Group A:
Brazil gets three goals from Neymar after he should've been sent off for a forearm to the face in the first match: Check.
Mexico gets two Dos Santos goals wrongly disallowed for comical offside calls: Check.
Brazil 2 wins and a draw Goal Difference: +5
Mexico Same record Goal Difference: +3
As a result:
Brazil get this R16-quarterfinal setup:
Brazil vs. Chile
Colombia vs. Uruguay (more on that in a second)
Mexico get European power Netherlands (one of the last Euro powers left, with both Spain and Italy now eliminated!)
Costa Rica face Greece in the other match of that quarter.
Fortunately, those are quarters in the opposite half of the draw, but this is getting awfully gift-wrapped for Brazil.
And we have Luis Suarez of Uruguay to thank for that.
AGAIN.
For the third major time in his professional career, Suarez, seen by many as one of the top players in the world, is under a suspicion of a long ban for literally sinking his teeth into an opponent today.
In the second half of a scoreless match with Italy, Luis Suarez appeared to lean his head in and headbutt and bite Italy's Giorgino Chiellini, resulting in a clear bite mark on his shoulder.
Suarez, for those who need a reminder:
- Exited the Netherlands side Ajax with his first bite incident in late 2010, when the Dutch league suspended him for seven matches and Suarez was shopped to Liverpool during the ban.
- Was suspended by the English FA for eight matches less than a year later and fined 40,000 British pounds for a racial epithet at Patrice Evra of Manchester United.
- Was banned by the FA for ten matches in April of 2013 for his second bite incident, this one against Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea.
- AND I FORGOT THIS ONE: Edit to add: His deliberate handball on the line in the last World Cup to progress Uruguay to the semifinals, a semifinal they had no right to be in...
And here's the thing:
At that point, the match was scoreless. Uruguay scored a short time later, and Italy were eliminated as a result of the 1-0 loss. A draw would've sent Italy through, second in the group.
The referee and the official on that side didn't see it.
Now, as a result, both the Italian national team coach and the president of Italy's football association have both resigned as the result of what appears to be yet another referee-induced/unfair/rigged/scripted early exit in the World Cup.
(Not unlike Bosnia-Herzegovina's, referenced earlier in this blog.)
Luis Suarez is a man who cannot control his emotions on the pitch, and, even though he is still considered one of the top ten players in the world, that cannot excuse a continuing pattern of this conduct (and may actually explain his undefensibility, to coin a word -- as well as his status as one of the ten best footballers in the world).
I mean, would you want to be the guy marking someone who might sink his teeth into you at a key moment?
Suarez needs to be banned -- for LIFE. No more football, no more soccer, no more of it.
The problem with this is that FIFA by-laws appear to max out at twenty-four months.
If I were running FIFA, not only would Suarez be banned for life, Uruguay would be disqualified from the World Cup and replaced with Italy.
That's for starters...
And then, if that's not enough, we have continuing allegations coming out from the Ghanian camp that a video has surfaced in the continuing investigation into match-fixing in soccer (which has all but been lifted from the work of Declan Hill, thankyouverylittle), confirming that no less than the president of Ghana's football federation has been in direct communication with the likes of Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal for fixing of matches.
Hmmmm...
Let's see here...
The last USA match had ratings, at the least, comparative to the recent NBA Finals, the last bastion of the Big Three in Miami.
Ghana has a much easier road to the second round with a victory and a USA defeat than Portugal does...
HMMMMMMMMMM....
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