Chapter 287 The World Cup officially begins, a replica of the final, Spain VS Netherlands!
The Spanish Football Association's protest achieved certain results. Under the intervention of FIFA, the Brazilians had to restrain themselves and seriously sent people to disperse the Brazilian fans who were making trouble outside.
However, this incident created a rift between the fans of the two countries.
"Brazilians are so shameless, aren't they? As the host country, they actually resorted to such tricks. Can't they afford to lose?"
"Haha, they've already done all this filthy shit before we even met them. If we really run into them in the knockout stage, won't they send people with guns to shoot all our players?"
"Don't tell me, I really can't rule out this possibility!"
"That's right. With the security situation in the Brazilian slums, it's entirely possible to commit such a terrorist attack by simply hiring a few gunmen!"
"Why are you getting more and more scary? Such an outrageous thing shouldn't happen, right?"
"Who knows? It's a mess here. It's not surprising that anything could happen!"
This incident has been hotly discussed on the Internet and has had a negative impact on this World Cup.
Brazilians hope to use this World Cup to improve their country's image, attract tourists and thus boost their economy.
If such negative news prevents tourists from coming and even damages the country's image, it will be a total loss.
As a result, their police department had to step in urgently and stated that they would strictly protect the life safety of the players coming to participate in the Brazil World Cup and would not let them be threatened in any way.
However, people in Spain still seem to disbelieve the Brazilians' statement.
Bosque issued a house arrest order to the players, asking them not to run around. Even if they wanted to go out shopping, they were not allowed to act alone, and they were not allowed to go to places with poor security.
In fact, the public security in Brazil is not that bad. In the wealthy areas, there are sufficient police force and patrols are very intensive, so the public security situation is not too bad.
But in the slums, the situation is completely different.
Fortunately, the Spanish players are not here for tourism. They usually train and play games and don’t have much free time.
Faced with a powerful enemy, they had no intention of going out for fun.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is the opening match of this World Cup.
As per convention, the host Brazil team will play first.
Their opponent will be the Croatian team from the Balkans.
Brazil is not only the host of this World Cup, but also the favorite to win the championship.
Their opponent Croatia is not a traditional strong team. Among the many strong teams in Europe, it can probably only be ranked at a third-rate level.
Therefore, in the predictions of all parties before the game, the outside world was more optimistic about Brazil winning at home.
Since the Group B matches will not start until tomorrow, Bosque asked the players to watch the opening game together.
At 5 pm on June 12, the opening match of the 20th World Cup kicked off at the Corinthians Stadium in Sao Paulo.
The game was so popular that more than 80,000 people were squeezed into the stadium that could accommodate 75,000 people, many of whom were Brazilian fans who did not have tickets.
Looking around, the scene is almost a sea of green.
The Brazilians were in high spirits, and with the cheers of more than 80,000 home fans, they launched a fierce attack on Croatia right after the start of the game.
Brazil was the favorite to win the championship, and their opponent was just an unknown weak team. Wouldn't such a match be a sure win? However, the course of the game was beyond everyone's expectations.
Croatia took the initiative and threatened Brazil's goal twice in the 4th and 6th minutes.
It's a pity that their forward failed to seize the opportunity and turned it into a goal.
Still, Croatia’s attack paid off.
In the 11th minute of the first half, Croatia made a cross from the left, and Brazil's full-back Marcelo accidentally scored an own goal and sent the ball into his own goal.
The score became 0:1, and Brazil fell behind soon after the start! This was the first own goal in Brazil's 98 World Cup matches, and the first time in the history of the World Cup that the first goal was an own goal.
Marcelo accidentally set two records!
Seeing their own player score an own goal, the Brazilian fans at the scene were in an uproar.
The Croatian players were also a little confused, as it was just a cross that didn't pose much threat.
However, the opponent's defender turned the shot into a goal. Can we really defeat the powerful host team away from home?
As a result, the morale of the Croatian players was boosted.
They played more actively and proactively in the subsequent games, making the Brazilian team very passive for a time.
The Brazilian fans at the scene were extremely worried. It was so difficult to play against Croatia, how could they win the championship? The score behind made the Brazilian players a little impatient, and they played anxiously.
In the 14th minute, Brazil launched a quick attack on the right side. Oscar's cross slipped in front of the goal, but unfortunately the ball was a little too high. Neymar jumped very hard but still couldn't touch the ball. Brazil missed the opportunity to equalize the score.
