Five Things from….Brazil 2 Colombia 1

I thought the wait would never end…finally we have football back on our TVs.  With it being hotter than Greece*I decided to keep the al fresco feeling going and took the World Cup to the masses.  Well, my neighbours actually by using my little travel (work) projector to beam the game onto the side of the house.  They were impressed.  So impressed that they announced 10 minutes before kick off they were going to the pub to watch it. Love Thy Neighbour?  Not in SE9 obviously.

This game, probably more than any of the other quarter finals, would have a significant impact on the competition.  The host nation have stumbled through to this stage, playing unconvincingly in every game, bar an hour of the opening game against Croatia.  They relied on penalties to beat Chile whilst Colombia have got stronger as the tournament has progressed, with James Rodriquez the man of the moment.  The days of loveable, laughable Higuita, Asprilla and Valderrama are long gone, replaced by a team of flair and workmen.  And let’s not forget their most influential player, Radamel Falcao is injured, spending his time this summer with one of my friends, Natalia Velez (have I told you I met her?).

1. Making it up – ITV’s Jon Champion hints at dissent among the Brazilian ranks during the penalties in the last game against Chile, singling out Thiago Silva who “took himself off to sit on his own”…This is two hours after BBC had shown a feature at HT in the France v Germany game about how Thiago Silva, among others, prayed during the penalties and that is why he sat alone. Nothing like the truth to get in the way of a story.

2. “Good refereeing” – According to Andy Townsend, because the game is close then the referee is doing the right job in not yellow carding persistent offenders to let the game flow.  Townsend believes that there should be a different set of rules in every game.  Five minutes later he said “Yellow card has to come out soon.  You cannot keep letting them get away with it”.  Townsend is paid to watch and comment on football.  Champion also suggests that players should be booked so that the more creative ones can “breathe”….

3. “The next goal wins” – Great comment at HT by Adrian Chiles who suggests the scorer of the next goal wins….of course if it is Colombia who score then the game would be a draw…Mouth/Brain/Engage.

4. Referee! – James Rodriquez is kicked to pieces in the first half and gets nothing.  Then he makes one challenge and is carded…oh, and to rub it in, Luize scores from the free-kick – one of the first direct free-kick of this World Cup.  Then he doesn’t send off the Brazilian keeper for bringing down the Colombian forward….No suspicion of referees favouring the host nation then.

5. Say no to racism – Why is the sign only in English?

Beer World Cup

Sorry, but was still indulging in the German efforts from earlier….so this ended..

Brazil 0 Colombia 0

*as of 4pm it was 28 degrees at TBIR Towers and only 27.5 degrees in Mykonos, Greece.