Day 7

The reign of Spain ended today, at Chile's hand (2-0).  Chile was aggressive and fast and better.  Spain were well beaten.  Over these last six years, Spain (and their club cousin, Barcelona) played some of the most beautiful soccer I've ever seen.  They will not be soon forgotten; not by me, not by any actual soccer fan.  But their time had come.  As for Chile, after they went up 2-0, I learned something interesting about them: they can actually play defense.  I'd never actually see Chile play defense before, but they can, if they want to.  The Netherlands-Chile game is going to be very interesting, because Chile needs to win to avoid Brazil in the next round.

The Oranje, for their part, played an instant classic with Australia.   The Socceroos went right at Holland from the first minute, and outplayed them for the first sixty minutes of the match.  And while Robben scored first on a blazing run, about a minute later Tim Cahill equalized with a true golazo, receiving a long ball over his shoulder and volleying it into the goal from about twelve yards out.   Pow!   Australia would go up 2-1 on a penalty before Van Persie coolly leveled after a Socceroo defender played him onside.   Then the turning point of the match: Australia had a three on two, but Leckie chested rather than headed the cross onto goal, which the Dutch keeper easily saved.  Shortly thereafter Memphis Depay scored for Holland, on a long distance shot Ryan should have stopped.   An insanely fun game.  Australia's out, but they have nothing to ashamed of.  Bravo.

The Croatia-Cameroon game was a fiasco.  Cameroon, for the first ten minutes, actually looked pretty good, but Croatia scored first.  The game fell apart when Alex Song inexplicably, and without any apparent provocation, elbowed Mandzukic in the back.  Song was shown red, and the rout was on.  Croatia won 4-0, setting up a match with Mexico likely to decide who finishes second in Group A.  Interestingly, if Mexico beats Croatia and Brazil ties Cameroon, Mexico finishes first in the group.   Which would mean that the winner of the Netherlands-Chile game would get to play (second place) Brazil.  Not that Brazil has looked all that good, but still.

FF