I missed most of the matches featuring the USA. It's weird, but, if I'm being "objective," we play an ugly form of soccer, giving the ball back to the other team. I'm not sure what happened in the first match. We lost, but how badly? I think Colombia advanced to the quarterfinals of the most recent World Cup, while we were against Belgium, and needed Tim Howard to make 10-15 saves to force extra time.
I think I first started paying attention in the second round of games. Brazil dominated Haiti, but Haiti finished 0-3-0, with one goal scored and 12 allowed. Strangely enough, Brazil were the only team to concede a Haitian goal.
The most competitive match I've seen was arguably Peru vs Ecuador from that same group. Peru had a 2-0 lead by the 13th minute of the match. The stats I'm looking at say overall possession was split 56% to 44% (favoring Ecuador). I've always wondered how they calculate that. To me, the second half looked like Ecuador were moving forward 3/4 of the time, with an occasional counterattack by Peru. Ecuador were able to tie to score at the start of the second half. Peru seemed to retreat into a defensive shell. Ecuador had twice as many shots, and nine of them went on target.
Group C is the most lopsided. Based on the countries and recent major tournaments, I would expect Uruguay to win, and Mexico to finish in a solid second place. Well, as of now, Mexico and Venezuela have both beaten Uruguay, which eliminated them. Mexico get to play Venezuela to decide who wins the group. Uruguay and Jamaica get to play for pride and decide third place.
Group D's standings look correct so far. It's been interesting how they got there, though. Chile vs Bolivia looks like a big mismatch when you consider the stats (three total shots and 21% possession by Bolivia?!!). To me, it looked like they might end in a draw. The first half (most of which I missed) ended 0-0. Chile scored on a very early turnover to start the second half. They had this amazing chance on a free kick where the ball arced over the wall and forced the keeper to make a highlight reel save. Bolivia got really lucky with a set piece that curled into the top corner of the far post. Then, it was coming down to the last minute and whatever stoppage time was added. Chile's player went airborne with a bicycle kick that nailed a Bolivian in the side of the head. At worst, I think that was called a "foul." It took until about 94 minutes to get that player off the pitch. Then they announced eight more minutes of stoppage time. I don't think I've seen a match with that much extra time. Chile kicked a ball into a defender who had his hand behind his back. You're telling me THAT'S a hand ball? It was in the penalty area, and the keeper dove the wrong way. The crazy thing was, Bolivia dribbled right through the middle and had one last shot that they pulled to the right.
The second match was almost a joke by comparison. Argentina were holding on to the 1-0 lead. Then this "substitute" named Messi came into the game. He might be the best player of this generation or in the history of the sport. He put in three goals like it was a practice session, and then made this amazing pass that was headed to another guy who headed it into the net.
I'm not really surprised what happened in the final USA game. It's just sort of like, why are we usually on the DEFENSIVE?!! Don't commit two knockdown fouls in less than a minute to get ejected! I didn't really think it was fair for us to "win" the group by losing head-to-head against the second place team who had the same record. Then again, if you're Colombia, why didn't they start James Rodriguez and be sure of the win?
The talk was about winning Group A to avoid Brazil, but Brazil were part of an unfair game where an obvious hand ball was ruled as a "goal."
I can't tell how the playoff bracket will shape up, but it looks like we'd at least have a chance against Ecuador. They were undefeated, but with a 0-0 draw and the 2-2 comeback along the way. Colombia would probably be favored in their match. I'd guess that Mexico and Argentina are the strongest teams right now, but they're not done playing the third game.
We're not even talking about all the Euro teams! Actually, I think expanding to 24 might water that competition down a bit. Only one game was decided by two goals so far, though.
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