Neymar tried his best in this ball. He didn't touch the ball after he jumped up, and he almost fell from a height of more than one meter onto the court. It looked painful.
In the 26th minute, something unexpected happened on the field. When Neymar and Modric were competing for the ball, Neymar elbowed each other's neck and was shown a yellow card by the referee.
This was a collision between two No. 10s. Both of them were suspected of fouling, but Neymar's action was faster and more ruthless.
At the critical moment, Neymar stood up.
In the 29th minute, Neymar relied on his personal ability to force his way to the top of the penalty area, despite the interference of the defensive players, and used a sudden low shot to penetrate the Croatian goal, helping the Brazilian team to equalize the score and bringing the two teams back to the same starting line.
The Brazilian fans at the scene burst into huge cheers, Neymar's name resounded through the sky, and countless Brazilians began to sing praises for him.
Neymar himself was also extremely excited. After scoring the goal, he ran to the corner area, opened his arms towards the audience, and calmly accepted the cheers and applause from the fans.
After this goal was scored, the morale of the Brazilian team was greatly boosted.
Their players played more and more relaxed, and the game gradually fell into their control.
In the 69th minute, Brazilian striker Fred fell in the opponent's penalty area. The referee awarded a penalty and gave the Croatian defender a yellow card.
The slow-motion replay at the scene showed that there was a lot of controversy about this ball. Croatian defender Lovren did not have any obvious pushing action, and it seemed more like Fred slipped himself.
After the penalty was awarded, the Croatian players surrounded the referee emotionally and forced him under the billboard on the sidelines.
The referee Yuichi Nishimura from Japan was also a good-tempered person. He was surrounded by so many Croatian players, but he didn't get angry. He just noted down Lovren's yellow card and didn't intend to add yellow cards to other players in order to maintain his authority.
Neymar stood in front of the penalty and calmly scored the ball.
2:1, Brazil took the lead.
After scoring this goal, Neymar completed his second goal, making him the second Brazilian player to score two goals in the opening game of the World Cup.
Judging from Neymar's performance in this game, he seems to have lived up to the high expectations of Brazilian fans.
As long as he can lead the team to win the World Cup, he will undoubtedly become a hero in the hearts of Brazilians!
Brazil played better and better. In the 91st minute, Oscar scored another goal with a poke shot in a counterattack, helping Brazil to fix the score at 3:1. In the end, the Samba Army reversed Croatia and got off to a good start.
In this game, if Neymar is the well-deserved MVP, then Oscar, who contributed one pass and one goal and made many threatening passes in the offense, is undoubtedly the second best player in the Brazilian team.
It is incredible that such an outstanding player would go to the Chinese Super League to make money in the golden period of his career.
The reason can only be explained by "they gave too much"!
After the opening match, the World Cup group stage started in full swing.
The second game of Group A will start at 13:00 on June 13.
After 90 minutes of fierce battle, Mexico, the traditional powerhouse from Central America, won a narrow victory over Cameroon from Africa 1:0.
The first round of Group A has ended. Brazil is currently at the top of the list with a goal difference advantage, and its qualifying situation is very good.
Mexico followed closely behind, while Cameroon and Croatia ranked second to last and last respectively. The prospects of advancing for both teams are very bleak, because judging from the course of the first game, they will most likely lose when they meet the first and second teams.
Brazil's good start excited the host fans.
On the Internet, fans of the Brazilian team were jubilant, and some optimistic Brazilian fans even began to look forward to the scene of their team lifting the trophy.
The World Cup schedule is not that long. For a team aiming to win the championship, they only need to play 7 games at most.
Brazil has won one game now, and there are only 6 games left for them.
This optimistic and even arrogant behavior has attracted a lot of criticism on the Internet.
It goes without saying that the fans of those teams participating in this World Cup and aiming to win the championship do not think that their teams are weaker than Brazil, and naturally they will not think that Brazil can win the championship just because of one game.
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Some neutral fans who do not have a home team, such as those in China, also cannot stand the Brazilians' self-boasting behavior.
"Isn't this too optimistic? It's just a group stage, what can we learn from this?"
"That's right. Croatia isn't a traditionally strong team. Isn't it normal for Brazil to beat them?"
"The strongest teams in Group A are Brazil and Mexico. If Brazil can beat Mexico in the next game, it will prove their strength!"
Mexico is a strong team in the World Cup. They have participated in 15 World Cups. In the previous five World Cups, Mexico has qualified from the group stage every year. Their current world ranking is 25th.
