Brazil triumphantly beats Australia 2:0

Croatia vs. Japan

Photo: Brazil triumphantly beats Australia 2:0

No goals but overflowing with emotion, witness of the quality of these 18^th World Cup Finals in Germany. Srna will rue his penalty miss for a long time to come (20’) but both teams created chances in a well disputed but clean game, different from the shocking scenes of violence perpetrated by the USA’s players yesterday against Italy, where it seemed they were more interested in breaking the legs of the opposing team than in scoring goals (which they have not yet managed to do).

Croatia had more shots, 16 (6 on target) against Japan’s 12 (5), 11 corners against 5 and 6 offsides against 1. The 0-0 does not make or break the plans of either team and D-Day will be on 22^nd.

Brazil 2 Australia 0

The refereeing could have been more regular. He showed a yellow to Ronaldo (much better) for kicking the ball after the whistle but showed nothing to the Australopthecus who tried to break his leg with his studs.

While everyone likes to criticise Brazil for not playing well, the fact is that all adversaries raise their game against the champions. Three members of the magic quartet participated in the first goal (Ronaldinho passed to the Phenomenon, who held three defenders before slipping the ball through for Adriano to score) and the other member of the quartet, Kaká, hit the crossbar after 81’, before Fred closed the game on 89’. 2-0.

Group F Classification after 2 games

(Goals scored, goals against, points)

Brazil 3-0 6

Australia 3-3 3

Croatia 0-1 1

Japan 1-3 1

France 1 Republic of Korea 1

Thierry Henri on 9’ and Park Ji-Sung after 81’ scored the goals, giving France another draw and 4 points to the Asian team. Nothing decided yet in this group. Tomorrow: Togo vs. Switzerland.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru