The end? Countdown to Qatar?

The day after. And just for the record it's day -1588 before Qatar 2022. But whether I will be here on day -1587, well....maybe....or another 1000....

There's definitely a void now. If you love sport, the emotion of winning and losing, following the path of the winners and the losers, the ups and downs, you have to wonder what you are going to look forward to. The Tour de France? Yes, it's a pretty amazing human achievement, and everyday there are some pretty amazing battles. It's up there, it just lacks the euphoria of a knockout round win and the disappointment of a defeat. The new Premier League, Serie A, La Liga seasons? Yeah, there's some fun there. Who will be the new big money names in England? How will Ronaldo take to life with Juventus? Who will replace Ronaldo at Real Madrid? Yes, all good but the seasons are long and a win in August or September may long be forgotten by May.

How about the British Open? A bit of stretch. Golf is like basketball. If you want excitement watch the last 5 minutes (or last 5 holes on the final day) and hope the scores are close up until then so you catch the most exciting bit.

What else? The US Open. Now that could be fun if we go again like last year. Tennis in New York, that's pretty good. I couldn't get excited about Wimbledon, especially not the final as it clashed with the World Cup final. Maybe by the time the US Open comes around I'll be needing that bit of tennis excitement.

But back to the last memories of a wonderful month, my memories. The best times were the Canada Day long weekend, also the last 16 weekend, when it didn't take much persuasion to convince Kristine and my girls that the best way to spend the weekend was to camp out at home and watch football. I could have gone to a bar, but it was better to share those moments with my family. We had a great time cheering Schmeichel! Schmeichel! in the hope that the Danish keeper would come out on top in the penalty shoot out against Croatia. We were all jumped out of our seats when Belgium scored the last minute winner in the thriller against Japan. And we all happily waved cheerio to Spain and their boring, pointless football.

There was the drive to Cleveland with Kristine, some time finally spent alone together, and World Cup commentary on BBC Radio in the car. Shaqiri scored the last minute winner against Serbia just as we pulled into our hotel. And as Belgium put a few goals past Tunisia we were somewhere in northern Ohio, or had we crossed into Pennsylvania, or were we already in New York state? Football on the radio, BBC radio, nonetheless, it never loses it's charm.

And then finally, the joy of my teenager Lily giving up on a day at the beach with her friends to watch the World Cup Final with her dad. That made me happy.

That's it. All done. I'll find something to look forward to. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.

France: World Champions

Day 32 WorldCup2018

It's all over. Another four years of waiting starts today. Four years of wondering if what we witnessed over the last four weeks can be replicated in Qatar. It was outstanding, excellent, wonderful football. The excitement was, at many times, almost unbearable but made even better by how close it was to pushing the limits of how much emotions a fan could deal with. And the final today was the perfect send off.

Even though the match started at a high tempo and there immediately seemed to be a lot of promise for a classic final, at the end of the first half there was a worrisome feeling that this was going to be a French victory earned through an own goal and a penalty, no beautiful goals from open play. And to make it worse the own goal came after a shocking Griezmann dive to win a free kick, and the penalty was a "could have not been given" kind of handball. Ivan Perisic's wonderful goal in between the two French ones was the kind of beauty you hope for in a World Cup final. The reason I thought of as to why France deserved to win was that football is not about scoring spectacular goals, it's also about defending well.

Then the second half happened and France showed us that they can indeed score the awe-inspiring goals. That pass from Pogba to Mbappe that set up the Pogba goal. Wow! I was still marveling at the beauty of its accuracy and perfect weight long after Pogba had picked up the return and scored his first goal of the tournament. It was the pass I wanted to watch again, not the goal. In one moment of absolutely perfectly measured brilliance France went from their half to a goal-scoring opportunity.

And when Mbappe followed that goal with his own bit of individual brilliance, for a few minutes the world seemed like a better place. Did the best team look like they were going to win? That could be debated. But it was that good football, the kind we had watched for four weeks was the winner. It was the way we dream of Cup finals being won and are so often disappointed to be let down by mediocrity.

Mandzukic's goal after Lloris' comical error may have given the last 20 minutes some more significance. A 4-2 deficit seems more surmountable that 1-4. But as hard as Croatia tried, this was one step too far for them.

Were France worthy winners in the end? There may be many arguments that Croatia were more dynamic, Belgium were more exciting or that Uruguay were more defensively solid. But in the end, in the final, which France got to by out playing Uruguay by just enough and controlling the Belgians, they scored more goals than Croatia. And that's all that counts. It's that simple of a game. And that's why we love it.

There are lot more reasons why Russia 2018 was so memorable. I can't gather all my thoughts right. One more day is needed tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Day 1 after Russia 2018, Day -1588 to November 21st, 2022.

Prediction time

Day 31 WorldCup2018

My last post before the last match of Russia 2018. The sadness of the finality will be described tomorrow.

Today, in keeping with family tradition, I am supposed to make a prediction. But if you've read anything I've written for the past 1030 days or so you'll know I don't do public predictions. Maybe by the end of this I will.

When I was asked about who I thought would win the Belgium-France semifinal my answer was, "my heart says the fun, attacking Belgians but my head tells me to be sensible and go for a win for the pragmatic French."

My feelings are similar for tomorrow. My head really has to say France. They have controlled pretty much every match they have played in Russia. When they went 2-1 down to Argentina in the last 16, they shrugged their shoulders turned up the heat for a few minutes and wrestled back the initiative. No problem, we were never worried. Didier Deschamps has them playing in such a way that a burst of speed from Kylian Mbappe sets hearts racing because it's such a contrast to the conservative approach the team employs the majority of the time. And I did say whoever won the France-Uruguay quarterfinal would win the whole thing.

Croatia are the sentimental favourite, the team from the country that has captured so many people's hearts with their passion and stories of surviving the terrible Balkans war in the early 1990s. And in this tournament they have fought many a battle on the pitch and come through them all. Destiny is the word that comes to mind. I find it hard to imagine Croatia not fulfilling that destiny.

This is a tough one and what I wrote on Day 3 after both teams' opening matches doenst help me much.
"Earlier France beat Australia 2-1 in the Italian way, the Italian way where they go on to win the whole thing." (They won through a penalty and an own goal). France are either going to have a Nicholas Anelka player revolt moment or they are going to go on and win the whole thing."

"And even later Croatia tamed Nigeria with an own goal and a penalty. Hold on. If France don't have their meltdown, does this mean Croatia are going to win this thing?"

I did not change any of that. It is really what I wrote. It's not quite my 1990 dream but I do believe they are the only two teams I mentioned as potential winners.

Can I predict a draw? It's the sensible option versus the one driven by passion. Who comes out on top. Ok here goes. Why do I worry about making predictions anyway? In the end it's just a guess. Not even the most intelligent football brain can foresee an unlucky own goal, or a team that hits the post 4 times and loses when the other team scores with their only shot.

As much as I love the passion, here it is....France 1-0.

Croatia: they went through a war, really

Day 30 WorldCup2018

In the early 1990s I was fully aware of the simmering political tensions in what was Yugoslavia and how the unrest led to the horrible wars in Croatia and Bosnia. As I watched the news with my Mum she regularly asked me to explain who was fighting and who was on the good side and the bad side. Is there a good side in a war? It was terrible to see this happening so close to home. It's easier to admit now that the "closeness to home" factor shouldn't have been a reason to feel more affected by it. The war in Kuwait and Iraq or anywhere else should have been equally saddening, because wars are terrible.

But as with many other significant events for me there was a connection with football. The passion of the supporters of the different clubs across Yugoslavia was evident but I didn't really understand the true reasons why Dinamo Zagreb hated Red Star Belgrade. Really hated. Not like Manchester United and City, Birmingham and Aston Villa, or even Rangers and Celtic. These supporters would be prepared to fight their rivals to their death, not because of football but to defend their Croatian and Serbian roots. And it was with this background that the "kick that started a war" happened.

Zvonimir Boban, who went on to become one of the stars of the great Croatian team of the 1998 World Cup was the perpetrator of the infamous kick. He was incensed that Red Star fans were being left to attack Dinamo fans, 10 minutes into a match between the two. He launched his kick at a policeman and it took the fight between Serbs and Croats to a higher level. Whether that incident started the war in Croatia is debatable but it definitely brought the tensions out in the open. And from there it escalated into the terrible civil war.

I followed it closely, as I did the Bosnian war, but I can never say that I fully understood it. But how could I, so safely ensconced in my comfortable life?

It is no lie though, no exaggeration of facts that this was the background that many (most?) of the Croatian team playing in the World Cup Final on Sunday grew up in.

We can be sad about England and them being so close, and I still will be, but these Croatians, and excuse me for being blunt, suffered some real shit.

