This round, we are learning the median age of each country.
Today’s Game
Spain 2 (47.2) v. Belgium 1 (42.4)
Sometimes this old dog has still got it. This game was relatively unexciting, Belgium put out a combination of their younger lineup from the USA game and their more regular (older) line up, the Spanish dominated the game and won by one goal.
That said, I did not expect to get to 2-1 because Belgium’s goalie, Thibaut Courtois, would leave the game with injury. We will comeback to that.
The first half we saw Spain slowly build up momentum. They got in a number of shots but none were on target, but they kept getting closer and closer. Then in the 30th, what everyone could see coming, they finally broke through. 1-0. After the goal, Spain was even more dominant. In fact, about a minute before Belgium scored the announcer (on Telelmundo, the only network I recognize this world cup #boycottfox) said that it looked closer to Spain scoring their second than Belgium scoring its first. During those next minutes after the goal, Lamine Yamal (18 year old Spanish superstar), began to show his brilliance. However, against the run of play, in the 41st Belgium got their goal to tie things 1-1.
The second half Belgium picked things up a bit. The had a couple of chances or almost chances, but Spain was still by far the driver of the game. Spain had more dangerous chances but Courtois showed why he is considered to be the best goalie in the world. He made a number of difficult saves, saves that kept Spain from scoring, and he made them look routine. But then, in the in 71st, Courtois had to be subbed off because of an injury. (At age 34 this very well could be his last world cup game, and his tears after being subbed off seemed to reflect that thought.) In comes Belgium’s back up goalie, and unfortunately he was very much the cause of the second Spanish goal. In the 87th minute, Spain scored when they had a decent (not super dangerous) shot from 23-ish yards out, new goalie tried to hold on to the ball but messed it up, the ball bounced off the goalie a few yards in front of him, Spain followed the ball and tapped it in. Goalies are taught two things in such a situation, if you can grab the ball then grab it, but if you there is any chance you can’t grab it you have to parry the ball away from your goal and away from the path of oncoming attackers. The new goalie showed his inexperience. The shot was good enough (placement and pace) that it needed to be parried away. Instead he tried to grab it and the result was a goal. Courtois would not have made this mistake and he knew it.
Spain held on till the end to win the game, but they sure did try to give it away. They basically fell apart in the last 10 minutes. They could not keep the ball, their goalie almost made a goal scoring mistake, and they seemed to have panicked. But, they did not let in a goal and the final whistle blew.
The silver lining in all of this, we no longer need to mention Belg…
Tomorrow’s Games
5 pm – Norway v England – will the Terminator strike again? He has played against nearly all the players on the English team and had his way with the lot of them. The rest of the team is well organized and able to defend and attack as a unit, but England is a new class of team. England have as strong, or stronger, attack as Brazil or Ivory Coast, but they have an unquestionably better defense. England also has more and better experience in defending against Haaland. However, in this instance it is likely that the best defense will come from attacking, ie England win if they score first and score more than once. This will be a great game to watch.
9 pm – Argentina v. Switzerland – No one expected Switzerland to be here and in their game against Colombia, it seems more like Colombia’s loss rather than a Swiss win. But, they are here, and they are a solid team. They are tactically strong and have enough fire power to get a goal or two against anyone. Their defense, however, has been exposed in previous games (like Colombia), and that is a big issue against the likes of Messi and Argentina. Now, I have made it abundantly clear that I am a huge Messi fan who wants him to win, and so that naturally means Argentina’s victories are generally good. The problem is that Argentina, the country, is the worst. Ask any other Latino and they will say the same. Argentina does not see themselves as South American, they think of themselves as Europeans. Their history is one of intentional racism and ethnic cleansing. They look down on the rest of South America. They are the worst. They also still have numerous instances of racism from their fans in the crowds (for example in their last game against Egypt), to the songs that they sing. In Qatar, the focus was so tuned into Messi trying to win the things he has longed for his entire life and that would elevate him to a true legend. Here, that focus continues, but it is less tunneled in on him because of his aforementioned victory. All of this is to say, this is one of those instances where my fandom is hitting reality, and I am finding less joy than I once did. I still will root for Messi, but an Argentina loss might be the right cosmic course. (Also, their is a strong case that they should not be here since Egypt got a goal called back and were seemingly robbed of a pk and that game had some other questionable calls).
I hate FIFA, part 290,438,576,392 – I have already had my say on the Balogun red card thing. I think USA’s abysmal performance was in part because of that fiasco. But beyond that, it is such a joke that FIFA is what it is and does what it does. One thing I have not mentioned (because talking about it makes just annoys me), is that in the Balogun thing Belgium tried to appeal the decision. FIFA’s decision on the appeal is comical.
Next, after the whole affair, FIFA inexplicably decided to fine Balogun. I have never heard of someone being fined by FIFA for a red card like the one Balogun got. So, to be clear, FIFA decided that Balogun did get a red card, but that his one game suspension would be suspended for a year, and that he would be fined $40k for some reason, but that he only had to pay $20k (the other $20k can be paid by the US soccer federation). That totally makes sense.
There have been small amounts of grumbling that Giani I-am-corrupto could be facing mounting pressure and challenges, but two things (1) dont hold out any hope that he may be dethroned and (2) dont even think about thinking about hope that if he did get dethroned that FIFA would have any real change. The organization is made from rot, it is not a symptom, it is the thing itself.
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