Happy Friday, folks! I hope y’all enjoyed the two matches yesterday. They were definitely World Cup games! That is to say, entertaining but lower quality play. International football is it’s own thing, distinct from the club game, and is best enjoyed in context rather than in comparison. I hope you enjoyed it because after the two matches today, we’ve got two weeks of 4+ matches per day.
I’ve got two takeaways from yesterday: too much shooting from distance and not enough MEATWALL set pieces. Oh.
And the Mexico kit combo of red socks, white shorts, green jersey looks really, really good.
Mexico 2 – South Africa 0
Think this match was more a case of South Africa being pretty poor than Mexico playing particularly well. The mistake playing out of the back that gave Mexico an early lead was comical. After the red card early in the second half, a David Luiz against Wolves special, it was only ever going to go Mexico’s way. The second red to South Africa was quite soft. The late one to Mexico looked soft at first but on replay was the correct call. Julian Quinones looked frisky for El Tri. Raul Jimenez scoring his first World Cup goal on home soil was lovely — you could see how much it meant to him.
South Korea 2 – Czechia 1
The overall quality of this match was higher — both teams had their moments. South Korea had the better of the action and the chances, but Czechia had their chances from set pieces and a good chance or two late to tie it up. Son Heung-min looked pretty good but his final action was woefully poor. South Korea must have felt terrible going behind in the 59th minute from a long throw header, they’d had plenty of chances, particularly in the first half, to open the scoring but couldn’t take advantage. Tomas Soucek had the ball in the back of the net for a would-be equalizer but was slightly offside.
Today’s matches are:
Canada vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 3 pm ET, FOX
USA vs. Paraguay, 9 pm ET, FOX
Thoughts on yesterday’s contests? How do you think the USMNT will do tonight?
