Good Monday morning, TSFers! If the upcoming work week has you down, fear not. There is plenty of soccer to pick you back up in the evenings. Some of it might even be decent quality. The matches seem to be getting better, although I’m not 100% convinced that it’s not just me becoming inured to the play.
On paper, today’s matches don’t seem particularly enticing, but sometimes those turn out to be the most exciting!
Spain vs. Cape Verde, 12 pm ET, FOX Belgium vs. Egypt, 3 pm ET, FOX Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay,
6 pm ET, FS1 Iran vs. New Zealand, 9 pm ET, FS1
That Belgium-Egypt tilt intrigues me. The Red Devils are perennially hyped only to regularly fall short of expectations. Perhaps this is the year they live up to the billing. Even with his somewhat quiet season, Mo Salah is still Mo Salah. Any team he’s playing for has a chance to nick a goal or two through a moment of his magic.
Germany 7 – Curacao 1
This one was competitive for about 40ish minutes, then distinctly not so. The Germans opened the scoring 6 minutes into the match but Curacao equalized 15 minutes later. Then set pieces and Kai Havertz put the game out of reach. It’s the World Cup of Arsenal, I’m telling you. Deniz Undav scored a goal and notched two assists off the bench.
Ivory Coast 1 – Ecuador 0
An Amad Diallo goal in the 90th minute snatched the points for Ivory Coast from a combative, hard-fought contest. Ecuador hit the woodwork multiple times through the match. 19-year old dribbly boy Yan Diomande impressed and gave Piero Hincapie a tough time.
Netherlands 2 – Japan 2
A late (89th minute) Daichi Kamada deflected goal split the points after Virgil van Dijk and Crysencio Summerville had given the Netherlands 1-0 and 2-1 leads. Goals change games – the first half was cagey, the second much more entertaining. Both sides were technically impressive. They’ve each got the on-ball talent to make some noise in the tournament.
Sweden 5 – Tunisia 1
I’d expected this to be a tight game given Tunisia’s excellent defensive record, but they were undone by a combination of self-inflicted wounds from defensive errors and Sweden’s attacking quality. Everyone knows about Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak leading the line, but Brighton man Yasin Ayari stole the show against his father’s home country, scoring two goals from range. Both Big Vik and Isak scored, too. Sweden’s other goal came on a bit of a strange moment. The semi-automated VAR identified scorer Mattias Svanberg as well offside to initially rule out the goal, but touch-sensing technology in the ball, which apparently is a thing that exists now, identified an intervening touch by Alexander Isak that put Svanberg onside.
