Saved by the woodwork, Brazil lives another day

By Karl Ritter

Published June 28, 2014 9:45pm ET

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Saved by the woodwork, Brazil lives another day — Brazil's Neymar fights for the ball with Chile's Francisco Silva during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Brazil and Chile at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Saturday, June 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) | Frank Augstein

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil (AP) — Tight and tense as it was, it was enough to keep Brazil’s national obsession of winning the World Cup on home soil from taking a desperately disappointing turn.

And it wasn’t Neymar, the country’s poster boy for this year’s World Cup, that played the key role this time. It was goalkeeper Julio Cesar, the country’s scapegoat from the last World Cup, who made several crucial saves and even got some help from the woodwork in a 3-2 penalty shootout win over Chile.

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