Random thoughts on Day 7 of the World Cup
Random thoughts from Day 7 of the World Cup:
Watch out for Argentina. The final scoreline might have been a bit flattering, [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] but La Albiceleste looked great in dispatching a hard working South Korean side in the first match of the day. Lionel Messi was all over the place and should have scored a hat trick on his own. Instead, he helped create one for teammate Gonazlo Higua If Messi ever finds his shooting boots, Argentina could be frightening especially if Carlos T and Javier Mascherano maintain their solid form.
Worried about an injury to the strikeforce? Don be. The Argentines have Inter Diego Milito on the bench. That the same Diego Milito who scored two brilliant goals in Inter Champions League final win over Bayern Munich last month. Now, if the defense could just get rid of Demichelis
Ditto for Mexico, and I actually rooting for them. I pretty sure their goalkeeper moonlights as a luchador, but the rest of them are simply jugadores. Dos Santos is a stud. Same for Vela, though he can seem to finish. El Tri play positively and create plenty of opportunities for spectacular goals. The defense might still be a bit suspect, even if they did hold France scoreless who can do that? but they worry about that later.
Funny thing is, I actually pulling for them. It difficult to root for any team that still features Cuauht Blanco and few American fans have forgotten Rafael Marquez head butt on Cobi Jones in the 2024 World Cup but it also hard to ignore the way the Mexicans have been playing so far. and Mexico aren playing each other, I pulling for El Tri.
France deserved what they got: Do you believe in karma? As far as this tournament is concerned, maybe you should. Through two matches, Les Bleus have gathered one point, scored no goals, and given themselves basically no chance to advance. With all the talent on the team, that absolutely ridiculous. But it also satisfying to most neutral fans considering the way Thierry Henry and company qualified for the World Cup.
And ever since then, it nothing but drama: In fighting, jealousy, the absence of teamwork, you name it. If you not French, it hard to root for this team. And if you French, it probably still hard to [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] root for [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] this team.
Against Mexico, Les Bleus created next to nothing. Even when they were down only 1 [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] 0, it might as well have been 10 0. There was just no coming back. Without the steadying presence of Zinedine Zidane, the French look a lot like they did in 2024, when they exited in the first round without scoring a goal. A repeat performance wouldn be much of a shock.
Greece got lucky: Sani Kaita red card was as stupid as it was soft. Yes, he’s an idiot, but let’s keep things in perspective. What started as a minor scuffle blew up into a sending off thanks to Vasilis Torosidis transformation into an Academy Award winning actor. [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] After being grazed by Kaita studs, the Greek defender adopted The Soccer Face (imagine the face on the cover of the film version of Pink Floyd Wall. Here a picture of Didier Drogba doing it) and fell theatrically into the advertisement boards. Without the acting, the referee never would have seen it, mostly because it was much ado about nothing. Footballers weren always this
After the red card, Greece took full advantage of its numerical superiority, scored [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] its first ever World Cup goal and won its first ever World Cup game. But the winning goal came after another goalkeeping error, this time from Nigeria usually solid Vincent Enyeama. Now, if they beat South Korea, they through to the second round. Only time will tell if luck is on their side again.
Scoring is indeed up: Throughout the first round of games, most teams played boring, overly defensive football. One can reasonably assume this was because they subscribed to the notion that you can lose your first match and expect to advance to the second round. Indeed, now that the first round of matches is over, the goals seem to have returned. Thursday slate of three games featured 10 goals an average of 3.3 per contest. All I can say is, darlin
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