So come what may on Sunday, watch those Croatians with an understanding of where the passion comes from with which their supporters will them on to win, a passion for a very young country that lost many, many lives to be what and where it is today.

Nothing-ness

Day 29 WorldCup2018

Today was an empty day. Really. No football, not much to look forward to. At least that's what I thought as I woke to the day after what could have been for England. But as I drove to work and listened to the comically mundane words-to-fill-airtime coming out of the sports radio hosts, something made me look forward to Sunday. This is still the World Cup that I looked forward to since the day after the last one ended, and more specifically for 1000 days. France against Croatia is going to be the culmination of a month of incredible football. So bring on Sunday!

Back to the radio this morning and I said to myself that I wasn't going to this. But I can't resist sharing what I listened to just because I wanted to hear some sort of England post-morterm. It's TSN radio, a show hosted by one of the top dudes of the many Canadian TV and radio sports dudes, Michael Landsberg and his co-host, former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player Carlo Colaiacovo. For the first 10-15 minutes they were talking about the tradition of who picks the music for the hockey locker room. Seriously. I thought it was joke at first but Colaiacova shared his personal experience and described the ritual and tradition. It's hard for me to convey how serious the conversation was about something so ridiculous. (Producer: "there's another 15 minutes eaten up. Good job boys.")

Then the conversation moved to football. After Landsberg stopped himself (mid-word) from saying Britain again (everyday, does nobody tell him?) they went through the fairly predictable discussion about how sad it is for England and how ecstatic the Croatians were. Admittedly, it was good to hear talk of it, healing in a way. Then Colaiacova went off on a tangent about how he heard that the 50th country on Fifa's rankings is some funny/weird country. To which Landsberg replied, in the polite way you do when somebody in a room with you has said something that can embarrass himself, "what constitutes a weird country in your head?"

The producer/assistant/somebody found out that the country is Burkina Faso and Colaiacovo howled and howled with laughter. "That's it! That's it! Have you ever heard of that! Is that a country? No way!" Yes, replied everybody else, by now even more exasperated by how their superstar hockey player was embarrassing himself. And with that I got to work, turned the radio off and thought I never have to listen to that tripe again.

Just as not to sound like I'm in anyway stereotyping hockey players I have met current and former players and they have all struck me as level headed, pretty intelligent guys.

Anyway, there's my story of distraction for today. What will tomorrow bring? On Saturday the 3rd/4th place match may be the distraction, but I'd need to be pretty desperately in the need for my mind to be somewhere else if I would watch the losers' match that even the losers don't want to play. Is it even possible for Belgium and England to play with more second string players that in their final match of the group stages?

Gloom. Doom. England

Day 28 WorldCup2018

At around 4.30pm this afternoon I resolved that my post for today would be a blank space. I was drained, done, not after 27 days but from two hours of tortuous emotions watching England come oh so close.

Then as I tried to carry on with the rest of the day all the thoughts popped into my head that would best describe those 2 hours.

I had a dream in 1990. I'm going to be having nightmares in 2018. Every time, I hear the names Kane and Lingard thoughts of what could have been are going to fight for prominence in my head.

England were not supposed to get this far so we should celebrate their achievement, no? Bogus. If anybody seriously thinks that they are trying very hard to find solace and consolation in manufactured emotions. Or they started watching football when England beat Sweden.

England were very, very close to being in a World Cup final. I really don't care if the team was made up of inexperienced youngsters playing way above expectations or a team of older players hoping for their last shot at glory. They were 22 minutes away from a World Cup final.

Was this run to the semifinals worth it, in hindsight? It was fun, yes, but if England had gone out in the first round we would have had a long time to get over it by the time the final came around. As we say in the tennis world when you lose in a third set tie break to somebody you've never beaten before: so what that it was close, you might as well have lost 6-0 6-0.

I was dreading Sunday and the end of the World Cup. Now I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.
Is it wrong to feel that there is nothing exciting to look forward to now? What could have been better than this? Are there more important things to worry or be happy about? Yes, but this was it, at this moment.

Can I say I write with a heavy heart? Does England's loss warrant that much of an emotional attribution?

There was one very, very drunk Croatian in the bar I watched the match at. As I watched him down beer after beer I wondered when he was going to be cut off and also where all his friends were. There are a lot of Croatians in Toronto. I wanted to believe it was a sign that he was in the huge minority and would be further drowning his sorrows after 90 mins. After 120 mins we could still hear his screams of delight as we walked down the street and turned the corner.

Maltese champions Valletta drew 0-0 in Albania in the first leg of the pre-qualifying round of the Champions League today. The qualifying rounds of the Europa League started on the 28th of June. One of the two Maltese teams made it through. Football life outside of the World Cup carries on.

As much as there is talk about how this could have been England's best opportunity for a long time to get to the final, think of what Croatian fans must have been thinking: Denmark, Russia and then England in the semis? We'll never get a better chance.

Do I feel any admiration for Croatia and their story, a young country and in their first final? A great story, yes, but I haven’t yet moved to the coping stage where I can congratulate the other team's supporters.

I hope the final is the Kylian Mbappe show.

Very German France

Day 27 WorldCup2018

Hey France, are you Germany in disguise? The French win today was a display of efficient, controlled football that Germany, pre-Russia 2018, would have been proud of. It was actually reminiscent of Germany's 1-0 win against France in the quarterfinals of Brazil '14.

Belgium just couldn't get going today and the exalted golden generation leaves Russia with nothing, other than the consolation prize of third or fourth place.

Did France step it up a gear? Maybe one gear. There were a few ooh-aah moments, but it was their overall stifling of the potent Belgian attack that was the most impressive. It did make for not the most exciting of matches, not the one that lived up to the high expectations promised to the part-time football viewer. But who in France cares?

Tomorrow, because of course you don't know, is England and Croatia's turn. I have no plans for Sunday. The only thing I am looking forward to is the exciting, unbearable tension that is going to overcome me tomorrow afternoon.

We'll talk tomorrow night.

Mr. Mifsud's seal of approval

Day 26 WorldCup2018

There are so many ways to describe how wonderful this World Cup has been. So here's another one: my Dad would have approved. As long as he hadn't watched Spain play, or France-Denmark he wouldn't have had much reason to complain about boring football, or how many times the ball was passed backward. Yes, he would have moaned about Neymar and Ronaldo, but the multitude of good would have very much outweighed the bad. I think Belgium would have been his favourite, partly because he would have been used to seeing so many of their players on TV in the Premier League every weekend. But I could also hear him saying, "they pass, they move, they attack and they don't keep passing the ball backwards."

He may also have been impressed by England, after so many years of moaning and groaning as we watched them together. The last good memory was the much-talked about (this week) 1990 run to the semifinals. That was the semifinal that I had "the dream" about before the World Cup, the one that made me know for sure that England would not beat the Germans. It was a strange evening. As I sat there sweating in my chair on that hot Maltese night, there was little of the normal nervousness that usually comes with watching England. There was only hope that maybe the only dream of mine that would ever come true, wouldn't actually come to fruition. There we were watching Shilton get beaten by that deflected free kick, England's late equalizer, the drama of extra time, the near misses for England; Dad cheering and groaning, Mum wishing and hoping and me knowing all along that all the emotion was all in vain. The penalties confirmed the gloomy, predictable ending for England. Spooky and weird as it may sound, I really did have a dream about what would happen. I have written about it many times.

All these years later and the emotion is very different. I have not had any dreams and I have not succumbed to any of my normal superstitions. I have also not watched one "football's coming home" video and have made no plans for what may happen beyond Wednesday. I have enjoyed celebrating the wins but stop myself from looking ahead. One match at a time has truly become my mantra.

Before Wednesday's event, Belgium play France tomorrow in what really should be yet another dream match-up for the neutral. Belgium are all about the flashy attacking play and France have the flash with a little more pragmatism. At least that's the impression they've been projecting but I agree with what I heard on the radio today, that they can still shift into a few higher gears. There's more to come from them and maybe they are saving themselves for the final.

The 4 semifinalists as a whole are fascinating. Europe has dominated, has produced the final 4 but look who it is. Not Germany, Italy or Spain. Holland might have also been a safe bet. France may be the least surprising of the four but, for the un-educated, Belgium and Croatia? And England? Well that's a pleasant surprise for everyone.

I hope you all enjoy the next two days. Savour every moment. We are reaching the end. Take the time to watch because next week you'll be watching Chelsea and Manchester City play meaningless pre-season friendlies in the US and looking online for results of the pre-qualifying rounds of the Champions League.

This amazing World Cup will be over soon, so even if you are not Belgian, French, Croatian or English enjoy what's left as a fan of great football.

