I think Ruud Gullit is right about the Netherlands defense. They gave Slovakia some good chances in the center of defense. They’re playing with fire if they do that against Brazil,
More subjective officiating: Robin Van Persie’s studs up crunching of Radoslav Zabavnik’s leg in the 55th minute was reminiscent of Ronaldinho’s foul on Danny Mills in the 2002 quarterfinal against England. The referee didn’t even award a foul.
Speaking of Van Persie, he still doesn’t look 100%.
Talk about an ending with a whimper and not a bang: a successful penalty kick and all Robert Vittek has to show for it is a share of the scoring lead – for now.
Incredibly boneheaded play by Jan Mucha on the second goal for the Netherlands, exacerbated by Martin Skrtel being more concerned about an argument that he should have known he would not win.
Just another excellent day at the office for Gilberto Silva. No flash, just consistency.
Robinho’s continuing to develop his role as playmaker – and it’s a pretty good work in progress.
I don’t know why Chile did not bother to have a player against the post on the corner kick in which Juan scored. I always thought that was defense 101. Considering that Chile had a huge height disadvantage, it only made even more sense.
Possession stats were evenly split between Brazil and Chile, but Brazil had twice as many shots on target.
Some impressive stats courtesy of ESPN:
- Brazil is now 53-2-4 at the World Cup when scoring first, 35-0-2 when
leading at halftime and 46-0-0 when taking a two-goal lead. - Since Dunga took over as coach in 2006, Brazil is now 15-0-0 when
Robinho scores and 30-0-4 when Kaká and Robinho play.