Record breaker
There was a nice touch late in Tuesday’s game between Colombia and Japan, as with the South Americans winning by 4-1 and on their way to topping Group C, boss Jose Pekerman gave substitute goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon his moment to make history.
The 43-year-old goalkeeper came on for David Ospina to become the oldest player to play at a World Cup, displacing previous record holder Cameroon's Roger Milla.
To put it in some sort of perspective, Mondragon was the keeper in goal for Colombia in France ’98 when David Beckham beat him with a majestic free-kick in Lens.
Happy birthday Leo!
Argentina captain Lionel Messi spent his birthday on the training pitch in Brazil, as they prepare for Wednesday’s game against Nigeria at the Estadio Beira-Rio.
Leo Messi celebrates his 27th birthday with Argentina team-mates
The Barcelona star has scored in both of his country’s wins in Group F so far to put them through to the knock-out stages.
And he celebrated turning 27 on Tuesday with a training session in Porto Alegre.
The mood looked relaxed too, with Messi enjoying his training with team-mates and seemingly embracing leading his country under Alejandro Sabella.
USA final gets football fever
It’s 20 years since the World Cup Finals were held in the USA in 1994, the competition during which it was hoped would awaken the nation to the sport of 'soccer'.
Klinsmann enjoys the limelight ahead of USA's decider against Germany
And the fortunes of the USA squad in Brazil are being closely watched back home with their 2-2 draw against Portugal on Sunday night attracting almost 25m viewers in the States.
To put that figure into context, that’s around 10m more than watched both the NBA Finals and last year’s World Series in their more traditional sports of basketball and baseball.
With the continued development of the MLS and improving fortunes of a team who are already regulars in the World Cup Finals, Jurgen Klinsmann’s side will be certain to attract an even higher figure when they take on Germany in their Group G decider on Thursday.