Rest Day 4 reflections

Day 25 WorldCup2018

"Out of all the unimportant things, football is the most important." I had seen this quote previously attributed to Arrigo Sacchi, former manager of Milan and Italy. But it seems like it was Pope John Paul II who said it first.

It popped into my head again today, as I caught my breath after another two days of acute cardio-vascular-event inducing World Cup football. As the remaining four teams rest, and train, and I rested from trying to put into words the emotions generated by daily excitement, I had the recurring thought of how insignificant what I do is in the grand scope of the world, or how what 22 players do on a football pitch compares to what other professionals in their fields do.

But there is so much that goes on out there that can be deemed insignificant. What is somebody's joy, is another person's perfect example of boredom. Someone's masterpiece is another's ugliness. An artist paints a picture, a poet or a musician toils over lyrics and verses, actors learn their lines. Footballers try to score the perfect goal. Art lovers go to galleries and swoon over the artist's work, concert goers feel the passion of their idol's music, people flock to cinemas to watch the latest work of Hollywood fiction and fanatical fans live by their football team's ups and downs. Is anything more important than the other? Could we easily substitute "football" with "art" or "music" or "acting" into John Paul II's quote? The fans of each probably would say yes.

But how important are they really? Football may be the most popular sport around the world, the World Cup may bring communities together for a month (it does in Toronto) but what effect does it have on politicians' misguided, self-centred opinions, or on people in Syria living in fear? What does it do for stateless refugees in the Middle East, or starving refugees across Africa? Next to nothing.
And on a smaller scale what does football, or any of the above practices do for individuals wishing to live their best possible life, to get a good education, to have access to pathways to follow their dreams, to fall in love and be persecuted for who they fall in love with.

There is a lot more that is more important than football and the events of the past 24 days. But we have to be allowed our distractions. The joy I, and millions across the world, feel at watching this World Cup is not selfish, or ignorant. It is just the most important of all the unimportant things in or lives.

So I may wrestle with the insignificance of what I do everyday, but I have come to a happy realization that I read and see a lot everyday that can be judged to be of equal minuscule value in the world, but the person or people who perform whatever it is they are very good at, or believe they are very good at, are hopefully having as much fun as I am.

And I cannot end these rest day reflections without mentioning what may have been a subconscious inspiration for all this: the happiness that those four boys were rescued from the Thai cave today, and the hope that the remaining 9 will be out soon.

England. Just England.

Day 24 WorldCup2018

Only a few days ago I said, "and then there were 8" and now here we are down to the final four. And one of those four is England. England, in the semifinals of the World Cup. I've tried to remain unbiased and not profess my fandom for England, not out of embarrassment for how bad they were in the past, but so that anybody reading this for the first time wouldn't think that I am just a narrow minded England fan.

It's not true to say that watching England in the semifinal on Wednesday will be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I did live through the pain of the penalty loss to Germany in 1990. That run started with a terribly boring group stage where England struggled to a 1-0 win against Egypt and two uninspiring draws against Ireland and Holland. Despite the progression to the last 16 there was a sense of doom and gloom and the semifinal was a pleasant surprise.

This England team looks confident and reassured, and fans feel, yes, confident and reassured. There is no drama surrounding the team, no never ending debates about who should be selected and who should be doing crosswords on the bench. Gareth Southgate has been consistent with his team, he's picked players who he believes in, young players who are not yet household names in England (Stones, Maguire) or who haven't been consistent with their club teams (Lingard, Alli). And he can't even be blamed this evening for picking Raheem Sterling for every match. But let's not go there on this positive, happy day. It is very obvious that Southgate has managed the team very well. There is a sense of calm and quiet determination, a feeling of belief from the players that they can go all the way. They are not spectacular, but they are not just a good "organized unit" like Switzerland or Iceland. There is a little bit extra and that's why they are here and not at home watching on TV. Southgate's man management skills have made every player seem like an equal, with no obvious signs of big egos being allowed to dominate.

It is a wonderful feeling to invest all this emotional energy into a team and be rewarded with the joy of following a team that is in the semifinals. It's been said many times that it's been a fantastic World Cup and it's even better when you follow a winning team on this incredible ride in this most wonderful of tournaments.

Please never ask me if England's match was exciting. England matches are exciting for all the nervous tension but is the quality any good? I wouldn't know. Belgium-Brazil was a great match, as was Belgium-Japan because it was easy to sit back as a neutral and enjoy them. The enjoyment with watching England came in the 94th minute today when it finally felt definite that England were going to win.

At the risk of sounding stereotypical (but what the helll, England are in the semifinals) Kristine lifted the mood today by remarking how every Swedish number sounds like a piece of Ikea furniture, especially Ekdal. "Oh yes, we definitely have an Ekdal." Yes, we own a Swedish midfielder.

Ok, this all sounded funnier earlier. Confession and admission time, without the desire for any sympathy. I write this hours after the matches are finished, usually minutes before I go to bed when my brain is not only struggling to stay awake but also trying to remember, through the late night fog, what emotions were going though my head hours earlier.

I can't even go into Croatia beating Russia after extra time and penalties. They probably deserved it. Will England be worried? No. The Southgate confidence factor will see to that.

Brilliant Belgium

Day 23 WorldCup2018

Brilliant, Belgium. Brilliant. The radio in my car is very often tuned in to the Toronto sports channel that broadcasts the BBC commentary of World Cup matches. When the matches aren't on I sometimes listen to one particular program where the two hosts love the use of the word "brilliant" to describe football. Brilliant, they say over and over again, in admiration of the BBC voices.

Belgium were absolutely brilliant today. The players were brilliant, the tactics were brilliant and the win against the 5 times champions, Brazil, was brilliant. The manager, Roberto Martinez, was hounded out of Everton by the fans a couple of years ago. Today, he plotted a great win. Two nil down in the last match against Japan, he brought on Marouane Fellaini and Nacer Chadli. By the end they had each scored a goal and Belgium were off to the quarterfinals. Today they both started and, laugh as many will, at the unorthodox, sometimes clumsy Fellaini and the inclusion of Chadli, who had an injury-ridden season with the glamorous West Bromich Albion, there they were as a significat part of an incredible team performance that had Neymar, Coutinho and co. looking very ordinary.

Impressive as Belgium were the match was an example of the fine line between winning and losing football matches, between being the team that goes on to win the World Cup and being just another that lost in the quarterfinals. Belgium's first goal was an extremely fortuitous own goal and on another day a number of the many rebounds in front of the Belgium goal might have gone Brazil's way.

But Belgium it is who move on to play their neighbours France in the semifinal. The French were not as scintillating as the Belgians, and Uruguay, and Luis Suarez, definitely missed Edison Cavani. But France did enough with a little help from the Uruguayan keeper, Muslera. When he flapped at Griezmann's shot for the second French goal I was disappointed, not because that put France in very good position to win, but because it is sad to see a team lose this way on the greatest stage. If you are a teammate of Muslera, what do you say? It's ok, let's move on. But you know, really, that the guy has just messed up the team's chances of a win. And Muslera knows that he has screwed up and definitely doesn't believe a word of his teammates' encouragement. Not that I noticed any Uruguayan player going up to him. In a World Cup of so much individual and team brilliance that moment for Muslera was hard to see.

Tomorrow, Croatia or Russia and England or Sweden will make up the semifinal lineup. After today it's hard to imagine one of those four can challenge France or Belgium for the title.

Rest Day 3

Day 22 WorldCup2018

I should have had an hourly countdown to 10am tomorrow July 6th, Toronto time, to what could possibly be the greatest day of football at the greatest World Cup ever.

Even if both matches don't reach the high expectations set by the rest of this tournament and are not end to end thrillers, they will definitely still be fascinating. The tough to beat, iron men from Uruguay against the flashy French, followed by the clash of the two teams who, on their day, could be the most exciting to watch. Will Belgium out-Brazil Brazil. But even if they do, will the more pragmatic, well organized Brazil still prevail?

Happy World Cup Friday!

Rest Day 2

Day 21 WorldCup2018

A rest day. A day to recover. I heard on the radio today about a study done during the 2006 World Cup in Germany that showed that a number of German football supporters had acute cardiovascular events when Germany played. My ears heard "good exercise for strengthening the heart" but I don't think that was the conclusion of the study. I wonder if anybody is checking the hearts of people in Belgium, England, Argentina, Columbia.....what the hell, how about anywhere that the World Cup is watched? It's reached levels of constant excitement, at almost every match, that anybody would be hard pressed to remember a comparison at a previous World Cup. Individual matches, maybe, but not almost every single match.

The two day break might good to get everybody's adrenaline levels restored a little bit. But just the thought of Friday is enough to get the heart going again. France-Uruguay, an enticing clash of styles. Brazil-Belgium. Wow. The European Brazilians against the real Brazilians, who are not maybe as Brazilian as they used to be but they are still Brazil.

