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.
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.
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