Brazil - Croatia match thread

circadian

Croatia were unlucky with the penalty, I think they'll get out of the group. Perisic is a player to watch. They have a good midfield as usual, defence is so-so and Jelavic isn't up to scratch which is a shame. If they had a good solid striker then they'd be good for goals.

Brazil won't get too far playing like that, they look disjointed.

.jacksparrow.

Soups123 wrote: »

It's a fair point and be interesting how he uses Cesc

He's gonna use him like lampard.

This huge myth that he only wants big strong players in the middle is ridiculous.

A Primal Nut

What were the lads on about "invisible line".

Panthro

liked Apres Match's Germans impression!

adamski8

Paully D wrote: »

IMO:

1st goal - Got the timing of his dive all wrong. It should be a relatively comfortable save from that distance and with that much power.

2nd goal - After getting a hand to the penalty he should have saved it. It was the perfect height for a goalkeeper.

3rd goal - He wasn't anticipating the shot at all and was slow to get down to it.

They're not howlers by any means, but personally I don't think it's expecting too much of an international goalkeeper to be expected to save all three of them.

I at least respect these arguments although i wouldn't fully agree and we could argue all night but to say it was all the keepers fault and how he is terrible as some others have said is ridiculous. We should be talking about how brazil got huge decisions especially one of the worst peno decisions in history

String

Panthro wrote: »

liked Apres Match's Germans impression!

The only half decent sketch, that was terrible

efb

Their Caroline Aherne was poor

murpho999

efb wrote: »

Their Caroline Aherne was poor

Eh....it was Craig Cash, he does it sometimes too.

efb

gandalf wrote: »

Yes and I did say to myself that was a little throwback to 1970's racism.

No one does racism better!

q2ice

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

I mean telling us the added minutes as in 4 minutes.

That's what I meant too. It had 90 +4:32 when I looked

murpho999

String wrote: »

The only half decent sketch, that was terrible

I liked it as I watch Gogglebox. Especially how they did the real British couple

.jacksparrow.

q2ice wrote: »

That's what I meant too. It had 90 +4:32 when I looked

Yes but I was looking for

90 +3:32(4)

Jelle1880

Decent game, nothing special though.

That penalty call was a joke (hey, I had Brazil on the coup, whatever ) but to then disallow that Croatian goal as well...

Son Of A Vidic

Deleted User wrote: »

Not producing the technically gifted players they once were. No way for example would Hulk have got near a Brazilian team back in the 90s. I think it could be down to the fact that so many of them start off in European academies which could if anything constrain them to a certain degree due to coaches giving them precise instructions to follow as opposed to letting them play off their instincts

Totally agree with you, Hulk wouldn't have made Ball Boy 20 years ago never mind the squad. The europeanisation of Brazilian football has neutered their natural flair and magic.

SantryRed

adamski8 wrote: »

Both great finishes in the bottom corners at pace? Ffs people hear reacting like it was a joe hart like cock up show.

IT was very poor goalkeeping. Look at him as the ball is struck for both the first and third goals. He isn't set at all. The extra time he takes to get set costs him on both goals.

Clandestine

Croatia boss Niko Kovac:

"If that's how we start the World Cup, we'd better give it up now and go home.
"We talk about respect, that wasn't respect, Croatia didn't get any.
"If that's a penalty, we don't need to play football anymore. Let's play basketball instead, it's a shame."

Ouch

Tigerandahalf

Brazil have 2 passengers in Hulk and Fred. And their goalie is with Toronto, hope for Ireland yet!
Surprised that Ramirez and Willian weren't involved, too good to be left out. Ramirez would add a bit of pace to their midfield. They looked very vulnerable when Croatia ran at them. Neymar in fairness to him stood up when he was needed and brought them back into the game by going into midfield to retrieve the ball.
The Croat goalkeeper should have saved the 3 goals.
The Croat number 4 and Lovren looked good. Think there was interest in Lovren from Liverpool.

Soups123

The were on the wrong side of very poor refereeing I would be livid too

Paully D

Barely There wrote: »

Anyone else watching this on itv?

Studio's been pelted by stones.

Imagine what it would be liked had Brazil lost! With the potential for so much unrest especially if they do go out early, that is probably one of the main reasons that this game was fixed.

Keeping the Brazilian's as quite as possible for as long as possible will surely be a priority and one way to do that is by Brazil winning.

LightningBlue

Clandestine wrote: »

Croatia boss Niko Kovac:

"If that's how we start the World Cup, we'd better give it up now and go home.
"We talk about respect, that wasn't respect, Croatia didn't get any.
"If that's a penalty, we don't need to play football anymore. Let's play basketball instead, it's a shame."

Ouch

To be fair, he's got a point. They were on the wrong side of every call with the referee.
There's home advantage and there's that.

RobertKK

Croatia were robbed, removing the referee's decisions - both the ones he made and didn't make. It would have been either a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 win to Croatia.