Enjoy your day off tomorrow. Make good plans for Friday.

England make it 8

Day 20 WorldCup2018

And.....breathe. Phew. England won the battle of Moscow to become the 8th quarterfinalists. And, boy of boy, did they do it the hard way. A goal conceded in the last minute and a win after penalties. Just another day of head shaking excitement at this incredible World Cup.

Who would have predicted these 8 countries in at this stage? On one side of the draw you've got your perennial favourites (Brazil), two extremely talented teams (France, Belgium) who could win this thing if they get their act together for the next three matches and a very strong dark horse, Uruguay. The other side is made up of Russia (really, how did they get there?), Sweden (there has to be one outsider, right? But hold on, there's more than one), England (football's forever coming home) and Croatia who are probably thinking, "how can we not make it to the final....we've got Modric and Rakitic and a whole bunch of other trending, hyped up players."

England won their first shootout at a World Cup, and they came through what came close to a football war. It was nasty, very nasty at times. And the Colombians sensed the referee was their for the emotional taking. They harassed and harangued him, and forced him to flash his yellow cards as a his only form of defence. England didn't fall apart as they have in the past. They didn't succumb to the provocations and if it hadn't been for that late, late Colombian goal we would have been talking about a hard-fought 1-0 win, instead of an historic shootout win.

I just have to mention that I saw about 30 seconds of Sweden's win against Switzerland. My whole work day was planned around watching England, so I'm sorry Swedes and Swiss, I had no time for you. My flaw in my plan for the day was I didn’t allow for extra time. So as England battled with the psychological blow of having to play extra time, I faced the challenge of dealing with the emotions of three and four year olds on a tennis court for the first time. Visions of Harry Kane scoring a winner fought for space with the mental energy required to keep my audience focused and not be distracted by what was going on anywhere but the tennis court.

And on a final, personal note, a vindication of sorts today. I argued when England beat Panama that no English player attempted to take on an opponent directly. I got only shakes of the social media heads at my preposterous suggestion of a display of a lack of skill. This was Chris Waddle after England's win today:

"We dominated the game and had a lot of the ball but we didn't create enough. We haven't got that player who picks it up and beats someone, before rolling the ball into a player to finish. It's hard work, tempo and set pieces which are proving important for us." Thank you Mr. Waddle.

As we look forward to what will be two amazing days on Friday and Saturday, a continuation of one of the greatest sporting events ever, I quote Gary Lineker, who last made England dream in those hot, crazy nights during Italia '90:

"Football. There is nothing like it. Nothing." After today, and the last twenty days, who can argue with that?

The joy is back, thank you Belgium

Day 19 WorldCup2018

Yesterday was just a blip. Today we were back to the Russia 2018 that we have all fallen in love with. Belgium and Japan took it to an even higher level. Even the most hardened anti-football person out there must have been moved by the incredible excitement of Belgium's comeback and final seconds' winner. What a move for the final goal, the speed of the Belgians to go from defending a corner to Chadli scoring the goal that puts them into the quarterfinals.

And that quarterfinal has the potential to be a real cracker. Belgium-Brazil is on paper the meeting of the two most talented teams, bar France, in Russia. Brazil were clinical and, at times, spectacular. Mexico were frantic. The Brazilians lost a lot of respect amongst a lot of neutrals with their terrible playacting antics though. Neymar was the worst culprit. His behaviour was appalling. It would be a wonderful idea to use VAR for one more thing. Whenever the VAR crew spot a shameful act of cheating, the match should be stopped and the video of the incident replayed on the big screen in the stadium. I would love to see Neymar's face when one of his exaggerated rolls along the pitch is played back to 50,000 people who can all have a good laugh at him.

I got into a little Twiiter spat today because I poked fun at one of the contributors to Fox Sports coverage of the World Cup. I have switched from watching the Canadian broadcast and enjoy the entertainment of the animated American commentators. But the best bit is they occasionally have Dr. Joe, the rules expert, pipe in with his mostly amusing opinions. It's amusing to me, but then I am a Euro snob. I did mention in my tweet that it contributes to why non-Americans laugh at American coverage of football. It was a light-hearted comment as a reaction to how hilarious having a Dr of rules is. But all the Americans who replied didn't quite see the humour in it.

They'd be happy to know that I could have gone further. American commentary is not bad, but it is polar opposite to the BBC. I enjoy the excitable commentators at times, but it still takes bit of getting used to the phrases.

I didn’t tweet about the shutouts and turnovers, or mention how Croatia were denied on the pk yesterday, or about the action at the top of the six. Japan, at times today, were jumping lanes and there were players who ran out of real estate on their plays. When Japan scored that amazing second goal the ball had some knuckle on it and if Japan had gone on to play Brazil they would have been playing with house money.

I'm laughing with you, Fox, not at you because I know you want us the viewers to be amused.

Wake me up when Spain do

Day 18 WorldCup2018

Stop. Don’t go there. It was just one bad day. It's been a fantastic 17 days. One day of, let's call it tactical football, will not spoil how wonderful it's been.

Even amongst what BBC called "largely disappointing", "dreadful" and "lacklustre" football there was still a huge amount of excitement. Two penalty shootouts will always guarantee that. And for the football fans who count the days for four years between World Cups even a day like today is a special one.

Let's get the easy one out of the way first. The hype surrounding Croatia looked very misguided today. They were on par with a very ordinary Denmark team, high on physicality and even shorter on skill than their norm with star man Christian Eriksen mostly anonymous. Luka Modric, the engine room and creative genius in the Croatian midfield looked like he had all his football smarts sucked out of him. The end result was for for him, luckily, redemption after he missed a penalty a few minutes before the end of extra time, a chance to not have his team go through the emotional torture of penalties. The two goalkeepers were the heroes in the shootout, but in the end one had to be better than the other. Croatia will move on to the quarterfinal that they were probably thinking about before the start of their match today, the "easy" quarterfinal against Russia.

And then there was Russia. A defensive masterclass. I'm sure some, or many journalists writing their match reports described Russia's win that way. And what did they say about Spain? That despite all their possession they couldn't find a way through the Russian defence? That they dominated the match and did not deserve to lose? That they were the team that tried to win while their opponents were happy to sit back and play for penalties? Or did somebody out there write about how Spain thoroughly deserved to lose for being so stubbornly arrogant, displaying no attempt at flexibility in their tactics and how this defeat will hopefully result in a massive overhaul of Spanish football?

Spain were forever the underachievers. Throughout the 1980s and 90s they had the big name players, there was huge potential, but tournament after tournament they failed to perform. Divisions between the Real Madrid and Barcelona players, tension between players from different regions in the country were amongst the often repeated reasons for the disappointments. Then Luis Aragones and Vincente Del Bosque worked out the magic formula and Spain were European Champions, twice, and World Champions. They came crashing down to earth in a first round exit in 2014, seemed to have found their way again in qualifying for Russia but this really could be it for a while for them.

It was hard to say the better team lost today or that Russia didn't deserve to win. Football is about defending and scoring goals. Spain's goal was a lucky own goal and Russia defence was not just stoic but also very well organized. Overall, it can be argued that Russia were the better team. They executed their game plan with more success than Spain did theirs. Sadly, Spain's plan was one with no alternative. They passed and passed and passed again. But they rarely went anywhere, or anywhere in the direction that mattered.

During Euro 2012, Del Bosque was accused of being arrogant by playing without a centre forward. How could he? How could he be so presumptuous as to believe his team could move the ball around so well and have anybody play in any position that goals would always come. Today, that arrogance came across in a different way. It was a smugness that despite almost losing to Morocco made the Spanish players believe that they could beat anybody by doing what they've been successful at for the past ten years: keep possession of the ball, have their opponents chase them to the point of wearing them down physically and emotionally. Iran and Morocco were not bullied by it. Russia definitely were not. It was almost sad watching Spain slowly passing the ball around their penalty area in the last minute when any other team would have been kicking the ball up to their opponents' penalty area in the hope of having one more scoring opportunity. The referee's final whistle as they took ten passes to reach the halfway line sounded not just like the sign that we were going to see the first match decided on penalties, but it was the sound of the end of this Spain, the signal that we've all had enough of it. Time to move on. Others team have evolved. Spain, it is not just frustrating anymore watching you hit over 1000 passes. It was sadly comical today.

And it keep getting better.

Day 17 WorldCup2018

Can it not end, please? Best World Cup ever. I love it. I am loving it so much that I'm already sad, and worried, thinking about how I'm going to deal with the void on July 16th. It's feels like the excitement before Christmas but you're already dreading Boxing Day.

