Ahead of the semifinals match between Brazil and Germany, German coach Joachim Loew has one thing to ask of assigned referee Marco Rodriguez of Mexico: please control the Brazilians. Low is pertaining to what he perceived to be "brutal and crude" attacks that had marred the host nation's victory against Colombia during the teams' quarterfinals match, the Guardian said. The very physical game had also left Neymar a serious back injury that ruled him not fit to play in the World Cup.
Rodriguez will be the head official of the first World Cup semifinal, which will be taking place on Tuesday night at Estádio Mineirao, and although Low has expressed his sympathy that the Brazilian forward will no longer be able to play for at least seven weeks after a collision with Juan Camilo Zuniga left the former with a fractured third vertebra, the German cannot help but comment about the frenzied nature of the quarterfinal match that took place in Fortaleza. His comments were echoed earlier on by his assistant coach Hansi Flick and player Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Low has everything to worry, considering that the match has caused Brazil to commit 31 of the 54 fouls in the game, which is the current record in the World Cup. Brazil also took part in the previous match fouls record of 51 as well. Moreover, since Rodriguez had been the coach that missed out the infamous bite Luis Suarez has landed on Italian player Giorgio Chiellini, he might as well do a public plea for Rodriguez to keep in mind, for the sake of playing it clean, the Guardian noted.
"There were brutal fouls, people blocking opponents off however they could. It was really exaggerated. That's what we saw on the pitch, so I hope these really brutal and crude fouls are stopped or we won't see offensive players like Neymar or [Mario] Götze, [Mesut] Özil or [Lionel] Messi on the pitch and we'll just see players who go out there set to destroy. This is a World Cup that's full of dynamism and physical force but I've seen matches where that has gone over the limit," Low stated.
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