World Cup Results 2014: Tracking Final Scores, Golden Boot Contenders for Day 3

Goooooooaaaaaaaallllllllll! Golazo! What a strike! Oh, that was a sensational finish! Magisterial!

There are a lot of ways to describe a goal, and there have already been plenty of brilliant tallies in this year's World Cup. Luckily for you, I've been keeping track and have a full list of all of the scorers thus far in the tournament. 

As if that wasn't enough, you'll find all of Saturday's results and a breakdown of the goals scored below. I think you'll find this article to be magisterial, but that's just me.
 

Day 3 Results

Group	Team 1	Score	Team 2
C	Colombia	3-0	Greece
B	Uruguay	1-3	Costa Rica
B	Italy	2-1	England
C	Ivory Coast	-	Japan

Golden Boot Watch

Player	Country	Goals
Neymar	Brazil	2
Robin van Persie	Netherlands	2
Arjen Robben	Netherlands	2
Mario Balotelli	Italy	1
Claudio Marchisio	Italy	1
Daniel Sturridge	England	1
Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	1
Joel Campbell	Costa Rica	1
Oscar Duarte	Costa Rica	1
Marcos Urena	Costa Rica	1
Pablo Armero	Colombia	1
Teofilo Gutierrez	Colombia	1
James Rodriguez	Colombia	1
Stefan de Vrij	Netherlands	1
Xabi Alonso	Spain	1
Oscar	Brazil	1
Oribe Peralta	Mexico	1
Alexis Sanchez	Chile	1
Jorge Valdívia	Chile	1
Jean Beausejour	Chile	1
Tim Cahill	Australia	1

It didn't take long for Colombia to get on the board. In fact, it took all of five minutes and a slight Greek deflection in front of goal for the Colombians to open the scoring.

Take a look at Pablo Armero's goal on a really nice build-up play from James Rodriguez and Juan Cuadrado, via ESPN FC:

Now that's how you celebrate a goal.

Teofilo Gutierrez would strike next for Colombia, taking advantage of a Greek weakness—set pieces, namely their defense of set pieces. Rodriguez played a quick, whipping corner toward the near post, where Abel Aguilar got his foot on the ball. That careened it across the face of goal and between Greek defenders, where Gutierrez was perfectly positioned to deflect the ball into the net. 

Andrew Medichini/Associated Press

And then the man who had his hands in the first two goals—and pretty much everything else on the day—got a goal of his own.

In stoppage time, Colombia took a free-kick quickly and raced on the counter-attack. Once in the box, Cuadrado half-dummied, half-tapped the ball back to Rodriguez, who quickly ripped a shot toward the far corner that found the twine.

It was the cherry atop a brilliant performance. And the 3-0 scoreline was quite the historic mark for Colombia, as Squawka Football tweeted:

Before the match, manager Jose Pekerman had his worries facing Greece, as he told Andy Hunter of The Guardian:

"

Colombia and Latin American teams in general have had difficulties against teams like Greece in the past. We think in America there is only one way to play, with beautiful moves, but you have to be competitive. Colombia will try to play its own way, its own style, but when you change players they bring their own characteristics to the team.

"

So much for that. 

And then there was Urguay versus Costa Rica, a wild affair. Edinson Cavani opened the scoring with a perfect penalty, but Costa Rica roared back, scoring two second-half goals in the span of three minutes.

Here's the penalty take, via ESPN FC:

Joel Campbell tallied the first, as the ball found its way to him in the box and he blasted a left-footed strike across the face of goal and into the net. 

ESPN FC passes along the second, as the diving header makes its comeback:

For good measure, late-game substituion Marcos Urena would make it three for upstart Costa Rica. The shocker of the tournament thus far, no doubt.

England versus Italy had some brilliant strikes as well, and ESPN FC has the highlights. Claudio Marchisio got things started with this brilliant set piece routine:

But England struck back quickly, as Wayne Rooney brilliantly found Daniel Sturridge:

But in the second half, "Super" Mario Balotelli left no mistakes with this header off a perfect cross from Antonio Candreva:

It was quite the spectacle between these European powers.

As for Golden Boot contenders, the most likely from the first two games are Cavani (if Uruguay gets out of the group, that is), Sturridge and Balotelli. The big PSG striker likely has more goals in him during this tournament, while both Sturridge and Balotelli showed why they are leading the lines for their respective countries.

Colombia probably won't have any Golden Boot contenders as this tournament progresses. Not because they won't make a run—they proved how dangerous they are against Greece—but because you get a feeling watching this team play that the goals will be spread around.

One thing is for certain, however—James Rodriguez will continue to leave his mark. He's special, folks, and could end up being one of the top players on display in Brazil. Sit back and enjoy the brilliance.