The ceremonial openings of the World Cup are now concluded after festive parties in Toronto and Los Angeles on Friday. All three hosts have now played their opening match and the tournament begins in earnest today with three matches in Groups B & C! And they were pretty exciting games of Friday as well.
See below for a recap of yesterday’s action as well as how to watch the three games today.
Day 2 Recap
Canada 1-1 Bosnia Herzegovina (Group B)
Goals: J. Lukic (21’), C. Larin (78’)
The atmosphere was exciting! The match was… okay, it was compelling too
in a “this is bad football but still fun” kind of way. Bosnia opened the scoring with a meatwall set piece headed goal off of a long throw, and Canada, backed by a raucous crowd, had plenty of minor chances but couldn’t find the back of the net until the second half when Cyle Larin poked one home from the top of the box. Promise David looked super fun. Jonathan David looked… the opposite. Neither of these teams looked like they’re likely to make a ton of noise, but the atmosphere in Toronto sure was neat.
USA 4-1 Paraguay (Group D)
Goals: Bobadilla [OG] (7’), Balogun (31’, 45+5’), Mauricio (72’), Reyna (90+7’)
HOLY CRAP! If you are a Tottenham fan who started following the team after the Mauricio Pochettino era, that’s pretty much what we used to look like. It ruled, and so did this game. USA came out like gangbusters against a Paraguay team that only conceded 10 goals in World Cup Qualifying. The tone was set with a deflected early own goal by Paraguay’s Bobadilla, and Folarin Balogun added first half goals in an utterly dominant performance. There were runs from all angles, through balls galore, and maybe one of the best performances from Christian Pulisic that I’ve ever seen. That might have been the best half I’ve seen from a USA team in a World Cup since 2002 vs. Portugal. Mauricio (not Poch, the Paraguay player) ruined the shutout with a late second half goal, but USA put the icing on the cake with a 90+7’ banger from Gio Reyna. That was a super impressive match and confidence-building win by USA.
Day 3 Matches
Qatar vs. Switzerland (Group B)
3 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. BST
San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, California, USA
TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA – Español), ITV 1 (UK)
Stream: Fox One, Peacock (Español)
Current/former Tottenham players involved: none
Brazil vs. Morocco (Group C)
6 p.m. ET / 11 p.m. BST
New York/New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, USA
TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA – Español), BBC One (UK)
Stream: Fox One, Peacock (Español)
Current/former Tottenham players involved: none
Haiti vs. Scotland (Group C)
9 p.m. ET / 2 a.m. (Sunday) BST
Boston Stadium, Massachusetts, USA
TV: FOX (USA), TElemundo (USA – Español), BBC One (UK)
Stream: Fox One, Peacock (Español)
