Don’t lie – you’ve been streaming almost every match of this year’s World Cup on a small window in the corner of your screen at work. Alternatively, you’ve flat-out left the office and went to the bar and are now counting down your final vacation days of 2014 already. Not quite? Well here’s what you might have missed after one week of the world’s greatest sports tournament…
1. Spain are out. That’s right, the defending champs have lost their chance of defending the title just two games into the tournament after today’s defeat to Chile.
2. Costa Rica has won our hearts. Playing in the “Other group of Death,” alongside heavyweights Italy and England (kinda), Costa Rica stormed out of the gates with a thrilling 2-1 victory over Uruguay.
3. Germany, the Netherlands and Italy look like early favourites. Germany laughed off Portugal 4-0, the Netherlands took down the formerly mighty Spain 5-1 and squeaked past a fighting Australian side 3-2 today, and Italy put in a controlling performance against England that saw them complete the highest percentage of passes in World Cup history.
4. Tim Cahill scored the goal of the tournament today:
5. Followed by this piece of magic by Robin van Persie:
6. Berlin has the coziest public viewing in the world.
7. The USA might survive the Group of Death. There’s a lot of soccer to be played, and a ton of equations to work out, but Portugal’s heavy loss and the USA’s opening win against Ghana puts the Yankees in a decent position to defy the odds and move on past the tournament’s toughest group.
8. This has been inarguably the most exciting first round of games in a long, long time. Perhaps ever. It’s time to start tuning in if all of the above is news to you.
#LYNL | (Live Your Notable Life)
Cover image from: FIFA World Cup Facebook Page
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