Day 31

DAY 31

7/12/14. RIO DE JANEIRO - Two personal goals have been achieved by Mini Papi this month. One was to watch a World Cup match from the stadium, and the other one was to go all the way up to the Corcovado mountain to take a very close look at one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World: Christ the Redeemer. This piece of art is such a big symbol in the Catholic religion that even late Pope John Paul II came himself to visit it in 1980.

SOME HISTORY BETWEEN ARGENTINA & GERMANY:

In 1986, the Argentinian squad of Diego Maradona defeated Germany (3 – 2) to claim the World Cup in Mexico; however, 4 years later, it would be the Germans who beat Argentina (1-0) in the final match of Italy 1990 to become champions.

The last World Cup encounter between the two current finalists was in the quarter-finals of South Africa 2010, when the “albicelestes” suffered an embarrassing loss by Germany (4-0).

TODAY'S RESULT:
BRAZIL 0 - 3 NETHERLANDS

The Dutch won third place of a tournament where its host failed in too many aspects of the game. Brazil's super stars didn't play their characteristic "jogo bonito", didn't know how to play as a team, was too disorganized in the middle and the back, and lacked ideas offensively. And, on top of that, they showed no respect to the Netherlands for not staying for the third place award presentation. Maybe they did that because they knew deep down they didn't even belong there, as they should have been out of the competition back when they played Chile.