Brazil and Switzerland Play to 1-1 Draw

Photo Credit: Getty Images/FIFA

They say a tie or draw is like kissing your sister. If that is the case Brazil is the disgraced former President Dilma Rousseff and Switzerland would be disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

Harsh criticism? Difficult to say when this is a match between two of the favorites of the group and you end in a droll 1-1 draw. Nobody is helped in terms of making the knockout phase of the World Cup.

For Brazil the first half started rather brightly. Star Neymar looked rusty and yet he was the brightest on the pitch. Two of his four shots were on target. He had multiple key passes to set up goal scoring opportunities. He was offered the opportunity to have many touches on the ball and with a star such as him it is hard to get as many as he did.

It was more of a shame of the performances around him.

Paulinho was a rather disappointment. Few touches on the ball, nothing to show for his passing that he was involved in. This was the sort of player performance that while playing in England the limitations of his talent were apparent. Question is does he recover will in training to retain his starting spot.

Switzerland was, well Switzerland. This is a small country in the sporting world. They excel more during the Winter Olympics than necessarily on the soccer pitch. This is a squad that is sturdy but that is their strength. Be solid in defense and be able to build from there. Fact is that in qualifying you’ve got some weak opponents and now you face the best.

The Swiss goal came from a set piece and is one thing that always will be a strength for them. Most defensive teams use the set piece as their spot in the game plan that they will be able to get a goal when needed.

Stephan Lichtsteiner normally is a rock but things have not worked for him. The attacks headed his way were able to open up space. Sadly the solidity was not there fully and one did squeak through.

Rationally each squad and take some stock as they are in a difficult group but there is ground to recover and each will be needing to go full forward to be able to move forward in this tournament.