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Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

NeymarBrazil (Getty)

By MICHAEL KLINE

Spain will attempt to win their 30th consecutive match when they meet Brazil in the Confederations Cup final this evening.

The dream matchup of the tournament has come to fruition, and will either culminate in Spain winning their fourth consecutive tournament, or the hosts walking away as Confederations Cup champions for the third straight time.

But before the final takes center stage, Uruguay and Italy will square-off in the third-place match. Both teams are coming off of heartbreaking losses in the semi-finals, with Uruguay having the early advantage following Italy’s exhausting 120-minute battle against Spain.

If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):

TODAY’S SOCCER ON TV

SUNDAY

12pm – ESPN – Uruguay vs Italy

2pm – ESPN2 – New York Red Bulls vs Houston Dynamo

6pm – ESPN – Brazil vs Spain

Comments

  1. Apparently many of these observers go to watch every game with a predesposition to count cards and fouls and bad mouth the referees instead of watching the game closely. From my perspective Brazil not only anticipated Spains passes with a lot of foresight but actually robbed Spains players of the ball as cleanly as you could want better known as ‘picking the guys pocket’ in football jargon on countless occasions. You look at the faces of the Brazilian squad and what you see is exuberant hungry youth that aren’t awed by any reputation their rivals may bring with them. They are also skillful passers weighting their passes to their team mates with aplomb. They also never aimlessly clear balls just to get out from under so to speak. Each time their defence wins the ball they turn it into an attack. That’s why Spain lost they were simply outplayed by a superior team on the day. No amount of referees whistles were going to stop that juggernaught.!!!

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  2. Its like, 4 people whining about match fixing and the ref, he gave Spain a penalty!! Brazil deserved a couple of yellows, but thats not game changing stuff. When Brazil scored in the 2nd minute I thought, “Thank God, Spain is actually going to have to attack today!” Good game, good win by Brazil.

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  3. I can tell you this, I will be extremely happy when some team eliminates Brazil from the knockout round next summer. Hope that many teams watched the match today so they can prepare for Brazil and fans. For years, Italy have been the dirtiest team of all elite teams but today, Brazil just surpassed them.

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    • no problem! like i said, I’m a Spain and Madrid fan (after USA and DC United, of course) but while i thought Brazil were lucky to not get a few cards, i don’t see how anyone can claim this game was fixed or that Spain ABSOLUTELY would have won had Brazil received some yellows. Spain had their chances despite all the whining above…but today they couldn’t finish.

      congrats to Brazil!

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  4. Idk maybe he is afraid of what will happen to him if he made calls against Brazil? They are throwing Molotov cocktails outside the stadium apparently.

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  5. Okay using SanFrans numbers… that is 22 fouls without a yellow for Brazil.

    Don’t care how you feel about SanFran being energetic, but this officiating raises scary questions about integrity of home matches for Brazil in this upcoming tournament given recent happenings in world football.

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    • Not really. Spain missed the PK on purpose then? No goals wrongly called back or anything. Spain hasn’t put the ball in the net. It’s that simple. I wanted them to win but they were beat straight up.

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      • Wrong and wrong some more. The only reason this game went the way it has is the ref did not control the petty fouls in the midfield. That is where spain plays their game and the referee did not control brazils obvious attempts at cheaply slowing them down

        No single foul may have been yellow card worthy at times but the amount of fouls and the manor in which they were done absolutely warrented MULTIPLE yellows

      • How am I wrong?! Did Spain score? NO. FACT. You,just responded to me with your opinion, not facts. Multiple yellows don’t mean ANYTHING. They still didn’t score…including a missed PK. Nothing you said proved me wrong or showed me Spain wins if the ref gave Brazil a few yellows.

        All you babies get over it.

      • And you just proved what an absolute joke you are when it comes to actually analyzing and game and each teams tactics. Brazil played dirty thuggish football and got away with it. The scoreline does not even come close to showing what happened. Brazil was extremely lucky. Casillas on 19 out of 20 games makes at least 2 of those saves.

        Brazil getting yellows in the midfield means they cant afford the cheap fouls they kept commiting and spain is allowed to get into theyre game and style

      • Bro stop attCking me. Internet tough guy over here!

