Orange Greatness and Mexico Advances

Today, unless it rains, I will actually get to go play some soccer. Which is always fun during the World Cup because it really gets you in the soccer mood. Today (yesterday) was the first day of final group matches. We found out who would be advancing from Group A and from Group B. I wrote this intro yesterday and I have only decided to keep it in here to point out that right when I was about to leave to play soccer, it started storming. The weather always does that to me.

In Group B we already knew that Spain and Australia were out, and we knew that Holland and Chile were through, we just didn't know who would finish first in the group. The Netherlands would take on Chile in São Paulo wearing their famous orange kits. It took the Dutch awhile but they finally made the breakthrough in the second half through the sub Leroy Fer. Off a free kick Fer leaped very high and buried it into the net with his head. All the Dutch had to do to win the group was tie, so now it definitely looked like they would at least do that going into the last 13 minutes with a 1-0 lead. It got even better for the men in orange when Arjen Robben sped down the left wing on a counter attack, crossed it into the young super-sub Memphis Depay who tapped it in. Arjen Robben maybe player of the tournament so far. He's had a lot to do with each of the Netherland's goals. He's looked quick and creative with every touch. I've always liked Robben and I'm glad he's having a great World Cup so far, I hope he can carry that form into the knock out stages. I found out about Depay before the tournament started and watched a few of his high light reals on Youtube. I was very impressed with him and I'm glad he has shown up well in the cup so far too. Anyways the Netherlands won the group with a 2-0 win over Chile. They will avoid Brazil unless Brazil makes it to the finals along with the Dutch. Chile will advance and play Brazil in the round of 16.

We knew Spain and Australia were both out of the tournament before their game yesterday so Spain played some of their World Class backups. This would probably be the last game for this generation of Spanish players, or at least the last real competitive game. David Villa, one of Spain's most important players from the last few years of success had an emotional last game in which he scored a cheeky goal. Fernando No-Scores (pronounced no-scorez) also hit the back of the net along with Juan Mata.  Spain won 3-0 but didn't really celebrate after any of their goals after a very disappointing World Cup. They shouldn't be too sad though because 2 Euro championships and 1 World Cup in the last 5 or 6 years is about as amazing as it gets.

The Magical Mexican Ochoa

Well Mexico really proved me wrong, big time. I thought no doubt Croatia would advance in Group A behind Brazil. Brazil did advance in first but instead of Croatia the CONCACAF nation of Mexico advanced. After such a horrible qualifying campaign I did not see them playing so well. They tied Brazil and beat Croatia 3-1 along with a 1-0 win over Cameroon. Chicharito said it himself in an interview after the game, "people think that CONCACAF is easy, but its not". He went on to describe how well Costa Rica and the United States have played this tournament. Mexico will take on the red hot, or orange hot Holland in the round of 16. That's going to be a hard game for the Mexicans.

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