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The FIFA World Cup moved into its second week after a sumptuous first seven days that were a feast for the football loving people all around the world. The first 16 games in this year’s World Cup has produced 49 goals and many a scintillating moment, making this as one of the best World Cups in memory.
The end to end action didn’t cede much as we began the second week of action in Brazil. The games were at their un-balanced best as the scores kept on see-sawing to our delight.
Lions? What Lions?
He came, he ran and he conquered. A brace from Liverpool’s Luis Suarez now has the English staring into the abyss and facing a likely elimination from the first round.
The 2-1 score line now seems to be the second-worst enemies of England in the World Cup (right after penalty shootouts). After going down by the same margin to Italy in their first group game, it was déjà vu for the lions just five days later in São Paulo .
The Lions certainly roared in this one but that didn’t seem to have much effect. Rooney threatened early for England as his free-kick in the first ten minutes of the game came agonisingly close to opening the scoring. The Manchester United man was again man on the spot for England as he got his head at the end of a Steven Gerrard free-kick, only to find the frame of the goal-post.
However it was not one-way traffic. On the contrary the Uruguayans, were playing some crisp passing football themselves to put the English under the cosh. Then in the 39th minute, the South Americans struck gold. Nicolás Lodeiro’s ball found Edinson Cavani running the channels to the left. The rest of the script was written by two delightful hits of the ball.
The PSG man played in a delightful cross that was strong enough to elude both the English defenders and had just enough dip for Luis Suarez to leap and nestle it inside the English goal, as he headed the ball back across Joe Hart.
The addition a certain Luis Suarez and midfielder Nicolás Lodeiro seemed to have transformed the Uruguayans from the dour state that they were a reminiscence of against Costa Rica.
The Uruguayans certainly smelt blood as they began proceeding after the interval. Their preferred choice of defence was offence as firstly Luis Suarez (directly from a corner) and secondly Cavani (on a one-on-one with Joe Hart) threatened to take the game away from the English.
England, having weathered the storm early on in the second-half began to flex their muscles. Rooney could and probably should have equalised a few moments later when he found space inside the box to shot from a Leighton Baines cross; only to be denied by some fine goal-keeping by Muslera.
With time running out, the English finally found the breakthrough when Glen Johnson found space on the right to produce a delightful low cross into the box. Rooney was again on hand, but this time to tap in his first ever World Cup goal.
England will however have themselves to blame for this loss. An errant header from their captain Steven Gerrard played in Luis Suarez after a mix-up with the backline.
The rest will be found in the pages of history. Suarez gobbled up the invitation with a powerful strike across the Manchester City custodian to bring Óscar Tabárez' and the rest of the Uruguayans running out of the dugout.
The “new” England certainly did indeed play with more flair than any of their predecessors at the big stages. But after two games, all that Roy Hodgson’s men have to show for their efforts are two goals and facing elimination from the group stages of the World Cup.
Colombia edge out Ivory Coast
In what turned out to be the game that decided the winner of Group C, the South Americans came out on the right side of a 2-1 score line, subjecting Cote D'Ivoire to their first loss of the campaign.
Three second-half goals within the space of a few minutes in another exhibition of end-to-end, heart-warming football is what decided the fate of the two teams in this contest.
The game was a highly entertaining one in the first half as both team played with a violent pace. The pace however also invited some errant passing for the teams, which made up for some quick counters and a great spectacle for the viewers.
Teofilo Gutierrez had the first real chance of the game when the ball found him in the six yard box with none bar the keeper between him and the beckoning goal. The River Plate forward however went into a meltdown, scuffing the attempt as his legs got into a tangle.
While the Ivorians had some thrust of their own, it was the Cafeteros running the show in the first half. However, with no precision in the final third, the game went into the break goalless.
James Rodriguez and the Juan Quintero however made sure that the second half a whole different ball game. The Colombians, after coming through a barrage of Cote D'Ivoire attacks early in the second-half produced two game-changing moments of their own.
The two mid-fielders scored in quick succession in the 64th and 70th minute to put the match seemingly out of the reach of the West Africans. However the Elephants weren’t done yet.
A brilliant solo goal, worthy of contention for one of the goals of the tournament from Gervinho brought the Africans right back into the thick of things.
Tiote, Bony and Drogba had opportunities of their own in the final minutes of the game as the Ivorian looked for the precious equalizer late on. However, the excellent Mario Yepes and the consistent David Ospina were on hand to guide to Colombian to the top of the group and eventually to the next round after the Japan and Greece played out a stalemate.
Japan miss golden opportunity
The game was like the Battle of Thermopylae (the battle on which the movie 300 is based) revisited again. Japan, who were at a man’s advantage for large portions of the game knocked and battered relentlessly at the Greek defense, but failed to find the way round it.
Yoshito ?kubo and Y?ya ?sako had two early opportunities for the Japanese but as it would become the norm for this game, their finishing let them down.
There were moments for the Greeks as well but not those to hold fond memories of. Rather, the Greeks’ two moments in the first-half turned out to be two moments of misery. First in the 35th minute, they lost their talismanic striker Kostas Mitroglou to injury and then three minutes later they were without their captain Kostas Katsouranis as the midfielder was given his marching orders for a reckless challenge on Makoto Hasebe.
The Japanese however the found the riddle of 10 Greek men too hard to solve for most of the game. It was in fact not until the last twenty minutes of the game that Japan produced any sort of a chance that looked like clinching it for the Land of the Rising Sun.
On the 69 minute mark, ?kubo was again played in by Shinji Kagawa. But the Kawasaki Frontale man bottled the opportunity at the far post when it seemed more difficult to not score.
Atsuto Uchida was on hand two minutes late to exhibit Japan’s ineptness in front of goal as he dragged his close range shot wide of the mark.
With this draw, Japan missed a great opportunity to put three marks on the scoreboard for them. This puts them two points behind Cote D'Ivoire and in a perilous situation with their remaining game against group leaders Colombia.
