Chile will play Australia on Friday in Group B of the World Cup 2014 tournament in Brazil. These two teams are by far the weaker of the four in the group, with Spain and Netherlands also competing for the top two spots to qualify for the knock out stages. That makes this game even more important for both Chile and Australia. If one of these teams can win today, then they will know if they can just pull off one shock out of their next two games against Spain and Holland, then they would likely progress.
Today's game takes place from the Arena Pantenal in Cuiaba with a kick off time of 6 p.m. EST. The game can be watched on ESPN 2 or online through a live stream link provided below.
In team news for Chile, midfielder Arturo Vidal is a serious doubt and if he doesn't make it for this clash it will be a massive set back for the South American team. The Juventus player has had trouble with inflammation in his right knee following an operation last month on his meniscus.
He has trained with the Chile team since Wednesday and came on for 15 minutes in the warm up game against Northern Ireland recently. However, the free-kick specialist is definitely still having some trouble and even if he makes the team he won't be a maximum match fitness so may only feature for a portion of the game.
Chile midfielder Gary Medel has said, "Arturo trained like the rest of us. He did a good job and didn't have any pain in his knee. We hope that he can be with us for the first game. It will depend on him and how he feels. We want him to take care of himself and if he does play, we hope it (meniscus) doesn't affect him."
For Australia they will be looking to veteran striker Tim Cahill to lead the way. They have a relatively inexperienced squad for this year's World Cup, so it could be more of a growing experience for them. However, make no mistake, the team will want to do their best and go as far as they can. They will be hoping to claim three points against Chile today and then go all out to cause a shock against Spain and Holland in the other two group games.
The game starts at 6 p.m. EST and can be watched on ESPN 2 or online by clicking here.
