[cluster11]

That was a heartbreaking loss for Mexico yesterday but I'm glad Costa Rica kept the CONCACAF flame on! Mexico lost at the end by it's own failure to defend till the last minute. Until the second water-break they were sort of even with the Dutch while holding the lead. A great team like Netherlands will always change strategy when things are not working and that's what their coach did after that 2nd drinks break (as he mentioned today). The last 15 mins all Mexico was doing was kicking the ball away and letting Netherlands bring in waves and waves of attack without doing a good job of defending. I know Robben is known for diving but there was no reason for Marquez to charge when 2 other defenders are on Robben and that too inside the D-Box as Robben is running away from the goal.
As for Costa Rica, they pretty much ran out of game plan after going down to 10-men and had same psychological breakdown like Mexico. It is only because Greece has an incompetent offense that they (Costa Rica) managed to hold on for a while and finally got their groove back. They will not have that kind of luck against Netherlands so need to change that strategy.
On a separate note, this is the most lively fast-paced World Cup I have seen in the past 30 years that I've been following this event. Just the sheer number of goals and late goals are amazing. But also in low scoring match there is so much drama. For example, the first 5 matches of round-2 all looked on paper to be one-sided for the favorite team. But only Columbia managed to beat Uruguay convincingly. All others (even France today), had to wait at least till final 10-15 mins of the match to get a result.