Super Saturday really was quite special, Mbappe and Cavani special. France's incredibly talented team got their act together and kicked their game up a few gears once Argentina had taken a very lucky 2-1 lead. The French, at times, played the kind of football we all dream of watching but don't expect to happen in a real, competitive match. The fourth French goal was a lesson in quick movement from one of the pitch to the other with an emphatic finish to round it off.

Uruguay beat Portugal in a very different kind of match. Uruguay had two, maybe three, chances and scored twice. After their first goal they did what they do very well. They defended the lead against Portugal's huffing and puffing. After Pepe took advantage of the Uruguayan's one lapse of concentration to make it 1-1, Uruguay broke out one more time and Canavi scored a second beauty. After that it was back to the art of defending, with a "thou shall not pass" philosophy rarely troubled.

Tomorrow we will wake up to a World Cup without Messi and Ronaldo. Messi couldn't get himself interested enough to make anything happen. I don't get these theory of of how he has to drag his team-mates along with him. I didn't see much effort from him at all. Ronaldo, on the other hand, was chasing the ball and probing without much luck. There was another difference I noticed. While Messi looked like the only player of quality in the Argentinian team (Di Maria was having an off day too), Ronaldo had a bit of quality around him. William Carvalho and Bernardo Silva were pulling the strings for Portugal, with Ronaldo attempting to add more spark ahead of them. But still, with more talent across the team than Argentina, Portugal still didn't have enough to overcome the resolute Uruguayans.

As France and Urugauy move on, two questions need to be answered from today.

How did the back of Luis Suarez's head hurt so much after a blow to his upper back?

What happened to the Uruguayan fan who looked like he might have been accidentally elbowed or punched in the face after Cavani's second beauty. All we got was a quick glimpse in the corner of the TV screen of the poor man being consoled by a friend as mayhem broke out around him.

There are two more last 16 matches tomorrow. Will Russia keep the home party going with a win against Spain? And will Croatia handle the Danes easily to enhance their reputation as one of the favourites. Will it be more super than Super Saturday?

Rest Day 1

Day 16 WorldCup2018

From the very limited reaction to my rant yesterday I'll assume one of two things: nobody was offended by my anti-Japanese and anti-Senegal sentiments (football only) or it was too much of a rant.

Today will be quiet, because it was a quiet day in Russia. I had this dilemma during Brazil '14. Do I count a day of no matches as a day, or does tomorrow become day 16? While I think about it I will call today day 16.

Portugal-Uruguay and Argentina-France in a few hours. Can I be the first to call it Super Saturday?

Well played, Japan. Nice one.

Day 15 WorldCup2018

The first round of what has been an absolutely excitingly wonderful World Cup came to a somewhat limp end today, two weeks of the best football witnessed at a major tournament tarnished by the antics of Japan playing for the safety of a 1-0 defeat.

The timing of the matches prevented me from watching much today. I did see Colombia take the lead against Senegal, shortly before Poland did the same against Japan. At that moment Colombia were top of the group with Japan second by virtue of them having received less yellow cards than Senegal.

As I watched Senegal desperately try to get an equalizer, I read the updates on the BBC from the Japan match. In the last 10 minutes there was nothing more than a description of the Japanese players passing the ball around to each other in their own half. The BBC reporter alternated between making fun and being disgusted. So when that match finished and there were still 2 minutes to go for Senegal, I hoped, prayed, wished that the Colombians would get wind of it and let Senegal score. Why? Just to stick it to the Japanese for being so negative and being as terrible, and as anti-football as Germany and Austria in 1982. And what the hell were Poland doing? What was in it for them to not try scoring a second goal which would have also knocked out Japan? They were out anyway, and was defending a 1-0 lead over Japan really going to make anybody happy?

Now for the sake of proving I am not biased against Japan, but only disgusted by the way they destroyed the good feeling of this World Cup (even more than the France-Denmark snooze fest) I do appreciate that any collusion between Senegal and Colombia would have been equally despicable. And I can also confidently say, now that I am on the attack, what was all the fuss about Senegal? Really. I kept hearing about how fun they were to watch. Really? What kind of fun? I watched them play two and a half times and each time they were boring. Dull. And they never smiled, even when they scored. There was no flair, very little speed. I truly believe that there was a perception of fun, maybe because of their cool looking coach. They and Iceland were the hipster team. But someone please explain the "fun to watch" to me. And, you know, I have watched a lot of football. Senegal in 2002 were fun. They were reckless and unpredictable and they made it to the quarterfinals. Argentina are fun to watch because you know you're going to get passion. Switzerland are fun because they have taken good organization to a whole new level. Colombia, Belgium, Mexico. They are fun. Not Senegal. And definitely not Japan today.

I didn't watch Japan-Poland today so I can only comment on the description of what happened. So I'll quote people, in the know, who did watch it.

Leon Osman, former Everton player: "That was embarrassing the way the teams went about that final 10 minutes. It was everything we don't want to see in the World Cup. It turned into a farce."

Michael O'Neill. Northern Ireland manager: "I developed a soft spot for Japan, but I hope they get battered in the next round."

BBC commentator and former Liverpool player, Mark Lawrenson: [After a Japanese player did a stepover with no Polish player near him] "We shouldn't laugh but it's become an absolute farce. The ref is waving, what's he waving at? He can't make them play."

Former England captain, Terry Butcher: "It's been a marvellous World Cup. It's just been a bit tainted by Poland and Japan doing that."

BBC commentator Conor McNamara: "They've gone through on fair play. But can you call that fair play? Is that the spirit of the competition?"

The last one is my favourite. Japan have made a mockery of the concept that they were rewarded for that allows them to still be in Russia.

Cue all the counter arguments of they did what they had to do. "They're still in, aren't they?" I don't have time for that today. After all the fun I poked at some of the not so exciting football in Brazil four years ago, I have had 14 days of describing the best feeling I have had watching football day after day for a long, long time. So excuse me for having no sympathy or admiration for Japan doing "what they had to do."

England lost, but I don't care. The next match counts not today's meaningless one, played by players who weren't part of England's previous two exciting wins.

Germany, cheerio!

Day 14 WorldCup2018

Where do I begin, to tell the story of a German team that is gone, gone so soon, gone before they had enough opportunities to win more matches in the last minute when they looked down and out, before they could beat England on penalties, before Brazil could get their revenge. Two things have happened before, and at, Russia 2018 that are a first in my lifetime: Italy didn't qualify and Germany are out in the first round.

And, again, VAR has to take part of the credit. If VAR hadn't been around to confirm South Korea's goal, Germany might have scored a late winner, denying Mexico the opportunity to lose in the last 16 again, and Sweden a very winnable match against Switzerland.

But South Korea's first goal was a goal and it led to the crazy situation of the second goal where I was yelling "shoot" at the TV when the Korean defender had the ball way closer to his penalty area than the German one.

Oh Germany, how? How could you have been that bad? Where did it come from? What changed in the last few months? After dominating their qualifying group, and winning the Confederations Cup with their second team,they seemed to lose their way in the last few friendlies. Something was up. Maybe they finally cracked under the Low expectations of being perfect all the time, hair and football.

And of course for all of Germany's misery there is another team's joy. Two teams' joy, really. Mexico were celebrating a 3-0 defeat to Sweden. And Sweden, what a way to come back from the psychological damage of that crushing defeat to Germany on Saturday. John Giudetti and Jimmy Durmaz are probably relishing the lifeline they've been handed. David Ginola never got that chance.

In other news that could only be seen as dull compared to the earlier bombshell, Brazil sauntered into the knockout round with a composed win against Serbia and Switzerland let Costa Rica leave the World Cup with a couple of goals in a 2-2 draw.

So the Swiss and the Swedes play each other in what could be regarded as a very good opportunity for either team to, a little surprisingly, reach the quarterfinals. Sweden are remembered as the reason for the Italians not being in Russia. As for Switzerland, a little reminder of how consistent they were in qualifying is needed. Their first match was an impressive win over the new European champions, Portugal. They then went on to win every match until the last one, the return against Portugal. That defeat meant they had to go through the playoffs, on goal difference. They are not spectacular but their ability to grind out results is pretty impressive.

Rojo!

Day 13 WorldCup2018

They have all that firepower up front and the defender who has struggled to become a regular at his club side scores the screamer. Messi, Aguero, Higuain. Goals in them all season. But up steps Man United's Marcos Rojo to score the winner that keeps Argentina in the World Cup. What a goal it was, not quite Maxi Rodriguez in 2006 but probably a bigger goal than that.

What an evening it was for those Argentinian fans in the stadium, the thousands of them. They erupted when Messi scored his goal of awesome technical brilliance. And they almost took the roof of the stadium when Rojo's volley hit the back of the net. It was brilliant, like watching Argentina at La Bombonera or the Monumental in Buenos Aires. The Argentinians were rocking the St. Petersburg stadium. For that spectacle alone how could you not want Argentina to stay in the World Cup?

