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Day 1 - Resounding Shout
By Gabriel Cazotto
Imagine that the world stopped shortly after the goal Ghiggia scored in 1950. Imagine you have
been in a perpetual coma since the Maracanazo. Each Brazilian supporter awaken as the sun rose today like if Brazil have never been
Champions before, and that would play to win at home for the first time this long awaited star.
It was in this sense that the crowd sang the anthem a cappella with players visibly moved by the resounding shout, as the
Brazilian anthem says. Excitement soon turned to grief in Marcelo’s own goal in an avenue created by Daniel Alves in the right side of
the field. Daniel Alves, in fact the worst player at half time.
Croatia, very well tactically schemed laid down and rolled over on the right side of Brazilian defence, the fear of getting a defeat
in the first game, and having to get a result to maintain the Cup alive in the game against Mexico (which Brazil always suffers to win)
was already beginning to scare each fan. But it was too early to fear.
Neymar, in one of the first moves of the spectacular Oscar, delivered a long and weak shot, very weak, but so weak that even the
goalkeeper Pletikosa believed how weak it was when it entered the Croatian goal. As a pool cue to pocket a ball, Brazil tied a
complicated game with a Croatian team who dominated possession. Modric and Rakitic dictated the pace. The first half ended incredibly
nervous for both sides, Neymar could have been expelled while elbowing Modric, he wasn’t, a yellow was enough. I also would not give a
red card, for the record.
The crowd in São Paulo, unlike doing for over 60 years unfailingly, supported the team, which returned to control the game. When the
draw seemed fair, came the big disappointment of the day, the non-existent penalty of Fred. If many criticized the organization in
Brazil, even with the poor play by Brazil, they have forgotten that arbitration can ruin a game as much as these details, and it did
ruin.
In the end, no doubt, Brazil was superior, and Oscar the best player over the field, marked the third in a beautiful beak on the
ball over a Croatia already convalescing from Neymar’s goal from the penalty kick. The game was the most spectacular opening match of
the seven World Cups I've ever seen. But if Oscar played like a B grade, Nishimura would have a resounding F, but let’s remember this
first day with an A grade in the also resounding cry that echoed the crowd early in the game in the national anthem.
Man of the Match: Oscar - Brazil.
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