Chile Defeats Switzerland's Unbeaten Streak

Images by El Comercio

Chile, one of the best South American teams, defeated Switzerland 1 - 0 and it gave them one step to the knockout round of 16, the match held in the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Port Elizabeth. The only scored goal in the match was made by Chilean striker Mark Gonzalez in the 75 minute with a fantastic header that the goalie seemed impossible to save, by the assist of Esteban Paredes, which he substituted Matias Fernandez. This goal beaten the record of Switzerland's scoreless streak of 551 minutes for the team in World Cups. The plans for coach, Marcelo Bielsa, very much was taken advantage of the explusion by red card for the Swiss player Valon Behrami, who made a foul against Arturo Vidal. This controversial decision from referee Saudi Arabia's Khalil Al Ghamdi, gave Behrami a direct red card due to a physical contact with his arms against Chilean polifunctional player Vidal.

The match was very organized and very much called for many fouls for the Chileans, which gained six yellow cards for the players, especially Carlos Carmona and Matias Fernandez that they will not play against Spain on Friday. There were much goal occassions for both teams to score and to widen the result, but many shots fired on target were erratic impossible to gain any goals and the saves from Swiss player Diego Benaglio upset the Chilean possibilities to widen the score a little bit more. Switzerland established an eye opening record of 551 minutes without any goals scored from the rival teams in the World Cup, overcoming Italy's record of 550 minutes in the World Cup in 1986 and 1990. The last time that Switzerland lost was in the World Cup in 1994 3 - 0 against Spain. This is Chile's second consecutive victory in a World Cup, the last time there was a victory for Chile was in 1962 when they hosted the World Cup at the time.