Earlier, in complete contrast, Denmark and France played out the first 0-0 draw of this tournament. It was a real 0-0, the kind of 0-0 that Americans shake their head at and make jokes about kissing your sister. It was dire. It was turgid. The BBC commentators and analysts were angry that 22 (plus subs) professional footballers could go out and put on that kind of display, devoid of any sort of passion. The point that confirmed how bad it was happened towards the end of the first half when Denmark had a quick counter attack and were about to break into the Danish penalty area but a few passes later were back at the edge of their own penalty box.

But back to passion, what better demonstration of it was there than Maradona's double middle finger salute after Rojo's goal to anybody who had dared taunt him. It's sad seeing the physical and mental state of, questionably, the greatest footballer ever and he has done some despicable things in his past, but you can not question his love for Argentina and it's football. His public display of emotion is probably safer to discuss than Shaqiri and Xhaka's double eagle gesture to the Serbian fans after their goals for Switzerland last weekend. Too political. I thought about addressing it on the day but decided not to go down that road. Maradona is an easier subject, despite his complexities.

V.A.R!

Day 12 WorldCup2018

All praise VAR. No more dreams ended by linesmen not seeing offsides, or by referees awarding nonexistent penalties. Apart from questions as to how all the referees (the main one, assistant and the VAR crew) missed Harry Kane and Aleksandar Mitovic being manhandled to the ground, VAR, has been pretty successful.

Today it added to a day of high drama and excitement. Spain were awarded a goal that had been disallowed for offside at the same time as Iran were given a penalty. Spain's goal meant they saved themselves from the embarrassment of a defeat to Morocco and Iran's penalty lead to their last minute equalizer against Portugal.

I have forever been a critic of "bad referee decisions are a part of the game" and more a supporter of "the technology exists, use it". Sure, Iran's penalty still came down to a referee making a decision based on what he saw and it was still a somewhat controversial decision, but he had the ability to make an informed decision.

But above all, what about the incredible tension and emotional rollercoasters today? Isn't that part of what makes sport something we get so drawn into? Today's VAR incidents just added to those emotions.

At the end of it all we have our first last 16 match-ups. Portugal-Uruguay on Saturday. Who else thinks that's going to be a tasty, feisty, battle to the bitter end kind of match. I don't think it will be very pretty. And Spain play Russia. Will Spain play the same way as they did in the group phase? Will they pass the ball around, and back and forth, and around and back and forth again until, hey presto, the ball ends up in their oppoents net and, hey look, don't know what happened, all that passing made us dizzy and now we are top of our group. That's crazy.

Tomorrow we'll see if Messi can get Argentina out of their mess and whether Iceland can keep the underdog dream alive.

An English stroll? Boring?

Day 11 WorldCup2018

I could just put together all my tweets and posts from the day. And that would be a pretty description of what happened in Russia today. But that would be boring, wouldn't it?

It started off with England making a mockery of Panama's ambitions to win their first ever World Cup point. A 6-1 win which you (I) felt could have been more if they really tried. The goals sort of fell into their laps and so the feeling amongst the players could have been interpreted as ,"why try, when we can score without trying?" But the match did raise a few questions.

What is better: if the team you support wins a thrilling match by scoring a last minute winner or if they are up 5-0 at half-time and the match is devoid of any real excitement? For the first option there is so much emotion invested in the team for 90 minutes: highs, lows and finally a massive outburst of relief and joy. You long for the easy 6-1 win, where your team completely dominates and demonstrates through their display of near perfection why you support them. But it's ultimately quite boring. Of course there are exceptions. If you are German and watched the 7-1 annihilation of Brazil in 2014, then it would have been a pretty special feeling.

I asked this question repeatedly today. Why did English players not take on any Panamanians today in one on one situations? Rarely, very rarely. did they try to dribble past defenders. As soon as they got close to an opponent they passed the ball. Raheem Sterling never ran with the ball and Ruben Loftus-Cheek who is known for "gliding past players" (Frank Lampard's words) did more stalling than gliding. Jesse Lingard took on the Panamian defence once and scored. Maybe the lack of ambition was simply because of the way the goals were coming England's way without the need for any individual sparkle. They tried that against Tunisia and, as fun as it was to watch, look at the end result.

What goes through Kyle Walker's head at times? Is he really that bored? He's the right back who's been playing as a more central defender in England's new three man defence. His partners, Harry Maguire and John Stones, have been getting forward and scoring goals but Walker has been hanging back. And at the back he gave away that penalty against Tunisia where his whack around the Tunisian's head was so lackadaisical that you wondered if in his mind he had drifted back to a day on the school pitch at lunchtime after the headmaster had told him that he would be staying after school to work on his attitude. The poor player on the receiving end of his slap was the headmaster, in Walker's mind. And today, at 6-0, he calmly dribbled past a Panamian forward close to the England touchline and after he had done the hard bit and completely fooled the Panamanian he pretty much walked the ball over the line and gave away a corner. Again, he barely looked like he cared. Or he was so lost, so bored, that he didn't even notice the thick white line under his feet. Or maybe he intentionally let Panama have a corner because he was missing being challenged.

A big part of the rest of the day was spent with me trying to figure out the perfect scenario where all four teams in Group H could end up with the same number of points, same goal difference and same number of goals scored. After Japan and Senegal drew 2-2 and Colombia went 2-0 up against Poland it was all, sort of, going to plan. Poland just needed to score twice. But when Colombia scored again, I disappointingly conceded that the final standings wouldn't be that sexy. As it stands the biggest probability is that one of Colombia and Senegal will move on, and Japan. The Japanese will probably not lose against eliminated Poland. If they draw, only one of Colombia and Senegal can qualify. If Japan lose, Colombia and Senegal will both qualify with a draw. Otherwise, it may go down to a combination of who wins or loses and goal difference. I started writing down all the possible permutations but realized that would show that I spent way too much time thinking about it today.

Anyway, who ever qualifies from Group H is going to get ripped apart by the free-scoring Belgians or English.

Giudetti! No!

Day 10 WorldCup2018

John Giudetti! David Ginola may be smiling tonight, for he may no longer be remembered as the player who's ill-timed decision ruined a country's World Cup hopes.

If you weren't watching Germany-Sweden today or had tuned out by the 93rd minute, here's what happened. Towards the end of one of the best, if not the best, match at this year's World Cup, Sweden have the ball far up in the German half. It's 1-1. The Swedish fans are having a party. The German supporters are contemplating the possibility of no second round football. If it ends in a draw, Sweden would only need a draw against Mexico in their last match to eliminate the Germans.

The ball is played to Guidetti at the corner of the German penalty area. He takes a touch and the lazily takes a shot with an obvious lack of any conviction that he is actually going to score. As the ball bobbles towards Manuel Neuer in the German goal, I am sure I am not the only viewer who's thinking, "he has just handed Germany a lifeline". He could have used some of the skill that made him such a promising teen star many years ago to stop, turn and head towards the corner flag. Or, at the very least, he could have looked up and noticed his unmarked team mates running into the penalty box. But no. He took his shot, the kind of shot you hit when your team is losing 3-0 in the 93rd minute and all hope of a positive result is long gone, and when your manager has put you out there for a sympathy runabout for a few minutes.

So Neuer gets the ball moving and within a few seconds, Giudetti's team mate, and fellow sub, Jimmy Durmaz gave away the free kick which will be remembered for a long time with a rash, lazy tackle when it was really needed. Up stepped Toni Kroos and after the spectacularly struck winner with 18 seconds on the clock the mood in the stadium and the balance of the group completely changed. The Germans were ecstatic because they now see more light. The Swedes were devastated because they had it in their hands, the easy opportunity to eliminate Germany. Now they have to beat Mexico. And the Mexicans have gone from looking like comfortable qualifiers to having a battle on their hands. And South Korea, seemingly ready to pack their bags, now have mathematical hope, even though this requires a win against Germany.

It was quite the night (or afternoon here), quite the intense end to the day. Belgium's brilliance in their 5-2 demolition of Tunisia was the earlier excitement of a very different kind. And Mexico's 2-1 win over the Koreans has now changed in significance.

Shaqiri!

Day 9 WorldCup2018

Shaqiri! Shaqiri! I just like having the opportunity to say that. The little Swiss magician did his thing today, with his last minute winner against Serbia. It sounded good on the radio. As did Nigeria's two goals against Iceland. Brazil-Costa Rica? I don't know, I didn't even get to listen to the radio for that match.

I love the old school romanticism of listening to football on the radio. But I would rather be watching it. So I will say no more today, because I did not see one moment of football. I'll take it as a quasi night off.

