore I think the real reason was that - like most South American teams - the Chilean team had falsely appealed for a penalty every time one to their players had been dispossessed of the ball in the penalty box. So by that point the referee clearly wasn't in the mood to do them any favours.

Meanwhile Juan Mata got a third for Spain on 82 minutes and Memphis Depay scored a second for the Netherlands in the 91st minute (90+3 minutes stoppage). As a result the Netherlands topped the group with a maximum 9 points while Spain managed to lift themselves off the bottom of the group with 3 consolation points.

Group A which provided the second bloc of today's matches was more interesting because at kick-off things looked like this;

Brazil         4pts +2
Mexico      4pts +1
Croatia      3pts +0
Cameroon  0pts -5

As a result the only thing that was clear was that Cameroon could not progress. However if they beat Brazil 2-0 and Croatia beat Mexico by any score then Croatia and Mexico would go through while Brazil would go exit the tournament. However the real action was in the Croatia V Mexico match because provided Brazil at least drew then Croatia needed to beat Mexico to go through while Mexico would have gone through will a simple draw although I don't think the phrase "Just play for the draw" exists in the Mexican language. So I watched the Croatia V Mexico game.

Again this was a very tense and technical affair with Mexico clearly having the tactical plan of frustrating Croatia in the early stages of the game in the hope of forcing them to get reckless as they chased the win allowing Mexico to score a couple of late goals. This plan involved passing the ball around to keep possession while making occasional attacks to to tire out the Croatian team and never allowing them to establish a rhythm. Unfortunately this also involved a lot of attempts to intimidate the Croatians physically while trying to get them booked or sent off. So whenever the players were jostling for the ball or jumping in the box to win the ball the Mexicans where making lots of little shoves, elbows and little kicks. However whenever a Croatian player pushed back or attempted a tackle the Mexicans would feign injury and call for the referee to get either a red or yellow card out.

That final element of the plan nearly back-fired on Mexico around 65 minutes when a Croatian player handled the ball in the penalty area. However the referee turned down what was clearly a penalty. Although he may have been unsighted and it was certainly a skillful hand-ball I think the referee didn't award the penalty partly to punish Mexico for their - what is in fact - cheating. This strikes me a quite a sensible way to address the issue because the alternative is that the referees start booking players every time they simulate a foul. That would have resulted in Mexico forfeiting the game 2-0 after having six of their players sent off in the first 30-40 minutes.

I must say though that Mexico executed their tactical plan superbly with Rafael Márquez breaking through to put Mexico 1-0 up with a header on 72 minutes. This was rapidly followed by a Andrés Guardado goal on 75 minutes with Javier Hernández adding a third on 82 minutes. Croatia scored a consolation goal on 87 minutes with an impressive left-footed shot by Ivan Perisic. However I think their fans will feel most proud of Ante Rebic's straight red card in the 89th minute because realising that the game was lost he just gave the Mexican player that good, hard kick to the shin that all the Croatian players had wanted to give to all of the Mexican players throughout the game.

Obviously I didn't watch any of the Brazil V Cameroon match but things got off to a predictable start when Neymar put Brazil ahead in the 18th minute. Then the almost unthinkable happened and Joel Matip levelled the score in the 26th minute scoring Cameroon's first goal of the tournament in the process. Normal service was resumed though when Neymar scored for the second time in the 36th minute before Fred put Brazil 3-1 up in the in the 49th minute.

The interaction between the two matches became really important though when Mexico went 3-0 up in the 82 minute (of both matches). With Brazil leading 3-1 this meant that if Mexico could score a fourth goal they would have won the group with 7 pts and a GD of +5 while Brazil would have finished second with 7pts but a GD of +4. Brazil clearly worked this one out for themselves and Fernandinho promptly responded by scoring a fourth for Brazil in the 84th minute.

So the first two games of the knock-out stage of the competition have been decided with the winner of Group A (Brazil) playing the runner up in Group B (Chile) and the Winner of Group B (The Netherlands) playing the runner up in Group A (Mexico).




In a bit of tedious housekeeping I should point out that I got my broken computer back from the repair shop. It turns out it was the motherboard not the hard disc that had failed. So with a new motherboard this is the machine I'm using for the time being.

23:30 on 23/6/14 (UK date).