Pierre Boisrond has followed soccer and the World Cup
closely for many years and also writes for other websites. We at PWC are proud to have him as
a columnist. He will share his views about the past, present and future of
the World Cup.
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Colombia booked ticket for round of 16; Suarez buried England in a bottomless pit
Day 9 of the World Cup started with Colombia vs Ivory Coast. When a
nation team is coached by Jose Nestor Pekerman, one would expect that team to play beautiful football. The Colombians are producing
some beautiful football in this tournament and I must commend Maestro Jose Perkerman for his job so far.
I predicted the game to end 2-1 in favor of Colombia. Indeed, Colombia won the game 2-1. However Colombia were
most aggressive and should have been up in the score sheet at half-time had Teofilo Gutierrez not wasted a goal that was presented to
him on a silver platter. The first half ended 0-0 between Colombia and Ivory Coast.
In the second half, both teams knew they needed those 3 points to qualify without any headache for the 16th
round. Colombia took the initiatives and dominated the first half hour of the second half. This Colombian national team reminded me
of the Colombia of the 1990 World Cup with Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama, Freddy Rincon, Leonel Avarez, and Rene Higueta. In 2014, the
talented James Rodriguez replaces the man with the golden hair, the Colombian Pele or the Colombian Maradona, Carlos Valderrama. As
Colombia continued to put Ivory Coast intense pressure, the young James Rodriguez put Colombia up 1-0 in the 64th minute on a beautiful
header after receiving a magnificent executed corner kick from Juan Cuadrado.
After being up 1-0, the Colombians continued to pressure the men conducted by the talented Yaya Toure. Under
constant pressure, The Ivorians gave the ball in the midfield and Juan Quintero, the substitute, took advantage of their mistakes to
score the second goal for “El Equipo Cafetero” in the 70th minute.
The situation became very difficult for Ivory Coast trailing 0-2. However, Ivory Coast started to play their
best football in the last eighteen minutes of the game. In the 73rd minute, the talented Gervinho scored a beautiful goal after
navigating his way through the Colombian defense and blasted a vicious shot that left the Colombian helpless. The Ivorians continued
to corner the Colombians but they were unable to obtain the equalizer at the end of the game despite getting some clear chances at the
end of the game via the talented Didier Drogba. The game ended 2-1 and Colombia earned their ticket to play in the round of 16.
My advice for the Colombians is that they need to know how to close a game because they almost handed the
Ivoirians the equalizer. They will need that in the next round.
The game of the day for Day 8 was England vs Uruguay. I predicted England to win the game 2-1. To tell you
the truth, as I was writing my predictions, I even questioned my own decision of betting against the phenomenal Luis Suarez who had
tremendously helped me in the 2013-2014 premier league fantasy season.
Somehow, I felt that England would do better than Uruguay. After all, Uruguay had no ideas of what they were
doing in front of Costa Rica. Though England lost against Italy, I felt that England had played well and that was the justification
of my prediction.
In the first half both teams play decently but again when the talented Suarez is there on the field, it
would be foolish to bet against him. However, England were determined as well to gain their first three points. England found
their clear chance in the first half but Wayne Rooney did all he could to head the ball on goal but the ball ended hitting the
crossbar. Sooner after that, the 2013-2014 Premier League Footballer of the Year, received a cross from Edison Cavani and headed
the ball into the net guarded by the Manchester City goalkeeper, Joe Hart. The first half ended 1-0 in favor of “El Equipo Celeste.”
In the second half, England played hard to get the equalizer. When Uruguay scored first, opponent, at times,
could find it hard to get the equalizer. The English players were a bit tired and I think they spent so much energy against Italy and
they appeared a bit slow in front of Uruguay. Despite the wall built by the Uruguayan defenders, Rooney found a ball on a silver platter
to tie the game 1-1 for England. It was Rooney’s first goal in a World Cup. I thought luck was on England’s side but there’s no such
thing as luck when Suarez is your opponent. After receiving a long ball, touched by Cavani and Gerrard, from Muslera, the Uruguayan
goalie, Suarez blasted a shot that Joe Hart could not do anything about it and augmented the score 2-1 in favor of the national team
of Uruguay. This was truly unbelievable because was not supposed to be 100%; he was 2x100% for me.
Today I was foolish to bet against Suarez because his main objective was to send England to a funeral and now
it would be up to Italy and Pope Francis in the Vatican to rescue England in the game between Italy and Costa Rica. Somehow, I must
ask myself whether Pope Francis of Argentina would have full sympathy for England. We will know later today if Italy and the Pope would
rescue England for the sake of Queen Elizabeth. If not, Pope Francis of Argentina will have to sing England’s requiem.
The last game of the day was between Japan and Greece. I predicted Japan to win the game 1-0. However the game
ended up 0-0. It was not an exciting game but both teams did play hard to get those three points. With Greece playing with 10 men,
Yoshito Okubo wasted a golden opportunity to give Japan the win. Both teams share a point and they hope they can move to the next round
based on a winning result in their last game in the first round.
Now it is time for my predictions for day 9. First, let me say that I was 33% right in my prediction for day 8.
Therefore I hope no one will use my predictions to bet and I hope one can see why. Here are my predictions for Day 9:
Italy 2 – Costa Rica 0
Switzerland 1- France 2
Ecuador 2 –Honduras 0
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