Peru, gone. Messi? Going.....

Day 8 WorldCup2018

Peru, they waited 36 years to be at a World Cup again and now they're out after two matches, a missed penalty and no goals scored. And gone will be the thousands of their loud, colourful fans. They'll be around for one more match but with nothing to play for, will they have the same passion?
France had flashes of brilliance in their 1-0 win against Peru today but the question still lingers: is this how good their team of talented individuals is going to be or are they pacing themselves, ready to really take off in the second round?

Australia are hanging on after their 1-1 draw with Denmark. Christian Eriksen did what he does best, score a spectacular goal and Mile Jedinak did what he is good at, score a penalty.

In the last match of the day, if battles like this were scored on points, Croatia's midfield maestro Luka Modric beat Argentina's midfield misfit Lionel Messi by a landslide. If it was boxing the referee might have stopped it out of fear of Messi getting too badly battered.

Croatia are through and Argentina are now relying on other results. Iceland could be playing for a draw against Croatia in their final match to eliminate Argentina. I already smell collusion.

Pepe, we don't want your kind around here.

Day 7 WorldCup2018

It's been a wonderful World Cup so far, with exciting, fast moving matches being the norm. The defensive teams have been tough and fair, and the dirty fouls and play acting have been at a minimum.

That is, until today when Portugal's Pepe and Iran's goalkeeper, Alireza Beiranvan, spoiled all the positiveness and gave all the non-football fans who laugh at football for the ridiculous fake injuries lots of ammunition. So thank you, Pepe and Alireza Beiranvan for being such ridiculous idiots.

Pepe flopped to the ground after he was tapped on the shoulder by a Moroccan player. Tapped, really. Not pushed, not punched. Tapped. There he was looking like he had been violently assaulted while, quite rightly, the world laughed at him. I can't say anymore how I don't understand how these players can not be embarrassed when they do this. So I will quote what some of his fellow footballers had to say.

Gary Lineker: "See Pepe is still a d***."

Martin Keown: ""It's hard to take him seriously. Men were men when I played. If I'd have done that against Alan Shearer he'd have laughed and walked over the top of me."

Rio Ferdinand: "He must be embarrassed when he sees himself on TV behaving like that. He must be embarrassed for his kids to see that."

John Arne Riise: "OMG Pepe. Pathetic. Grow up man."

Then in the late match, Beiranvan and Spanish striker Diego Costa's toes touched and Beiranvan was down on the floor like a meteorite had fallen from space on his foot. Thank goodness the referee had the good sense to give him a good talking to. Later he was at it again. After a pretty good save a Spanish player looking to capitalize on the rebound collided with him and there he was rolling around with one eye on the referee to make sure he got the foul instead of the corner for Spain that it should have been.

That was not the biggest story of the Spain-Iran match though. First Spain finally broke through Iran's incredibly defensive display with a very lucky Costa goal. Then in one of those moments of incredible emotional swings, Iran scored but had the goal disallowed by a very attentive assistant referee and VAR. It was a mix of embarrassing and sad watching the whole Iranian bench erupt in celebration when the "goal" was scored. As the Iranian "scorer" said his prayers on the ground you wondered who was going to have the heart to tell him that the refereee was standing at the spot where he took the shot with his hand up, signifying that he was about to award a free kick to Spain.

Morocco are the first team eliminated after they lost to Portugal. It seems so soon, too soon. We haven't even had a week. And Saudi Arabia and Egypt are also gone after Uruguay's 1-0 win over the Saudis. It all seems so real, like the tournament has now become serious when teams are knocked out and players are pretending to be knocked out.

Fifa, be brave, and discipline these players. They spoil the whole month for all of us.

No Salah, more Russia

Day 6 WorldCup2018

Hands up if you wanted Mo Salah to be one of the stars of this World Cup, the charismatic, energetic Egyptian who set Liverpool and the Premier League on fire? Yes, you did. Don't deny it, even you Man United fans. How wonderful it would have been to see him leading little Egypt, in their first World Cup since 1990, to a 2002 Senegal-style run to the quarter-finals.

But it wasn't to be. Egypt need a miracle of a combination of results after losing 3-1 to Russia today. Salah, and the rest of the Egyptian team, and the management, and the whole of Egypt will blame Sergio Ramos for having the audacity to tackle Liverpool's most dangerous player in the Champions League final. Salah came to Russia with that resultant shoulder injury and probably shouldn't even have been playing. But maybe it was karma, if you believe in that, not a dodgy shoulder; karma for being part of a publicity stunt for Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov last week. Maybe.

So Russia are pretty much off to the last 16 after being ridiculed by everybody, including their own fans and media, before the tournament as having the worst host country team ever. Even Canada in 2026 were expected to be better. Uruguay could join them tomorrow if they beat Saudi Arabia.

While Group A may be almost wrapped up tomorrow, Group H only started today. After today's results it is possible that the team doing a 2002 Senegal-style run to the quarterfinals could be Senegal. They looked solid and exciting in their 2-1 win over Poland. The match had probably the most bizarre/controversial goal so far. M'Baye Niang scored the second goal after the referee signalled for him to return to the pitch after an injury, and he ran straight onto a long ball, nipped in between an unsuspecting goalkeeper and defender and put the ball into an empty net. Lucky timing for Senegal but a disaster for Poland who kept up their recent tradition of being pretty woeful at major tournaments. This time, even more than last time when Poles though they had a pretty good team, they were supposed to be better. But, again, they look like they will have to wait another four years to get anywhere close to the wonder years of Ziggy Boniek in 1982.

Japan beat Colombia 2-1 and even though this was regarded as a pretty open group it still seems like a bit of a surprise that Japan and Senegal are the two teams in pole position. The first red card of the tournament went to Colombia's former Aston Villa mystery (was he good, was he lazy?) Carlos Sanchez for a wonderful bit of goalkeeping when he wasn't sure if his real goalkeeper was actually behind him. Despite the great performance by the Japanese who completely dominated the second half it was the referee who seemed determined to steal the show. At every corner he ran into the penalty area pointed his finger at a few players, "I'm watching, you, you and you" and then quickly retreated while keeping an eagle eye on his charges. He may have been making a point of, "the guys with all the TV's in Moscow may miss your fouls, but I won't."

Another day tomorrow. Will it be good , will it be memorable? Who cares? The excitement of looking forward to it is great enough.

Belgium, England, Tunisia

Day 5 WorldCup2018

Sweden beat South Korea 1-0 in today's first match. The goal came from a penalty in the 65th minute. Yep, that's it.

Belgium finally dismantled Panama 3-0 in the second half with three, as they say on North American TV sports news, "highlight reel" goals. Dries Mertens scored a stunning volley, Romelu Lukaku added a second after a quite sumptuous outside of the foot cross from Kevin de Bruyne and Lukaku scored again after a lethally quick and simple counter attack and a perfect, lay it on a plate pass from Eden Hazard. There were a couple of Hazards on the pitch at the end, and not just for the Panamanians. Thorgan Hazard, Eden's younger brother came on for the last 7 minutes.

England's 2-1 win over Tunisia in the last match of the day was notable for a few things. England went from being very, very good to looking very average when the score was 1-1 but, amazingly, unlike numerous disappointments in the past, managed to find a winner in injury time. VAR, or it's lack of use, was confusing. We were told it would be used if the referee missed obvious incidents where penalties were involved. Four men sitting in front of a wall of TV's missed Harry Kane being wrestled, quite literally, to the ground, twice. The referee may not have seen both fouls but what were the four men in Moscow doing. Did they all go to the toilet at the same time, twice?

And the last thing that stood out was, in a World Cup, that has been so much fun to watch where even the defensive teams are putting a positive spin on defending, we saw the first negative team performance. For most of the second half Tunisia were a mirror image of Malta at Wembley against England in qualifying. They barely left their own half and had absolutely no ambition to do anything other than hold on for a famous point. Fair enough, results are what matter. But to add to their negativity was the outrageous cynicism, the constant fouls, the whining and arguing with the referee. They played dirty, they left the pitch with a terrible reputation and I'm sure most neutrals were happy to see they got the result they deserved. Many teams have played like this in the past, but maybe there is a new order in football and teams like this will have no supporters. Iceland and Switzerland are the positive, clean versions of Tunisia.

Mexico!

Day 4 WorldCup2018

Ah football, wonderful World Cup football. On a Sunday, when there is nothing else to do.

Ah Mexico. Mexico and their wonderful, exciting football. Mexico who normally play the role of "we're almost good" so well. Today they took it a step further. They took on Germany with so much confidence, they made the Germans look like they were the underdogs. A win is a win, an unexpected win is a huge win. Do they regret that it was only 1-0 when it could have so easily been 3-0?
Good players can become great players when it matters with good coaching. Juan Carlos Osorio, Mexico's Colombian coach has to take a lot of credit how he inspired his players to play.

