Posted on 06/13/2014 1:58:16 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Neymar saved Brazil's blushes as a controversial late penalty saw him strike a double to give the hosts a 3-1 win over Croatia.
The Barcelona forward converted a hotly disputed spot-kick 19 minutes from time after Fred tumbled under minimal contact from Dejan Lovren.
It capped a superb night for the 22-year-old on a personal level as he marked his 50th cap for his country by drilling in a low 25-yard effort just shy of the half hour after Niko Kovac's side had silenced a buoyant home crowd.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.eurosport.yahoo.com ...
What do you do when you’re a world class footballer who has just won his country victory at the opening game of the World Cup?
Oh yes, hang out with your girlfriend in a closet.
Croatian press slam 'shameful' penalty
"Injustice!'' "Shame!'' and "Referee shamelessly broke the Fiery Ones (Vatreni - the team;s nickname)!'' read the leading dailies frontpage headlines as they lamented over an "invented penalty.''
The press gave great play too to Croat coach Niko Kovac's comments to Croatian state-run HRT television that: "If that was a penalty then we should not play football anymore!''
Goodness!
Why do I see Jerry Lewis, with dental inserts, saying...”Me so solly!”
Officers also used rubber bullets as anger at the money being spent to host the competition spilled over.
I can see how the referee called the penalty in the box. It’s not like soccer players ever flop...
(insert Asian eye joke here)
While I have come to enjoy soccer late in life, I continue to think the game needs a bit more scoring. Not because I want cheap goals -- the travesty that basketball has become should cure anyone of that -- but because bad or questionable calls, fluke goals, and shootouts loom far too large in soccer. Bad calls happen in all sports. Can't be avoided. But in most sports you can say, "let's get it back," and mean it. In high level soccer, scoring is so difficult that getting it back requires a bit of a miracle.
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