X Thursday, June 12, 2014. 4pm Eastern time, 1pm Pacific time. Quinta-feira, 12 de Junho de 2014. 5pm horário de Brasília. Match 1, Arena de São Paulo. Welcome to the pre-match thread. The game is five weeks and 1 day away. I’m creating this thread on May 7th, 2014 because of how excited I am about this tournament. I’m not a moderator, but I’m certain our moderators will do their usual solid job of moderating this thread properly.
Let's add some info: Croatia WCQ Campaign 5W, 2D, 3L (2nd in group, Belgium 1st) Playoff: Croatia 2 x 0 Iceland (aggr) Past Meetings Record - 1W-1D-0L Croatia 1 x 1 Brasil - Friendly (Croatia) - 17/8/2005 Goals: Krancar (CRO) '32 , Ricardinho (BRA) '42 Brasil 1 x 0 Croatia - WC 2006 (Germany)- 13/06/2006 Goals: Kaka' (BRA) '44 Our record vs the old Yugoslavia was: 9W, 7D, 2L with 4 WC meetings (30, 50, 54, 74) with a record of 2W, 1D, 1L. Players to watch: Modric (Mid, Real Madrid), Rakitic (Mid, Sevilla), Mandzukic (Fwd, Bayern Munich) Note: Mandzukic will be suspended for this game.
I wonder why you made Croatia's badge noticeably larger than the Seleção's... Anyway, Mandzukic's absence is welcomed! It would be wise to also keep an eye on Modric, he might be the man that makes the gears turn on that team. Mark him out of the game, and Croatia is defanged.
I didn't make it bigger. It's what Wikipedia had. In fact, in 2010, when the moderator created a similar thread for Brazil's first game, North Korea's badge was bigger than ours. That means nothing. We are superior to Croatia in quality and history as we were and are superior to North Korea.
If I were to guess a scoreline, 2-0 with the game being close - maybe a late counter attacking goal to double the lead.
Close game, premier nerves, so why not 1-0, the key game of the whole tournament. Historically noticeable, two wc games in SA 1930 in Uruguay, 1-2 1950 in Brasil, 2-0 so I see where You get Your historical scoreline Leonidas I take the 2006 one. Maybe Oscar can match Kaka's goal.
Isn't our first game in WC, always close games. At least in recent memory. It always seems like we are in 2nd gear during the 1st game.
2x1 against North Korea, 1x0 against Croatia, 2x1 against Turkey, 2x1 against Scotland, 2x0 against Russia ... that 1994 opener is the biggest margin of the last 5 openers. And while on paper some of those were meant to be cake, the Russia one was probably the calmest. North Korea was ridiculously late before we scored and then they came back and got one... embarassing. Croatia was cagey and we never looked likely to score much. Turkey was, well, that game is infamous. Scotland required an own goal.
Most openers are pretty tough. Difference I'd say here is brazil is at home and they are the superior team. Really might come down to the atmosphere of the stadium too.
And the opponents' approach. If there's an early goal but they remain solid in defense, it might look just as tough as the other recent openers. But I have no doubt the atmosphere will be like the Confederations Cup.
I also noticed that too. I liked what brasitusa picked because that was my line of thinking. When I remembered the 94 opener, I wasn't sure what the 98 one was.
Even going earlier it has always been tough. In 82 we were down 0 x 1 till the 75th to the Soviets. We won 2 x 1. In 86 1 x 0 vs Spain. In 90 it was 2 x 1 vs Sweden (although we were up 2 x 0 so a bit easier).
The final? In all seriousness though it's part of the stupid politics of this Cup. Instead of playing in one region we're all over the place while some of our rivals ended up with less travel.