Ivory Coast V Japan World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

A winner please!

Pregame bets:

Ivory Coast to win and both teams to score is 9/2
Honda to score is 11/4
IC to win -1 is 4/1

Got there in the end, easy second half for Ivory Coast, might have even pushed them for that third.

Full betting review here>http://thisdrinkinglife.com/top-bets-world-cup/

Beers: Group C of Beer World Cup:http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-group-c/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Kirin Ichiban V ? Unfortunately I couldn’t source any beer from the Ivory Coast so this will be a one sided affair. Click on picture for a preview of the beer. Get the Kirin Ichiban review afterwards.

Kirin Ichiban won by default, could not source a beer from the Ivory Coast. Read here for full beer report

PreGame:

Ivory Coast: With a relatively easy group this could be the time for the Ivory Coast to put on a show in this years World Cup. I feel they have enough in their squad to overcome both Colombia and Japan

For me its all about the physical strength of this team, They will have some strong physically demanding players who get the ball and power through defenses. Think of Drogba. Think of the Toure Brothers. Think of Gervinho.

Not only have we this power but this team also has a lot of international experience and players who have played in the world cup before.

key player for me and a somewhat very underrated player is Serey Die. Another very physical player he rarely loses the ball and can show off some skill when required. I am sure not much will get past this African version of Roy Keane.

So I predict that the Ivory Coast will steamroll out of this group

Japan, Asian champions and first nation to qualify for the World Cup, are great at passing and running, but not a huge amount of overall quality in their squad

Honda is back for another run out in the world stage. he really is the linchpin of this team, the link where everything happens, and can chip in for a good goal as well. If he clicks then Japan clicks. But he had an out of sorts season with Milan and really needs to get back on track soon.

Ivory Coast might out muscle them in a bruising encounter, which I think they will lose.

Read a more detailed review on Japan here and on Ivory Coast here

Game was a little disappointing. Japan great in the first half but wilted in the second.

Japan are a well coached team, and great on the counter attack, moving forward with great speed, but maybe in the heat of Brazil it is a hard game to play. Honda, the heart beat of the team, scored a cracking goal, and Japan were a little unfortunate to at least not take a point from this game.

Ivory Coast, like Cameroon, seem to have employed a bit of a buffoon, another European coach who cant get work in Europe. I know Drogba has a niggly injury but to wait until the 62 minute to bring him was ridiculous. He is lucky it worked out in the end, because it was obvious that even a half fit Drogba is better than the attack that IC started with. When Drogba came on he lifted the whole team and its no surprise that IC scored two minutes later.

Aurier had a decent game, and was my man of the match, his two crosses resulted in two goals and his forward play caused Japan problems all day long.

Next up for japan is a wounded Greek team in what will be an interesting game of contrasts. Ivory Coast have to look forward to playing Colombia, a game where there is no clear favourite. This group is still hard to call in my opinion, and I would still fancy Greece to come out of it, with the IC.

Music to get you in the mood

Polysics V Alpha Blondy