Adamocovic

Time to hear Danny Mills talk some sense about what I watched :P

yohan the great

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Jose doesn't like Modric type players, on the day he signs fabregas?

Modric and Fabregas aren't that similar

Son Of A Vidic

Panthro wrote: »

liked Apres Match's Germans impression!

The bag of money arriving from Ireland was nice.

Son Of A Vidic

RobertKK wrote: »

Croatia were robbed, removing the referee's decisions - both the ones he made and didn't make. It would have been either a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 win to Croatia.

Crap referee and some stupid decisions, but the only two goals scored from open play were by Brazil.

mewso

Adamocovic wrote: »

Time to hear Danny Mills talk some sense about what I watched :P

Interesting stat on Fred in the first half. 6 touches.

That_Guy

Awful refereeing. Just awful.

Never a pen.
Should never have been a disallowed a goal from Croatia.
Hint of a foul in the build up to the Oscar goal.

Very very annoying more than anything.

Turtwig

Brazil don't look good enough to win a world cup but they are the hosts, it is their climate and they will get most of the decisions. Not suggesting a conspiracy there btw, just pointing out refs are human and the tradition of the competition has been the host nations getting the rub of the green.

Actually reckon Brazil will be harder to beat against teams who can play than teams like say England who'll also have trouble being coherent and breaking down organised defences.

Adamocovic

This BBC analysis is leaps and bounds ahead of ITVs from what I've seen, saying it like it is and not sugar coating anything. Reiterating points made on this thread too about Neymar, Fred, Hulk, referee and Brazil prospects.

Adamocovic

Phil Neville also criticising the keeper for very slow dives and not doing a better attempt at saving the goals.

SantryRed

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Crap referee and some stupid decisions, but the only two goals scored from open play were by Brazil.

Did the Croatia goal not happen or am I missing something? The OG was hardly completely down to Brazil. Without Olic's good ball in, there's no chance in Marcelo being under pressure and putting it in his own net.

Mr.Micro

Underwhelming or what? Brazil, also had the Ref onside,lol. Croatia deserved a draw at least, but Brazil given a big of help.....twice at least.

mewso

Agree BBC coverage is good but I wish the English media could come up with better questions for Ricky Lambert than "do you sometimes think you are dreaming" and so on. He must be sick of it.

Adamocovic

mewso wrote: »

Agree BBC coverage is good but I wish the English media could come up with better questions for Ricky Lambert than "do you sometimes think you are dreaming" and so on. He must be sick of it.

Yeah very good point, I know the Lambert story is a good one but every preview for England have focused on his path and interviewed him talking about living his boyhood dreams. I imagine all the players are living their dreams playing at a world cup!

weary1

The Brazilian tactics are following a well tried and successful path,
press the opposition into their own half and then kick any opposing player along with the ball into the stands if they try to control a clearance, the ref will view it as positive play.

mooseknunkle

Adamocovic wrote: »

This BBC analysis is leaps and bounds ahead of ITVs from what I've seen, saying it like it is and not sugar coating anything. Reiterating points made on this thread too about Neymar, Fred, Hulk, referee and Brazil prospects.

Very interesting to hear the BBC reporter who has lived there for 20 years saying that if Brazil get knocked out early the protests will get worse,so better for FIFA if the results go there way.

Son Of A Vidic

SantryRed wrote: »

Did the Croatia goal not happen or am I missing something? The OG was hardly completely down to Brazil.

None of which changes the fact, that it was an unnecessary and very soft OG given up due to very poor defending.

Adamocovic

mooseknunkle wrote: »

Very interesting to hear the BBC reporter who has lived there for 20 years saying that if Brazil get knocked out early the protests will get worse,so better for FIFA if the results go there way.

Yeah I can imagine FIFA might be a bit nervous after seeing that first display, they really need Brazil to do well

SantryRed

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

None of which changes the fact, that it was an unnecessary and very soft OG given up due to very poor defending.

It was still from open play and there's nothing Marcelo could do about it?

Same could be said for Brazil's first so with how open Croatia allowed their midfield to become.

Son Of A Vidic

SantryRed wrote: »

It was still from open play and there's nothing Marcelo could do about it?

What's the confusion emoticon about? Brazil scored an OG and a pretty soft one imo.

There was no particular pace or power on the cross and I don't see how Marcleo was helpless to do anything about it. It was just incompetent defending from Marcelo. I agree with the commentator, it was just very lazy defending.

SantryRed wrote: »

Same could be said for Brazil's first so with how open Croatia allowed their midfield to become.

It was a sublime strike from Neymar, the only place where he could have put the ball beyond the reach of the keeper, was precisely the point where he put the ball. Now I'm not a goalkeeping sage, but apart from Neymar's fine strike, there was also some traffic which may have unsighted the keeper.

weldoninhio

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

What's the confusion emoticon about? Brazil scored an OG and a pretty soft one imo.

There was no particular pace or power on the cross and I don't see how Marcleo was helpless to do anything about it. It was just incompetent defending from Marcelo. I agree with the commentator, it was just very lazy defending.



