Spain lost their opening match four years ago.

Well, I suppose there's always one.

Logic has no place here

I'm not sure they were to be honest. Croatia looked very comfortable at 1-1 and the penalty was a game changer in that they were forced to chase the game for the last 20 minutes (and even then, they were still creating good chances)

I have to say that Modric for the most part was equally as good as anyone in a yellow shirt tonight. That guy is a great footballer.

I can't see anyone but Brazil winning the whole thing if they keep on getting a homer ref like tonight.

I just cant get excited about a sporting event where a government have spent millions funding it yet people live in squalor and deprivation. Where drugs are rife and life expectation is very low.

But enough of the commonwealth games in Glasgow, the World Cup started tonight.

It was interesting to hear the BBC2 reporter guy just now openly speculate that the home town ref may have been quite deliberate and that it would be a catastrophe for FIFA if Brazil didn't get out of the group.

Sounds logical - if Brazil get knocked out early the civil unrest in Brazil will increase, so the powers that be need them to stay in to keep the populace interested and quieter.

That would be Tim Vickery - one of the best sports journalists around.

True, they didn't create many clear cut chances, and they wasted some good crosses.
I'm surprised they persist with Fred, he'll get goals given enough chances but doesn't offer enough in other areas for me. Couldn't they play Hulk or Neymar up front opening up a place for Willian or young Bernard ?

They've persisted with Fred for a while, Scolari has his favourites I guess.

Been away from the computer for most of the 2nd half. Hearing the Brazilian fans on the radio kidding themselves wound me up slightly.
If it was England who had won in this fashion I would be concerned. Unless its a glitch and Brazil play a blinder for the rest of the tournament.

Surely a team cannot rely on bad referee decisions in their favour and a couple of goals the keeper could have done better with.
I predicted Brazil would get cynical and start play acting, which they did.
There has always been an element of this with South American teams and Italy, but often they are good enough to let talent shine through.
Going off tonight I can't see Brazil wining, you can't judge a team off one performance though.
If a team wins the World Cup in a similar fashion to the way Brazil played tonight, (even England, they don't stoop so low hopefully) I will stop watching.

Like you before the match I was hoping Brazil would win with scintillating football, but in an honest, decent game .

That so called match just stinks of fix for the Brazilians .

If he was Brazilian they might not have had to rely on iffy decisions, best player on the pitch. Would get in any side.

grrRRRRR why on earth is the opening ceremony linked to the football match discussion Football fans want to talk football not dancing and prancing about and pretty colourful displays bah humbug lol

Ok for those of us who want to talk football i got to say it was good to see 10 man Brazil beat 12 man Croatia*

*(Dani Alves must have had worst match blundering of his life and was a distinct handicap to Brazil)

That's what Tim was saying : there's already protests on the streets of Brazil over the cost of the World Cup and things could turn extremely ugly if Brazil went out early.

The timing of the penalty was very interesting tonight : 71st minute and it didn't look like Brazil were going to score at all......it may have been the ref's last chance to give them something in the penalty area without it looking too blatant (but it ended up looking extremely blatant anyway).

Me too. Imagine how annoying it's going to become over the next month

We see decisions like that every week in the PL. Just because it happened in the opening match of a World Cup doesn't make it a fix. The keeper let in two ridiculously soft goals, was that a fix as well ?
There was very little contact and the player dived. The referee got it wong, that's about all you can say really. Actually, I agree with Childs (for once) retrospective action and a suspension might help. It wouldn't alter the result of course, but it might make players think twice about cheating.

Only problem is you would expect to see refereeing of the highest possible standard in an opening World Cup match, especially one involving Brazil. To see a ref getting a load of decisions wrong in such a high profile fixture was shockingly bad.

I remember in one African Nations Cup competition some years ago, the authorities decided to dish out yellow cards for diving and play-acting on a strict basis. Sure, there were many yellow cards to begin with and a lot of moaning, but the teams began to behave themselves after a while. You got to the situation that players didn't go down even if they were touched, for fear of being themselves penalised. Sure, it was controversial and sometimes there were harsh decisions, but I actually thought that it eventually got the result needed, in that play-acting was severely reduced and games flowed. Then the authorities decided to give in to pressure, and didn't follow on with the experiment. The problem with diving and play-acting is so ingrained that it needs something drastic to stamp it out.

As the referee proved you can still win a match being one man down ...

TBH it is a functional Brazil team at best - throw in a dodgy keeper and a questionable defence and it really is a recipe for disaster at some point for the host nation.

The good thing I guess is that everybody will now be looking very closely at the decisions Brazil get from here on in.

I think it was more the way it was given more than anything - he literally didn't have time to think as it was an almost instant reaction with no consultation with the rest of his assistants.

On the Croatia "equalizer" it was of course a decision reached by the assistant who picked up some sort of infringement - perhaps the actual cross drifted out of play. It certainly wasn't a foul on the goalkeeper so it will be interesting to see what they come up with collectively.

I seem to remember a lot of dodgy decisions going South Korea's way when they had the world cup there.

I think it was important for Brazil to win but they were very lucky and did not look impressive atall, could go out in round 2 unless they approve a lot

the ref... he should be able to retire now...