SKY SPORTS is reporting that five Premiership sides may bid for towering USA Defender JOHN ANTHONY BROOKS as well Bundesliga & French sides .. ..
Match 2: MEXICO v.
CAMEROON
Date: Friday June 13, 2014
Venue: Estadio das Dunas, NATAL
PANDO! or GORDO? GORDO?
AFTER
A VERY HO-HUM AFRICAN PERFORMANCE FOUR YEARS AGO, IT'S WARMING TO KNOW NOTHING
HAS CHANGED!
Good players
don't make it a good team, but we already know that .. .. Huh, Landon?
From out whistle
CMR didn't link up and were just looking to get ETO'O the ball directly .. ..
CMR didn't pump a cross from the flank until the 21st minute while MEX
dominated play in the opening half with 11 crosses .. .. MEX had goals waved
off (12th & 29th minute) and on another night, both would have counted ..
.. ANDRES GUARDADO' FK could have easily made it 3-0 if MARQUEZ, or one of his
buddies, nodded it in .. ..
The second half
was much of the same and CMR was just poor really .. .. The tried to ramp it up
in the second half but
none of their attacks really looked dangerous and their clear looks went uncashed .. .. ORIBE PERALTA was active with his running mate GIOVANNI DOS SANTOS and cashed in a DOS SANTOS rebound from the PK spot and L/Footed the sitter > L/Left for the only goal MEX needed .. ..
none of their attacks really looked dangerous and their clear looks went uncashed .. .. ORIBE PERALTA was active with his running mate GIOVANNI DOS SANTOS and cashed in a DOS SANTOS rebound from the PK spot and L/Footed the sitter > L/Left for the only goal MEX needed .. ..
MEX MoM: ORIBE PERALTA (club: Santos Laguna)
Hero of MEXs Gold Medal run @ London 2012, the 30Y
striker was active all over the CMR penalty box and poached the winner after
his hard work .. .. He is considered the worlds best striker playing outside of
Europe .. ..
CAM
MoM: none
=================================================================
Match 3: SPAIN v.
NETHERLANDS
Date: Friday June 13, 2014
Venue: Arena Fonte Nova,
SALVADOR
PANDO! or GORDO? ru kidding ..
.. PANDO!
OK, when ESP lost
0-1 to SUI in their opener in 2010, we thought nothing of it after they won it
all .. .. but now?
Perhaps it was a
sign of things to come when WESLEY SNEIJDER split the ESP central defense in
the 8th minute to force a CASILLAS save .. .. NED was physical early on and
took advantage of ESP keeping it narrow and got stuck in whenever ESP was on
the ball .. .. ESP made very little use of the flanks but saw NED attack from both
sides as they pumped in 6 crosses .. .. DIEGO COSTA found a gap in the 27th
minute and drew a PK that XABI ALONSO slotted home .. .. ROBIN VAN
PERSIE found another seam through the ESP center-backs and headed a
delightful cross from DALEY BLIND from the top of the box that rainbowed into
the CASILLAS net just before HT .. ..
ARJEN ROBBEN ripped home his
brace in the 53rd and 80th minutes by making the middle of the Spanish box his
own and continued to show terrific acceleration, especially with his second
goal when he out-sprinted SERGIO RAMOS from the halfway line, then left
CASILLAS for dead and roofed his shot .. ..
VAN PERSIE completed his
brace in the 72nd minute when he attacked CASILLAS after a bad first-touch, cut
left and then L/Footed > middle of the net .. ..
What was really
alarming was how ESP gave up and CASILLAS was just peppered in the last 20
minutes .. .. Was this the beginning of the end? Was VICENTE DEL BOSQUEs
condolence walk down the bench his way of saying, 'farewell?' We'll see .. ..
NED MoM: ROBIN VAN PERSIE (club: Manchester United)
For a dad who allows his son Shaqueel to train
with cross-city rivals Manchester City, Old Trafford & Clockwork Orange
fans are over the moon with him tonight .. .. The 30YO can make this Cup his own
with this kind of start .. ..
ESP MoM: ANDRES
INIESTA (club: Barcelona)
One of the few
Spanish standouts tonight and still displayed his close-control and work ethic
.. .. The match got away from him in the second half .. ..
=================================================================
Match 4: CHILE v.
AUSTRALIA
Date: Friday June 13, 2014
Venue: Arena Panatanal, CUIABA
PANDO! or GORDO? PANDO!
CHILE came out on
fire, forcing AUS turnovers all over the pitch and capitalized in the 12th minute
off a penalty box scramble that saw ALEXIS SANCHEZ hammer home a
right-footer > U/Right .. ..
AUS continued to
give the ball away and JORGE VALDIVIA took advantage of it just two
minutes later when he took a []-ball from SANCHEZ at the top of the box and
crushed it home R/Footed > U/Left .. .. CHI scored on their first two shots!
AUS countered
against the run of play when a hard slide-tackle on the L/Flank got AUS free
down their R/Flank and a perfect cross found AIR CAHILL climbing over
his marker to head a goal into the U/Right in the 35th minute .. .. It might
have been 2-1 @ HT, but CHI turned ball over w/o pressure (4-3 times) just as
much as AUS and could have put the match away by the half .. .. AUS did not
have a set-piece in the first 45 minutes .. ..
CHI piled it on
in extra-time when JEAN BEAUSEJOUR collected a rebound above the box and struck
his L/Footer > L/Right .. ..
Entertaining
stuff with 30 total crosses being pumped in by both sides on the evening, but
it was clear that CHI won cozily and continued to turn the ball over in the
final 45 minutes .. .. Oh, what a fun group this will be to watch .. ..
CHI MoM: ALEXIS SANCHEZ (club: Barcelona)
25YO jitterbug was all over the pitch, pumping in
crosses from the right and making himself dangerous when he got into the box ..
.. Goes down pretty easy though .. ..
AUS
MoM: TIM CAHILL (club: New York)
Was the only real
threat for an outmanned AUS side and got the Socceroos back into the match when
he climbed into the atmosphere to snap home his header .. .. Had 5 shots in the
box and was a threat all night long .. .. And, he represented SAMOA as a teen!
=================================================================
WIN OR GO HOME?
What
happens when you get to the 2014 World Cup for your first match .. ..
If you LOST your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 1W – 1L – 0D = 3 pts
If you WON your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 3W – 3L – xD = 9 pts
If you DREW your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = xW – xD – xL = x pts
=================================================================
EXPERIENCE! Yeah, or neh?
How players do when they came to
BRA with 5 caps, or less .. ..
Diego Costa (ESP), Cedric
Djeugoue (CMR), Jose Juan Vazquez (MEX), Alex Wilkinson (AUS)
1W -- 3L
-- 0D
=================================================================
PANDO! or GORDO? SIDE OF THE TOURNAMENT
GK:
D: Daley BLIND (NED)
M: NEYMAR (BRA) -- OSCAR (BRA) -- Luka MODRIC (CRO) --
Arjen ROBBEN (NED)
F: Tim
CAHILL (AUS) -- Alexis SANCHEZ (CHI) -- Robin VAN PERSIE (NED)
Bench:
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