By RYAN TOLMICH
Groups C and D will get their chance to shine Saturday, with a slate of four games headlining World Cup action.
A matchup between Colombia and Greece will kick things off, with the Colombians entering this year’s tournament with their most talented team since they’re famous 1994 squad. However, Greece is no stranger to deep tournament runs as underdogs, as evidenced by their famed Euro 2004 triumph. The highly publicized absence of Colombian striker Falcao will certainly level the playing field.
The day’s second contest will feature a Luis Suarez-less Uruguay taking on Costa Rica in what looks like the days biggest mismatch on paper. Even without Suarez, the Uruguayans boast an attacking lineup featuring Edinson Cavani and 2010 Golden Boot winner Diego Forlan. They will be heavily favored to kickoff the tournament with three points.
Saturday’s headliner comes next, as a pair of European powerhouses collide when Italy takes on England. Longtime Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is doubtful for today’s action, leaving Italy without their first-choice goalkeeper and their first-choice left back, due to the injury to Mattia de Sciglio. The two sides faced off just two years ago in Euro 2012, with Italy prevailing on penalties after a perfectly taken Panenka from Andrea Pirlo.
Finally, Didier Drogba and the Ivory Coast round out today’s action when they take on Keisuke Honda and Japan. Both sides are a part of a wide-open race to emerge from Group C with Colombia and Greece, so a hot start will be crucial to a possible knockout stage run.
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
11:30am – Colombia vs. Greece – ABC
2:30am – Uruguay vs. Costa Rica – ABC
5:30pm – England vs. Italy – ESPN
8:30pm – Ivory Coast vs. Japan – ESPN
Italy and England was quite boring.
Italy is a great team that is usually awful to watch. England has it all on paper in in theory but the final result is always bad.
Let’s go Japan!!!!!
Wow.. Imo is has been one of the best matches in the W.C.. Game was raw
England’s youth movement came close. But, Italy too smart and too professional. I’m happy.
I knew England couldn’t win. Thank you Balotelli.
Spoken like a man who is relieved that he was more-or-less proven correct 🙂
Well that was a fun game until Italy decided to park the bus. Ridiculous free kick by pirlo.
We would see Pirlo’s freekick for decades, if it goes in.
Is the England team what the ceiling looks like for the USMNT?
Look at what is happening to England. Cramps and an obvious decline in focus. Don’t want to be chasing the game in Manaus.
Yes!!! Balotelli!!!!! Italy!!!!
Nasty cross to tee up Balotelli’s header. And the 2H comes to life.
Candreva doing some dominating out there
The England team visited an orphanage in Brazil today.
-‘It’s heartbreaking to see their sad little faces with no hope’-
said Jose, age 6
hahahahaha
Ha!
Oh that that is cruel.
So Ballack feels like England and Italy can tie because they will beat Uruguay and Costa Rica. Its amazing how these Europeans think the cup was made for them.
Anybody else excited for this second half?
cin cin!
that was sweet from Mario, Candreva doing whatever he wants so far
Noooooo!!!!!!!!!
England looking seriously good
Hmm, yeahm Italy needs to find a way to a lock on all the speed England has.
And wow again
Boo!
OH MAN!!!!! this game got exciting finally!
game on!
yes, what a day so far
Very Nice Italy.
Sei italiano Fredo? ciao amico mio
That ball was very well struck but also had eyes, apparently!
lol oh England.
You were saying? 🙂
You were saying? 🙂
Sorry I was busy laughing.. where were we? 🙂
Yes!! Go Italy!!!!!
Can’t blame that on the grass.
haha! no
How tight were those Uruguay jerseys though? That was weird
I knew I wasn’t the only person seeing that…
I’m not gonna lie. I really love the World Cup.
So if Italy and England tie, Costa Rica may have a 50/50 chance to advance.
Yesterday a random German man walked away from me shaking his head when I told him
That Mexico was concacafs, 4th play in WC qualifier, and that the region ain’t half bad.
Anyway don’t listen to the bs some people will try to feed you
regarding regional strength etc.
In fact it helps with FIFA rankings and may yield in time more considerations.
for example if you are somebody like Canada, or Jamaica, or any other team from concacaf
not in the WC, you still want the region to be successful,
and purely as a fan it’s nice to know you are watching decent quality.
it also will help with development,
I bet more club teams are taking greater notice as well.
I said it at the time and I’ll stick by it, Pirlo’s influence on that game was overrated and overstated. He played a lot of balls over but most of them were over the defense in a way that the defense could recover and deal with the threat.
yeah, that dummy from him was SO overrated…
Yes the dummy from today that helped Italty score back in Euro 2012, completely agree that was the point I was making, well argued.
love all the scoring in this World Cup-higest goals per game since?
Sometimes the media can be poison. I don’t see anything “remote” about this city and the stadium is perfect.
They claim you can only get there by boat or by plane but it looks like a normal cities with roads? There is no highway connecting it to the rest of Brazil??
The field looks fine in Manaus. The English always have to find something to complain about or an excuse to make. Freaking bums!
didn’t they paint the field green, at least in many parts? whatever, just have to play. we’ll see if it’s an issue or not soon enough and hope it’s not
no, it is not “fine”. when you have to paint the field, there is a problem.
There was an article on Goal dot com yesterday,which states that both Hodgson and Gerrard said they would have no problems playing on the pitch in Manaus. Additionally, I’ve worked outside of Manaus as a biologist for a songbird study. To say the city is remote is an understatement.
Really? I just said in another comment that it looks like a normal cities with roads and stuff. Why can you only get there by plane/boat? Why don’t roads connect it to the rest of the country?
