Saturday, June 14, 2014

Stars Rise and Holders Struggle in Day Two

Robin van Persie's beautiful diving header.
A familiar face tops the leader board after two days of World Cup action.  Three time champion Sharleen Samuelson has burst to the lead and BISERGS holder Carol Barrera and defending World Cup champs Spain both suffered huge defeats.  Perhaps Carol's backup plan will see her through as she also got Holland with her second pick in the draft and their result places her in seventh overall.  It was a brilliant display from the flying Dutchmen who used blinding speed and deadly finishing to put another hole in the once unbeatable Spaniards and their tika taka style.  The 5 -1 scoreline lifted all the Netherlands owners to the top of the current standings.

Mexico also looked excellent in their 3 - 0 victory over Cameroon that featured two goals by Giovani dos Santos (oh wait a minute, two more awful decisions by the officials took both dos Santos goals off the scoreboard).  Well anyway, they looked strong in their 1 - 0 victory over their African rivals.

In the final match of the day, Chile scored twice within two minutes early in the first half and looked like they were ready to route the Socceroos.  The surprising Australians fought back and gave Chile a real scare the rest of the way, but a late goal sealed the victory for Chile 3 -1.

The tournament has seen the expected stars of each team rising to the occasion.  Neymar scored twice in the opener for Brazil.  Robben and van Persie netted twice for Holland and Alexi Sanches scored Chile's first.

If you are like me and don't have anyway to watch the World Cup from home or you actually have a life that doesn't allow you to watch 6 hours of soccer every day, I recommend my favorite website http://www.footytube.com/ to catch up on all the highlights.  If you haven't seen Robin van Persie's header yet, it was an amazing goal worth watching (even for a Manchester United player, why did he ever leave Arsenal?).

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5 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 14, 2014 at 7:28 AM

    BISERGS fever has hit Abu Dhabi. Couldn't believe it when I was awake at 5 this morning checking the scores, then had to wait impatiently for Greg to give the first sign of waking to gleefully gloat!

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  2. UnknownJune 14, 2014 at 7:32 AM

    Liked your editorial comments on Dos Santos goals.

    I draw to your attention that I didn't choose to have two teams in the same group (SPA and NETH). The draw did that to me. Also, the draw made it that FRA (my 13th pick) is my only chance to make it to the semifinals from the Group E-H side. (I had chosen Argentina and Germany (my 4th and 2nd picks) from that side as the most likely to make it to semifinals. The next BISERGS, I suggest that we make your life even more complicated by awarding some points to people on the basis of their first four picks before the draw, just to see who was really the best soccer expert.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownJune 14, 2014 at 9:37 AM

      I know who gets the award for most competitive ;)

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  3. UnknownJune 14, 2014 at 7:33 AM

    Why did I get a notice saying that the video clip you posted above had been removed from the user?

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    1. GregJune 14, 2014 at 7:42 AM

      Any highlight that is found on the internet is probably illegal and will be taken down by FIFA's lawyers or one of the networks sooner or later. The person who posted that clip to YouTube probably got a very threatening email from somebody and decided to take it down. The clips posted from Russia and the Arab world seem to stay up longest and hopefully we'll still be able to see some highlights via the internet as the tournament goes on.

      Delete

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