Match 53: FRANCE v.
GERMANY 
L8
L8
Date: Friday July 4, 2014
Venue: Estadio do Maracana, RIO
DE JANEIRO
PANDO! or GORDO? Pando!
1st
Both
sides probed early, not looking to go bananas in the 88% humidity, GER looked
somewhat shaky early with a couple of poor, unforced TOs > Perhaps due to
the flu going around the GER Camp?
Both
sides probed early, not looking to go bananas in the 88% humidity, GER looked
somewhat shaky early with a couple of poor, unforced TOs > Perhaps due to
the flu going around the GER Camp?
But,
in the 13th minute, it was the indivisible GERs that struck first .. .. Off a
FK from TONI KROOS, MATS HUMMELS made a R/Box run and his flashing
header came off the bar and into the net .. .. FRA did try to
attack using both
flanks from the whistle (8 crosses; 4 left-4 right) and got off 6 shots, all of
them from the GER box .. .. 0-1 @ HT .. ..
2nd
As
exciting as FRA has been throughout the Festival, GER kept them at bay and
never looked extremely dangerous despite their 10 crosses (7 left & 3 right
+ 4 attacking set pieces) .. ..
As
exciting as FRA has been throughout the Festival, GER kept them at bay and
never looked extremely dangerous despite their 10 crosses (7 left & 3 right
+ 4 attacking set pieces) .. ..
GER
countered sharply when they had the chance and actually looked more likely to
score through the 2H .. .. Should BRA survive their match later today, that's a
mouth-watering matchup, BRA v GER .. ..
FRA
MoM:
none
GER
MoM: MATS
HUMMELS (club: Borussia Dortmund)
Outspoken, and
sometimes in Low's doghouse, HUMMELS has proven his worth with his starting
assignments and goals .. ..
=================================================================
Match 53: BRAZIL v.
COLOMBIA L8
L8
Date: Friday July 4, 2014
Venue: Estadio Castelao,
FORTALEZA
PANDO! or GORDO? Gordo?
1st
COL
came out hesitantly, turning the ball over early .. .. Their job became harder
just seven minutes in when off a NEYMAR CK, THIAGO SILVA snuck into the
R/Box and used his L/Knee to tap the ball in .. .. Not a tough CK to defend,
but everyone went to the near post and left a mile of open space behind them ..
.. COL appeared rattled after the first goal and wunderkid JAMES RODRIGUEZ even
showed a bad first-touch .. .. strange .. ..
COL
came out hesitantly, turning the ball over early .. .. Their job became harder
just seven minutes in when off a NEYMAR CK, THIAGO SILVA snuck into the
R/Box and used his L/Knee to tap the ball in .. .. Not a tough CK to defend,
but everyone went to the near post and left a mile of open space behind them ..
.. COL appeared rattled after the first goal and wunderkid JAMES RODRIGUEZ even
showed a bad first-touch .. .. strange .. ..
Of COLs four shots in the 1H, they did not have a shot from the
run-of-play until the 11th minute and had absolutely zero shots in the BRA box in
the first-45 .. .. On the other hand, BRA creates bundles of chances, had 11
shots, 6 in the COL box .. .. A handy 1-0 lead @ HT .. ..
2nd
With
COL still struggling to patch together an effective attack, DAVID LUIZ
seemingly put the contest out of reach when he took a 68th minute FK from above
the box and smacked a R/Footed knuckler that rose, and dipped > U/Right that
had GK DAVID OSPINA leaning in the wrong direction but still managed to get a
fingertip on it before heading to the back on the net .. .. Pretty neat when
both of your center-backs score your goals for you!!
With
COL still struggling to patch together an effective attack, DAVID LUIZ
seemingly put the contest out of reach when he took a 68th minute FK from above
the box and smacked a R/Footed knuckler that rose, and dipped > U/Right that
had GK DAVID OSPINA leaning in the wrong direction but still managed to get a
fingertip on it before heading to the back on the net .. .. Pretty neat when
both of your center-backs score your goals for you!!
