Monday 18 June 2018

Bored Now does the Russian World Cup - Day 4

Bored Now's Russian World Cup - Day 4

Hirving Lozano of Mexico celebrates with Jesus Gallardo

Its fair to say that the World Cup has never truly started until we get the first real upset.  Both the Aussies and Iceland gave France and Argentina issues (the Iceland draw a warning shot to the South Amercan's egos).  But we finally got the first true hammer blow mid-way through day four and there was something quite beautiful about it too.  For some the German's UN-doing was not that surprising.  The political unrest back home had added to a tense atmosphere.  Not that friendlies mean anything, but their pre-tournament form had been patchy in the extremes also.  I think the most important thing to remember is that retaining the World Cup is probably harder than winning it in the first place.  Four years ago Germany were the huge favourites to the point that it seemed a bit of an anti-climax when they finally put Argentina out of their misery in Brazil.  Still, there was not massive pressure on them to win that tournament, or at least no more than normal.  Much on the focus was on the hosts and if Neymar could fulfil his potential.  Now everyone's gunning for Loachim Low's side and the questions will persist on if they've peaked.  For those who love a statistic, this being Germany's first defeat in their opening world cup fixture since 1982 is a sweet one.  As sloppy as Germany were on the day (that defence really struggles against pace), let's give prise to Mexico for a near perfect display.  The shape was rigged, the defending both organised and gutsy - including some die hard blocks in the second half.  But the feature of the game were the timing of the Mexican's break away runs.  Javier Hernandez on his 102nd appearance for his country worked beautifully in sync with the promising youngster Hirving Lozano.  Both made clever runs during the game, though it was Hernandez's role to drop off the front line, hold the ball up and slide his partner into play.  On the day he was the perfect foil.  For the goal Lozano showed great maturity.  At first it appeared as if the chance had gone, but his composure to keep the ball under control and calmly slide it into the bottom corner gave Mexico a well deserved lead.  As a slasher fan I couldn't help but get a kick out of a player with the nickname "Chucky" scoring the crucial goal!  If he's anything like the killer doll from those movies we'll be seeing many sequels from him during this World Cup.  Carlos Vela once of Arsenal also had an industrious game, looking night and day from his time in England.  Germany improved in the second half, but no where near enough to suggest they were worth something.  Most of their neat play were in areas that didn't put much pressure on Mexico's defence.  The World Champions efforts to go more direct when bringing on Mario Gomez were only mildly successful.  When it came to the crunch the Germans were a little too predictable, and Mexico again looked dangerous on those breakaways.  The only fault to be picked with their display was that they wasted a few good chances to put the game beyond Germany.  Perhaps they don't yet have the cutting edge to be a threat further into this tournament.  However, on this day they got the balance between defence and attack just about right, and the questions mount for Germany.  Sweden won't be any pushovers for them either. 

 

The only down note of this exciting match was the painful sound of Phil Neville's attempts at commentary.  In fact, he sounded in pain every time he tried to form a sentence!  Old Phil also suffers from the Mark Bright habit of play-by-play, as in true motor mouth fashion he tries to cram in as many words as possibly in the shortest amount of time.  Jonathan Pearce sitting next to Neville must have wondered at times just who the lead commentator was for the evening?  One of the stranger moments came back in the studio during the half-time when Gary Lineker  highlighted how much he was enjoying Mexico's success only to pause and add, "Not just because its against Germany".  An awkward laugh followed... Without the Germany remark, people would fairly assume that Lineker was just referring to the less fancied of the two sides beating the World Champions.  As it was Linker gave off a very strange vibe.  Way to kill those anti-German BBC conspiracy theories Gary. 

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Over on ITV it was to see the return of a tanned Roy Keane adding nice balance to the analysis of Brazil's draw against the Swiss.  It was a little odd to see him so relaxed, but then I guess since BBC took Adrian Chiles, there is one less reason for Keane to be so pissed off with life.  On the pitch we were treated to another engrossing match, with Brazil pulling off the nice trick of fooling us into thinking they meant business and could truly put the Swiss to the sword only to retreat into the night during for most of the second half.  The marking for the Swish equaliser was sloppy.  Switzerland, not for the first time looked pretty decent and were deserving of a draw.  Shaqiri for them is a true enigma.  A playmaker who on his day can out do even the best of defences with a piece of magic, other times he looks a right grump and just drifts.  With a lack of punch upfront his creative work combined with a solid back line could be enough to get Switzerland out of a tight looking group.  Serbia's early win against Costa Rica was important for them. Kolarov's free kick was pretty special and they grew into the game after a slow start.  Serbia will have a claim for dark horses of the group.  Kolarov and Coutinho's strike for Brazil will rank up there for goal of the tournament come the end I'm sure.  So its over to Gareth's boys today. Don't screw up! Show those Germans and Brazilians how a cock-up is done! 

Image result for images of brazil vs switzerland

Image result for images of brazil vs switzerland   

Star of the Day: Hirving Lozano (aka "Chucky") (Mexico)
Dork of the day: Neymar (Brazil) (came close to picking a German, but I still find Neymar overrated and he is more instantly slappable too!).

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