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World Cup 2018: Group D First Matches

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Group D opened play with heavy group favorite and two-time champion Argentina taking on World Cup darlings Iceland, making their first Cup appearance ever.  Imagine a game where one team had the ball over 70% of the time, completed their passes 92% of the time, had over 700 passes while the other team had less than 200,  took 26 shots to the other team’s 9, and had 10 corners vs. 2 for the other team.  You would expect that game to be a blowout.  The beauty of the beautiful game though is that dominance on the field does not always translate to wins.

As expected, Argentina dominated the ball from the get go.  Iceland was back on its heels and forced to bring everyone back on defense and to play rough.  The continued pressure by the Argentine offense finally achieved success when Sergio Aguero found a glimmer of space on a turn around shot that found the upper corner of the goal.  With the lead in hand, Argentina relaxed and Iceland pressed forward.  A shot across the box was deflected by Wilfredo Caballero, the Argentine goalie and onto the foot of Alfred Finnbogason among a sea of defenders.  Finnbogason buried the equalizer in the back of the net.  Argentina continued it’s offensive onslaught in the second half and earned a penalty kick after an unnecessary trip by an Icelandic defender.  Superstar Lionel Messi took the kick and directed it to the left corner, but goalie Hannes Halldorsson, a filmmaker when not playing futbol, guessed right and made the diving save.  Messi did not hit the ball hard and one wonders why he was taking the kick in the first place as he has only made 50% of his penalty kicks lately.  This failure would haunt Argentina the rest of the way as Iceland packed its defense, sending multiple men to mark Messi and rarely advancing to the other side of the field.  Iceland was content to play for the draw, taking no shots in the second half.  Argentina never figured out how to break through this defensive effort and the 1-1 draw was not the result they expected.

The other group D game featured Croatia and the tourney’s youngest team, Nigeria.  Unlike the Argentina-Iceland match, this game was spent with a lot of back and forth pushes.  Both teams found opportunities.  Nigeria repeatedly went to Victor Moses down the right wing, but while he delivered many good crosses into the box, a solid Croatian defense put out any fires before they started.  30 minutes in, Croatia broke through on a corner kick onto the near side of the goal box where it was headed into the middle.  Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic drove a diving header off a defender and into the corner of the goal from there.  Other than that goal, neither team had a shot on goal in the first half.  The Super Eagles started strong in the second half using superior speed and switching the point of attack to create opportunities.  Like the first half though, they cannot finish.  Croatia’s offense was not putting anything on goal either.  Midway in the second half, a Croatian pass into the Nigerian box resulted in defender William Troost-Ekong making a football, not a futbol, tackle, wrapping his arms around Mandzukic and pulling him to the ground.  Croatian captain Luka Modric drilled the resulting penalty kick into the bottom left corner for a 2-0 lead.  Down by two, one would expect Nigeria to play with some desperation and push the attack, but, if anything, Croatia did a better job controlling the pace through the end of the game.  The victory left Croatia in sole possession of first place of Group D, but with tough games against Argentina and Iceland yet to play.

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World Cup 2018: Group C First Matches

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Group C favorite France began its group play against the always tough Socceroos of Australia.  As expected, the French dominated the ball early with the Aussie goalie having to make four early saves.  The Aussies settled down though and were able to sustain some controlled marches downfield.  However, the Australians’ habit of bringing everyone back on defense stunted their counterattack ability.  Throughout first half, both teams managed some scoring opportunities, but good defense prevailed.  Early in the second half, we got our first look at the new video replay rules that allow the referee to retroactively call penalties in the box that were missed at first.  France got a penalty kick after the review and Antoine Griezmann easily converted for the lead.   Minutes later, French defender Samuel Umtiti commits a stupid handball in the box giving the Aussies their own penalty kick.  The big-bearded Mile Jedinak tied the game firing the kick past the goalie to the right.  The game remained evenly played until the 80th minute when French star Paul Pogba managed a give and go around defenders and delivered the game winner on a shot that bounced off both a defender and the crossbar.  The ball bounced out of the goal, but video showed that it clearly crossed the goal line before doing so.  Despite the loss, the Aussies looked good and frustrated the French.  Their solid defense prevented the French from scoring more.

