Relieved the cheap penalty didn't end up being the deciding moment.
I would argue that that's exactly what happened.
I find it VERY worrying that this is being passed off as some sort of 'diving' incident. It absolutely is not. A player under pressure and feeling contact will 99/100 make the most of it, and throw their hands up in protestation. ESPECIALLY in the penalty area, in the opening game of a home World Cup! This was NOT an inexperienced referee. He will have seen that a million times, and waved it away a million times. Watch it again. He COULDN'T WAIT to give that penalty (or his blind-sided assistant for that matter). He's given it before Fred's even given him the 'I've nearly been murdered here, and you're going to do nothing???'-face. The perfectly legitimate disallowed Croatia goal, which would have made it 2-2, just added extra stink to the shit sandwich we were already being asked to swallow.
With all the protests, stadium workers literally dieing for this tournament, if Brazil draw or, unthinkably, lose the opening game, you're talking riots on top of riots. Not sure if you saw it but UK TV studios had their windows pelted with stones, breaking the glass. It became clear very quickly that there was no way they were going to be allowed to do anything other than win. There were some seriously twitchy ring pieces in head office after that Croatia opener.
Allegations of FIFA dripping in corruption, and then this sort of thing happening, does nothing but leave a bad taste. It's no wonder so many are becoming disillusioned. I'm angry on behalf of the sport I grew up with. I'm angry at the excitment I felt before the game, angry that I had enjoyed the opening game so much... until someone got in the ref's ear, and that was all she wrote.
If that's anything to go by, get all your money on Brazil now and don't bother watching the rest of it.
Trying VERY hard to remain positive for the rest of it, but that was absolutely the worst possible start.
On the footballing side, thought Oscar was magnificent, and both sides are about what I thought they were. Croatia should progress in second place, behind the new world cup winners (although, on a purely football-based assessment, Brazil were largely unimpressive, and I still don't think they've got what it takes to win it fairly).