Good morning, TSFers! My apologies for the late-ish CF. In my defense, it is A) Saturday and B) the day I needed to mow the lawn and I wanted to get that chore done before it got life-threateningly hot and humid here in D.C.
This is the World Cup of Arsenal. I have decreed it. Long throws. Set Pieces. MEATWALL. Own goals. Former Gunners making big plays — Sead Kolasinac with an assist and a massive block, Folarin Balogun with a brace. We are massive. You cannot escape Arsenal. And none of our current
players have played yet!
I’m enjoying all the content the various countries are putting out on social media. I’m getting it through Instagram, but I’d assume it’s elsewhere, too. The fan videos are also fun. So far, I’ve seen a duck in a Mexico kit waddling along with the people headed to the match, Mexico fans partying with the South Koreans in the street, sharing tequila, and chanting “he’s a Mexican now” after they’ve each drank, a Scotsman who just landed in the U.S. telling a reporter that he’s been drinking since he got up a 1 am to go to the airport, the Scottish fans going down the infamous cop-launch slide in Boston while playing a bagpipe, and countless other fun stuff.
Screw the greedy SOBs trying to wring every last cent out of the World Cup. The people are fantastic and it’s fun to watch football.
Canada 1 – Bosnia-Herzegovina 1
The Bosnians took a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute through Jovo Lukic, assisted by Sead Kolasinac. The former Arsenal man later made a contender for defensive play of the tournament, blocking a shot that had gotten beyond his keeper up onto the crossbar and out. Kolasinac was also partly to blame for the Canadian equalizer in the 78th minute, but it was more an excellent piece of play by substitute Cyle Larin. The Canadians are still searching for their first World Cup win. They had the better of the action but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.
U.S.A. 4 – Paraguay 1
Wow. That was arguably the best half of competitive football the USMNT has played, at least in my lifetime. The only other contender was ‘02 against Portugal that saw us take a 3-1 lead in at halftime. Last night, it was 3-0 at the half and the match was over. The USMNT were all over Paraguay. Tremendous team move for the opening goal — own goal or not, it was a brilliant passing sequence to get the ball up the pitch and well done by Christian Pulisic to split two defenders. Folarin Balogun scored the second and third (and had one correctly ruled out for offside). Paraguay pulled one back in the 73rd minute but weren’t able to build off that. Gio Reyna scored a saucy outside of the boot goal in the 98th minute. Alex Freeman, Malik Tillman, and Weston McKennie were particularly excellent, although you really can’t complain much about any of the performances.
Today’s matches:
Qatar vs. Switzerland, 3 pm ET, FOX
Brazil vs. Morocco, 6 pm ET, FS1
Haiti vs. Scotland, 9 pm ET, FS1
Australia vs. Turkey, 12 am ET, FS1
Alright, so technically that last match is tomorrow, but if you haven’t gone to sleep yet, is the day really over?
