2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Official Book
14. The opening match was witnessed by several fans, which had tickets but no
seats. Why the seats were missing is not clear yet.
13. The Manaus pitch is not fine yet. This is what FIFPro representatives claim. The FIFA spokesmen say no worries.
12. Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t finish the Portuguese national team training. No news on his condition yet.
11. Mexico – Cameroon 1-0. A strange, if not incomprehensible performance by Cameroon, leaving Mexico nothing else but to score and win. They needed to score three, to get one stand, but anyway, deserved 3 points.
Defence: 1 – 0
Midfield: 1 – 0,5
Attack: 1 – 0,5
Interplay: 1 – 0
TOTAL: 4 – 1
10. Dos Santos (MEX) – 1
19. Peralta (MEX) – 1
15. Moreno (MEX) – 0,5
9. Eto’o (CMR) – 0,5
2. Assou-Ekotto (CMR) – 0,5
10. Spain – Netherlands 1 – 5. And that’s what I call revenge. The green Dutch side crashed and smashed the defending champions. This is going to be a long long way back for Del Bosque’s team. It is a big question, whether some changes will take place ahead of their next group match. Especially the captain Casillas has to be under fire. As for Louis van Gaal and his team – bravo! This must become one of the biggest comebacks in the World Cup history.
Defence: 0,5 – 1,5
Midfield: 1 – 1,5
Attack: 0,5 – 2
Interplay: 1 – 2
TOTAL: 3 – 7
11. Robben (NED) 2
9. van Persie (NED) 2
5. Blind (NED) 1
2. Vlaar (NED) 1
6. Iniesta (ESP) 0,5
9. Chile – Australia 3 -1. When the teams are bad to defend, then the one with better attack wins. This was what happened in this match. The problem is that these two teams are yet to defend against Spain and Netherlands.
Defence: 0 – 0
Midfield: 1 – 0,5
Attack 1,5 – 1
Interplay: 1,5 – 0,5
TOTAL: 4 – 2
7. Sanchez (CHL) - 1,5
15. Beausejour (CHL) - 1
4. Cahill (AUS) - 1
8. It is not very often for Colombia to achieve top ten in FIFA rankings. By December 2013, when the World Cup draw took place, Jose Pekerman’s side was in top five, which made them one of the 8 World Cup participants to be seeded in the first group. And thus, Colombia got a relatively easy group. But here the good news ends for the South Americans. The final squad of 23 had to be without names of several injured players, including the aging defender Luis Perea and, of course, the blow of the year, Radamel Falcao. No more words about the Monaco forward. Even without him there are lots of talented players, who claim to be the strongest Colombian generation of the past 20 years. The 42-year-old goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon is the oldest player in this World Cup. The defence includes Cristian Zapata, Mario Yepes, Pablo Armero and Juan Zuniga, while Juan Cuadrado, Freddy Guarin and Victor Ibarbo are some of the most prominent Colombian midfielders this year. All the mentioned players have got some great experience in the Italian Serie A. Add current and previous Porto stars Jackson Martinez, Juan Quintero and James Rodriguez, and it will be clear, why Colombia is not an outsider without Falcao. Especially the last two names have got the potential to be on everyone’s lips after the tournament.
7. It has been 10 years since Greece lifted the European Champion’s trophy, but a small feeling of a shock is still there. The Europeans may not be underestimated by any means. However, a lot has changed in the past two years. Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Kostas Fortounis and Sotiris Ninis, considered to be the future of Greek football before the Euro 2012, are not even in the squad. There is place for some younger players in Fernando Santos’s bid nevertheless. Borussia Dortmund’s Sokratis and Fulham’s Kostas Mitroglou are already 26, which is pretty young by the Greek measures. And they will always have a lot to learn from old warriors like Kostas Katsouranis, Theofanis Gekas, Dimitris Salpingidis and the legendary captain Georgios Karagounis, who turned 37 three months ago. Other names to watch will be Celtic’s Georgios Samaras and Genoa’s Ioannis Fetfatzidis.
Read Part II
The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Fact File
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