As you might have guessed, the World Cup opening match between Brazil and Croatia got plenty of attention in the social media, as the memes and jokes that followed focus on Yuichi Nishimura and his awful refereeing, Marcelo scoring an own goal, Fred learning from Neymar how to dive and that weird mustache from Luis Gustavo, making him seem like a GTA character.
It was a good opening match, but everyone will remember one thing: The penalty Nishimura called in favor of Brazil when the match was tied at 1-1. Fred was touched, but he made a complete meal of that hand on his shoulder, and Nishimura, who used to a much more accurate and focused referee, completely fell for it.
It was generally a bad match for Marcelo, and it wasn’t just the own goal he scored. However, in a culture that ignores substance but simply focuses on what’s simply and in front of you, then yeah: He had a bad game because he accidentally scored an own goal.
Neymar scored twice, showed his acting skills three times, and didn’t buckle under the pressure. Along with Oscar, he was the best player on the pitch for the Brazilian team and even though he isn’t playing in a position that is best for him and his team, he is at least one of the team’s members no one has anything to complain about.
