Gee, One Game In And Declan Hill Looks Good Already!!!

The hosts couldn't even wait to get out of the first match before we had a blatant World Cup controversy that was ON the pitch.

69th minute, and the hosts are being held to a 1-1 draw.

As anyone who's been following the World Cup knows, rioting has been threatened (and occasionally spilled over) in Brazil during and since the Confederations' Cup warm-up last year.  Protests led to clashes even today, a Brazilian national holiday for the start of the tournament.

Then, Yuichi Nishimura of Japan stepped in with this howler off his whistle (if FIFA allows this YouTube post to stay up for any length of time -- har har):



The angle at 26 seconds shows it perfectly.  In a sport where a foul at midfield is not a foul in the penalty area (the ensuing kick is a 95% chance of a goal, due to the rules of a penalty kick -- Brazil converted and eventually won 3-1), Brazilian star Fred (one name) goes down after being, if at all held, held lightly.

But he falls backward, simulating a foul for which the defender is given a yellow card (and, if Nishimura were then smart about the fix, he'd have sent him off for dissent (a second yellow) during the ensuing crowding of the official, and might've sent off another Croatian for abuse).

If anything, that's a foul on Brazil and a yellow card on Fred.

Croatian coach Niko Kovac, perhaps giving a tell here:

"If that’s a penalty, then we can just stop playing football right now," said Croatian coach Niko Kovac, suggesting biased officiating could be a tournament long problem. "…It's ridiculous. If we continue in this way, we will have a circus. …If that’s how we start the World Cup, then we may as well give up and go home now."

If the match-fixers from Asia are in Brazil, as Declan Hill also has posited, they might well have another willing target now...

EDITED TO ADD: The post-call scrum with the Croatians relates to a past incident with Nishimura, upon further investigation -- he was banned from the 2008 African Cup of Nations for not sending off several players from Angola for shoving him during a similar melee.