Bit by bit the tournament is taking shape. Every day there are teams confirmed as qualifying for the next round, just as there are those who can start planning their summer holidays.
By the end of Saturday’s games all the round of 32 fixtures will be in place.
Our day was very much centred around the game here. A Friday kick-off at 6pm is not great traffic-wise so were rounded up at 2 at the hotel and headed off on the bus.
Once again traffic management was a shambles around the stadium. I had a rant about that a few days ago, just rinse and repeat.
Out of curiosity I asked our bus driver what traffic was usually like in Guadalajara, i.e. without a World Cup imposing its chaos. This was clearly a pet subject for Eduardo.
“It’s been getting worse,” he said. “We now have the highest car ownership of any city in Mexico. And the problem with that is that once people have a car, they want to use it. All the time. In Mexico City people are smart enough to avoid driving into the city centre when they know it will be crowded, so they take public transport. But here…the public transport is good but car owners are vain.”
Another weird issue that cropped up was that the two pedestrian entrance streams to the stadium merge into one great flow…which has to cross a road. And that would be the stadium access road. For, you know, everyone who needs to arrive by vehicle: the teams, the officials, VIPS, security, ground staff, volunteers in buses, etc. So every time a vehicle drives in the fans have to be stopped and cleared off the road. A simple underpass would fix that but the workaround was grumpy coppers yelling at fans to get off the road lest they be mowed down by a sleek and dark-windowed vehicle flying diplomatic flags. Etcetera. Said is also somewhat in use for marching bands, as in the video further down.
In Group H Spain ground out a 1-0 win over Uruguay (highlights here) in the game we watched. Poor goalkeeper Muslera fumbled a fairly mild shot into the net for the only goal of the game. Muslera ‘has form’ as they say and I doubt he will play for his country again.
Tempers ran hot in the second half and Uruguay’s Canobbio earned himself a sending-off with a catastrophic tackle late in the game, though it was too late to seriously affect the outcome.
Uruguay struggled to create any significant chances and in the end deserved both this loss and their exit from the tournament.
It’s a nice concept visually but it sure takes a lot of people to roll out the big flags.
Cape Verde fought out another draw, 0-0 with Saudi Arabia (highlights here). In the end their three draws were enough to place them second in the group.
It’s not only a mighty achievement, it’s a new record as the smallest country by population to ever reach the knockout rounds.
618,000 is not much more than Tasmania so I guess we could/should have a crack at independence? Hello, anyone?!
Meanwhile both Uruguay and Saudi Arabia can go and have a long hard look at themselves. Both coaches expected in the dole queue come Monday; Uruguay’s Bielsa looked like a broken man in his press conference.
Of the 12 teams in action today just two scored over half (10) of the day’s 19 goals. France got things pumping with a 4-1 win over Norway to clinch the group, the Scandinavians second (highlights here). Senegal bullied Iraq 5-0 (highlights here) to send them home and give themselves a chance of progressing as one of the best third-placed teams.
And by the way France’s flag being a tiny colour patch of Norway’s clearly didn’t make a difference.
New Zealand’s eventful campaign ended with a 5-1 lesson from Belgium (highlights here) who finally put it together in front of goal. Iran and Egypt drew-1 (highlights here). As second placegetters the Pharaohs will face Australia in the elimination round while Iran will have to keep an eye on how results unfold tomorrow.
Saturday’s games in the Americas feature Croatia v Ghana, England v Panama; Colombia v Portugal, DR Congo v Uzbekistan; Algeria v Austria, Jordan v Argentina.
Luckily for England, Peruvians performed a ceremony to lift the spell that the Ghanaians placed on England captain and gun striker Harry Kane. So there.
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.
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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