Tears Flow for Cote d’Ivoire
While Serey Die shed tears for his father, who reportedly died just hours before Cote d’Ivoire’s kickoff against Columbia, his countrymen joined him at the end of the game after falling to Columbia. The first half passed mostly without incident, Cote d’Ivoire controlling the majority of play but neither team having any real advantage. The second half, on the other hand, was lightning quick attack and counterattack from both teams. James “Call Me James” Rodriguez scored his second goal of the World Cup Final on a marvellous header, then led his team in a rousing and hilarious dance party. Minutes later Juan Quintero pitched in with his first international goal on a brutal giveaway by Die. The Ivorians kept it interesting, forward Gervinho picking his way around three separate tackles in the penalty area and nearly putting a hole in the Columbian keeper was a rocket that made it 2-1. The excitement kept up right to the final minutes, when both keepers narrowly averting disaster—Barry Copa of Cote d’Ivoire was chased back to his line just in time to put hands on a long shot that would have scored, while Columbia’s David Ospina rescued his mates by charging out to clear a misplayed ball just before the Ivorians could reach it. The win pushes Columbia to the top of the Group C standings, but Cote d’Ivoire is still well positioned to join them in the next round.
Suarez Pushes England to the Brink
Finally we got our first look at Uruguayan superstar Luis Suarez and all we can say is, “wow.” Suarez is surely playing at less than 100 per cent, but that still leaves him among the best scorers in the world. Uruguay gave England plenty of looks at the goal in the first half—including a header off the bar by Wayne Rooney, who was hoping for the first World Cup Finals goal of his career —but England couldn’t make anything of their chances. Suarez made them pay in the 39th minute, heading home a spectacular service from Edinson Cavani. Rooney finally got his due in the 75th minute, though, needing only to tap in a cross to finally get the monkey off his back. But Rooney’s goal did nothing to silence Suarez, who took advantage of a poor header by Stephen Gerrard to go in alone and beat English keeper Joe Hart. England’s loss doesn’t eliminate them from the tournament just yet, but they’ll have to rely on the other teams in their group to give them room to sneak into the next round.
