Before the game started, I pointed out Vinicius to Spacebunny and told her there was a very good chance that he would score a hat trick against Scotland. We’re 20 minutes in, he already has two goals, and Brazil hasn’t had to work for either of them.
The Scots look like a poorly-coached children’s team that hasn’t been taught not to dribble at the back.
UPDATE: FIFA is trying to prevent Brazil from running away with the game and disallowed the goal on the basis of a phantom foul that only VAR could detect but doesn’t show up on the replays.
Ridiculous. I was sympathetic to the Scots prior to that. Now I hope Brazil drops 10 on them.
Nice to see Switzerland go through, although Rodriguez looks beyond cooked to me and their defense has real problems with defending set pieces and long crosses. Nice unselfish play up front from Embolo with the assist on the second goal.
UPDATE: And I would have been correct about that hat trick before the end of the first half without that absurdly disallowed goal. And once again, Scotland couldn’t either a) clear the ball or b) mark the triggerman. 2-0 courtesy of Vinicius’s second. And it would have been 4-0 if the Scottish keeper hadn’t made a brilliant save right before the end of the half.
The problem is pretty clear. Scotland’s manager is having his team play an inappropriate system for the situation. They’re just not good enough to play ball control against Brazil.