Brazil Vs Colombia: The two South Americans and World Top Ten clash in the quarterfinals

Brazil and Colombia meet each other in the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup 2014.  Apart from their yellow jerseys, nothing else seems to be common between the two South American nations.  Brazilians always enter the World Cup as one of the Favorites.  On the other hand, Colombia making it to the quarterfinals comes as a surprise to many.  But the way the Colombians have performed in this tournament, they can no longer be called the minnows.  Of course, they are not the clear favorites to win this trophy, but they sure are not to be taken lightly anymore.

Comparing the group performance, it is apparent that Colombians did much better than their South American counterparts.  While Brazil topped group A with 7 points and the goal difference of 5, Colombians were far more convincing.  They not only topped their group winning all the three matches and scoring 9 points, they also had a better goal difference of 7.   While Brazil had a very tough time against Chile in the 2^nd round, Colombian victory over Uruguay was rather easy.
Brazil has not lived up to their name in this tournament yet.  They pulled off a very narrow victory over Chile in the 2^nd round.  The score was leveled in the normal time and the match went to extra time.  The extra time went goalless and the winner was to be decided by the penalty shootout.  Chile made one mistake and it cost them the spot in the quarterfinals.  They could not score the last penalty.  However, they did give a hard time to their South American counterpart.
Colombia’s victory over Uruguay seemed like a cakewalk.  They scored two goals within the 50 minutes of the game and defended it will till the final whistle.  James Rodriguez was their star who scored both the goals.  In fact, he is the one who Brazil will have to watch out for.
Brazilian team is well aware of the threat posed by Rodriguez and they have already started making strategies to counter him.  It will not be an exaggeration to say that Colombia may not even have been half as good as they are without Rodriguez.  So far he has scored 5 goals in 4 matches and is one of the top scorers of the tournament.  Brazil will have to find a way to deny Rodriguez any space during the game.
Brazilian team’s star Neymar may not be the part of the quarterfinals because of the injuries and bruises he sustained in the match against Chile.  He has sustained injuries in the right knee and hamstring.  Neymar took a heavy hit on the thighs in the 4^th minute of the game after an abrupt challenge from Aranguiz.  But he did not stop playing and scored a decisive penalty which crafted a 3-2 win over Chile.
Colombians seem to have recovered from the tragedy that happened exactly twenty years back when their player Andres Escobar was shot dead on July 2, 1994 in a bar for scoring the own goal against USA.  The own goal became the cause of Colombia’s exit from the 1994 world cup.