Monday begins four matches per day (two at 1:00 pm and two at 5:00 pm). Although bad for watching on TV, it is designed so that teams in the same group play their last group matches simultaneously (to minimize knowledge of the other game's outcome).
For all teams not mathematically eliminated by two earlier losses, this will determine their final seeding in the "Round of 16" (aka R16) ("Oitavos-de-finales" or "Eighth-finals" in Portuguese) or whether they go home empty-footed.
Not a lot of suspense in either group A or B. Everyone knew which teams were going through, but seeding was still on the line.
Brazil (4) - Cameroon (1) - Group A
No surprise here. Brazil sews up the A1 seed with an easy victory over Cameroon.
The seeding was briefly in doubt, but Brazil outscored Cameroon by
enough to win the tiebreaker with Mexico on goal differential. Brazil will face Chile (B2 seed) in R16.
Mexico (3) - Croatia (1) - Group A
This game was a lot of fun to attend. Croatian fans were outnumbered 99-to-1 in a sea of green. The fans sung and chanted nearly continually throughout the game. The scrappy and smaller Mexicans were not intimidated by the physical Croatians, and coasted to an easy 3-1 victory after breaking the game open in the second half. Mexico claims the A2 seed and will face the dominating Netherlands (B1 seed) in R16.
Netherlands (2) - Chile (0) - Group B
In a battle for the B1 seed, Netherlands (Hollande to Brazilians) proved the better team. Chile will now have to face pre-tourney favorite Brazil in the R16. Netherlands will face Mexico.
Spain (3) - Australia (0) - Group B
Spain salvaged what little dignity was left in the till, in a battle for third place (aka first-loser) of Group B. Everyone was watching the Netherlands-Chile game, so it took 36 hours for the score to become widely known.
No comments:
Post a Comment