        You responded to MY comment about Spain not putting the ball in the net. You said I was wrong. Who scored for Spain? Who looks dumb now?

        Further, I didn’t analyze anything. And if your analysis of the game ends with Spain would have won if the ref gave Brazil some yellows…then your analysis is a joke.

        And I don’t care of Iker saves those 19 out of 20 times. HE DIDN’T TODAY AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. I’m a Madrid and Spain fan, so don’t call me a Brazil fanboy. Spain beats Brazil 6/7 games out of 10. Today they got beat.

        So again, who scored for Spain? Since you told me I’m wrong about Spain not putting the ball in the net.

      • for me, thuggish would be elbows to the back of the head, intentionally heading another player in the face, any elbow to the head or elbow at all…Brazil looked well versed in some of the dark arts, the way Italy is for example, not pure Jogo Bonito perhaps but Scolari influences this

        they played aggressively all together, took advantage of the energy instead of being overcome by it, and Spain will need to think about its own physicality this next year to be ready to counter imo

      • I agree with you to an extent, but persistent infringement must be enforced, and today it wasn’t. I’m not a Spain fan and I can’t stand how they flop even when leading 4-0, so on one hand, I’m glad to see Brazil embarrass them.

        On the other hand, imagine you’re playing a rec league game, and you’re continually fouled by the same players with nobody drawing a card or being told to chill out. Now imagine that one of your buddies tries to get a little payback with a similarly innocuous foul, but the ref pulls the yellow for the first offense. Changes things, doesn’t it?

      • Right. As a neutral, I think Brazil did get away with some cheap stuff in the midfield. Also, to your point Spain had legit chances and did not deliver in those moments. Missed PK and chances by Pedro and Villa in the second half (credit to Julio Cesar for couple of good saves). And Brazil with lethal counter-attacking.

        Cheers all.

      • Exactly. If you don’t finish your chances, you can’t win. Today Spain didn’t. I’ll still pick them over Brazil if I had to bet.

      • Spain missed scoring 4 goals by inches.

        The Corcovado was looking out for Brazil, and so was that piece of s*** of a ref.

    • +1 Mike E. Disgraceful officiating. and as I said above. on two seperate occasions Brazil players were basically assaulting Spain players in dead ball situations. I suspect that this was tactical strategy discussed before the game to intimidate the little Spanish guys and get ‘em all jittery. And those were not taps on the shoulders the Brazil thugs were giving, but hard shoves and jabs in the chest, something that refs almost always give yellows for.

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  6. Spain may need to bring some more muscle to the party in Brazil…that’s what I think, Adjust to this environment

    this team misses Puyol something fierce

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    • yeah, they did need some brawn out there today. do not understand why Javi Martinez did not start the game. Martinez has learned physical play at FC Bayern. But amazingly, against Italy Del Bosque brought Martinez in for the overtime as striker. Del Bosque is a genius coach, but Martinez as striker I don’t get at all and I am wondering about his roster today. In addition to Martinez, he should have started fresh players who did not play a full 120 minutes against Italy three days ago in the heat. Why not Fabregas and Cazorla and Villa all starting.

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    • He may be the ugliest dude in professional sports, but they do miss Puyol badly.. not just for his brawn, but Pique and Ramos just don’t seem to click in the middle.. Pique is like a completely different player without him for club and country

      I don’t know if they missed Xavi Alonso as much, but Busquets didn’t seem like he had any impact either

      I don’t know if Cesc or Sante would have made any difference, it was that back triangle that was on another planet

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      • cheers man

        yeah,covered everyone’s behind, gave confidence going forward. Ramos an interesting player for sure, always like the bite Xavi Alonso brings to game day for Spain, or players like that. Maybe Torres is that kind of player, ikn

      • Alonso might have helped, and Cazorla would have been somewhat used to the physical play of the EPL, but Brazil outclassed Spain today irrespective of biased refereeing.

  7. Jesus I hope we don’t end up with another world cup match fixing scandal involving the home team like South Korea in 2002.

    Just thought he was being too influenced by the crowd but this is really crossing the line.

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