Wooden Fish

Plenty of suspense today at World Cup with two games taking place simultaneously, 3 teams in Group F battled for the spot to move on to stage 2. The four teams in Group F are Brazil, Australia, Croatia and Japan. Before today’s games, Brazil was the only team in the group who has secured its spot in stage 2. Australia was at the second place in the group, however the game between Australia and Croatia was crucial for both team’s second stage qualification. Croatia needed to win the match, if they don’t want to pack their bags and return home. For Japan, the situation is almost desperate. They needed to overcome Brazil by at least 3 goals in favor in order to advance to the second round. So, now if you understand the situation and all the potential variants, you should have a grasp of the suspense of these matches.

Now, let’s talk about the matches. The game between Croatia and Australia was hard-fought match, with one player on each team sent off in the second half. Croatia was determined to win, opening the match by scoring first. But the Australian team was forceful and responded immediately with relentless attack after each goal from Croatia. Like always, in the end only the better team deserves to move on, and this time Australia has convincingly shown to the world that they are the better team.

The game between Brazil and Japan was very entertaining to watch. Why? Because the rhythm of Brazil’s samba football has finally restored. On the other hand, it must be painful to watch for Japanese fans to see their team and their slim hope crushed goal after goal. Even though, Brazil’s qualification to the second round is guaranteed no matter the outcome of this match, but just take a look of its starting lineup and you would know that they were out to win, instead of taking it easy. Anyway, Japan will return home without a win in this World Cup and with just one point.

Tomorrow will be another exciting and interesting day. I will keep my eye on France, Korea Republic and Tunisia.