Good morning, TSFers! I hope that y’all enjoy Independence Day (observed). If you’re on the east coast in the heat dome, I hope you spend today inside. My good friend who is a Capitol Hill reporter won’t be — her assignment today is the Freedom 250 Great America Fair down on the National Mall. It felt like a steam shower on the 6:30 am dog walk this morning. It is truly gross outside. Our power browned out overnight and has already done so twice more since I got up.
Today is the last day of the Round
of 32. After today, we’ve only got 4 more consecutive days of football before the first day off of the World Cup.
Australia vs. Egypt, 2 pm ET, FOX
Argentina vs. Cape Verde, 6 pm ET, FOX
Colombia vs. Ghana, 9:30 pm ET, FOX
Spain 3 – Austria 0
This wasn’t much of a contest, to be honest. It seemed as if Austria (and Algeria – we’ll get to that later) spent all their energy on that 3-3 and had little left in the tank. Mikel Oyarzabal netted a brace with two composed finishes in the box and Pedro Porro scored his first international goal. Spain have yet to concede a goal at the World Cup.
Portugal 2 – Croatia 1
Let’s agree to collectively forget the first half of this match ever happened, yeah? Nothing of note happened in the opening 45 minutes. Ivan Perisic gave Croatia a 1-0 lead only to be pegged back about 15 minutes later from the spot by Cristiano Ronaldo, his first WC knockout stage goal of his career. The penalty decision was one that if given consistently in the Premier League would have led to multiple penalties a match for Arsenal. Croatia thought they’d retaken the lead a bit later, but semi-automated VAR said no. Goncalo Ramos put Portugal ahead in the 94th minute. Croatia thought they’d equalized at the death, but the touch-detection technology in the ball indicated the faintest of touches off an attacker’s head, which created a new phase of play and put the goalscorer offside. Brutal.
Switzerland 2 – Algeria 0
Johan Manzambi was at it again, setting up Breel Embolo for an opening goal 10 minutes into the match. The 20-year old has five goal involvements in four appearances this World Cup. Dan Ndoye put the match out of reach with a lovely finish one minute into the second half. The Swiss were composed and in control all match. Algeria just didn’t have enough.
