Real Mardin escreveu:
Week one is over already! It's flown by.
Qatar posted the worst performance by a host nation I can remember and
became the first host nation to lose their opening game.
Agreed here. They looked completely out of their league. In the coming days we'll know whether it was stage fright, or if they indeed don't have anything to show.
Are England World Champions in waiting or did playing a team who's mind
was clearly on troubles back at home make them appear better than they
really are?
I can definitely see how the Iranian team may have been undermined by all
the issues they've been through. Plus, losing their goalkeeper like that
so early in the game couldn't have helped them much.
But I don't think this was all there was to it. England did look very good imho. The lopsided score may have been a combination of both factors. Given
the draw, I can easily see England in the quarterfinals. It's hard to call
what happens after that, but I think they'll be rather tough opponents to whoever they meet from then on.
Argentina slipped up on their obligatory group stage banana skin, but in
my view were on the receiving end of a harsh offside call for the first disallowed goal. All credit to Saudi Arabia but that one could have ended quite differently.
Agreed. The result was earned on a razor's edge. One blown offside trap and
who knows whether the floodgates would open? But indeed, all credit to the Saudis. Their courage paid off spectacularly.
Argentina had a lot of enthusiasm and the confidence. Will they still have it for the next rounds? The pressure on them is definitely on. Lose to Mexico and even a draw between Poland and Saudi Arabia will send them home. I think they are good enough to come back and handle this, but it certainly was a very rough
wake up call for them.
If Germany had defended as well as their team photo protest they wouldn't have lost to Japan. Congratulations to the Blue Samurai!
Indeed. Hats off to the Japanese. Germany now needs a good result against Spain, or count that Japan won't beat the demoralized Costa Ricans. And
their situation is even worse than Argentina's, as they aren't outqualifying Spain on GD if it comes down to that...
Keep up the good work: France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Canada (who can
hold their heads up high even in defeat).
France impressed me. Although Australia was a weak opponent, France missed
a lot of players due to late injuries, yet it doesn't look like that at all.
And I wish Canada knew what to do with the ball once they had it in the opponent's penalty area. They also had a clear penalty denied to them, but
it wouldn't have mattered if they were just a little more precise. I praise their courage: I didn't expect to take the game to Belgium the way they did, but goals are to be scored, not merely deserved.
I thought Brasil played a good game. Serbia certainly held their own in the first half, but in the second Brasil went full throttle and never looked back. 2-0 was a fair reflection of what was shown on the pitch, imho. In particular, Richarlison's second goal was brilliant. Strong candidate to goal of the tournament so far.
Must do better: Senegal, Denmark, Croatia, Belgium (even if they won), Cameroon (more the Tranquilised Lions than the Indomitable Lions).
I'd mention Uruguay too. I expected more from them than what they've shown against South Korea.
The stadia do look impressive and there have been electric atmospheres at Argentina - Saudi Arabia, Mexico - Poland, Denmark - Morocco and Brazil - Serbia. However, there have been more empty seats at some games than I
would have expected, FIFA are trying to sell tickets in the days before games, one of the commentators the other day stated there had been a number of corporate returns.
So far I've enjoyed it more than I was expecting, although there is something of a contrived air about the whole thing. As stated above the stadia do look impressive until you see an aerial shot and realise they're basically in the desert. I can't help but wonder what regular use so many stadia in a relatively
small area are going to get once the World Cup is over? The Italian term for what English speaking people refer to as a "white elephant" is "cathedral in the desert" for a reason...
I was going to say that I had a hunch AFC would give them a few Asian Cups to host in the foreseeable future, but now I see they're hosting it in 2023. But, beyond that point, well... I guess the Al-Sadd vs Al-Arabi derbies are guaranteed
to have cool venues for the coming decades ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Best regards,
Lléo
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