World Cup Day 2 Review

Two days into this World Cup and it could be the best two opening days we’ve seen. Disallowed goals, controversial refereeing decisions and goals galore have culminated in one of the biggest upsets in modern World Cup history.

More from World Cup

Mexico 1 – 0 Cameroon

What looks like a boring scoreline was anything but. Giovanni Dos Santos must have felt that all the bad luck of Friday the 13th was falling on him as he saw two perfectly legal goals both ruled out for offside. Eto’o looked isolated up front for Cameroon but clipped the post with a snapshot in the first half, however that was as close as the African side came.

Mexico scored the only goal of the game when Dos Santos broke clear again, but his shot was saved and pushed into the path of Peralta who duly slotted into the open net. Mexico held on to claim a vital 3 points, and the linesman will be glad his poor decisions didn’t influence the overall result.

Spain 1 – 5 Netherlands

Hands up, who predicted this result? If you’ve got your hand up, you’re lying. Spain have been the best side in the World for a while now and most people, including me, were predicting a tight match with the most likely winners being Spain. It all seemed to be going to plan when Costa went down in the box to give Alonso the chance to score from the spot, a chance he took comfortably. And when Silva was played clean through on goal there seemed to be little going for the Dutch side.

However Silva’s week finish seemed to be the end of any chance Spain had, as less than five minutes later a long ball from Daley Blind found Van Persie all alone 15 yards out from goal and he finished superbly with a lopping diving header that left Casillas helpless. 10 minutes into the second half and Robben put the Dutch team into the lead for the first time, with a cool finish from another long ball that started a spell of complete Dutch dominance.

Van Persie rattled the crossbar with a stunning volley before De Vrij bundled in a Sneijder freekick to put them 3-1 up. Silva then had a goal (correctly) disallowed before a mistake from the usually reliable Casillas allowed Van Persie to slot in his second. The fifth came after more calamitous defending and another cool Robben finish, but it could have been more if not for some smart glovework from Casillas in the Spanish goal.

Live Feed

Spain players forced to join national team /

Playing for 90

Spain players not joining national teamPlaying for 90

Jorge Vilda axed as Spain managerPlaying for 90

Spanish Federation calls for Luis Rubiales to resign in contrast to previous statementPlaying for 90

FIFA suspends Spanish FA president Luis RubialesPlaying for 90

Luis Rubiales must go as president of the Spanish FAPlaying for 90

The Spanish team looked shellshocked but their inability to deal with direct play up the middle will have excited a lot of the top teams.

Gunner Watch – Cazorla was a mere spectator to the carnage, spending all 90 minutes on the bench.

Chile 3 – 1 Australia

After one of the most amazing halves of football the World Cup has ever seen to one of the most predictable games yet. Chile were better than Australia throughout and it could have been more, but Chile took their foot off the accelerator when they went 2-0 up after 14 minutes and allowed Australia into the game. Top scorer Cahill scored Australia’s goal with a nice headed effort to become the only player ever to score competitive goals on all six football playing continents.

Chile rarely looked too troubled but will not be able to play the same football against Spain or the Netherlands and I think this will be the only 3 points they will pick up. Australia are likely to go home without a point to their name after these three games.

Home/World Cup