Samba Soccer: Airlines high on something and fruity flags

Plane wrong

What is it with airlines and Twitter and the World Cup? First, Delta were mercilessly slagged for choosing an image of a giraffe to represent Ghana ahead of their game with the United States, when there are no giraffes in Ghana (at which point ours and Delta's education was complete).

Tweet deleted.

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This union is doomed

Next up, Dutch airline KLM. After the Netherlands' victory over Mexico they took to Twitter to mock the Mexicans, posting a photo of a departures gate with a little man donning a sombrero and moustache, with the message 'Adios Amigos!'.

Oh heck.

How well did it go down with Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal? Not too well: “I’m never flying your s****y airline again. F*** you big time.”

Tweet deleted.

Enter AeroMexico, the country’s national airline: “Thank you for this great championship. You’ve made us proud and we’re waiting for you at home.”

That’s more like it. Watch and learn, Delta and KLM.

Kiss of Death

Timing is Everything: Mexico, a goal up against the Dutch, just two minutes away from the World Cup quarter-finals. So, this emotional Mexican fan thought it was a good time to propose to his girlfriend, the photo snapped by Simon Bristow, a sports PR chap who works with the English Football Association.

And as the ring was going on the finger, the Dutch equalised and, well, you know what happened next.

No word yet on whether the engagement is off.

Suarez’s ass groove

You know all those heat maps we're seeing during the World Cup, the ones showing us the centres of activity on the pitch? The cruellest one we've seen so far, as tweeted by 'Not Match of the Day": Luis Suarez during Uruguay's defeat to Colombia. Like the rest of us, on the couch.

145

The Greek equaliser against Costa Rica on Sunday night was the 145th goal of this World Cup, which equalled the total from the entire 2010 tournament. Impressive.

Quotes

“Fifa are a bunch of old sons of bitches.”

Jose Mujica, the president of Uruguay, still not quite coming to terms with Luis Suarez’s ban.

“It was like travelling 5 kilometres. It was an age before hitting the penalty and now I am many years older.”

Neymar, now 73, on stepping up in that shoot-out against Chile.

“Jürgen has been nothing but positive. He’s telling us, he’s telling our families to change our flights to July 14, 15, because we’re going to be here until the very end.”

United States defender Omar Gonzalez who, like his team-mates, will now have loads of time for sight-seeing before flying home.

“As we are not part of Fifa yet, I think he can play in Kosovo, so we have an offer that we will send to Liverpool: £25,000 and a salary of £1,200 for each month. This might sound ridiculous to him, but that is all we can do.”

Xhavit Pacolli, director of Kosovo club Hajvalia, on his efforts to lure Luis Suarez.

“The one at the end was a clear penalty but I have to admit there was an incident in the first half where I did dive. I must apologise. I should not be doing that.”

Arjen Robben. If the fella apologised for all his career dives, he’d been talking ‘til eternity.