The same can be said about Switzerland's Vladimir Petkovic. The Swiss have been unspectacularly solid for the last eight years so. Apart from Shakiri it's hard to mention another Swiss player. They have done what Iceland have done without the romanticism of Iceland. They have gone diligently about their business putting together a team, from a relatively small country, who have slowly risen to be the sixth best team in the world according to the Fifa rankings. This is the team that won all of their qualifying matches except for one defeat against Portugal.

Watching Switzerland today, and Iceland yesterday, made me realize that teams like this, teams without the Messi's, Couthinho's and Neymar's, have turned the notion of "playing as a unit" into an exciting piece of football artwork. It's no longer boring. They are not sucking the life out of games, they are giving it a different, intriguing kind of life. Sure, they crowd the edge of their penalty area, but they also have players defending ahead of that line, players harassing the opposition who then have the ability to move that unit up the field to the opponent's defensive areas. It's fascinating.

Brazil were briefly spectacular for a while against the Swiss today. Couthinho's goal was the kind you would expect from a Brazilian. But after that they seemed to falter against the organization of the Swiss. It's true that Europeans play differently and Brazil have to adapt after a relative breezy run though qualifying.

Their struggles today were ironic because their coach, Tite, took a year off work to study European playing systems which he then added into his team when he took as coach of Brazil.
Tite looks like a very studious man. As he stands on the touchline he looks he is not only looking at Neymar's movement, but he is also wondering what kind of paint was used for the lines on the pitches in Russia and whether that could make a difference to his system. He's the kind of man who if everybody around him on the bench was celebrating a last minute winner he would be trying to figure the exact velocity at which the ball hit the back of the net, and whether it could be improved upon.

By the way, in case you were too busy watching the US Open golf or the latest shocking celebrity videos on TMZ, little Switzerland did not beat Brazil. They came close but took the 1-1 draw as a victory.

And if you are a big golf fan and were watching the US Open, I was one of those people who didn't pay much attention to it because I was too busy watching Switzerland batter Brazil. So who won?

In the first match today Serbia beat Costa Rica 1-0. There's not much else to say other than to mention the fantastic Kolorov free kick that gave Serbia the win. It wasn't a terrible match. It was just unfortunate that the quality and standard of excitement of this tournament has been so high so far that this match was a bit below that level. And with the incredible, emotional excitement that followed later, poor Serbia and Costa Rica are easily forgotten.

Not Messi

Day 3 WorldCup2018

This is not going to be about Messi. It was not his day. You can take interpret that any way you wish to.

But what about Iceland? No, not that they, in their first World Cup match, held Argentina to a 1-1 draw, but that every single Icelandic player looks like the perfect specimen of an athlete. Now weirrd, right, that I said that? I appreciate quality.

The Icelandic football was pretty impressive too. At Euro 2006 there was a lot of talk about team unity and good systems, which was code for not very good teams defending well and taking all the fun out of games. But today Iceland demonstrated that they have taken the effectiveness of the unit to a whole new level. Their dentist coach must have worked on a lot of diagrams while his patients were knocked out.

Oh, and Messi missed a penalty. But I won't talk about that. And Sergio Aguero scored a pretty good goal.

Earlier France beat Australia 2-1 in the Italian way, the Italian way where they go on to win the whole thing. The first goal was a penalty awarded after the ref went and watched his glass-case TV on the side of the pitch. Is it bullet proof? What is it with that glass case? Can the ref really get close enough to see the TV? And how does he feel about 45,000 people or so watching him watch the TV? France's second goal was an own goal that barely bounced over the line. Technology was needed again to give them the goal. France are either going to have a Nicholas Anelka player revolt moment or they are going to go on and win the whole thing.

Later, Paolo Guerrero's heroic return couldn't inspire Peru to a win against Denmark. Peru did more than huff and puff. They ran and ran, and created chances that a decent centre forward would have buried. Denmark were Denmark: unspectacular but one chance and, boom, one goal, thank you for trying, good luck with you next match.

And even later Croatia tamed Nigeria with an own goal and a penalty. Hold on. If France don't have their meltdown, does this mean Croatia are going to win this thing?

Tomorrow, enter Brazil and Germany. The football royalty. It's like the day at Wimbledon when Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer play their first match. For some this is when the World Cup starts. This is when the neutrals start watching. There is something special about Brazil play their first match. How good are they going to be? Are they going to be fun to watch? Will Switzerland spoil the party?

This World Cup reporter had better get to bed. It's another early start tomorrow, not 6am like today but 7am after a late night is coming up very soon.

Serbia-Costa Rica, see you soon. Please keep up the good, fun start to this World Cup.

Day 2, because I missed Day 1

Day 2 WorldCup2018
There was a Day 1 but it was gobbled up by the internet gremlins in my phone. I saw it as sign that I shouldn't carry on. But then I saw Putin and the Saudi Crown Prince conversing, sort of, and I remembered how much fun I had during Brazil '14. It was a long, eventful day yesterday and I couldn't write it again but know that the thoughts were there.

The only bit I'll repeat from yesterday is the comedy of the interaction between Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with Gianni Infantino stuck in between the two of them. After Russia scored their third goal, we got a shot of the Crown Prince turning to Putin with a look of , "really? another goal? 2-0 wasn't enough for you ego?" And Putin shrugged back a response of, "I don't know. 3-0. Is that good? I know nothing about football." To which bin Salman shrugged back, "another one and I might have to do what the Kuwaiti guy did in 1982 and take my players off the pitch." To which Infantino shrugged, "you're joking, right? Not at my World Cup. Although I wouldn't mind you pissing Vladimir off a little bit." A few more shrugs of negotiation back and forth and Putin finished it with, "look Prince buddy, you don't try anything funny over here in my country." Back to watching the match. Not a word was spoken. Who needs a interpreter, anyway?

On to today. It's very hard being a World Cup reporter when you don't get to watch much because you have a real job. My day, if I may share, started with me getting to work an hour early to watch the first half of Egypt-Uruguay. However, I either had wrong information of can't read the difference between 7am and 8am and ended up watching Steven Caldwell doing his pre-match analysis for an hour. I did not see a ball kicked in anger, or joy, or any shots of Mo Salah cutting his birthday cake while be sat on the bench. Uruguay scored the only goal in the last minute. Must have been exciting.

I watched the first half of Morocco-Iran and could barely keep up with the speed of the Moroccans. "They'll probably mess this up," I thought as they pinned the Iranians in their half. Sure enough, an own goal in the 95th minute was the only goal and it went to Iran.

Another complete mess-up affected my viewing of Spain-Portugal. Where did I see 3pm? I had changed my appointment so I could at least watch the second half. But, no, it started at 2pm. So I saw the first 20 minutes and the last 15. 1-0 when I left it, 2-3 when I came back. And then Ronaldo, version CR7, laid down the gauntlet for Messi with a stunning equalizer: "see if you can rescue your team like I do all the time."

That was the football, or my story around the football. But there's other stuff.

Does anybody else think it sounds like the Russian FA and organizing committee have filled the stadiums with schoolchildren, the screaming ones?

They obviously didn't get enough children out of school in Ekaterinburg. The stadium with the most photographed temporary stands at either end had over 5,000 empty seats for the Uruguay-Egypt match. Fifa are confused because they say only 700 tickets were unsold. I am confused because there is a lot of chatter about how the tickets were too expensive and it's very far from Moscow. But the tickets were sold anyway. So did around 4,500 people buy tickets and then decide they shouldn't have spent that money or did they not look at a map when they bought the match tickets and a hotel room in Moscow. Or are there are a lot of second hand ticket sellers out there who were left with a lot of tickets on their hands?

The final thought for today is how wonderful the World Cup is for bringing people together. Two examples warmed my heart. Kristine Mifsud heard the Iranian electricians next door working on the storm damage celebrating wildly when Iran scored, which they heard on their radio. So she went out and invited them into watch the replay on out TV. They were so ecstatic, and probably so proud.

As I watched Spain-Portugal on my computer, I heard that one of the young landscapers working outside is of Portuguese descent. I told him to take a break when the boss wasn't watching and to come into my office and watch. After he did for a few minutes he came back a little later with his colleague and their boss. And we all watched for a few minutes, me and three guys I barely know, two of whom never watch football but are interested in knowing what's going on because it's the World Cup. The boss did suggest bringing in his cooler full of beers, closing the door and calling it a day. I never did see the beer. Must remind him that I will gladly take him up on the offer next time.

Tomorrow is the eagerly awaited Argentina-Iceland match. I've looked forward to it for how long? So what am I doing? Working. My conscience really is an annoying emotion.