In the other Group C first match, Peru and Denmark faced off, each hoping to deliver a crushing blow to the other’s advancement chances.  Denmark is the tallest team in the tourney and Peru the smallest, but it was Peru who pressed the early attack.  Peru had a speed advantage that they were using on the wings and on through balls.  Peru was unable to capitalize and Denmark settled down midway through the first half and began to push forward with their own attacks.  For the second time on the day, a video penalty review resulted in a penalty kick being retroactively awarded, this time for Peru.   Christian Cueva was perhaps too pumped though and launched the penalty kick over the goal.  The first half ended with no score on the board, but with Peru the clear aggressor on the field.  Early in the second half, Peru continued their assault on the Danish goal and some fancy in the box passing resulted in a great opportunity, but they could not get a good foot on a shot.  Soon thereafter, a quick Danish counterattack resulted in a 3-on-3.  All three Peruvian defenders converged on the ball, a critical mistake that allowed an easy pass to a wide open Yussuf Poulsen on the wing, who drilled it under the goalie for the lead.  Following this goal, Peru’s offense shifted into an even higher gear and they repeatedly bombarded the Danish box.  Peru’s offense showed a lot of creativity, bringing the attack from the wing, down the middle, with deft passing into tight spaces, lofted passes into the box, and even a back heel shot from Paolo Guerrero that barely missed.  Despite numerous scoring opportunities, the Peruvians could not find the back of the net.  Although Peru suffered the loss, they look like they can give the French and Aussies a run for their money.  Group C as a whole looks like it may be the Group of Death, as any of the four squads look like they could advance out of the group.

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World Cup 2018: Group B First Matches

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Morocco and Iran led off Group B play.  This game offered both teams their best chance to win a game in group play as neither is expected to do well against Spain and Portugal.  Morocco had superior speed and tried to use it to their advantage with long passes into the corners for their wings.  Unfortunately, this speed and some sloppy Iranian defense did not translate into good shots.  Morocco simply lacks a good finisher.  Too many of their shots were off target or directly at Iranian defenders.  On defense, the Moroccans tend to group together leaving large patches of the pitch unattended.  Iran was quick on the counterattack, but could only manage two on-target shots in the match.  Iran managed one good sequence late in the first half, but the Moroccan goalie proved up to the task, blocking one point blank shot and a second follow up rebound shot.  In the second half, Morocco really controlled possession, but managed very few scoring opportunities.  Neither team could put together sustained sequences.  Too many passes and shots were off target.  Perhaps fittingly, however, Morocco lost the game 4 minutes into extra time, on an own goal.  A Moroccan defender attempted to head out an Iranian free kick into the box, but instead put the ball past his own goalie.  All in all, a pretty ugly game to watch.

Portugal and Spain, the favorites, met with Group B and Iberian Peninsula supremacy on the line.  Portugal pressed the attack early on and Cristiano Ronaldo drew a penalty kick three minutes in with a step over move to beat a defender in the box who was then forced to foul him.  Ronaldo absolutely drilled the penalty kick into the upper right corner of the goal for the early lead.    The Portuguese kept up the pace, winning headers and generally looking more hungry.  However, midway through the first half, Spanish striker Diego Costa did some fancy dribbling around a few defenders and then blasted through the equalizer.  After that, the Spaniards took control of the game and nearly scored a few more goals with near missed shots.  In the last few minutes of the first half though, Portugal regained its composure and began placing pressure on the Spanish defense again.  Ronaldo managed a half foot of space for a turn around shot in the box which rocketed off the hands of Daniel De Gea, the Spanish goalie for a go ahead goal.  Despite the oomph on Ronaldo’s shot, De Gea really should have made the save. 

Early in the second half, Spain again got an equalizer on a beautiful floating free kick to the right side of the Portuguese goal, which was then headed back to the middle where Costa ran onto it for the easy goal.  Just a few minutes later, Nacho Hernandez hit a screaming volley off a rebound from just outside the box that hit the left post and went in, giving Spain its first lead.  Although Spain continued to control possession throughout the second half, Portugal managed a free kick with only a few minutes remaining.  Cristiano Ronaldo proved his reputation as one of the best two players in the world by bending the kick around the wall and into the upper right corner of the goal for the third tie of the game and a hat trick for Ronaldo.  The goalie barely moved on the kick as he immediately realized he had no chance at it.  Time ran out soon after and left neither team in control of the group yet.  Goal differential may prove to be the difference between first and second place in Group B, so expect to see both teams run up the score when they play Morocco and Iran.  This was the most entertaining game to watch in the first two days of the Cup.

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