Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Day 14: 100 flops by Italy = 1 bite by Suarez, call it even?

(Breathe!).. now that was a crazy day! a ton of emotion and a ton of drama! Lets leave the best and the worst for last! Colombia easily cruising by and England as usual doesnt redeem themselves even after I really felt bad about them. I really expected them to at least come out with a win but it definitely goes to show that England, on this World stage, just does not show up even when there is no pressure on them. Zakrakis (thats my greek name for Zakir) called Greece for this one and partly I felt he was right but I had to think that Ivory Coast wanted this more. Ivory Coast should have buried their chances and should have been the winner but as history has shown us that you really cant underestimate the Greeks! The controversial penalty? its not controversial. It's the right call by the ref. If seen closely the shooting action by the striker clearly shows that it was interfered by the defender. Whether intentional or unintentional by the defender it doesn't matter, it was plain reckless! That gets called any day! See for yourself. I feel bad for Ivory Coast as they could be the only legit darkhorse in this tournament from the African side. Drogba, an incredible player, probably played his last WC. Now, the Uruguay win over Italy, although I did call Uruguay to win this narrowly which did happen but the most talked about issue is the bite by Suarez. This guy needs to be banned for a long time, simple as that! Word is that he may get a 2 year ban from playing for his country, this however still allows him to play for Liverpool, unless EPL does something as well. For those who have been saying video replay should be brought to soccer, I say no! That's added delay more than the stoppage time already incorporated. What would be the cost to a team if the challenge doesnt go their way? A yellow or a red card to the team? Just no good way to add video replay. Keep the game beautiful, with all the human error, face it the extra drama (like yesterday) floods social media that everyone enjoys to talk about anyway.

Today's games, didn't think I would get through that update:
Group E:
France is in and Honduras is out. It leaves a battle between Switzerland and Ecuador for the final spot, however they arent playing each other because that would have been very interesting. If the Swiss and Ecuador both tie their games then Ecuador gets the advantage with GD and goes through. The Swiss need a win from Honduras and Ecuador needs a win from France. Key is who wants to finish first in this group as the runner-up will most likely play Argentina :)
> Switzerland should win this from Honduras (Zakir calls the Swiss)
> France will be too much for Ecuador, France will win this one to keep pace (Zakir says Ecuador)

Group F:
Ok so.. Argentina has been mediocre (yes its tough to say) and they need to show their offensive firepower that has been talked about for days before the WC (Players other than Messi need to show up!). Hopefully they can show that against Nigeria (unfortunate! yes I know). Bosnia had very high hopes in this tournament. A commanding win by Iran can put them through as a runner-up if Nigeria loses.
> Argentina wins this one over Nigeria (Zakir says Argentina)
> Bosnia takes this one over Iran to redeem themselves (Zakir says Iran)


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