I don’t know how your day is going but spare a thought for the sponsors of this giant football which broke loose from its mooring during a storm in El Salvador and rolled down the street, clattering into trees, cars and buildings. Hashtag ThatLookedExpensive.
Or how about this 80 year old grandfather who invited the family over to watch a big game…and was embarrassed by porn links appearing on the TV‘s shortcuts menu.
Or maybe you’re better off than the Tunisia manager who was sacked after yesterday’s 5-1 pummeling by Sweden. Tunisian football observer Islam Bouafif commented: “I know this might sound harsh, but that was genuinely one of the biggest managerial disasterclasses I’ve ever seen. This man called up 4 wingers and 3 strikers, only to bench all of them and start the opening World Cup game with a 5-3-2 that he hadn’t used even once during the friendlies. He benched all of his forwards and lined up with 5 defenders and 5 midfielders against Sweden.” Read the full tactical dork-out here.
Meanwhile tiny Curacao are seeing the bright side from the 1-7 lesson from Germany yesterday. For what it’s worth India have never played at a World Cup although they did qualify in 1950 after other teams withdrew. India however then also withdrew, largely due to financial constraints. China qualified in 1990 but lost all three of its group games without scoring.
Argentina fans are on their way to the tournament. I wish the Jetstar hops from Hobart to Melbourne were that interesting.
Australian fans have also been on the streets, filling in time until the next game. “Aussie boys are on a bender, Donald Trump is a s*x offender.”
Norway fans had some help from their Scottish counterparts rowing a viking longboat…uhh, nowhere really.
Yes I know it’s AI but you ought to check out this tribute video to Merlin, the Mexican duck who has been going viral since the World Cup’s opening match. Merlin, wearing a Mexican shirt, was spotted following his water-vendor owner as fans headed toward the stadium. Sound on.
And this isn’t AI, it’s just a dancing robot wearing a Mexican shirt and a lucha libre wrestling mask.
Speaking of AI, USA coach was using an AI match analysis tool on a laptop during the country’s debut match. Read this thread for an explanation of what it does.
Spain and Cape Verde fought out a scoreless draw, the first of the tournament. Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal played the first 30 minutes without touching the ball, and he’s not even the goalkeeper. Highlights here. Fair to say that the Cape Verde fans looked a bit happier with the result.
Feel like you’re over the hill? Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha was certainly ageless as he picked up the month of the match award…at age 40 on World Cup debut. He was clearly emotional after the game after having defied the potent Spanish attack for the 90 minutes.
Belgium and Egypt played a 1-1 draw in front of a big crowd in Seattle, as did Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Miami. A draw is not the worst result in this tournament where the eight best third-placed teams go through to the round of 32 as well as the group winners and runners up.
Finally the Kiwis took the stage, against Iran, and against the backdrop of the USA and the Islamic Republic of Iran having just announced that an agreement to end the war has been reached. But Iranian star Mehdi Karemi was not being drawn into the politics. Nope.
“Well, since no one asked a football question, we are playing against a good team from New Zealand. I hope it’s a very good game.
Sorry, it was just political. You have to go to another city for this political press conference.”
Outside the stadium in Los Angeles though, Iranian dissidents were handing out t-shirts with names and faces of protestors murdered by the Islamic regime on January 8-9 this year. Inside, pre-revolutionary flags were confiscated by security as under FIFA rules only official national flags can be displayed.
On the field the NZ ‘All Whites’ (official team nickname) were playing in all black. Against a team wearing all white. Got it?
With both teams’ defences somewhat more open than the Strait of Hormuz, this was an absolutely classic match that pulsed with excitement and movement from beginning to end. A 2-2 result technically puts the New Zealanders on top of the group, for now. With many of their squad playing with the two NZ teams in the A-League, the match was another confirmation that the Australian league is an effective player development channel. Highlights are here.
Tuesday looms as a big day with the two most-recent champions France (2018) and Argentina (2022) both hitting the field for the first time, against Senegal and Algeria respectively. One curiosity is that former French world champion (1998) Zinedine Zidane is choosing to watch Argentina-Algeria rather than the country he played for. The simple reason is that Zidane’s son Luca is playing for Algeria, qualifying on the nationality of his grandparents.
Iraq face Norway and Jordan play Austria. A few days ago one of the Turkish fans was waving a placard saying “Kebab > Schnitzel”, seemingly confusing Australia with Austria. Never mind, perhaps he can recycle his sign for Jordan v Austria.
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 despora let loose upon the world.
References may be made in this blog to various other publications, bloggers, columns, services, businesses, government departments and so on. Tasmanian Times has no commercial relationship with these entities; links if included are there on merit and relevance.
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