Mexico Advances Over Croatia: Herrera Smash...

((HT: ESPN/FIFA))

Mexico has had to do it the hard way for this trip to Brazil. It all started with having to qualify against New Zealand in a home-and-home just to even get in the door.

And the surprise of the tournament- outside of Costa Rica (or CONCACAF in general)- has been El Tri.

They took care of business earlier today- beating Croatia to move to the Knockout stages


But the sight of the day was current head coach Miguel Herrera and his reaction on the sidelines as his team's fate was incrementally sealed...
((HT: Goooooal's Vine))


And here...


But just think if the two calls in the second half that were not called for Mexico led to a loss...

All hell would have broken loose and the stadium would not be standing.

Okay, So Brazil Didn't Lose... But It Was Interesting

((HT: ESPN/FIFA))

Here's the turning point in the Brazil-Croatia match and it was a HORRIBLE CALL!!!


Sufficed to say, the Croat coach decided to speak out...

"We better give it up now and go home," Niko Kovac said. "We talk about respect, Croatia didn't get any."

"If that was a penalty, we should be playing basketball," Kovac said. "Those kinds of fouls are penalised there.

"That is shameful, this is not a World Cup referee. He had one kind of criteria for them and another for us. The rules were not the same."

And there you go... FIFA is off and running...

And What Happens If Brazil Loses...???

((HT: FIFA/ESPN))

Well, first and foremost...

It would be Neymar to score the equalizer for the home country. It wasn't a thing of beauty, but it got the job done...

Welcome back Ian and Macca


But, it took an odd turn in the first nine minutes with an own goal of all things off a deflection to give the Croats some hope in the tournament opener...


The goals are up until they get pulled, obviously...
But it was 1-1 at the break...