Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By CAITLIN MURRAY
Heading into its 12th day, the World Cup is entering a new phase of the tournament. Teams will begin playing their third and final group games, which also means the game schedule will shift to two games kicking off concurrently for the rest of the group stage.
The day will start with two Group B games that don’t matter too much results-wise, but should still be entertaining matches. Australia and Spain will face off at noon ET while the Netherlands and Chile play. The latter two teams will be fighting for placement in the knockout round, but the former two teams will fight only for pride. After 2010 World Cup champion Spain suffered two embarrassing defeats to the Dutch and Chile, it should be interesting to see what they do against Australia, a team that was never expected to go far in the World Cup, even as their 2014 World Cup is already over.
Then at 4 p.m. ET, things get a bit more interesting. Group A is not settled yet and, with one game left to play, Croatia and Mexico will find out who advances and who goes home. Mexico has been looking like a strong team, but Croatia has perhaps surprised a few by giving Brazil a harder time than expected before a rout of Cameroon. While Mexico and Croatia face off, Brazil will take on Cameroon only for placement since Brazil has already locked a spot in the knockout rounds.
If you will be watching today’s matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (TV listings after the jump):
TODAY’S WORLD CUP SOCCER ON TV
12 p.m. — Spain vs. Australia — ESPN2
12 p.m. — Netherlands vs. Chile — ESPN
4 p.m. — Brazil vs. Cameroon — ESPN2
4 p.m. — Mexico vs. Croatia — ESPN