Balls Galore: Brazil and Mexico draw

The 1-1 draw at the at Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza witnessed by legions of its adoring fans here in Malaysia beginning at 3 in the morning was indeed a big letdown. Having started so brightly in their first match against a hapless Croatia on opening night, Brazil showed that even footballing aristocrats, if they let their guard down even so much as a flicker, can be humbled.

But Mexico are not exactly football’s also-rans by any stretch of the imagination. Drawing one-all is no disgrace. After all, this result means Brazil and Mexico sit pretty at the top of Group A on four points and need not fret nor break sweat for a win in their remaining two matches. Such is the joys, for the early winners; and perils and pitfalls facing the laggards.

Brazil came up against an unmovable wall called Guillermo Ochoa who used every part of his anatomy – save for those in the more tender region. There were 2 direct shots from Neymar – one he palmed away while another; well; his knee got in the way. It turned out to be a mighty save any way!

Mexico had their moments too, peppering the Brazil bastion with great vigour in the second half. It was their substitute Raul Jiminez (how much more Latin a name can that be?) blasted some stinging shots that was adequately saved by keeper Julio Cesar (another typically aristocratic Brazilian footballing name in deference of its Portuguese DNA).

From the bottom half of the Group A table, both Cameroon and Croatia can only look up and envy at how their South American opponents are sitting pretty.

Croatia continues to nurse a feeling of being dealt an injustice. The penalty conceded in the first game against the hosts still rankles. Croatian coach was quick to absolve his defender of the offence of tripping Brazilian Fred and that Japanese referee Nakayama had taken leave of his sense of neutrality.

If anything, his feeling of being persecuted can only be down to the fact that advantage in these circumstances normally lies with the home nation. Having spent over US$11 billion on hosting this event, surely, they are due a bit of judicial largesse – no?

The other match of note early today was the 1 – 1 Russia – South Korea draw. Almost the whole of Asia rejoiced when Lee Keun-ho fired what looked like a friendly-looking shot from long range goalwards only for Russian keeper Igor Akinfeev to let it squirm out of the palm of his huge hands. Russian president Vladimir Putin – the nation’s number one sports exponent no doubt might well be thinking of suitable punishment when the team returned home early when Aleksandr Kerzhakov popped up to save his colleague’s bacon.

It was a master stroke from Russian team manager Fabio Capello – the Italian who once coached England and now entrusted with the footballing fortunes of the Russians – who introduced Kerzhakov, a striker from Zenit St Petersburg. He had only been on the field for all of three minutes before scoring the equalizer in the 74th minute.

Sandwiched in between those two matches was the Belgium – Algeria clash. Although there was not so much local interest here in Malaysia over the outcome of the match, it still did attract the attention of the legions of Manchester United fans.