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.
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.
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