Judging from Mexico's ranking and past record, they are not a top team, but only a relatively strong second-tier team.
However, the gap between the second-tier teams and the first-tier teams is not that big. If the Brazilian team makes mistakes when facing them, they will also be in danger of losing.
Moreover, both teams currently have 3 points. If Brazil wants to qualify as the first in the group, it must fight for victory in the next game against Mexico.
If Brazil can easily defeat their opponents, it will prove that they do have the strength of a top team.
If they lose or are tied by Mexico, their prospects of winning the championship will be in big question.
After Group A's match is over, it will be Group B's turn.
The first match of Group B is a focus battle - the defending champion VS the runner-up of the last World Cup!
This is a re-enactment of the World Cup final in South Africa four years ago! It is also the first time in the history of the World Cup that the two teams in the last World Cup final meet in the first round of this group stage.
The two teams have met 10 times in history, with Spain having a slight advantage with 5 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw.
The last time the two sides met was on July 11, 2010, in the World Cup final in South Africa.
In that game, the two teams tied in regular time, and Iniesta's lore in extra time helped Spain beat the Netherlands 1-0 and win the South Africa World Cup.
Four years later, the two teams met again, still on the World Cup stage, and everything seemed to be arranged by fate.
Four years later, things have changed and the Dutch team has undergone huge personnel changes compared to the lineup four years ago.
Only seven of the players who participated in the last World Cup participated in this World Cup.
Spain has 16 players who participated in the 2010 World Cup. From this point of view, the Dutch team is younger, while the Spanish team is a bit older! However, even so, the outside world is more optimistic about Spain's victory.
Among the bets placed by several bookmakers before the game, more than 60% of fans bet on Spain to win, and less than 40% of fans thought the Netherlands would win.
It is worth mentioning that the odds of Spain losing to the Netherlands 1:5 are as high as 700 times. Anyone who dares to take a gamble may get rich.
Although it was not the opening game, the attention this game received was no less than that of the opening game.
On the Internet, the number of people discussing the match between Spain and the Netherlands far exceeds that of other matches.
Hundreds of reporters from various countries flocked to the pre-match press conference.
Faced with such high attention from the outside world, Dutch coach Van Gaal expressed confidence in an interview with reporters that he had found a way to deal with Spain and firmly believed that his team could win the game.
Facing Van Gaal's boasting, Bosque responded calmly:
"Over the past four years, countless teams have claimed they have found a way to deal with us, but in the end, they all failed."
Bosque has the confidence to say this, as his team's performance in international competitions in recent years is obvious to all.
World Cup, European Cup, Confederations Cup...
Spain's hands are weak as they win one championship trophy after another.
It’s not that countries have not taken targeted countermeasures against them, but without exception, all of them have failed.
Van Gaal is not the first person to say this, and he certainly won't be the last.
As for whether he can fulfill his big words, it depends on how the players under his command perform on the field.
On the afternoon of June 13, the entire Spanish team set out early for the competition venue, the Estadio Fonte Nova in Salvador.
When their bus arrived at the stadium, it happened to meet the bus of the Orange Army Dutch team.
The players of both teams noticed each other's arrival and stared at each other from a distance. The air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder.
There was no need for anyone to encourage them; the fighting spirit of the players on both teams was already burning.
During the pre-match warm-up session, the players of both teams did not communicate at all. Even some players who were teammates or had been teammates in the club did not show any intention of greeting each other.
In this kind of occasion, there was no space for them to reminisce privately.
In the coin-tossing session before the game, Casillas chose the right to kick off.
The Dutch team chose the right half as their own half.
In today's game, both teams chose away jerseys.
The Spanish players were wearing white uniforms with red stripes, and from a distance they looked a bit like Real Madrid.
The Netherlands team chose a blue jersey, which is slightly darker than Chelsea's uniform.
I don’t know if it’s because of the jerseys, but the Spanish team looked particularly impressive today, and the players looked a bit taller than usual.
Compared with them, the Dutch players looked like dwarfs and the gap was very obvious.
This scene made Bosque on the sidelines frown a little. He confirmed that this was not an illusion. The average height of the Dutch players on the field was indeed lower than that of the Spanish players.
This phenomenon proves that Van Gaal chose speed-type players today, and their attack on the flanks will definitely be very fierce!
The referee in charge of this game is the Italian golden whistle Rizzoli.
At 16:00, with the referee's whistle, the first round of Group B of the 2014 World Cup officially kicked off.
(End of this chapter)