The World Cup of upsets continues, and the Group of Death is living up to every bit of hype that's been created since the December drawing.
The first half didn’t provide much action. Both teams had chances, but they weren’t anything the keepers of either team couldn’t handle. But the second half brought all the drama that was lacking in the first 45 minutes.
Several weeks ago, John Oliver went on his new HBO show Last Week Tonight and expressed his excitement for the World Cup, but his disgust for the organization of FIFA. The video went viral and currently has over 5 million views on YouTube. John Oliver brought the problems that Brazilians had been protesting about in the days leading up to the World Cup to light:
The race for second place in Group E heated up after Ecuador beat Honduras 2-1, following Switzerland’s 2-5 loss to France just an hour earlier.
Both teams came out fired up, which saw both sides being sloppy at times. But some fairly good action back and forth finally resulted in a deep ball down the middle which found Carlo Costly, and the Honduran gave Los Catrachos their first World Cup goal in 32 years.
It only took 17 minutes for Switzerland to self destruct against France in the second round of matches in Group E. France easily advanced to the round of 16, which has to be refreshing for Les Bleus supporters after their debacle in the 2010 World Cup.
It didn’t take long to be reminded of why so many prayers were said in Uruguay these past few weeks; why so many column inches have been dedicated to the state of one man’s knee; why Europe’s richest clubs will vie to tempt Liverpool’s prize asset away from Merseyside this summer.
Luis Suarez may have only been 70% fit, but his guile, cunning and speed of thought were enough to deliver England’s World Cup aspirations a mortal blow.
It was more difficult than expected, but the Netherlands came back to defeat Australia 3-2 before a raucous crowd of Aussies, who outnumbered their Dutch counterparts in the stands by about five to one - though the Dutch royal family was also in attendance. The victory clinches a spot in the knockout round for the blue shirt-wearing le Oranje as they head into the final group match level on points with their next opponent, Chile.
Chile continues to impress at World Cup 2014 by defeating defending champion Spain 2-0, which shockingly eliminates the Spanish from the competition. Entering the tournament not only as the defending World Cup champion, but also the two-time defending European Champion, Spain was expected to be a serious contender for the title. Instead, after getting outscored 7-1 in its first two matches, Spain's last match against Australia will be for pride only.
Soccer and hip-hop fans, rejoice! Clint Dempsey, or should we say “Deuce,” will be coming out with a 13-track rap album after the World Cup. Deuce isn’t completely new to the rap game. The U.S. Captain already has a single out called, “Don’t Tread.” Here it is, for those who haven’t seen it.
Match Day 1 of World Cup 2014 wrapped up with two nail biters, as Belgium came back from an early one-point defecit against Algeria to win 2-1 and Russia made up for a botched save from goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev to draw 1-1 with South Korea.
Belgium-Algeria
This was purely an advertisement for football. There are fans and critics alike who decry the fact that 90 minutes can end “nil-nil,” but we’d happily watch football of this caliber for hours and hours – let alone on a stage such as this. Almost everything the beautiful game has to offer was captured in Fortaleza between the home side and a Mexican team that is peaking at precisely the right time.