Its definitely a “normal” city with roads, restaurants, growing economy, a nightlife, etc…Many of the roads connecting the city with the rest of the region aren’t even paved all the way and are very poorly maintained. i couldn’t say for sure if there is any roads paved or not that connects it with another major city. I do know that you can 100’s of miles in any direction without encountering more than farmers or a village. The rain forest around there is spectacular.
Cool, interesting, thanks for sharing
Kodi. Thanks for this. Very interesting. You obviously have some unique perspective on the region.
In your view, is there a unique factor that the USMNT (or anybody) should recognize and adapt to — specifically from the perspective of the on-field competition? The media has told us that humidity and pitch are the likely “things to watch”. Anything they may be missing? Any off-field concerns teams may encounter during the buildup that are unique to the region?
I didn’t notice too much during England-Italy that was unique, outside of the cramping lapses of concentration that England experienced in the final 15 minutes… Very noticiable, and very similar to what happened for England vs.a 10-man Brazil in 2002, in the heat and and humidity of Shizuoka.
The locals there were great. The humidity is the only thing I can speak of. Most of us experience high 80s to low 90s. ,but the humidity is what really wears you down like you mentioned. You can literally feel the air its so thick. Days of hydration in advance help. I think our boys can adjust to it better han some of the euro teams. Also in regards to the roads as discussed below,you made an excellent point about letting them decide if they want roads connecting to other areas. The people there enjoy their rainforest and cultural isolation. Fragmenting the rainforest with roads has a huge negative effect on the wildlife.
dude, you make it sound like an Interstate system is easy or cheap. especially one in the middle of the Amazon! and we all know the Brazilian government doesn’t necessarily spend tax dollars intelligently.
Hey I am from America so I am ignorant as to why other countries dont enjoy the luxuries we have, back off. Brazil managed to pay a billion dollars or whatever for a World Cup.. how expensive is a one-lane highway?
there are places in america like that, too. 🙂
a couple cities in alaska aren’t connected to any other cities by highway. they still have cars and roads in the city, they just have to ship or fly everything there.
did you really not pick up on my point about their government not spending money intelligently?
You mean the type an heavy-logging truck uses to haul commercial timber volumes? Plenty of timber companies would pay for that themselves, World Cup or not. Plenty of environmentalists would fight it, World Cup or not.
Could be a lot of things, guys. One thing I’m confident of— this kind of infrastruce is not something FIFA should be financing, regardless. Builiding roads that connect these regions should be the decision of Brazilians, not some Swiss con artist.
you’re doing a heckuva job, sepp!
Well, the standard has been set for CONCACAF.
It has, Costa Rica didn’t just steal a couple goals they out played them, lets do this
What’s Alexis Lalas going to say now? Douchbag that he is. Can’t stand him and his mini-me, Twellman.
It’ll probably go something like this “I still believe this fully motivated Costa Rican team will lose to England and Italy”
It funny but every time COCACAF win against a big team its never how well we played thats talked about it’s how the other team had a bad game and it thats exact mentality that will make it easier for them to beat England and Italy.
I love twellman. palaeontology not so much.
This’s is why the World Cup is the best sporting event in the world. Nothing comes close.
earned victory. the better team today. Costa Rica
Ticos!!!!!!!!!
Thanks God the refs caught that one.
Five seconds before the end of the game.
Stupid.
Did you just call me stupid?
No. He didn’t. But I will. Your are stupid. Very stupid.
We’ll deserved red card.
Uruguay shows it’s class.
I abhor Joel Campbell, but he looks like a great player. He’s going to be a handful everytime we play CR.
Looks like your conspiracy theory view was in fact correct, WRF! Uruguay is clearly about to win here because the ref threw the match due to the lesser prestige of CRC. Gotta hand it to ya — great call.
Can Honduras and USA keep it going?!
USA better do it!! Honduras would be a shocker vs France. Maybe eek out a draw?
If USA lose on Monday me and Landon are going to egg Klinsmann’s house!
It is France however….
Man, You really wanna drive all the way down to Newport? The traffic on the 405 is horrible.
It will be worth it.
Only undefeated confederation is CONCACAF.
+5 minutes? lol
CONCACAF!!!!!!! Ok go on and beat Italy and England. As for Campbell Arsenal would be stupid if they send him on loan again
Pura Vida
Muslera messed up on that last one.
CONCACAF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok go on and beat Italy and England. As for Campbell Arsenal would be stupid if they send him on loan again
How the mighty fall!
First Spain, now Uruguay.
Who will be next?
Portugal and Germany
I have always thought that the USMNT would beat Portugal. Germany on the other hand…well, I don’t see it happening.
Won’t matter by then. We’ll have 6 points and will be giving some younger guys experience
I’ll guess either England or Italty.
I see what you did there… 😉
My guess is England, they suck but they think they are amongst the best in the World. Delusions of grandeur at it’s finest.
Red Card too for Uraguay! wow Real bad day just got worse
JayAre,
That’s not true.
The English think they should be among the best and can’t understand why they are not.
In terms of talent they don’t suck, they just play like they do.
As for Uruguay they are the same team as in 2010 but they are four years older.and play like it. Only Suarez has really gotten better since 2010.
Did not see this result coming. Go ticks! Go Concacaf! Now let keep the late game antics to a minimum.
Damn autocorrect. *Ticos
silly kodi, ticks are for kids!
+1. Good one sir
As Sir Ian Darke would say, “Costa Rica are in a certain dreamland at the moment.”
What a ball from Campbell.