It was a sublime strike from Neymar, the only place where he could have put the ball beyond the reach of the keeper, was precisely the point where he put the ball. Now I'm not a goalkeeping sage, but apart from Neymar's fine strike, there was also some traffic which may have unsighted the keeper.

Sublime?? He scuffed it.

OnTheCouch

Very disappointing first game, not in terms of overall excitement, as there were a lot of chances and you would hardly call either side proponents of classic catenaccio defending. No, more the feeling that you got the horrible suspicion that the result was decided before the game kicked off.

For what's it's worth, although I think the fairest result would have been a draw, I do think Brazil were slightly the better team and Neymar did play well - if not outstandingly so.

Now, I usually stay well clear of criticising referees, I think they have a thankless job and it nearly always appears to be a case of players/managers being overcome with frustration and taking the easy way out, tending to blame the ref, simply due to not wanting to highlight their own failings or those of their players.

But tonight, the standard really was shocking. All the talk about FIFA in the last couple of years, Blatter, Qatar, how corruption is rife and so on, well the conspiracy theories will grow and grow after today's game. I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking that just because he's not from South America/Europe, the referee clearly doesn't have the big match experience - after all, we have seen many cock ups in UEFA competitions. But it was just bad, at least when it came to the key decisions.

I personally thought the yellow card for Neymar was correct on first viewing. Having said that, when it came to the replay, it didn't look great for him and I could understand why the Croats were so annoyed. But in fairness that wasn't easy to be absolutely sure about in real time.

The major problems came in the second half. OK, there was slight contact for the Brazil penalty. Fair enough. But then there was equally slight contact on Julio Cesar in the following incident when Croatia had a goal chalked off. Is the emphasis supposed to be on giving the advantage to the attacking or the defending team? I'm not sure any more. I would have given both decisions, like most people probably, in favour of Croatia. Or perhaps if I am really being objective, say no penalty and a foul on the goalkeeper. Certainly you can't accuse the referee of trying to even things up.

Now when it came to the Oscar goal, yes it was a good finish, but I'm sure there should have been a foul to Croatia in the build-up.

It is just a little disappointing, this should be a celebration of football in a nation that is undeniably obsessed with the game, but you get this horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach that certain teams would be preferred to progress than others. I really don't want a repeat of 2002, I am shocked that a bigger investigation did not take place after that, as there were so many highly dubious decisions.

On a personal level, it was a little bit awkward, I watched the game as a guest of an extremely wonderful and kind Brazilian lady and her family. Now, I would not say the woman in question was a huge fan of the sport, but like many people when the World Cup comes round, national pride takes priority. It was a little difficult at times to be absolutely honest and say what I really felt without coming across as at best a party pooper and at worst a self-indulgent, ungrateful spoiled guest.

Seaneh

weldoninhio wrote: »

Sublime?? He scuffed it.

Scuffed the first and the keeper was abysmal for the peno, a 12 year old girl would have stronger wrists.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

I've got Croatia in the sweep at work, was relatively confident that they'd do well until it became apparent that their goalkeeper has the reflexes of a dead tortoise. Poor for the first, limp-wristed for the peno and shockingly bad for the third. It's harsh on them because they deserved a point there tonight. Modric looks set to have a great tournament if they manage to progress.

Blazer

Official FIFA match report is pretty nauseating.
But then again its to be expected.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=6/news=neymar-fires-brazil-to-comeback-victory-2368620.html

Omackeral

People who are moaning about the Julio Cesar challenge would wanna go and watch 100 other similar ones involving an outfielder and a goalkeeper. 99 times, it's a free out. Keepers get protection. Not saying it's right, just saying its a long established trait. Why the shock?

Morzadec

None of the keeper "mistakes" were howlers, but I think a top class keeper saves all 3 (assuming he goes the right way for the peno). Croatia's keeper is clearly not top class.

Anyway a bit of a robbery by Brazil. Croatia look a good side.

Disappointing that an awful ref decision decided the game, but overall a fantastic start to the tournament.

Let's just hope an important mistake like that isn't made in a crucial knockout tie.

Would still back Croatia to hopefully go through

Son Of A Vidic

weldoninhio wrote: »

Sublime?? He scuffed it.

Scuffed it? Go to 00:10 seconds in and play and play. I'm not seeing any scuffed shot. The contact with the ball looks pretty o.k. to me.

A bit clearer here, so go to @ 00:52 seconds in and I'm still not seeing any sign of a scuffed shot or poor contact with the ball.

Pro. F

Luiz's defensive position on the Croatia goal is comedy. A tiny bit of movement and he was all over the place.

Morzadec

Blazer wrote: »

Official FIFA match report is pretty nauseating.
But then again its to be expected.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=6/news=neymar-fires-brazil-to-comeback-victory-2368620.html

Ugh. What's the harm in telling the truth FIFA? Would gain you more respect.

'Impeded by Lovren'. Give me a break.