Score and Scorer

Well I was right about the score but terribly wrong about the scorer. Ronaldo looked like he didn't belong in the 23 let alone the 11.

Critics of Brazil's performance take note though. Brazil did not play badly. They simply should not have been expecting to beat a smart, skillfull and tough tackling team like Croatia so handily. It was not Brazil who played badly but rather the Croats who imposed themselves on the game and denied the Brazilians their own game.

It was an interesting game for me to watch for many reasons. I think that it could easily have ended in a tie. The Croats actually deserved one goal.

One thing though that particularly fascinated and terrified me at the same time was the Croat tackling: they seemed to tackle within the rules but did so with such pace and intensity that I was sure that a Brazilian would get injured.

Having been put through the Croatian pressure cooker, Brazil is now ready to walk over Japan (prediction by 3 or more) and Australia (prediction by 2 or more)...