Refereeing ineptitude and Neymar's brace may have hogged most of the headlines, but the best thing about the opening game of the 2014 World Cup between Brazil and Croatia was the performance of Chelsea's Oscar.
The Chosen One-zero of the second Jose Mourinho era, Oscar faded quite strongly in the second half of the season. By the end, he was behind not only Eden Hazard and Willian, but perhaps even André Schürrle and Mohamed Salah in the attacking midfield pecking order -- a bothersome hip injury wasn't helping things either. He started just 4 of Chelsea's last 11 matches.
But on Thursday night, back in his home city of São Paulo, we witnessed the return of the good Oscar. Did I say good? I meant the excellent Oscar!
Outside of his early giveaway that started the Croatian attack, which eventually led to Marcelo's own goal (by way of some comically lackadaisical defending), Oscar was at his all-around attacking and defending best. He seemed to have even added a bit of extra bulk and strength to his game, though maybe that was just an illusion. Graham said it best: "it was a world-class performance from a player who had been struggling, and it was wonderful to see."
Enjoy.