For anyone who just woke up and saw a score of Brazil 3 Croatia 1 in the opening game in San Paulo, you are not seeing a true reflection of the match. It was much closer than the scoreline suggests and the result was in doubt until into injury time at the end of a fascinating 90 minutes. This made for a very good game as it could have gone either way for long periods with Croatia showing why yesterday I tipped them to finish 2nd in this group. I also tipped Brazil to win and score quite a few goals. They did - in fact all 4 since Croatia's goal was the first own goal to be scored by a Brazilian player at a World Cup final tournament. When Marcello unfortunately put the ball into his own net on 11 minutes, some may have wondered if Croatia might be the first team to defeat a host nation in the opening game. I did not fear that and by 29 minutes Neymar had equalized for Brazil, as the ball went in off the post.

Excitement as the teams are presented to the fans.

The sides remained deadlocked at 1-1 until 70 minutes and Big Phil Scolari had rung some changes with two substitutes. It was nail biting stuff with the clock ticking down and neutrals and Croatia fans will surely agree that two poor refereeing decisions altered this game. Brazilian striker Fred went down too easily after a light hand on his shoulder and the simplest of tugs. That is what he is paid to do and the referee awarded a soft penalty. I have seen them given, but often not given. I leave it to you to decide if pressure on a referee from the host nation drawing had any influence on who got the benefit of the doubt. Technically a pen but needed interpreting.

The crucial Brazil penalty hit home by Neymar

Yet justice could have been done as the penalty was not an unstoppable one - it ended inside the side netting because the Croatian keeper pushed it there after getting two hands on a shot of reachable height. He should have done better with all three of Brazil's goals. The second refereeing controversy occurred when Croatia were really giving it a go in the final 10 minutes. They had the ball in the net but the whistle had gone for a foul on the keeper. Yet replays showed that Cesar had come from his goal and into the back of the Croatian striker and not reached the ball, which the striker headed totally lawfully across goal. Many times no foul would have been given, but instead of leveling things up after his earlier generosity, the ref gave the foul here. So yes, Croatia can feel hard done by and deserve better in their next game. Brazil got a wake up call in a game where a draw would have been a fair result, and the score flattered them when, with Croatia up field and nothing to lose, Brazil's Oscar broke for a late 3rd goal in stoppage time. It was all over then!

China has well anticipated the World Cup. I saw many international Soccer shirts hanging up in one bar in Beijing's Sanlitun and the neon signs of all night opening for the cup in another in the West of Beijing. If more matches are as close as this one, we should be in for a great World Cup.

Worth staying up for and with plenty of coffee available.

By ColinSpeakman

International Educator, Economist, goal of helping to increase understanding of China by the West

 

 

(Opinions of the writer in this blog don't represent those of China Daily.)