OT World Cup Day 7 Open Thread

Submitted by skurnie on

Day 7 of the World Cup is upon us. Spain/Chile should be the premiere matchup today. We'll see if Spain can bounce back against a very talented and exciting Chilean side. 

Here are the matchups for your viewing pleasure today:

Group B

Australia - Netherlands 12pm EDT (ESPN / Univision / Watch ESPN)

Spain - Chile 3pm EDT (ESPN / Univision / Watch ESPN)

Group C

Cameroon - Croatia 6pm EDT (ESPN / Univision / Watch ESPN)

wlubd

June 18th, 2014 at 10:08 AM ^

For those who care and are too lazy for maths:

If either of Cameroon or Croatia lose then they're mathematically eliminated.

Both Netherlands and Chile can clinch a Round of 16 spot today. In both cases, they need to win their game and have the other get at least a tie.

Saint_in_Blue

June 18th, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^

Way too much talent for Spain to lay another goose egg of a match. The Dutch are way better than people gave them credit for. They are the Spurs of futbol. And a much more even match with Croatia and Cameroon. Very likely a draw in that one.

skurnie

June 18th, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^

Netherlands:

Cillessen; Janmaat, De Vrij, Vlaar, Martins Indi, Blind; De Jong, De Guzman, Sneijder; Robben, Van Persie

Australia:

Ryan, Davidson, Cahill, Spiranovic, Leckie, Oar, Jedniak (c), McKay, McGowan, Wilkinson, Bresciano

 

No changes for the Dutch (and why would there be really). Several for Australia.

JBE

June 18th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^

I think Spain have a hard time recovering and lose to Chile on a Vidal goal. Netherlands cruise. Croatia win a tough fought battle.

alum96

June 18th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^

Australia playing great considering the level of competition -  makes me really shake our head at what we did vs Ghana.  Dutch are superior to Ghana and Australia is making some serious counterattacks, not just sitting back and taking waves of attack for 75 minutes and immediately turning it over.  Still not quite sure how the hell we won that game.

skurnie

June 18th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^

They've got Martins Indi immobilized on the stretcher after he landed awkwardly on his neck/shoulder. 

PSV's Memphis Depay coming on.

Bocheezu

June 18th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^

Not a soccer person, but I always wonder why more players don't hit balls on the fly like that.  You see so many wait for it to hit the ground and then fart around with touches, and by that time the defense closes on them and it's over -- is that volley just really hard to do?  In my limited viewing, it's very rare for someone to do that.

Bocheezu

June 18th, 2014 at 1:20 PM ^

I can imagine it being very difficult to execute that volley (I couldn't do it in a hundred tries, I know that much), and it did have certain things going for it in that it was basically served up on a platter for him and he was in a perfect position to put power behind it and place it where he wanted to.  It just surprises me that there aren't "volley specialists" or something along those lines that can execute that more regularly; it was an incredibly efficient move that the defense had no way to respond to, which makes it seem like the ideal form of attack.

alum96

June 18th, 2014 at 1:30 PM ^

Yes, 1 touch is very effective and all these guys can do 1 touch passing/shooting easily.  It's how you advance the ball quickly.  But this type of volley is a different animal as it was "over the top" - in football terms its like a WR making an over the shoulder catch versus a catch running across the field.

Making that sort of play in practice versus in a game when you are running full speed, with defenders around you, judging a ball in the air that is swerving  - whole diff animal.  Lots of guys will get a knock on the ball but if you mishit it by 20% it will miss the goal or miss your target.  It would be akin to running up to a golf ball full speed and hitting it squarely.  He nailed that as well as you can even on a stationary ball.

RioThaN

June 18th, 2014 at 1:13 PM ^

Because it's really hard to do specially when the ball is coming from behind, you'll see more volleys when the ball comes in your direction, or even from the side, but as hard as it was for Willie Mays to catch that ball over his shoulder, it's harder to kick the ball and kick it good.

B-Nut-GoBlue

June 18th, 2014 at 1:12 PM ^

Hand Ball!!!

Though it was unintentional as all hell.  A bit of a weak call in my mind but if the rules say that's a hand ball, it is what it is.

Yeoman

June 18th, 2014 at 2:32 PM ^

I think there's a lot of variance in different soccer cultures over how this should be called. In the EPL they might let that go as ball-to-hand and not hand-to-ball. The announcers didn't like the call; neither did a forum commenter named "Englishref" (among others). Most of the forum agreed with it, though.

In Italy that's a stone penalty--they think it's the defender's responsibility to put his hand where it won't be struck and they call damn near everything even if it's from point blank range. That's a little extreme for me but it's at least your responsibility to tuck your arm against your body and when running it had better be a natural motion and not dangling behind you like this was. You let defenders trail or extend their arms without penalty, they'll take advantage of it and make themselves bigger.

skurnie

June 18th, 2014 at 1:13 PM ^

This World Cup is just crazy. Australia converts the PK and lead the Dutch 2-1. Incredible.

I'm guessing we'll see a Huntelaar appearance for The Netherlands