VIDEO: Brazil Bounce Back From An Early Goal, Defeat Croatia 3-1; Watch the clip of what happened if you missed this.

Brazilian Poster Boy,Neymar celebrating his second goal agaist Croatia. Photo AP

Arena De Sao Paolo was packed. You’d think you have somehow walked into the sunflower farm because of the yellow colors that dominated the arena. For Brazil, it was more than important game. As you know, to Brazilians, soccer is a culture. It is life.It was setting the stage for 2014 FIFA World Cup and sending a message to 31 opponents eyeing for the title. That message, that statement came at a cost to Croatia. When the final whistle was blown the score was 3-1.

If it wasn’t Neymar, who else? You could be right to ask such a question. The poster boy didn’t dissapoint. He equalized an early own goal from Marcelo in the 11th minute before scoring the second through a penalty. The penalty, however, was controversial. Brazilian striker ,Fred, took advantage of “digital age”…don’t touch me. The Japanese referee, Yuichi Nishimura ruled that Croatia captain,Dejan Lovren had pushed down Fred. He awarded the penalty.

Fred [Brazil] awarded a controversial penalty. Neymar scored in 71st minute.

Overall, the win didn’t come easy for the host nation. They fought for it. If anything,Croatians proved the were not just touring Brazil but there to compete. It was, to me, a balanced game. Each team created chances and if it wasn’t the superb skills of both goalkeepers, we could be talking about something else.

The controversial penalty seemed to have a bit of an impact in Croatians. A couple of unnecessary fouls were committed thereafter. However, towards the final minutes, they almost bounced back with a lot of attacks that started from the midfield area which Brazil didn’t seem to dominate as it was expected. Instead, the Croatians dominated the midfield for a large portion of the second half.

But when we thought the score would end up 2-1, Oscar, another player that was superb in this opener, sealed Brazil’s victory with a superb self-skill goal in the 91st minute. To the end Brazil 3-1. Just the kind of victory they needed.