Broken verteba

Very sad, that was a very rough challenge on him (a knee to the back).

Could be argued that Brazil started much of the bad feeling in that game, and that was their just deserts (?).

Also the ref could be a fair bit to blame for letting so much go earlier.

Without Neymar, and Da Silva, I think that Germany will now beat them, unless Brazil use the old "Win It For Him" thing.

That ref hurt Columbia, but in the long run he's hurt Brazil even more. A few early yellow cards would have benefited both teams.

The ref's fault for allowing the players to think they could get way with what they want.

If he was a home town referee (and he may well have been), he may have set the train in motion for Neymar's injury by failing to stop all the fouls. So if he was trying to help them, it's quite possible he has hurt them instead.

It could have easily been James out for a while, the amount he was getting kicked all over. When it's clear certain players are being targeted I'd like to see referees protect them more.

It was a very dirty game that the referee completely lost control of. The Colombians had lumps kicked out of them from the first whistle and eventually started playing Brazil at their own game.

Neymar's injury is the end result.

I've no idea why he refused to book Brazilians in the first half for some cynical and nasty challenges (unless he was a home town ref and trying to help them win)

Well Brazil shouldn't worry, they have........well there's.......they could use......urm......Fred?

The Germans must be well chuffed. Not getting out of 3rd gear to secure a semi-final place and your opponents star player is out. A good day for sure.

I do probably blame the ref more than anyone really, the game started off so brightly, I thought jaws going to be a classic after 30 minutes, but then he made a few odd errors, and the bad side snowballed.

Hulk is hulking up as we speak.

With James and Neymar out, I think a Messi too Scorer / Argie win cup double may be well worth it.

(There still the Germans I guess)

Although I'm not a Neymar fan, I thought the challenge was totally uncalled for and the columbian player was aiming to get his own back, no pun intended. This injury will affect his career for the rest of his life and why the Columbian player should be punished for this. Hopefully Neymar will recover his health.

James msy have done enough. You never know.

Imagine getting this close to a World Cup final in your home country and then getting injured. Feel for the bloke.

I feel for Neymar, because he wasn't involved in the cynical play, but the Brazilians had a clear policy of "tactical fouling" to negate Colombia's threat from midfield and kicking James out of the game. He's lucky that he isn't the one with a broken bone.


Could be? I don't believe the Ref's performance was an accident. Whether Brazil were deliberately given a referee that was known to be lenient so they could implement a cynical game plan to stop Colombia, or whether it was something as dubious and sinister as some of the refereeing performances that has helped the hosts of many other international tournaments down the decades - ourselves included - I couldn't say.


Brazil will get as much help as they need. Fortunately you can't 100% fix the outcome of fluid team game like football, but I would still be very surprised if Brazil don't win the tournament, no matter how badly they play.

The referee was weak for both teams. Anyone seeing bias is intentionally looking for it imo.

I'm a massive fan of all things Brazilian. I worked on a market stall selling Brazilian music and goods for years and still avidly collect Brazilian music. It's always been a dream of mine to live in Brazil, so I'm the last person to be biased against them. However the refereeing helped Brazil far more than Colombia - they were the ones who were deliberately and cynically fouling in rotation purely as a tactic to snuff out Colombia's major threats.

As Tim Vickery pointed out a concerted policy of "tactical fouling" has become part of Brazil's game and is something the Spanish bitterly complained about int he Confederations Cup. Colombia simply retaliated - in fact they were stupid to do so as it cpouldn't possibly have benefited them against a host nation. Moreover since Brazil don't play fast past-faced flowing football in the first place breaking up the flow of the game wouldn't benefit Colombia anyway.

The one bright light in that team is gone.
Really hope he makes a full recovery....I haven't been his biggest fan, but he has played well in this tournament & looked like a captain barking instructions to his team ahead of the penalty shoot out vs Chile.

I agree, for me Colombia were just as bad, and also got away with an awful lot, thought it was pretty even myself in regards to bad/cynical play. But people tend to always favour the underdog and see things that aren't there.

Brazil are not a great team, even less of one now...but who in this World Cup is, with the exception of Costa Rica, who will get beaten today...any of the remaining teams could win it as no one stands out. Personally for a change I hope Belgium actually win the tournament.

Feel for him obviously, never nice to see someone's tournament ended like that.

Scolari's got some front whining about Neymar being "hunted", when that's exactly what his mob were doing to Rodriguez. If the referee had clamped down on that early on like he should have done, maybe Neymar's injury wouldn't have happened. You reap what you sow.

puts what Suarez did into perspective, the Columbian went into his back knee first.

It is a shame when a team is unable to field its strongest players because of injury; I like to see the best against the best on these occasions. However, I feel the loss of their captain, Thiago Silva, through his idiotic infringement last night, will be far more damaging, as he is about the only Brazilian defender who could organise a piss up in a brewery. Germany to win 4-1.

My respect for Neymar has increased a lot over this World Cup- he's had so much pressure on him, and he's managed to handle it and played well for the most part. You could hear every time he touched the ball that the screaming in the stadium increased 10-fold, the expectation for him to produce something spectacular is immense. I didn't think he'd have it in him, but he proved me wrong.
Feel for him- two games away from a World Cup final in his home country- gutted doesn't come close to describing how he feels I wouldn't have thought. I'm not even sure Brazil are going to make it to the Maracana now, which just seems wrong.... Maybe they should have played a match in there at some point before the final- or maybe they thought it would drive the players on to make sure they got there?
Silva and Neymar out, I feel Germany will take full advantage.

You cannot justifying his third bite on a football pitch.

Looking back on it, the foul was clearly a straight red. Did he even get a booking? They should surely review it post match. I'm guessing that the ref and the linesmen from that match will be sent packing by FIFA.