Bielsa Baulks, Colombian Craziness – Alan’s World Cup Blog #8

At least one bonus of the expanded 48-team format of this tournament is that there is more time between first-round games for all of the teams. Whereas the standard in previous World Cups was just three days, this time around sides generally have five, six or even seven days between matches. Australia for example plays on June 14, 19 and 26…do the maths.

This means that teams have a bit more time to lick their wounds, get players recovered from injuries, as well as do more tactical planning for upcoming games. In the case of Tunisia, the extra time possibly contributed to them sacking their coach immediately after game one as they had five days to find a replacement and get him to their training base. Hence suave French journeyman manager Hervé Renard is on his way. Renard coached Saudi Arabia at the last World Cup and Morocco in 2018, both with some positive results.

Bielsa, the album cover.

A huge personality in the Latino world, Uruguayan coach Marcelo Bielsa has been making headlines for being somewhat agin the dictates of world governing body FIFA. Having recently criticised what he sees as unnecessary and superficial demands placed on coaches and players, this week he refused to play ball at an official photoshoot.

An organiser could be heard pleading “can you please look up at the camera?” to which he replied simply “no.” At a press conference later he stated: “I’m not a model.” Ironically, the images of him looking glumly at the floor promise to be some of the most iconic of his career.

Well from coaches lets turn to our regular round up of top fan moments.

It’s almost frightening to contemplate the amount of organisation it must have taken to pull this off: a massive Croatian banner being paraded perfectly through the streets of Dallas. Oh and by the way did you know that their country is named after the cravat? Or the other way round.

The Scottish fans are certainly having fun at the World Cup. Here they are teaching some nuns Scottish football chants. Jesus saves, but McTominay nets the rebound!

The Scots possibly don’t need much more vocal help though as the singing of Flower of Scotland at their opening game has become insta-famous as the loudest volume ever recorded at a World Cup game.

Irish comedian Tadgh Hickey takes us through the dilemma for Irish fans. Indeed!

This tournament has already seen excellent rapport between opposing fans. Mexico and Korea have to play each other on Thursday evening in Guadalajara but the supporters are already just having a big party.

Just to prove that football is timeless, Jordan fans watched their opening World Cup match at 6:00 AM in a 1,900-year-old Roman theatre. Call me a pessimist but I’m not quite convinced that Federation Square in Melbourne is going to be around that long. And if it is, will people still be grumbling about the weird layout?

Someone on X was grumbling about Tasmania lacking ‘natural’ focus points in its cities where people can gather for such events. Salamanca in Hobart can make do but it’s not ideal. The alternative vision for Macquarie Point could indeed have been such a place, a place that belongs to the people. Instead we’re getting a multi-billion dollar debt and calluses on our knees from kow-towing to the AFL.

Oh and there was more football today.

Portugal scraped a 1-1 draw with Democratic Republic of Congo, otherwise known as DR Congo, formerly Zaire, and Doctor Congo to my niece. That was a huge result for the Doc as their only previous World Cup in 1974 produced three losses amid conceding 14 goals. A tiny group of fans in Lisbon wildly celebrated today’s equaliser…almost as if they weren’t surrounded by thousands of hostiles. There was pretty good energy in the DRC capital Kinshasa, too. Highlights here.

Second up England and Croatia fought out an entertaining contest in Dallas with perennial kind-of-favourites-but-sheesh England winning 4-2. Harry Kane notched a brace to join other potential Golden Boot (top goalscorer) contenders on two goals, all of them trailing Lionel Messi’s hat-trick. Highlights here.

Panama, who have a football team as well as a canal, but don’t really have a currency, took on African heavyweights Ghana. The Africans scored another late late special to take a 1-0 win. Highlights here. The party was in the main square of Toronto where apparently the Ashanti King and the Ghanaian Vice-President were in attendance.

My theory is that the hot conditions and the sheer pace of modern football mean that slightly weaker (physically) team lapse towards the end of each.

Mental fatigue must also be playing a part. Teams that want to go deep in the tournament will have to manage their tactics and substitutions very well to overcome the fatigue factor.

Colombians decorated Bogota bars, shopfronts, cafes and even taxis with a blaze of yellow, blue and red as the Tricolour stepped up for their inaugural match. Sellers of football bling were doing a roaring trade and I even bought a few bobadas (trinkets) myself to take on the trip (see featured image above). Meanwhile in Mexico it was  game on for thousands as they partied their way to the stadium.

On the socials Colombians noted that the Uzbekistan flag resembles very closely that of the city of Cali. But with moon and stars. Cali at night then?

Welcome to Calikistan.

A stubborn Uzbekistan equalised in the second half but eventually Colombia ground out a 3-1 win. As we were watching in the hotel restaurant we ditched the horns as a nod to hotel guests who might have already turned in. Highlights here. But from this SBS video it looks as if the Colombians in Australia were going for it!

Oh, and if you can’t get enough of Nestory Irankunda, how about get some of this dad as well?! The clip comes from Suited and Booted who also have some good match-day-experience videos and more on their YouTube channel.

This lumbering World Cup has finally completed the first round and tomorrow we get to see some teams for the second time. The four group stage matches: Czechia v South Africa, Switzerland v Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada v Qatar, and Mexico v South Korea. We’ll be in the air and airports a fair bit of the day…Monterrey here we come!

Enjoy the football and have fun!

Alan Whykes is a Tasmania-based writer and an ex- too many things to list.

This blog is the start of a new section called Tas At Large which showcases stories of Tasmanian diaspora let loose upon the world. 

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