At
that point, COL had to commit to all-out attack and that finally bought JAMES
RODRIGUEZ into the match and was finally able to find his stride .. .. COL was
a constant danger in the last half-hour, cutting through BRS and forcing nine
2H attacking set-pieces .. .. Finally COL drew a PK in the 80th minute that JAMES
RODRIGUEZ put home with his L/Foot > L/Left .. ..
BRA
just bunkered in after that with their bench of defensive MFs and was able to
clog up the middle and keep everything in the middle of the pitch (just 1 COL
cross in the 2H) .. .. Not much more artistic magic, especially with NEYMAR
taken off the field in a stretcher .. .. Reckon this the new BRAZIL ~ Chop up
the match defensively and just win, no matter if it looks ugly .. ..
BRA
MoM:
DAVID LUIZ (club: Chelsea)
Gambling and talented defensive player probably
could play anywhere on the pitch .. .. Chelsea uses him in the midfield because
of his feel for the game and athleticism .. ..
COL
MoM: JAMES
RODRIGUEZ (club: Monaco)
Really began to
run the show late, but really seemed unnerved early on, especially after he
first BRA goal .. .. He could have just floated through the rest of the match
but he really brought it when he had to late .. .. FABULOUS WORLD CUP FOR JAMES!!
=================================================================
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 – 2D = 5 pts
If you WON your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 9W – 9L – 2D = 29 pts
If you DREW your last Friendly
before your first Group Match = 2W – xD – 2L = 6 pts
=================================================================
EXPERIENCE! Yeah, or neh?
How players do when they came to
BRA with 5 caps, or less .. ..
Ramon AZEEZ (NGA), Eder BALANTA
(COL), Oliver BOZANIC (AUS), Diego COSTA (ESP), Matteo DARMIAN (ITA), Lukas
DIGNE (FRA), Cedric DJEUGOUE (CMR), Antoine GRIEZMANN (FRA), Anel HADZIC (BIH),
Adnan JANUZAJ (BEL), Maksim KANUNNIKOV (RUS), Sead KOLASINAC (BIH), Aissa MANDI
(ALG), Shkodran MUSTAFI (GER), Gabriel PALETTA (ITA), Juan QUINTERO (COL),
Morgan SCHNEIDERLIN (FRA), Luke SHAW (ENG), Raheem STERLING (ENG), Tino SUSIC
(BIH), Jose Juan VAZQUEZ (MEX), Alex WILKINSON (AUS), YUN Suk-Young (KOR)
11W -- 12L
-- 5D
=================================================================
PANDO! or GORDO? SIDE OF THE TOURNAMENT
Manager:
Jorge Luis PINTO (CRC)
GK:
Keylor NAVAS (CRC)
D: Matt BESLER (USA) -- Mats HUMMELS
(GER) -- David LUIZ (BRA)
M: Jermaine JONES (USA) -- Arjen ROBBEN (NED) --
Brian RUIZ (CRC) -- James
RODRIGUEZ (COL)
F: Tim
CAHILL (AUS) -- F Lionel MESSI (ARG) ◘ -- NEYMAR (BRA)
Bench: MF
Charles ARANGUIZ (CHI) -- MF Andrew AYEW (GHA) --
F Karim
BENZEMA (FRA) -- D Danny BLIND (NED) -- F
Joel CAMPBELL (CRC) --
MF Juan
Guillermo CUADRADO (COL) -- F Olivier GIROUD (FRA) --
MF Luka
MODRIC (CRO) -- F Thomas MULLER (GER) --
GK Guillermo OCHOA (MEX) -- MF OSCAR (BRA) -- MF Andrea PIRLO (ITA) -- MF Paul POGBA (FRA) --
MF Juan
QUINTERO (COL) -- -- F Alexis SANCHEZ (CHI) ■ -- F Xherdan SHAQIRI (SUI) --
F Mathieu VALBUENA (FRA) -- F Enner VALENCIA (ECU) --
F Robin VAN PERSIE (NED) -- D Mario
YEPES (COL)
◘ - denotes 2010 Pando! or Gordo? Starting Side of the Tournament
■ - denotes 2010 Pando! or Gordon?
Honorable Mention of the Tournament
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